| The Dot Com Doom | | | | must emphasizewhat makes their product better than |
| | | | the competition. |
| So I figure by now you have read yet another Dot | | | | One of the most difficult for the eCompanies was |
| Com thatwent belly up. It's a sad fact that the once | | | | customerservice. Unfortunately many Dot Com |
| new economy thatwas promising untold riches to vast | | | | companies failed atthis basic and oldest service. The |
| numbers of people isquickly vanishing. But you shouldn't | | | | fact is that many of thee-tailors weren't ready for the |
| be alarmed I'm still afirm believer in the Internet and | | | | influx of traffic or the ordersthey received. So many |
| what it can do provided thereis a well thought out plan | | | | customers received their productslate and many |
| behind it. | | | | received the wrong product. So what happensthe |
| The reason why the Dot Com bubble burst in March | | | | customer is peeved and then is faced with retuning |
| of 2000was that large investors began realizing that | | | | theproduct. So what does he do? He calls the phone |
| billion of dollarswere being thrown at Internet start-ups | | | | numberlisted on the website and calls only to talk to a |
| with no sound businessplan yet were worth $1 billion on | | | | machine andnot a REAL person or his e-mail went |
| paper. These companies werenot worth that much | | | | unanswered for a week. |
| money. Take for example the Internettravel agency | | | | With all of this you may be thinking, "Why should I get |
| that only grossed $750,000 in sales yet on paperit | | | | intothe Internet business if all the others failed. I mean is |
| attained a market cap of $1 billion! All they were was a | | | | thereany hope left in making real money?" |
| travelagency and to be worth that much on paper is | | | | Definitely! Over the past 3 years online shopping |
| totally ridiculous. | | | | hasincreased dramatically. Even though many |
| So many investors like Charles Schwab and Morgan | | | | investors areavoiding the Dot Coms like the plague |
| Stanley whowere throwing million of investment dollars | | | | (until they turn ahandsome profit) many people like |
| at bad ideas said forgetit time to bail out. | | | | myself continue to shopon the net spending billions. |
| These Internet start-up companies had thrown billions | | | | Why? Well, simply there areplenty of sites that offer a |
| of dollarsof their venture capital cash on unproven and | | | | genuine service and because ofthe convenience |
| often dumbbusiness plans. The problem here is that | | | | factor. I'll be honest I stopped buying fromlarge |
| capital is the lifebloodof any company and when | | | | software stores and now only purchase from the |
| investors began to pull out anddemanding revenues | | | | largeonline software sellers because many times I find |
| from unprofitable companies and couldshow none they | | | | themcheaper and convenient. |
| lost out on their second round of financing. | | | | In a final word I still believe that the Internet canmake |
| Coupled with the cost of overhead they realized they | | | | you money on the side or if you choose full-time. |
| wherein trouble. | | | | However, you must be focused on what you want to |
| It also didn't help the fact that so many of these | | | | do. |
| Internetstart-ups were attempting to sell all they had to | | | | 1) Avoid trying to sell to everyone with Internet access, |
| everyoneunder the sun. This was one of the biggest | | | | itsimply won't work you must sell to a targetedniche |
| errors they committedbecause who is going to buy | | | | market. |
| cloths from an Internet companywere you can go | | | | 2) Education, Education and Education. Remember the |
| yourself and to the mall and shop aroundtry on the | | | | three |
| garment to make sure it fits so on and so forth. | | | | E's. Try to read everything you can on the Internet |
| The fact is that many of these companies were selling | | | | andonline marketing. There are vast number of |
| productsany one of use can get elsewhere at the | | | | resourcesyou can access for free on the net. |
| same price or evencheaper. | | | | 3) Persistence Don't give up so easily. We all learn |
| What they failed to do was focus on a smaller portion | | | | throughtrial and error it may be a hard lesson but it will |
| ofthe market that will have a legitimate interest in that | | | | be a welllearned lesson. |
| product. | | | | A definition of insanity is constantly expecting |
| In other words they would have been better off with a | | | | betterresults repeating the same behavior. |
| targetedniche market and figuring out what they want, | | | | The point here is if something you're doing is |
| developing aproduct, and then selling it to them. | | | | notworking stop repeating the same behavior. Step |
| Another killer was that countless Internet companies | | | | backanalyze what you're doing and try something |
| threwmillions of dollars at bad advertising. I say, "bad" | | | | different. |
| becauseafter you saw the commercial you still weren't | | | | ************************************************ |
| sure on whatthey were selling. On top of that they | | | | Copyright (c) 2001 Andres Munoz |
| spent countless dollarson ineffective advertising. | | | | Andres Munoz is the owner of |
| Furthermore many of these companies didn't even | | | | Dedicated in helping the home-based entrepreneur |
| attemptto separate themselves from their competitors. | | | | indeveloping a serious web presence, mail |
| Theydeveloped no Unique Selling Point. This is | | | | orderbusiness, home-based business and creating a |
| extremelyimportant for those companies that are | | | | permanentpresence through effective marketing. |
| competing withothers selling the same products. They | | | | |