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

[Rachell Coe]

I have a question for you: If you are bringing in so few hits every month, 
why wouldn't you want to beef up your content first before attempting any 
e-commerce solutions?  The reason why I'm asking this is that I got the 
impression from your post that this e-zine for women is run and written by 
men.  If this is true, then your first order of business would be to do 
some market research on your women viewers to see if they actually like 
your e-zine.  Would they recommend it to their friends?  Would they come 
back often to see what's new?  Do they feel the e-zine gives them original 
and sound information?

Now if I'm wrong about your content being written by men, I apologize.  But 
even so, I think that some market research to find out if your information 
is interesting to women viewers and provides them with information the 
other women e-zines don't would be incredibly valuable.  I just keep 
thinking that to try and sell e-commerce before you have the traffic would 
be like an unpopular night club trying to sell t-shirts.  If people don't 
want to go to the club to dance, why would they want the t-shirt?  Your 
time and money would be much better spent on content solutions and 
promotion then on e-commerce -- at least until you build your traffic 
substantially.

Good Luck!

At 09:12 PM 12/20/00 +0000, you wrote:
>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
>
>
>---------------------------------------
>For unsubscribe and other options, including
>the Tip Harvester and archive of TheList go to:
>http://lists.evolt.org Workers of the Web, evolt !

Thank you!

Rachell Coe
<http://www.coeville.com/>www.coeville.com
<mailto:rachell at coeville.com>Rachell at coeville.com
(541) 434-8007