Comments on: #1: Create great websites and people will tell their friends http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/ Made in New Zealand from local and imported ingredients Sat, 19 May 2012 21:18:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: TVCs « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-8628 Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:23:08 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-8628 [...] in a website that people love to use, and make sure you give people a reason to keep coming [...]

]]> By: Where do I find Google? « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-8526 Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:23:37 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-8526 [...] Most technology people will, I suspect, find it difficult to understand the sort of person who does this sort of search, but that’s exactly what we need to do if we’re going to build products these people will like to use and will tell their friends about. [...]

]]> By: Getting seagulled « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-8288 Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:57:44 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-8288 [...] Rather than chasing that sort of fleeting glory, he recommends instead building an audience that really cares one user at a time. [...]

]]> By: Steve Davies http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5991 Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:17:04 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5991 Nice article built on commonsense.

As we all know, most new websites don’t have huge advertising budgets to be able to afford blanket Google Adwords coverage and rely on word of mouth advertising for the first year or so.

I am going through this phase myself with my accommodation website. It’s really interesting to watch web stats slowly climb as the brand gets out and people tell their friends of places their keen to stay at.

Strategic advertising in specific media gets the ball rolling. Word of mouth referrals gets the ball rolling faster.

]]> By: #8: Be informal but serious « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5824 Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:46:07 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5824 [...] #1: Create great websites and people will tell their friends [...]

]]> By: #6: Talk straight « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5814 Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:41:06 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5814 [...] #1: Create great websites and people will tell their friends [...]

]]> By: #7: Hire people smarter than you « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5813 Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:40:34 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5813 [...] #1: Create great websites and people will tell their friends [...]

]]> By: #4: Empathise « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5779 Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:27:52 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5779 [...] #1: Create great websites and people will tell their friends [...]

]]> By: #5: Make people feel safe « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5725 Sun, 30 Sep 2007 06:10:44 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5725 [...] #1: Create great websites and people will tell their friends [...]

]]> By: rowan http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5572 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 04:33:40 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5572 Chad -

Trade Me is a big user of Google AdWords today. But, in 2000 when I started at Trade Me, this wasn’t such an obvious option.

AdWords had only just launched, and in those days Google itself wasn’t especially well known or widely used.

Is it an effective option today?

If you can make it work for you (i.e. your revenue from new customers is more than the cost of acquiring them via AdWords) then it is a very accessible way to kick start your product. Certainly it make a lot more sense than billboards, bus shelters or TV ads.

Provided you’re smart you can control your spend and also ramp the exposure as your product improves (you often don’t want too many people to visit right in the beginning, as chances are your product is not going to impress them at that early stage).

I would be nervous though if your entire business depended on AdWords, as you can never know what the costs will be in the future.

]]> By: Pujji Like Gucci » Blog Archive » Use the web to become a lip-service business (a how-to guide) http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5552 Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:38:15 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5552 [...] it? Thanks to Gren for the hurry up, and Rowan for his recent insights into TradeMe’s approach to doing business online, they’re the complete opposite to a lip-service business unfortunately, good luck [...]

]]> By: Chad http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5548 Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:58:40 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5548 How about online advertising such as Google Adwords? Was that still an ineffective spend?

]]> By: #3: Let the server run the business « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5533 Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:10:44 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5533 [...] We don’t have a big marketing budget (see #1: Create great websites and people will tell their friends). [...]

]]> By: rowan http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5525 Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:28:11 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5525 Sam –

I’m not sure if it was so clinical or premeditated. However, that was pretty much how it worked out.

The biggest category in the early days was ‘Computer Parts’, today it’s ‘Womenswear’. Those are quite different audiences. There is no way that Trade Me could have gone into the ‘Motors’ or ‘Real Estate’ or (more recently) ‘Jobs’ or ‘Travel Accommodation’ (aka Travelbug) categories without first having a solid foundation.

]]> By: rowan http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5518 Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:52:17 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5518 Sam -

Good point.

I’m not sure if it was so clinical or premeditated. However, that was pretty much how it worked out.

The biggest category in the early days was ‘Computer Parts’, today it’s ‘Womenswear’. Those are quite different audiences. There is no way that Trade Me could have gone into the ‘Motors’ or ‘Real Estate’ or (more recently) ‘Job’ or ‘Travel Accommodation’ categories without first having a solid foundation.

]]> By: Sam Ng http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5506 Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:25:13 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5506 Rowan, how do you think this fits with the wisdom of carefully selecting a market and DOMINATING it before moving on to the next? Did Trademe adopt a similar strategy from the start? Pick a core group of users who share similar traits, focus on them and gain critical mass and domination in that market (by having a good website and offering), then move to another market segment.

There are way too many startups now that have a “Trademe” business model where from day 1 they believe they can offer every service to everyone and end up diluting their offering and being of little use to anyone (think any one of the many plumber/builder websites out there). Search any one of them for a trades person in your geographical area and there’s 1 or 2 people. What a contrast it would be instead if they focused just on one small geographical area first, dominated that and got people talking about it.

]]> By: eBay blows cash on TV Ads that are 20 seconds old « Lance Wiggs http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5497 Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:14:19 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5497 [...] Rowan explains, people that go to a website becasue of word of mouth are far more likely to stick around. Blowing [...]

]]> By: Trade Me Manifesto « Rowan Simpson http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5490 Sun, 16 Sep 2007 08:17:05 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/09/16/1-create-great-websites-and-people-will-tell-their-friends/#comment-5490 [...] « The awesome power of ilk #1: Create great websites and people will tell their friends [...]

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