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Hi everyone, Nick here. I’m a frequent visitor of the forum but I don’t post very often. Right now though something is bugging me and I would like some input.
I just finished re-reading MJ’s book. It had been awhile since I read it and certain parts were starting to get a little fuzzy. Upon reading “The Commandment of Control,†I couldn’t help but be reminded of certain things that have been nagging me for awhile now.
I’m in the midst of getting an ecommerce business off the ground and, throughout the process, have been learning a lot about the industry and what it takes to be successful. The dominate theme I’ve noticed is that if you’re in ecommerce, or partake in any other business model based on the internet (subscription-based, content-based, advertising, etc), you really have no control over the business and instead give control to one, or several, of the “Big Boys†(Google, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Ebay, Twitter, etc.)
In his book, MJ says (on page 244)...â€The Internet is the best Fastlane available, because it immediately obeys the Five Commandments to the Fastlane, assuming a need-based premise. It naturally scales to a worldwide audience, it systematizes to automation via computer systems, it is a medium you can control(unfortunately, most don’t), and its barriers are still strong enough to prevent “everyone†from entry.â€
Is this really possible? I ask this for two reasons. First, because no matter what kind of website you have, you need traffic if it’s going to go anywhere. No traffic and your website might as well not even exist. Second, the majority of people find information, products, services and resources via search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. It stands to reason that as long as this remains true they will be the only ones who have any real control, especially Google with their dominant market share.
Now the typical advice people give when it comes to having real, sustained and lasting success on the internet is to not focus on things like cheap, spammy SEO, but to instead focus on having a great product, making websites for users, adding value, solving needs and creating outstanding content, among others. Well, these might get you great rankings, a steady stream of traffic and the like, but how does that give you any control? To borrow MJ’s “driver and hitchhiker†metaphor, you can get on the good side and become “buddy buddy†with the driver all you want, but in the end they’re still the driver, you’re still the hitchhiker and they can still kick you out at anytime.
Getting back to ecommerce, many people in the industry say to not only sell on your own website, but to also sell on Amazon and Ebay as a means of protecting your business from changes or penalties by Google. Ok I understand that, but does that actually give you any more control? Or does it just give you a layer of redundancy? Don’t get me wrong, I think having redundancy is very important in any business. After all, as the phrase goes, “single points of failure will fail.†But if control is your goal, it seems like this doesn’t give you more control, but less, because now instead of relying on one other entity (Google), you’re relying on three (Google, Amazon and Ebay).
Or how about sites like Twitter and Facebook? If you use either to market your business and for whatever reason they decide you violated their terms of service, what then?
I don’t know, it just seems like if you’re going to go the internet route, you need to go big or go home, otherwise you’ll never have any real control. You don’t want to sell on Amazon, you want to revolutionize online retail, introduce “Ecommerce 2.0†and kick Amazon’s a$$. You don’t want to get traffic from Google, you want to create a better search engine that puts Google to shame and relegates them to the dustbin of history.
Ok, I think I’ve rambled on long enough. It might be obvious where my opinion is on this, but I wanted to post this anyways and see if anyone had any input. Does anyone look at this from a different angle? Is real control possible on the internet if you’re just one of the litte guys? Is it even necessary? Can “redundancy†be an acceptable substitution? Opinions? Thoughts?
Thank You
I just finished re-reading MJ’s book. It had been awhile since I read it and certain parts were starting to get a little fuzzy. Upon reading “The Commandment of Control,†I couldn’t help but be reminded of certain things that have been nagging me for awhile now.
I’m in the midst of getting an ecommerce business off the ground and, throughout the process, have been learning a lot about the industry and what it takes to be successful. The dominate theme I’ve noticed is that if you’re in ecommerce, or partake in any other business model based on the internet (subscription-based, content-based, advertising, etc), you really have no control over the business and instead give control to one, or several, of the “Big Boys†(Google, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Ebay, Twitter, etc.)
In his book, MJ says (on page 244)...â€The Internet is the best Fastlane available, because it immediately obeys the Five Commandments to the Fastlane, assuming a need-based premise. It naturally scales to a worldwide audience, it systematizes to automation via computer systems, it is a medium you can control(unfortunately, most don’t), and its barriers are still strong enough to prevent “everyone†from entry.â€
Is this really possible? I ask this for two reasons. First, because no matter what kind of website you have, you need traffic if it’s going to go anywhere. No traffic and your website might as well not even exist. Second, the majority of people find information, products, services and resources via search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. It stands to reason that as long as this remains true they will be the only ones who have any real control, especially Google with their dominant market share.
Now the typical advice people give when it comes to having real, sustained and lasting success on the internet is to not focus on things like cheap, spammy SEO, but to instead focus on having a great product, making websites for users, adding value, solving needs and creating outstanding content, among others. Well, these might get you great rankings, a steady stream of traffic and the like, but how does that give you any control? To borrow MJ’s “driver and hitchhiker†metaphor, you can get on the good side and become “buddy buddy†with the driver all you want, but in the end they’re still the driver, you’re still the hitchhiker and they can still kick you out at anytime.
Getting back to ecommerce, many people in the industry say to not only sell on your own website, but to also sell on Amazon and Ebay as a means of protecting your business from changes or penalties by Google. Ok I understand that, but does that actually give you any more control? Or does it just give you a layer of redundancy? Don’t get me wrong, I think having redundancy is very important in any business. After all, as the phrase goes, “single points of failure will fail.†But if control is your goal, it seems like this doesn’t give you more control, but less, because now instead of relying on one other entity (Google), you’re relying on three (Google, Amazon and Ebay).
Or how about sites like Twitter and Facebook? If you use either to market your business and for whatever reason they decide you violated their terms of service, what then?
I don’t know, it just seems like if you’re going to go the internet route, you need to go big or go home, otherwise you’ll never have any real control. You don’t want to sell on Amazon, you want to revolutionize online retail, introduce “Ecommerce 2.0†and kick Amazon’s a$$. You don’t want to get traffic from Google, you want to create a better search engine that puts Google to shame and relegates them to the dustbin of history.
Ok, I think I’ve rambled on long enough. It might be obvious where my opinion is on this, but I wanted to post this anyways and see if anyone had any input. Does anyone look at this from a different angle? Is real control possible on the internet if you’re just one of the litte guys? Is it even necessary? Can “redundancy†be an acceptable substitution? Opinions? Thoughts?
Thank You
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