"The rolling Yangtze River flows eastward, and the waves wash away all the heroes. Right and wrong, success and failure are all gone. The green mountains are still there, and the sunsets are red several times." Looking at the ups and downs of the domestic Internet in the past ten years, many once-splendid companies have long since disappeared. And every seemingly inconspicuous company that survives will always find a reason to survive. If there are any hidden rules, let’s discuss them together today. The Internet is essentially a tool or a platform. By sorting out the sources and outlets of traffic, we can clearly see the hidden rules for survival of various business models.
1. Different website forms: earth, fire, wind, water
Various websites can be roughly divided into the following types:
1. Location - "media category": news portals, industry vertical portals, local communities, local portals, B2B e-commerce platforms, classified information, video networks, etc.
2. Fire - "e-commerce category": group buying network, comprehensive B2C e-commerce network, vertical B2C e-commerce platform, etc.
3. Water - "product type": online games, online education, online services, etc.
4. Wind---"traffic type": software download sites, advertising alliance sites, website navigation sites, search engines, download tools, development platform websites, pornographic websites, etc.;
According to the origin and outlet of the traffic, it can be roughly distinguished:
1. Media websites rely on content (editor-recommended content or content generated by netizen interactions) to attract users’ continued attention and are the source of traffic. Among them, interactive media types (such as Weibo, video sharing, SNS, etc.) can be separated separately. It is the soil cultivated by users and generated by traffic, so it is called "ground".
2. E-commerce websites are the source of traffic. Netizens are more loyal to B2C e-commerce websites than media websites. Most of the traffic of many e-commerce websites is continuously imported through external means, so it is often The outlet for flow is the means by which flow is converted into cash. It is the consumption mode of traffic, so it is called "fire".
3. Product-type websites generally rely on the professional virtual products themselves provided online to achieve profits. Due to the finer division of professional labor, they often meet the specific needs of users rather than meet comprehensive needs (that is, platform type). The more the product The more unique it is, the more likely it is to arouse user demand for payment. Therefore, it is often the outlet for traffic. The product needs to flow slowly, attract users, and achieve cash income at the same time, so it is called "water".
4. Traffic-based websites: divided into two categories: one is purely and simply accumulating content to attract users' clicks; the other is realizing the exchange or precise guidance of advertising traffic through technology. This type of website often starts quickly, and there are many people who are quietly making money. This is called "wind".
2. The origin of traffic: introduction of content and popularity
As marketers of a website or Internet marketers of traditional enterprises, they often think hard about how to expand the click-through rate of the website and direct accurate traffic to designated pages; and then gradually study the UI experience and improve the conversion rate (registration or filling in material).
The main channels used to expand traffic sources are as follows:
1. The origin of search engines (SEO, SEM). In the era of information explosion, search engines have become the first choice for lazy people to surf the Internet. The competition among search engines lies in a series of parameters such as the accuracy, objectivity, and intelligence of search data. After using it, Google search is better, but Google is often disconnected, which gives Baidu more opportunities. It is recommended that rational people use GOOGLE to search first, and then use Baidu to supplement when they are offline.
2. Hard advertisements on portal websites or vertical websites (advertising banners, text, videos, WAP hard advertisements, etc.). The price of portal video ads or pop-up ads is increasing day by day, and many of them can now be accurately delivered based on cookies and regions. As the trend of homogenization of news content becomes more and more obvious, the trend of portal websites gradually segmenting the population is also obvious. The main groups of Sina, Sohu, Tencent and others are very different. News portals have revolutionized the life of printed newspapers, and segmented/interactive media (wechat, readers, etc.) have also significantly diverted traffic to news portals.
3. SNS new media interactive marketing (Blog, BBS, meager marketing, Kaixin/Renren/Tencent embedded interactive advertising). This area is the fastest growing part of digital marketing. Domestic grassroots web2.0 websites/portal SNS channels have finally found a profit model, and the effects also require some creativity. Due to the low barriers to entry, many media parties (website owners) and advertising companies (agency companies, planning companies, word-of-mouth marketing companies, and trolls) suddenly emerged.
4. CPCCPACPS and other effect-based paid placements. This is actually a traffic allocator, which aggregates and distributes a large amount of idle traffic to pages that need traffic. To be precise, search engine SEM is also a form of CPC advertising, and the operating agency needs a certain degree of credibility. In addition to building their own traffic platforms, operating agencies must also manage traffic suppliers (large and small, medium and small websites) and provide technical means to the demand side in order to maximize the effect.
5. Database marketing (e-mail e-DM, mobile phone SMS).
6. Navigation website, friendly links, website directory.
7. Strategic cooperation between websites (channel embedding, member sharing, points sharing, etc.), APP applications on open platforms.
8. Offline advertising (TV-Satellite TV, Video-Focus, car body, street signs, DM, coupons, etc.).
3. The way out for traffic: Profitable product development
For websites with a certain amount of traffic, the most troublesome thing is: how to convert existing traffic into cash income? How to develop stable profitable products or models? The current domestic popular trends are:
1. Media advertising: This is one of the most popular basic forms of online profit, which can include hard advertising, interactive advertising, CPCCPACPS effect advertising, bidding ranking, channel rental, etc. This is also the current mainstream model for website profitability.
2. Mobile phone value-added services: After the website that had always been free encountered small-amount customization for mobile phones from 2003 to 2006, various forms of content such as pictures, ringtones, jokes, novels, etc., became The main income form of rescue portal websites. After the standardized management in 2007, many websites still retain some high-quality content and become a stable profit form.
3. Online games and web games: Before 2008, large-scale online games had a stable profit model. During the financial crisis in 2008, a large number of users who needed psychological comfort in the virtual world emerged. The number of users increased dramatically, leading to the crazy development of web games and mini-games. A large number of adults and teenagers spend a lot of money on online games, and games have become a money magnet for many websites.
4. E-commerce and group buying: It was also after 2008 that many people in Taobao stores made money. E-commerce became popular across the country. Many community websites also opened e-commerce channels to obtain good income (such as Tiexue.com). In 2010, a large number of foreign group buying Under the influence of financing, a large number of grassroots webmasters in China have flocked to group buying and joined the "Thousand Group War". Taking advantage of the existing popularity to directly obtain the price difference between buying and selling products or services or the corresponding manufacturer’s experience marketing fees has indeed become one of the ways to get traffic.
5. Offline interactive integrated marketing: To be precise, this is also part of the interactive advertising model, but it is moved from online to offline. It is suitable for offline activities such as many localized life service websites or industry vertical portals (holding industry forums) to bring online popularity offline, and convert traffic into cash through advertising sponsorship of events.
4. Summary:
After sorting out the above, we can clearly see the essential forms of the websites we often come into contact with: earth, fire, wind, and water; what form does your website want to be positioned in? In what form is the source of traffic realized, and in what form is the outlet (profit) of traffic realized? Nie Feng believes: From the source of traffic to the outlet of traffic, if there is a stable and profitable space, the company will have a reason to survive!
In addition, we will also find that a large number of advertising companies are gradually transforming into traffic conversion companies. There are a large number of small and medium-sized traffic channels on one end and some brand business owners on the other. They rely on some creative and technical capabilities to become interactive marketing companies in the digital era. (essentially traffic agency companies), these companies are a positive force in promoting the development and survival of new media. The industry is still in its infancy, and there is still a lot of room for great achievements.
"Many things in ancient and modern times are all made up of jokes." If the above is inappropriate, I hope you will correct me.
Author: Nie Guohui