Trim the Fat: Maintain Your Website's Focus - Yahoo! -- Everything Under the Sun
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Some sites can pull off a sort of online ‘mall of America’ approach, like Yahoo!, where anything and everything is under the umbrella of one domain. However, there is only one Mall of America and one Yahoo! because it is extremely difficult to find success by using such an approach. When a web site attempts to provide everything to everyone within a market there begins a huge resource drain in order to be competitive with the businesses who have their resources concentrated on only one or two of the features found on a conglomerate web site. Simply put, a one or two man (or woman) show can realistically only produce a web site with one central theme. When a small team of people start down the path of many paths, it’s easy to forget where you are or remember where you are going.
Many times Website productions begin on the right foot, or as James Brown would wail, the ‘good foot.’ A web site may find success in reporting Internet conspiracies as an example. A lot of time and effort goes into writing a lot of content that is central to Internet conspiracies. A year goes by and the site receives 10,000 visits each day. Advertising income increases. The feeling of success sinks in and the owner decides to expand his (or her) web site from Internet conspiracies to also include ‘real news.’ Afterall, 10,000 people visit the site each day. The site owner thinks, ‘Instead of just Internet conspiracies, they are probably also seeking real Internet news as well’.
Without thoroughly considering the outcome, Mr. (or Mrs., or Mr. And Mrs.) Site Owner, determined to make their Internet conspiracy web site a source for real Internet news as well, branch off from the original theme and begin their plan of ‘growth.’ Now there are more responsibilities since the site must produce an entirely new type of product in addition to the original. Visitors coming to the site are confused about what is going on and scratch their heads thinking, “What happened?” Not only that, but since there are many more real Internet news web sites than Internet conspiracy web sites, the bar is higher for success. Resources start getting pulled from the stories about Internet conspiracies and are used for "real news’", degrading the quality of the original product. Traffic then begins to decrease. Advertising income drops and the only conspiracy left is the conspiracy the site owners made when they forgot the process.
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