Class Learnings (Module 7)

In this class I have gained a better understanding of how to tailor a business for the online marketplace. How to develop a blog to be marketable (placement of ads and kinds of ads), to recognize trends in the market (dot-com bubble), and that strong customer service and communication are necessary for a successful online business.
I am not sure I would have changed much with the set-up of the class. We had enjoyable discussions on the board, each of us came to a issue from a different viewpoint.

Lessons of the Dot-Com Bubble

Theglobe.com was one of the first social media sites. Now it is a shell company that makes no profit and does nothing. Not being a business guru I don't know any in depth advice as to what they could have done differently than to make money. They should have been more realistic about their business. The company was paying more money to get people to the site than it was making off the site itself. This should have been a heads up. If they had wanted to keep the business going themselves they should have been more pragmatic about it. On the other hand, the owners of theglobe.com might have been able to sell their company for a large profit before it bellied-up.

            If the economic impact of the dot-com bubble bursting caused us to have an improved internet than it was worth it. It's hard for me to feel bad for the guys who created theglobe.com. They ran their business into the ground and now have nice homes but need jobs. This didn't ruin their lives. As for the gentleman who was so self deluded that he thought anyone would want to watch his life on the internet is a different story. Josh Harris would just not get it through his head that he didn't know how to make money on the internet. We have successful online businesses today so the point isn't that it can't be done. It was interesting to note that investors may have learned a bit about investing in social media from theglobe.com. When facebook.com went public it did not do as well as many had expected. In contrast with theglobe.com's phenomenal opening day.   

            In a sense this kind of bubble is to be expected whenever a new idea or technology comes out. You have a bunch of people jumping on the band wagon who want to ride the wave and make money. It is this same idea that causes trends in television and film. That being said, after a while people begin to understand the new market or tech better and the crappy companies/tech gets weeded out. Investing in companies is gambling and not everyone wins. I am sure there were investors who lost a lot of money in some of these companies. This will continue to happen. It's a gamble and there will always ne people out there to take the bet. The Google Glasses could be the beginning of a smart-phone-hybrid bubble. Smart-phones are awesome and I can see them becoming the standard. We will push this technology to its limits till we find a breaking point. Jamming a smart-phone into eye-glasses might just be that leap.

            If the smart-phone become the standard for everyone then I can see an application bubble happening. As it stands, there are some lucrative applications on the market. Most of my knowledge comes from game apps and social apps. There are many free-to-play games that do small charges. If the game can get enough people to play all those little charges add up to a lot. Films use game apps as a marketing tool. Men in Black 3 has a free-to-play game app out that tries to get you to bring facebook friends to the game. In essence it tries to increase word of mouth knowledge of the movie and make money from the app itself. Other apps, like Skyview, can be extremely useful. This app superimposes a star map with constellations and the path of the moon and sun in the sky. This is not only good for romantic stargazing but if you need to know when the sun will set or where the international space station is at in its orbit around earth. NASA has a fantastic app that gives you access to a wealth of pictures a knowledge about our universe for free.

            The future of the applications market is closely tied to that of the smart-phone market. A branch of the smart-phone tech are the tablets such as iPads. This does ease the application market because it has more than one device to depend on. In fact, simple iPods can download and run applications. Applications will be around for a while because they are multi-platform. I do think that we will find the limits of the market at some point. We will push until we find what applications can't be of use to, or what kinds of apps work the best. The best lesson to learn from the dot-com bubble burst is to keep the basics in mind. Don't pump too much money into apps that it becomes bad for your business. They can supplement your business by increasing your exposure, improve customer service, and increase profits but they are not an end to themselves. Don't just jump on the band wagon; think clearly about how apps can help your business in the long run.    

Online Store vs. Brick-and-Mortar Store

1. Online sales are growing significantly each year as transferring money online becomes easier and more secure.
2. Online stores cost less to operate and can be managed out of the home.
3. Online stores have far greater reach because they can be viewed on a global scale.
If you were going to open a store, would you rather make an online store or build a store? What are the benefits of shopping online vs. brick and mortar stores? Do you think that brick and mortar stores will eventually be a thing of the past?

-I would not want to do one or the other. I would want to do both. Having a physical store gives you a presence in the neighborhood and just feels more legitimate. Now this would have to make sense monetarily. If it was too expensive to pay for the physical store then online would be the way to go.

-If I was forced to choose one it would be online. The main issue would be paying rent, utilities, renovations, and upkeep of a physical store. Not paying for all this would free up quite a bit of equity. You would be more dependant on a reliable Internet connection and a quality computer. Being online not only gives your business greater reach but you aren't limited by store hours. People can shop online at anytime they choose and don't have to wait for a store top open. You could also not worry about shop lifters and worry less about getting robbed.

-Brick-and-mortar stores will not go extinct because there are some products that you just don't make sense to buy online. Corner stores that sell beverages, food, cigarettes, and the like just don't make sense online. Nor do gas stations.

Module 4

How to Make Your Blog More Marketable

I would try to walk the fine line between enough ads to make money but not be overwhelming. Amazon Associates looks like a good fit since it doesn't force you to change what you write about. Also, I am a customer of Amazon.com and enjoy the service. I could see doing advertiser payed ads for films directly on my blog, depending on what, if any, stipulations were attached.
While perusing top-blogs.org I noticed that comedy and entertainment sites like Funny or Die got a lot of feedback on their blogs. It would seem that this would be ideal for advertisers. I would try to foster interactivity on my blog. This would, hopefully, spread the knowledge of my blog by word-of-mouth referrals or online links. In turn a larger and more active audience would attract advertisers. I would also consider adding Paypal donation widget. If someone like the blog enough they can choose to fund it directly.
This would all be done with a sense of limits. My blog would remain navigable and would not bombard the reader with adds everywhere. I personally hate when a page has really intense, flash ads that create sensory over load. In that same vein I would avoid any sort of pop-up. I don't mind the same ad being on the side of every page but pop-ups are intrusive. Keep the layout clean and always be able to get back to a main page.

Module 3

An example of a successful marketing campign for Kohl's: 

 http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-campaigns/

Module 2

Facebook.com is the only social networking site that I use currently. Though I do use Instagram which is a kind of "social app." I use it almost everyday to check up on friends, family, and organizations I am a part of.
I would have to say Facebook.com is my favorite since I have no expoerience with anything else.