http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2006/12/is_your_core_bu.html Web Marketing Strategies for Small Business Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:51:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2006/12/is_your_core_bu.html/comment-page-1#comment-949 Chris Burbridge Sat, 10 Feb 2007 00:34:34 +0000 http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2006/12/is_your_core_bu.html#comment-949 <p>Good topic! I was coached to charge $35/mo for my web hosting, because I offer a self-publishing system (really, an implementation of WordPress, but for my clients that's probably more detail than they want), and some other features that serve them. So far--almost no resistance! The point is, for people who don't have a sense of the web hosting market, they're still FINE to pay that much for hosting. But then, it's like when you find out that the thing you're making, someone can get from China for about 11% of the cost you're charging. What do you do? Immediate impulse: Tail between legs, say "sorry, I'll charge $20 now," and hope people go for it. But I think the problem IS when you get seen as a commodity. So, the answer is to pile on that value--in ways that make you more and more something that simple CAN'T be compared, to say, GoDaddy. And as a small business, I have lots of advantages that GoDaddy doesn't have--but economies of scale certainly aren't among them! I am quite optimistic, in fact. But I realize that simply "hoping poeple won't find out" that "they make the same thing in China for a lot cheaper" is probably not a good strategy.</p> Good topic! I was coached to charge $35/mo for my web hosting, because I offer a self-publishing system (really, an implementation of WordPress, but for my clients that's probably more detail than they want), and some other features that serve them. So far–almost no resistance! The point is, for people who don't have a sense of the web hosting market, they're still FINE to pay that much for hosting. But then, it's like when you find out that the thing you're making, someone can get from China for about 11% of the cost you're charging. What do you do? Immediate impulse: Tail between legs, say "sorry, I'll charge $20 now," and hope people go for it. But I think the problem IS when you get seen as a commodity. So, the answer is to pile on that value–in ways that make you more and more something that simple CAN'T be compared, to say, GoDaddy. And as a small business, I have lots of advantages that GoDaddy doesn't have–but economies of scale certainly aren't among them! I am quite optimistic, in fact. But I realize that simply "hoping poeple won't find out" that "they make the same thing in China for a lot cheaper" is probably not a good strategy.

]]> http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2006/12/is_your_core_bu.html/comment-page-1#comment-8782 Chris Burbridge Sat, 10 Feb 2007 00:34:00 +0000 http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2006/12/is_your_core_bu.html#comment-8782 Good topic! I was coached to charge $35/mo for my web hosting, because I offer a self-publishing system (really, an implementation of WordPress, but for my clients that's probably more detail than they want), and some other features that serve them. So far--almost no resistance! The point is, for people who don't have a sense of the web hosting market, they're still FINE to pay that much for hosting. But then, it's like when you find out that the thing you're making, someone can get from China for about 11% of the cost you're charging. What do you do? Immediate impulse: Tail between legs, say "sorry, I'll charge $20 now," and hope people go for it. But I think the problem IS when you get seen as a commodity. So, the answer is to pile on that value--in ways that make you more and more something that simple CAN'T be compared, to say, GoDaddy. And as a small business, I have lots of advantages that GoDaddy doesn't have--but economies of scale certainly aren't among them! I am quite optimistic, in fact. But I realize that simply "hoping poeple won't find out" that "they make the same thing in China for a lot cheaper" is probably not a good strategy. Good topic! I was coached to charge $35/mo for my web hosting, because I offer a self-publishing system (really, an implementation of WordPress, but for my clients that's probably more detail than they want), and some other features that serve them. So far–almost no resistance! The point is, for people who don't have a sense of the web hosting market, they're still FINE to pay that much for hosting. But then, it's like when you find out that the thing you're making, someone can get from China for about 11% of the cost you're charging. What do you do? Immediate impulse: Tail between legs, say "sorry, I'll charge $20 now," and hope people go for it. But I think the problem IS when you get seen as a commodity. So, the answer is to pile on that value–in ways that make you more and more something that simple CAN'T be compared, to say, GoDaddy. And as a small business, I have lots of advantages that GoDaddy doesn't have–but economies of scale certainly aren't among them! I am quite optimistic, in fact. But I realize that simply "hoping poeple won't find out" that "they make the same thing in China for a lot cheaper" is probably not a good strategy.

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