A question I have often wondered about, Do new startup websites do any marketing research? I frankly doubt it, I am pretty sure the larger companies indulge in this, but shouldn't we all. Marketing is beyond just advertising - it includes the pricing research and most importantly it Creates the Product.... The best marketing strategy is applied common sense... yet i have seen a trend to just follow exactly what others do... make exact replica's of websites which found some success.... yet from my point of view most people forget to be creative and add to the idea... What are your views!!
I ALWAYS do research prior to launching a website - even if its a clone. I research my target market, how Ill advertise, income potential, userbase potential, etc etc
Actually, I usually dont launch a website after research. I find that after research the idea / website wont be as "good" as I thought. However, Im recently single and looking for something to keep me busy, so Im launching a directory.
The research I do is: 1) Competition (number of pages) for my main keywords in Yahoo/Google/MSN 2) How many times a keyword is search (great tool Digital Point) 3) Is it worth the time? 4) Can I get a domain with partial keyword in the domain name?
Well againg that is partially true: Though i guess thats where the term applied common sense clicks in. Btw, congratulations on you new directory, if you don't mind me asking, are you using a custom made script or phpld or esyndicat or someother... Cheers!!!
I find this one to be particularly true... and i do not like more than two words in a domain... and it should be easy to say "verbally".... though i prefer making up new name... symbolic or co-related to my topic...