For those of you living on another planet for the past few months, now infamous New Zealand-based Internet entrepreneur Kim Schmitz, alias Kim Dotcom, has been very much in the news of late.
While some, including the great Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple computers, raise some legitimate questions about the charges against Mr. Dotcom, there is a very different lesson online entrepreneurs can learn from the case about how to create a Website successfully for your next business venture.
On the Internet, content is still king! So when building your site, consider content first. Here are some things to think about:
Make it free. (at least to some extent) One of the real sources of trouble in the Kim Dotcom case is that huge legacy media content creators like Hollywood and the record industry still have no real means of monetizing the mammoth libraries of material they possess beyond selling copies outright. Certainly, if your Website is a business, you will need to sell something, either someone else's products or services or your own, to make any money. But offering some free content must at least be part of your site development plan.
Make it good. Seriously! Again, if there's one thing the Kim Dotcom case has shown us, it's that people enjoy sharing the content they love, favorite songs, and favorite movies, not sales pitches and advertorial drivel. Now, I'm not telling you your content has to be a work of art...and I'm certainly not telling you to violate the rights of others by uploading stolen popular content just so that people will like your site. What I am telling you is to create content that matters to your audience, something they will want to share...without you asking. That's the key to creating a Website visitors will return to again and again.
Make it easy to share. Defenders of Dotcom insist he never encouraged others to share pirated content, but merely created a Website that made this sharing possible. What Dotcom did for all content through his controversial site, Megaupload, you must do for your own by making sure it is easy to share. Fortunately there is no need to create your own Website to accomplish this and there are many tools to help. Start a blog making your content easier to find on search engines and then to share with others through links and social media. Post your content on popular sites like Facebook and Twitter, giving others the opportunity to share it with their network of friends. You will most likely be surprised and inspired with the results.
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