NONE: Re: A money-making web site (was: Cost/Audience Comparisons)
Re: A money-making web site (was: Cost/Audience Comparisons)
Cliff Kurtzman (cliff.kurtzman_at_tenagra.com)
Mon, 22 Jul 1996 10:08:20 -0600
erik kraft <erik_at_ensuing.com> writes:
>I have not been able to find a single web site that is making money. Sure
>there are a lot of programmers, consultants, script writers, artists, web
>designers, et al that are making money faster than they can stuff it in their
>jeans. But I haven't been able to find a serious web site that even breaks
>even with advertising or direct consumer charges.
>
<snip>
>
>I seriously doubt that any, *any* professional site is making money. Almost
>everyone seems to be trying to capture mindshare for some later event which
>will let them make money, a lot of money.
It is probably true that it is the exception rather than the rule for sites
that base their revenues on direct sales, subscription, or web site
advertising are making a profit, but it is hardly the case that there are
not any good examples or success stories.
I suppose it depends on how you define "serious." Certainly I have
connections with a number of web sites that are considered serious revenue
generators by their owners. Just a few:
Our client Harley-Davidson of Stamford <http://www.hd-stamford.com/>
consistently tells us that they bring in profits from direct sales that
exceed the costs of maintaining the web site. See
<http://owi.com/netvalue/v1i2c1.html> for a case study.
Our client RW Lynch <http://www.rwlynch.com> is a services oriented
business that tells us they generate new clients from their site for a net
profit.
Tennis Warehouse <http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/> advertises their web
site on one of our web sites, and generates significant revenues from the
endeavour. See <http://www.inc.com/incmagazine/archives/01960932.html> for
a case study in Inc. Magazine.
And, as I have mentioned here previously, the Year 2000 web site
<http://www.year2000.com/> (of which we are a co-owner) is a significant
commercial success based on revenue that is generated solely based on
advertising on the site. Advertising revenues exceed the costs of content
generation, site hosting, and site marketing.
<snip>
>Down deep, I really hope I am wrong. If you have first-hand knowledge of a
>web site that is making money, please write to me. I would really appreciate
>actual numbers including: site name, company name, rough income, rough pre-tax
>profit, number of employees, method of income, how long the site has been
>running, how long the site has been profitable.
I'd be surprised if anyone gives you information at this level of detail.
As you can imagine, this sort of data is highly proprietary. It is enough
of a risk for them to talk about their successes even in general terms. I
believe that the PR value of being a success story exceeds the risk of
imitators trying to grab a portion of their market share, but there is no
certainty of that fact.
Another good place to start looking for success stories is at the annual
Tenagra Awards for Internet Marketing Excellence,
<http://www.tenagra.com/awards.html>. I seem to recall that Donna Hoffman
has some good pointers in the papers on her site as well.
Best,
--Cliff
Cliff Kurtzman
The Tenagra Corporation
http://www.tenagra.com/
713/480-6300
