Unique selling proposition plus scalability equals big success online
June 12, 2006 – 5:03 amIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
On the internet, it’s great to have an original idea, but it’s not enough. Even if your idea is unique, it doesn’t mean someone else can’t take it and make themselves even more famous than you! You need to be able to scale fast, if you want to have a chance at big success.
Take a website like Youtube, for example. They had a unique selling proposition: make a website where people can easily share video, and make the whole thing free to the consumer! That’s no easy task, and takes a ton of bandwith.
Although YouTube is growing fast, they have a ton of competition gunning for the same sector. The question becomes: how fast can they implement their service so that they’re considered the standard-bearer? On the internet, you may only have months to establish dominance.
Most people enter existing verticals when they being internet marketing. But for those that really have “a big idea”, they’re entering into unknown territory. In order to ensure a safe journey through potentially troubled waters, a detailed game plan is of paramount importance. If your website is truly unique, but doesn’t reach critical mass fast, you’re likely to spawn competitors who are more nimble at marketing then you. They’re the ones who will cash in your big idea.
One solution for this potential dilemna is to make sure your idea scales from the start. This is the reason so many people seek out venture capitalists early in their development. The additional legal advice and business expertise gained by bringing in venture capitalists might help the product get off the ground in the early stages. Of course, this sort of arrangement creates a number of side issues, but might be worth considering. No matter what your big idea is: keep it to yourself until you’re ready for a wide release.
If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to the Sootle RSS feed!.
2 Responses to “Unique selling proposition plus scalability equals big success online”
Good stuff Darren, you are right on the mark in my opinion.
Scale is hugely important and must be factored in from the start. Or at least you must be aware that if scale is not factored in, you should be content with being a small player.
“On the internet, you may only have months to establish dominance.”
This is so true, things happen fast on the net (and when technology is involved in general).
By Gomer on Jun 12, 2006
Gomer,
You’re the man
I ran an ISP for years and my biggest problem was scalability. I set the company up on a poor platform in the beginning (too much manual work for customer service, etc) and it haunted me for years. Once you’re in production you can’t go back and change easily.
If you have a website that has a big idea, you have to launch it in full production mode or you may very well fail.
By Darren McLaughlin on Jun 14, 2006