Killer Content: Strategies for Web Content and E-Commerce (2000)

From Book:
It occurred to me one day, as I was reading morning news online, that I had turned into quite creature of habit on Internet. This surprised I always thought that I would be first one to try something new on Web. I am what analysts call technology optimist, which is just another way of saying that I'm prone to trying out latest cool digital toy or service.

My interest started back in early days of e-commerce when I worked on first versions of Microsoft's Site Server Commerce Edition. I have used Internet for at least one hour a day since 1995. I hand over my credit card to online merchants on a regular basis for books, airline tickets, pet supplies, and far too many plants for my city garden. I have come close to but have not quite arrived at using digital subscriber lines (DSLs) for high-speed Internet access from home. And, when our 1990 Honda Civic hatchback finally sputters to a halt, we will probably buy our next car online. Yet despite my familiarity with Internet, I do not idly browse for new or sites. No, I actively use Web in what I realized is a structured manner.

I use it for two purposes. My first goal is to increase my free time by truncating effort involved in household errands such as buying food for pets. My second objective is to maximize my ability to understand world around me, both in personal and professional terms. Underpinning both reasons is assumption that I can find what I need quickly and easily through a Web site. If I can't, I move on to another site that gives me what I want in price, selection, information, or service. No ambiguity about it. I don't havetime to spend on out-of-date information, slow online services, or byzantine page flows through a Web site. So I don't returnor at least I have never returnedto a Web site that doesn't immediately provide me with enough value for my time and money. 

I am part of a Web community of experienced Net users. We want more than just a good price and three-day delivery. We're looking for a user-centric experience. When I visit a Web site, I'm subconsciously thinking, exchange for my time and potentially my money, I want and services that are relevant to me. We are part of a growing trend among Net users who look for something beyond price point or brand in our Web-browsing experiences. 

This book is a primer for Internet business models that address Net users' demand for additional value and services. In Part One: Concepts, I explore definition and real-world implementations of value exchange, premium and services, and emergent value exchange selling and payment models on Web. As new business models develop, line between and commerce blurs. Merchandizing allows publisherscompanies and organizations that have, or plan to set up, their own Web sitesto explore new revenue streams generated by their core competencies.

Part Two: Strategies focuses on what Web publishers can do to enhance and monetize value exchange. These strategies help publishers evaluate practical steps for implementing added services for their own Web sites. Taken as a whole, this discussion looks beyond world of retail transactions to an Internet economy where a Web publisher's can be a book, an auction environment, an expert opinion, or an Internet radio broadcast. 

This book has two audiences. On one hand, I provide and commerce Web site publishers with concepts and strategies to help improve business-critical conversion rates (i.e., rate at which a casual visitor becomes a loyal visitor, a loyal visitor turns into a first-time buyer, or a first-time buyer becomes a repeat customer). There's always talk about next Internet appa concept or product that has a revolutionary impact on online world. first commercial browser was a killer app, as was e-mail. Improved and monetized content a site-specific concept that galvanizes growth of revenue and trafficconstitutes a killer app in its own right. Killer content satisfies goals and objectives of visitors in exchange for loyalty or buying power. This value exchange between publisher and visitor drives conversion rates and viable business models for Web. Without ability to enable and monetize successful value exchange, Web sites bleed money without gaining Net user base on which to build advertising and commerce revenue. 

This book is also for Net users who are interested in learning about new types of Web and commerce. As premium and services become more available, Net users leverage different types of value exchange to make Internet more valuable at work and play. An enhanced awareness of high-quality and services for users might galvanize a switch to a Web site that offers personalized profiles for quicker purchasing, a bid in an online auction, or a first purchase of premium content. 

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of World Wide Web, says in his essay The World Wide Web: A Very Short Personal History that the dream behind Web . . . is dependant on Web being so generally used that it becomes a or in fact primary embodiment of ways in which we work and play and socialize (7 May 1998, www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ShortHistory.html). For Net users, value lies in milking Web sites for maximum benefit, whether it's a live broadcast feed of ball game or insight into hidden charm of an undervalued stock. This book illustrates ways that Web is evolving toward that realistic mirror that Berners-Lee prophesies.