Business Models for Web Design are far more varied than I imagined. The following links were available on in the class notes:
This weeks assignments have given me insight into how people come up with ideas for web businesses. Brainstorming is always a good tool for all kinds of endeavors, seeing how they might fit into business models and the use of a tool like Adword can help you to see what the demand for certain products or services might be.
I must confess that I was disappointed in Google Adword Keyword Planner – (I will try again using Brother Luke’s new tutorial – just ran out of time for this post). It did give me numbers of hits for each keyword that I entered, however, it was hard to know how that really related to competition with other web businesses. In relation to our class assignment, it did tell me that there was more interest in chess than in snowboards. I found that the keyword search can be misleading and tricky. When people clicked on chess, what were they really looking for? Chess covers an entire sport – from how-to basics to advanced strategies and perhaps chess boards, books and videos. Whereas ‘snowboards’ does not cover the entire sport of snowboarding, but a product, a piece of equipment. So I think it is comparing apples to oranges. When I compared chess boards and pieces (107,000) to snowboards (110,000) – the results came out pretty even.
With the snowboard business, we might consider focusing our efforts in areas where snowboarding is a popular sport and there is a demand for our product. I was thinking of advertising in Utah, Colorado and Idaho. We could gain valuable experience in starting a web business that is smaller with the potential for growth. This would also give us experience in setting up necessary systems to deal with wholesalers, advertising, customer service, selling, collections and shipping, When all systems are working well, we could then decide if we want to expand to cover all of the USA and possibly Canada. We eventually could include international ski areas. Chances are the competition for snowboarding is pretty established, but with a good marketing plan and quality products you could carve out a niche for your business.
I thought a niche for a chess business could be selling unique and artisan chess boards and pieces. It would limit the customer base to collectors and real enthusiasts with money, but it would be fun to find artists around the globe to produce beautiful and one of a kind sets.
Obviously, I know nothing about business in or out of the internet. I have much to learn and understand about the entire process. I want to learn more and am excited that this class is going to give us practical experience.
webbusinessplanner 