Internet Information Services

Selling content, gaming sites and Internet information services.

Selling Content versus Material Goods

Sale of content — reports, specialist advice, software — is popular on the Internet, and for good reason. Fulfillment is a breeze. The customer provides credit card details and downloads the product. No warehousing costs or supplier difficulties.

But there is also a drawback. Individuals expect information to be free, and are most reluctant to pay, even though the material saves them hours or weeks of individual search. It's unrealistic, but a tradition, and customers are creatures of habit. These are the exceptions:

 

 

• software: unavoidable: few have the time or skills to write their own.

• music.

• adult sites

• betting tips

• stockmarket advice

• specialist reports where company concerned has an established reputation: financial, market research and topical material.

• " how to" ebooks, particularly when promising a fortune on the Internet.

• B2B: companies will pay for material that provides significant cost savings.

Gaming Sites

We provide sections on all types of information services, with the exception of gaming or casino sites, for which we offer a few notes here.

The first point is obvious: they call for considerable resources to build and maintain, probably upwards of $100,000 in build alone. Equally important is insider knowledge, extensive experience of how the business really works.

The second point is technical. The public interface is built in standard HTML and Javascript, but the backend or management side is very complex. Large databases are required to hold customer details, bets placed, odds quoted, and affiliates driving traffic to the site. The databases have to respond quickly, and they have to be secure, the more so when taking credit cards in realtime. Detailed reports are required by all parties — company, affiliates and customers — and these have to be viewable online. The fonts needed on sites that penetrate the lucrative Asia market add a design complexity, not to mention currency exchange problems plus the high fees charged by Merchant Account Providers to cover the increased risk.

Sites are being built, and they are successful, but the great majority are of established bookmakers moving their business online.

For other internet information services, click the panels opposite. Download the e-book for operative listings.

 

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