"THE ANATOMY OF BUZZ".
Yes, people are talking about you. Hundreds and perhaps thousands
of people--customers, employees, investors, competitors, suppliers, and
the press--gossip constantly about the companies they work . . .
PROFIT METRICS FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES.
Sid Saleh says he's always surprised to find companies that
just manage to break even when they sell professional services like
consulting and custom development. "Software companies start . . .
WHY-TO-BUY-HERE STRATEGY #4: GLOBALIZATION.
Even on English-only sites, international sales typically
contribute at least 10%-15% of total revenues. Web stores that are more
customer- friendly to overseas buyers usually achieve much . . .
WHY-TO-BUY-HERE STRATEGY #3: THE COMMUNITY HUB.
Unlike personalization, which treats customers as unique
individuals, "community"-oriented Web strategies build loyalty
by emphasizing shared concerns. Community hubs sometimes generate
phenomenal . . .
WHY-TO-BUY-HERE STRATEGY #2: PERSONALIZATION.
Both on the Web and in the physical world, most retail interactions
are fairly impersonal. Merchants who actually get to know their
customers-- and who provide services based on that . . .
WHY-TO-BUY-HERE STRATEGY #1: DEPTH OF INVENTORY.
Depth of inventory is an old and still-powerful concept on the Web.
Amazon.com's original selling proposition (before it had
competitors who could make the same claim) was that its virtual . . .
SPECIAL REPORT: WHY TO BUY HERE.
Wall Street, the venture community, and much of the popular press
all seem to agree that Web commerce has crashed and burned. "Look
at the dot-com bankruptcies and layoffs," we're told.
"Listen to . . .
DATA POINTS: SERVICE REVENUE CONTRIBUTION.
Professional services have become a significant source of revenue
for high-end PC software companies. Currently, 25 public Soft[yen]letter
100 firms break out service and licensing revenue as . . .
HOW TO LICENSE A SOFTWARE ENGINE.
Last year, Tidestone Technologies generated almost $3 million in
licensing fees from Formula One, an Excel-compatible Java spreadsheet
engine that developers embed in a wide range of . . .
MINI MONEY.
An old friend of ours, publicist Shel Israel, writes a rather
engaging online newsletter that he e-mails to a few hundred "agency
friends and Internet industry insiders." The newsletter has . . .
GROWTH STRATEGIES: "TREAT CUSTOMERS LIKE
HEROES".
When Donna Auguste and John Meier decided to start a company
together, they had no product plans, no target markets, no unique
business model. What they dreamed about, Auguste says, was creating
"a . . .
DATA POINTS: RENT PER EMPLOYEE.
[CHART OMITTED]
Especially in Silicon Valley, competition for office space has
pushed rental rates to record high levels; some landlords now demand
(and get) equity in their tenants' businesses. . . .
THE MICROSOFT WIRELESS STRATEGY.
Ben Waldman, who heads Microsoft's Mobile Devices Division,
recently offered a rare in-depth look at the "deep understanding of
the wireless space" that he says his company is beginning to
develop. . . .
FREE SAMPLES.
Does free Web content attract real customers--or does it just bring
flocks of freeloaders? There's no easy answer, of course, but PC
Data's Ann Stephens says there's growing evidence that
giveaway . . .
"HYPE IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD".
Venture capitalists are notorious for insisting their portfolio
companies should create a buzz, even when these companies don't yet
have products, customers, or even employees. Ruthann Quindlen, a . . .
ASP SERVICES: WHERE ARE THE MARKETING DOLLARS?
Industry analyst Amy Wohl has spent much of the past two years
talking to ASP entrepreneurs and watching market trends. "I'm
beginning to see what's wrong with the ASP business model, and
it's . . .
THE 2000 SOFT-LETTER EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION SURVEY.
The software business may not be fashionable on Wall Street these
days, but software companies are still remarkably efficient money
machines-- especially for their top executives. In fact, our . . .
The Ten Best Web Support Sites of 2000.
OPEN DIVISION
Cognos support.cognos.com
Dell Computer support.dell.com
Hewlett-Packard www.itresourcecenter.hp.com
Iomega www.iomega.com/support
Sybase my.sybase.com
Symantec . . .
HOW TO COMPETE FOR ENTERPRISE SALES.
WRQ is a good-sized company (last year's revenues topped $146
million) with a solid reputation for delivering PC-to-mainframe
connectivity products, mostly at the department level. But lately . . .
ASP DEVELOPMENT: A FAST TRACK TO THE WEB.
Remotely-hosted rental software is the hot new business model these
days, but the earliest ASP-style rental applications almost certainly
won't be written with Microsoft tools. At . . .
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