Online Success Too Expensive

From: Gary Cooley <cooley_at_mtnhome.com>
Date: Mon 13 Jan 2003 13:29:04 -0600

Regarding 2003 Trends I greatly enjoyed Cliff's message. Like most on
this list I read this and other publications on several fronts of the
Web Marketing/Advertising world. Based on all I read, see, and
personally experience, Cliff's observations reflect those of many others
in this industry.

However, what surprises me is that our own online publication is not
plagued with the problems so many others seem to have. In fact we have
enjoyed what for us is considerable success over the last 8 years we
have published online. After several years of reading all the problems
and few success stories with online advertising, I have wondered very
deeply what the difference is.

I finally understand. Our publication has no talent. We have no deep
knowledge. We have no real skills. We are uneducated, inexperienced, and
out of touch with most of the high end knowledge base of this industry.
So as the basic people we are, we stick to all we know - the bare bone
basics. We charge accordingly. We're cheap, stupid, and have business
because of it.

The result? We make a good living, but we are not rich. We make our
banner customers money each and every year. Most of our customers have
been with us 5 or more years, and pay on time without question each
quarter. For our banner ads we provide them no tracking, no metrics of
any kind except one - does their phone ring? Do people walk in the door
and spend money? If they do, the banner is working. We charge a flat
monthly fee, no click counting, no cost per click. It either works or it
does not. We have a waiting list for our limited banner inventory. Yeah,
I know a million miles from what you have to contend with!

Our banners are butt-ugly basic. No rich media. Wouldn't have a clue on
how to make one. But on more than one occasion our banners have pulled
businesses out of bankruptcy. How? They do one thing and do it well.
They get to the point, they deliver a message, and that is all. People
either respond or they don't. We spend about 30 minutes producing boring
basic gif banners. If they don't work, we make another, and another,
until one works. It takes about three or four trys to get it right.
Total time? Usually about 3 hours per customer. Then we use it for years
- literally - and they keep paying every month. The ROI is excellent for
us.

Our little dinky micro site gets only 40,000 readers per month, what
most of you get in a day. Yet from that small readership of less than
500,000 a year comes some 13 to 14 million dollars in direct sales for
our 76 customers. And from that comes a ton of customer loyalty that
requires no resale effort. In fact many of our customers think we are
stupid for charging so little. We are. But it works.

How do we do it? Because we are so unsophisticated and so unskilled, we
have no choice except to stick to the basics of information delivery. We
don't spend a cent advertising our sites, but we do maintain top
listings in the free search engines, and have for years. I have not
submitted a site to any search engine for three years now. Our hot-shot
competitors find it necessary to buy engine listings. But since our
bare-bones butt-ugly information sites answer the questions our readers
want, our sites stay in the top 5 due to popularity.

To keep costs down we have become Jacks-Of-All. We produce our own
photography. We produce our own content. And it looks it. Yes, our pages
really look bad, they really suck. But hell, they work! Imagine that!
Because the information readers want is right there, right now. No
plug-ins required. No stupid Flash that makes them wait for a useless
bunch of images that deliver no sales value except to say, "Hey! Look
how clever we are!.You should buy from us 'cause we're really cool!"

What we do takes no time at all to produce. And we charge accordingly.
No, I am not rich, only make about $70,00 a year clear. The problem we
have is that we turn down a lot of new business because we don't have
the production capacity. I could make double what I do, but there is not
enough time in the day. I have not made a sales call in 7 years. Our
stress and tension comes from always being behind on production, not
from a lack of business. I'm not smart enough to know how to hire people
and manage an office so we lose the business.

Yes, we do compete with top agencies, in fact some of the best in the
industry. They do much better work. I am jealous of their talent. They
are much smarter. And they constantly try to take our business away from
us. It is a tough battle. But to date we have lost only one account to
them over three years. Why? Because for the price we charge and for the
results we produce, our customers have no reason to switch, even if
their site would win the Site of the Year Award if the Other Guys
produced it.

Okay, my point? Get back to the basics of information delivery. Your
clients either have what consumers want, or they don't. If they don't,
no amount of rich media and pop-ups will change that. If they do, a
basic banner will deliver the message. Find a brave client who will go
with the basics. Put up the cheap banner. Either the phone rings or it
does not. In direct mail basic text has sold billions of dollars of
products. This whole "metrics" stuff is way out of hand.

What I believe is that this industry is way too complicated. Like the
Spruce Goose it is impressive but way too heavy, way too big and bulky
to ever fly. While I am not qualified to say much else, I can say this:
Many polls and surveys rely on responses and results from only a few
thousand consumers. So while my site results are only a sneeze in the
Big Picture, it still is proof that if an idiot like me can fly this
kite in a light breeze, so can you. The wind in this industry is not
strong enough to fly the Goose. Start using kites.Yes, to take a quote
from the movie "Mr. Deeds", I do write my cards in crayon. But you
should see how fast I go through a box of crayons!

I don't deal in the world of corporate committees where everyone is
afraid to make a radical decision. But for the sake of this industry, I
would urge all to get back to the basics. Based on my experience, that
works best of all.

Gary Cooley
Ozark Mountains Website, Inc.







Received on Mon Jan 13 2003 - 13:29:04 CST