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Article Title:
==============
How-To Cut Your Own Niche, To Grow Into The Next Internet Powerhouse
Article Description:
====================
These Internet companies have become huge, because they never
lost sight of the desires of their customer base. They kept their
eye on the ball, and never lost sight of their goals --- their
goals to serve the needs and wants of their customer base.
Additional Article Information:
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1353 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2006-06-14 09:00:00
Written By: Jerome Thomas
Copyright: 2006
Contact Email: mailto:jerome.thomas@btinternet.com
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How-To Cut Your Own Niche, To Grow Into The Next Internet Powerhouse
Copyright � 2006 Jerome Thomas
Fast Free Ads
http://www.FastFreeAds.com
The Internet as we know it is not even a teenager yet. The first
graphical browser was Netscape 1.0 Beta1, which was released to a
limited number of users in October of 1994. The final release of
Netscape 1.0 broke out of its shell in December of 1994. Thus,
the Internet as we know it was born.
Shortly after the release of Netscape came one of the first big
players on the Internet. In 1995, Yahoo! was founded, and is one
of the first major internet properties that is still under
operated as it was in its early days. Yahoo! search is still one
of the biggest search engines in the world, comfortably sitting
as one of the Big Three.
In 1996, the world got its first taste of Ebay, the auction
site.
Then in 1997, another garage enterprise set forth to conquer the
Internet with the founding of Amazon.
Netscape still survives today, as the redheaded stepchild of AOL.
The other three players, Yahoo!, Ebay, and Amazon are huge. They
survived the Dot Com Bust Era of 2000 to 2001. All three still
seem to have a solid future in front of them. They have been
rewarded well for their endeavors, and they have bought many of
their smaller competitors to ensure that they could stand alone
at the top of the pile.
LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THESE TOP THREE SURVIVORS
All these three of these companies serve the consumer market, and
they continue to offer great value to their users. They grow and
they grow, but they have never really lost sight of their target
market.
AltaVista lost its way. Yahoo! now owns it! In April of 2003,
Overture acquired AltaVista, and in July of 2003, Yahoo! acquired
Overture.
Yahoo! purchased Overture, because they knew it would help them
to deliver small business advertising to their search users.
Paypal was created in 1998. In 2002, Ebay purchased Paypal
because it would help their auction buyers and sellers transact
business more easily.
Amazon soaked up many smaller web retail companies in order to
widen their retail empire. For all intent purposes, they have
succeeded.
These Internet companies have become huge, because they never
lost sight of the desires of their customer base. They kept their
eye on the ball, and never lost sight of their goals --- their
goals to serve the needs and wants of their customer base.
They have also enlarged their customer base, by acquiring smaller
companies that could offer more to their target customer base.
THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC OF THESE COMPANIES
You might be thinking that these companies are as successful as
they are, because they bought up all of their competitors. Yes,
that did help them to grow at astonishing rates. But, the
important thing to realize is that they had to have a nice
bankroll to finance the purchase of these companies in the first
place.
The developed their hefty bankrolls by providing products and
services that people actually wanted to buy.
As a small business or individual wanting to make a few extra
dollars, you must always keep the mindset of offering people what
they want to buy, at a price they want to pay.
Your only question is how to show your products and services to
buyers.
THERE ARE MANY VENUES FOR SHOWING YOUR PRODUCTS & SERVICES
To sell your products online, you have lots of choices.
* You can set up your own website, and then struggle against the
tide of the millions of other websites vying for the attention of
the consumer marketplace.
* You can buy a classified ad and sell your product by phone or
mail. But, your classified ad will run for a certain amount of
time, and then you will have to pay for the advertisement again,
if you do not sell your product.
* You can run over to Ebay or any of any dozen copycat auction
sites and list your products there. The big minus on using a
website such as Ebay is that you have to play the game of listing
your product at a low price to get people's attention, and then
hoping that you will make enough of a profit to make your labor
worthwhile.
Ebay makes a commission on every product they sell. I don't
fault them for that. What I do fault them for is that if I sell
the product for $10, I pay one rate. And, if I sell the product
for $100, I pay another rate. You might be thinking that their
sliding scale system is like a percentage commission. And if you
were, you would be right.
But, I cannot help but to think that they only need to make a
dollar off of my transaction in order to be profitable. And yet,
they will only take a dollar if I sell a $10 item. If I sell a
$100 item, they will take more for the transaction, but they
still only need one dollar to break even. The profits that I make
on my transaction should be MINE and NOT THEIRS.
Am I right about that?
No wonder Ebay was big enough to buy the largest online payment
provider on the Internet, in 2002. Ebay is a cash cow. And if you
sell your products at Ebay, your cash is their cow.
MIMICKING YOUR COMPETITION IS A FOOL'S GAME
Every year, new companies come online offering new products and
services to their target market.
Some companies come along and try to duplicate the success of
those before them. I cannot tell you how many Ebay copycats I
have seen online since 1996. The silly thing about trying to
duplicate the success of the big boys is that you can never
duplicate their success. You do not have their reputation,
customer base, bankroll, or momentum.
I have seen other companies come along and try to under price the
companies whose success they are trying to tap into. The silly
thing about this approach is that the companies they are trying
to mimic may be higher-priced because they truly understand what
it takes to operate their particular business model. Cheaper,
Johnny-come-lately companies might survive their first year, but
they seldom survive their second year. They fail because they
misunderstood the cost of operating within the niche they chose
to mimic.
This reminds me of a quote in American politics, circa 1988. The
future Vice President Dan Quayle thought it wise to copycat
another great American leader. Many people gave him grief because
of his young age. So, in response, Dan Quayle often made the age
comparison between himself and John F. Kennedy Jr. He honestly
felt that his young age should not be a campaign issue, so he
always pointed to Kennedy's age, when he ran for President.
In a debate between Dan Quayle, and his counterpart Lloyd Benson,
Dan Quayle learned the error of his ways. Quayle made the mistake
of mentioning John Kennedy during the debate. And Lloyd Benson
blew him out of the water with, "I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack
Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack
Kennedy."
Just as Dan Quayle was "no Jack Kennedy", your website is not
an Ebay.
THERE IS ALWAYS A BETTER WAY
The secret to competing in a marketplace that is strongly
dominated by one company is to cut out your own little niche of
their marketplace.
There are certain people that are not happy with the way that the
big boys operate their businesses. If you can figure out why
people are unhappy with the big boys, then you will have found
yourself your own niche in a similar marketplace.
Build your niche near to the one you want to become, and answer
to the customers who are so far unsatisfied with what the big
boys are offering.
You will never be successful if you stand there and tell the
world, "Look at me, I am just like Ebay."
Instead, you will be successful by telling the world, "This is
why I am different and better than Ebay."
Good luck in all that you do.
Jerome Thomas
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