<i>> How do you measure on-line success?</i>
An excellent question to be raised while you're still in the planning
stages, Martina, as far too many organizations are racing out onto the
Internet with little thought given to what will sooner or later become an
important question.
It seems that the Web's low cost of entry, coupled with the relative
simplicity of HTML coding, creates the false impression that it is therefore
*easy* to find success through Web-based marketing and sales. Of course,
the companies that buy into this concept are typically the ones who
shake-out first, wondering what went wrong.
<i>> - measure in actual sales of a product?</i>
Only if your aim is to only sell product by means of your Internet presence.
Even then, are you prepared to measure the non-Net based sales that may have
been driven by the company's Internet presence? At the point of sale, will
someone be able to ask, "How did you hear about us?" Fidelity Investments
doesn't *sell* their mutual funds at their web site, but the number of
requests for additional information that they receive via their web site
makes it a viable business venue for them.
<i>> - are hit rates sufficient to convince people of the usefulness of a</i>
<i>> web prescence?</i>
Forget about "hits" and start thinking about "qualified hits". If your web
site is designed to promote the sale of boating equipment, would you rather
have 1,000 hits all coming from folks who may be afraid of the water, or
would you rather have 100 hits from boating enthusiasts? Determining this
up front will drive you toward clearly identifying your target market,
finding them on the Internet and informing them about your web presence.
The short answer to your question is that education is what will convince
people of the usefulness of a web presence. Once properly educated, they
will be able to put "hit counts" in their proper perspective.
<i>> - how can you get user profiles for your service, who is doing a</i>
<i>> reasonable job at that?</i>
What type of user profiles do you need to compile? Can you create an online
survey, premium offer or some other compelling value-based method of having
your users self-identify?
<i>> - can you store data about consumers or are there legal restrictions</i>
<i>> on storing the data about who accessed?</i>
You can store the data that you are able to glean from your "consumers", as
well as the somewhat general data that your server log (along with a few
programming tricks) will provide you.
<i>> - what about the trail the consumer leaves behind, i.e where do they</i>
<i>> come from, where do they go, can you get this information, how, who is</i>
<i>> doing that, is it ethically correct ...</i>
Check out some of the applications that already exist for measuring this
type of information. You would have to have a rather constricted definition
of ethics to determine that there would be a problem here.
<i>></i>
<i>> Success on the web, what is it? many questions, can you help provide a</i>
<i>> starting point for the search of information on the topic?</i>
The good news is that "success on the web" continues to be defined every
day. It really relates more to your marketing objectives than to any
technology-based issues. You can find your answer on this list, as well as
at a large number of web sites. Have you done a lookup on "Internet
marketing" through Yahoo, etc.? If you're going to be in this business, and
offer professional services to others, you need to start "walking the talk"
by taking advantage of the phenomenal Internet-based business resources at
your disposal.
Best of luck!
Jonathan Strum
Innovative Solutions
The Internet Marketing Company
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