Building a Better Mousetrap and a More Profitable Website

by tpw
1 replies
I was looking at a thread about a new search engine, and I was inspired to submit this to you for your consideration.



What is a search engine, except for a website that has an unlimited number of Top Ten Lists?

A visitor comes to the site, types in a keyword or keyword phrase, and in turn expects to find a Top Ten List.

What is the difference between one search engine or another?

Nothing, except how they order the listings in their Top Ten List.

The visitor is looking for the search engine that gives him / her a list of websites that makes them happy to keep using the search engine.

If Million Short is able to give you a Top Ten List that supposedly trims off the top million search results, you have to ask whose first million results they are looking at, when they give you the results.

What would stop them from just giving you their own Top Ten List, and making their list more pertinent by suggesting that they are not showing you the best sites available?

It strikes me as an interesting approach to competing with the bigger players in this space.

Think about this... Each of the big players in this space are simply trying to convince the world-at-large that their Top Ten List is "consistently the best Top Ten List"...

And then there are the users who convince themselves as to who they believe to be the "best Top Ten List"...

I have a play website in this space myself, but I don't promote it, as I simply use it to play with the technology.

The reason for this post is not to tell you about search or search engines or anything like that...

My point is to get you thinking about Top Ten Lists...


What is to prevent you from building your own Top Ten Lists, then monetizing that site filled with Top Ten Lists?

Who knows, your Top Ten List site may one day be huge and very profitable, without you needing to worry about crawling every website on the planet to be seen as relevant!!

After all, what really defines "the best"?

In the minds of most folks, "the best" is simply an analogy of "my favorite".

You don't have to have "the best" site on the planet to make money with the site. You only need to win an audience who calls your site one of their "favorites". And over time, you will grow by having more people call your site one of their "favorites".

In conclusion... Stop trying to compete against large websites, because often you cannot. Instead, try to win new fans who look at your websites as one that is among their favorite websites.

Win an audience by focusing on the desires of your audience, and you will be able to build your success one user at a time.
#building #competition #list #lists #mousetrap #space #ten #top #top ten
  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Bill,

    You or I may be interested in a "Top 10 List" because, I suspect, we tend to use search engines for research purposes. The vast majority of searchers are probably just looking for one relevant (and fast) result that meets their immediate needs.

    That would explain why the frequency of clicks on sites below the top position, even on the first page, falls away rapidly.

    A search engine's success largely depends on how effective it is in delivering that result.

    But your point about whether a trusted source can provide recommended search suggestions is a good one. It's why Google is concerned about the threat from sites like Facebook that make great use of word-of-mouth recommendations.

    A friend is a more powerful referral than a search engine is ever likely to be.


    Frank
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