[thelist] "Content is king" - still true?

[Tab Alleman]

I tend to agree with your gut-feeling, and would propose instead to become
part of as many content-appropriate affiliate programs as possible.  Get
your commission for readers of your site who click-thru to the Maybelline
site and make a purchase, and let Maybelline handle the actual ecommerce.

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Michael Galvin
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2000 4:13 PM
To: thelist
Subject: [thelist] "Content is king" - still true?


Hi all

I'm currently maintaining a site directed at women.  It's more or less an
e-zine, with articles, tips, etc.  It's not the most interesting site in the
world (partly, I suspect, because I'm a man), but it gets by, with hits
meandering around 100 per day.

Now, the guys who are funding the site (a whole 500 quid a year currently)
are wanting to push to making the site profitable.  The only way they seeing
of doing this is to have some sort of e-commerce solution on the site,
possibly offering perfumes, makeup, stuff like that to our readers.

I'm fighting this as much as I can, because I have a gut feeling that
introducing B2C on a content site dilutes both aspects, and you're left with
a half-arsed commercial site with some content tacked on.

Of course, this is just a gut feeling, and I have no hard facts.  I'm
willing to look into the possibility in the distant future (summer 2002),
but for the moment, I'd like to concentrate on the content.

Am I right?  Do all sites need to go to e-commerce in order to be considered
'proper'?  Isn't it better to leave this kind of thing to the truly 100%
e-commerce sites that do things a lot better?  Shouldn't a clear line be
drawn between the 2 types, and never the twain shall meet?

Or am I just being pig-headed, because in the end, it's a lot more work for
me...?

Your opinions are welcome.
Michael


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