I got an email from a journalism student at Columbia University\u00a0asking me to answer some\u00a0questions. I replied that he could phone me, but if I did it on my blog, I could probably take the time to write, and he said “go ahead” –<\/p>\n
My name is\u00a0Tim Chan\u00a0and I’m a reporter out of Columbia University’s \u00a0I’m currently working on a full-length magazine article about internet \u00a0I really respect your extensive experience and expertise and it would \u00a01. Whereas trend-spotting used to be reserved for print publications Absolutely a viable venture. The only barriers are the time it takes to develop quality content. Somepros are that readers can get up to date information with a click of the mouse, and in many cases, find interactive resources like forums and blogs.\u00a0Some cons are that they may\u00a0have to wade through the search engine spam to find exactly what they want but that’s improving.<\/p>\n \u00a02. Are these sites a threat to traditional trend-spotting firms that I would certainly think so, but then again, many businesses won’t have the time to do the research themselves, so will continue to hire firms. Also, many of these firms will be using these same sites for research too.<\/p>\n \u00a03. In light of the dot.com bust from a few years ago, how “safe” The most successful ventures will be very in very targeted niches, and since there’s no huge capital investment, the safety\u00a0factor really doesn’t seem to matter.\u00a0 The possibility of failure is virtually non existent if you deliver well targeted quality content that people want to read, share and talk about. The only way to “fail” is by not doing it well, with\u00a0inferior\u00a0writing, poor site organization etc.<\/p>\n \u00a04. How is success measured with these sites? The # of hits and Success is defined differently by different people. To some may be to make money\u00a0selling ads. To another,\u00a0it may be to get high\u00a0number of visitors, with revenue being generated only through sales of products. Still others may just want traffic and notoriety.<\/p>\n \u00a05. In terms of numbers, what would be considered a high number of Boy that’s a tough one. I personally consider 10,000 a month to be “substantial traffic”, but it’s all relative to the subject.\u00a0If you’re selling ads, the more traffic you get the better, obviously. Alexa.com will give some rough traffic figures on websites that are large enough.<\/p>\n \u00a06. I have encountered much debate over the use of terms like “# of Hits are worthless to measure. One page view can show several “hits” counting each image in the stats.\u00a0That said, many people erroneously refer to their own site visitors as hits”, and not literally looking at the “hits” column in their site statistics.<\/p>\n “Unique\u00a0visitors” are different \u00a0people that came to the site, which to me are an important number to watch.<\/p>\n Page views, tell you the average number of pages your visitors are going to on each trip to your site.<\/p>\n \u00a0Subscribers are people that have signed up for your list, or givaway, newsletter etc, and are very valuable.<\/p>\n \u00a07. Have you heard of coolhunting.com and thrillist.com? If so, what I admint I’d not been to either site. I’m particularly impressed with Thrillist though. Smaller targeted niches like this develop good followings with lots of inbound links occuring naturally if they have quality content. The site will snowball and continue t ogrow asd long as they keep writing. Setting up a community site like that for a geographic area or specific subject is one\u00a0way to be very successful.<\/p>\n \u00a0And finally… (sorry to be long-winded!)<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a08. How does this shift of trend-spotting online affect us, the It only means we have more options for more information at our fingertips, but we\u00a0need to filter what we read. Remember, anyone can make a website or blog that says anything, and that doesn’t make it true.<\/p>\n \u00a0Thanks so much in advance for your help Scott. I really appreciate it \u00a0This article will be freelanced to local and mainstream publications.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0If there is anyone else who you think I should be talking to, please I got an email from a journalism student at Columbia University\u00a0asking me to answer some\u00a0questions. I replied that he could phone me, but if I did it on my blog, I could probably take the time to write, and he said “go ahead” – My name is\u00a0Tim Chan\u00a0and I’m a reporter out of Columbia University’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"yoast_head":"\n
\njournalism school.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0trend-spotting blogs\/ventures, coolhunting.com and thrillist.com, and
\n\u00a0I was hoping to ask you for your expert opinion.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0be great if you could help me out. I think you present an interesting
\n\u00a0perspective as you not only do consulting but you also run a blog
\n\u00a0yourself. \u00a0Would you be able to provide me with a few short answers to the
\n\u00a0following?:<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0(ie.\u00a0magazines, companies that publish trend reports, etc.), we have seen a
\n\u00a0shift to the internet. Is this a viable internet venture?
\n\u00a0What are some of the barriers to entry? What are the pros and cons?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0use print and also charge money for their findings?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0are\u00a0 these \u00a0ventures today? What is the possibility of failure?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0visitors? Ad revenue?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0visitors for a site like coolhunting.com? 10,000 a month? 50,000?
\n\u00a0100,000? More?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0hits” vs. “# of visitors” vs. “# of subscribers.” How do you
\n\u00a0differentiate between the three?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0are your thoughts on their content and long term prospects?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0everyday observer? Why should we pay attention to this? What can we
\n\u00a0learn from this?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0and look forward to your responses.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0let me know.<\/em>
\n\u00a0Please weigh in on this and help out Tim…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"