In real estate the wisdom says “location, location, location.” In consumer Internet, think “distribution, distribution, distribution.” Thousands of products launch every month on hundreds of thousands of new Web pages. How does a company rise above the noise to attract massive discovery and adoption? YouTube did it through existing channels like MySpace, which already reached millions. Yelp had strong SEO, which found them a mass audience searching for restaurants and nightlife. Facebook’s University-centric approach landed them 80% adoption across a campus within 60 days of launch. Every Net entrepreneur should answer these questions: How do we get to one million users? Then how do we get to 10 million users? Then how will you get deep engagement by your users.
It's important to look for undervalued distribution channels, not just the ones that involve lots of eyeballs. PR, for example, is completely saturated; go to a couple networking events and you'll bump into countless forty- and fifty-something PR people who desperately need a job. They're no longer gatekeepers; they're a commodity.
The other channels listed are similarly commoditized. You can put an extra unit of time or money into them, but it's hard to get more than 100 cents on the dollar from your investment.
The best way to think about distribution is to think about how you can create a sustainable competitive advantage. Group buying, for example, means that there's a positive dollar value on persuading friends to participate. Social gaming lets Zynga recruit your social network to prod you into reengaging with games.
Better to come up with something like that--something that will make your competitors feel a little queasy about the thought of trying to peel off your customers.
In real estate the wisdom says “location, location, location.” In consumer Internet, think “distribution, distribution, distribution.” Thousands of products launch every month on hundreds of thousands of new Web pages. How does a company rise above the noise to attract massive discovery and adoption? YouTube did it through existing channels like MySpace, which already reached millions. Yelp had strong SEO, which found them a mass audience searching for restaurants and nightlife. Facebook’s University-centric approach landed them 80% adoption across a campus within 60 days of launch. Every Net entrepreneur should answer these questions: How do we get to one million users? Then how do we get to 10 million users? Then how will you get deep engagement by your users.
http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/19/reid-hoffman-my-rule-of-thr...
It's important to look for undervalued distribution channels, not just the ones that involve lots of eyeballs. PR, for example, is completely saturated; go to a couple networking events and you'll bump into countless forty- and fifty-something PR people who desperately need a job. They're no longer gatekeepers; they're a commodity.
The other channels listed are similarly commoditized. You can put an extra unit of time or money into them, but it's hard to get more than 100 cents on the dollar from your investment.
The best way to think about distribution is to think about how you can create a sustainable competitive advantage. Group buying, for example, means that there's a positive dollar value on persuading friends to participate. Social gaming lets Zynga recruit your social network to prod you into reengaging with games.
Better to come up with something like that--something that will make your competitors feel a little queasy about the thought of trying to peel off your customers.