Re: UKNM: Re: Portals?

[Matteo Berlucchi]

My main worry is that thanks to the 'smart money', the portals can keep

growing and gaining considerable advantage against all other sites.


The problem is that newly appointed Web Marketing people put money in

the busy sites rather than venturing in somewhat more daring online

marketing activities just to preserve their job and for lack of

fantasy/knowledge.


Web Marketing is a technical activity that requires an analytical and

scientific approach in order to yield results (as Sajid said). Going to

the busiest sites, like going to the most popular TV channels, is the

wrong approach as the Web is a different thing from Radio/TV/Papers. A

proof comes from what Mike Butcher said about the 10 mins spent on web

portals - as opposed to the hours one could spend on a TV channel!


Having a choice of millions of potential advertising spots makes life

difficult for the traditional marketer and exciting for the technical

web marketers who know what they are doing.


Portals will unfortunately grow thanks to the wrong reason: money and

not content. The existing portals have already gained the position in

which they can offer the same great counter deals that newspapers and

other traditional media can offer and this gives them a huge momentum.


The ideal portals - independently owned sites offering all the

information on specific topics from a friendly and logical URL like


www.holiday... or www.vacancies... - are a dream of the past, exactly

like good operating systems!


Commercial reasons are - sadly - always winning against quality. 


Matteo

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Matteo Berlucchi                           E:

matteohyperlink [dot] com

Web Marketing Manager                      A:

matairmail [dot] co [dot] uk

Hyperlink plc                              T: +44 171 240 8121  

8 Upper St Martin's                        F: +44 171 240 8098

London WC2H 9DL                            W: http://www.hyperlink.com/