Long-Term Investment Strategy
Bambi Francisco asked Mike Moritz of Sequoia Capital how he chooses what companies to invest in. He replied, “It’s the idea that the founders are doing something that they think is useful for themselves, And, then, eventually perhaps, coincidentally, perhaps accidentally, they discover that the product or service that they have built because they wanted to use something like this is that of great interest to lots of other people.”
If you create something you enjoy that is exceptionally useful, you stand a good chance of being successful.
Cutting Through Clutter
Numerous people have asked me to promote their ‘clutter’ sites. The correct answer has been no, no, and no. The whole reason search has become such a successful market is because it helps people cut through the clutter.
Each page on a website already has billions of alternatives a click or two away. Each page is important. The most important thing to do is focus on a specific niche—something you are truly interested in.
Be Useful
Many successful websites are successful because they are syndicated. There are many ways you can work to get your site syndicated, but an often overlooked ‘trick’ is to simply be the most useful site in your niche.
Amazon is successful because they built features that make it more useful than most other shopping sites. They added value to their product or service by allowing user feedback, related suggestions, used book sales, and the “so you want to” collection guides to their pages.
Own a Niche
Chartreuse explained his theory on participating in a niche market:
You can’t create a site about what’s going on in the plastic industry unless you learn how they think. You gotta pick up some trade papers. Talk to some people inside. So that when you do create you will be authentic and loved. So that you get it. You can’t be ____ing pedestrian and set up a site and hope they will come. They may visit but they won’t come back. And if they don’t come back you have lost.
Be Trustworthy
Webmasters, site users, directory editors, and search engines may look for things like a privacy policy or a physical address as signs of quality. In Beyond Algorithms: A Librarian's Guide to Finding Web Sites You Can Trust, Karen G. Schneider highlighted many things she looked for in a trustworthy site, which included:
- Availability
- Credibility
- Authorship
- External Links
- Legality
