What makes an excellent website? A successful website is like an invention. It
needs ingenuity, something everyone needs or wants and marketing. Like an
invention, if it's missing any of the three, what could be the best website in the
world will not make it. BetaMax, better, but VHS won, Apple, better, but Microsoft won,
and so on.
Ebay is a good example of a site that was one of many auction sites. They
weren't the first and they're certainly not the last, but they are the king. They
offered simple services to enhance their system. It can be argued that some
other auction sites that were vying to be counted offered some services that were
better, but more complex than the simple services. They got the traffic and over
a short time, a nonsense word like ebay became synonymous with the word auction.
At this point in time, ebay would have to royally screw up and raise their
pricing dramatically to lose any kind of edge. When they were competing, other
auction sites offered better services, some cheaper and some even free, yet if
you want to sell your wares online, you go where the people go and that is ebay.
The other auction sites that are still out there are a shadow of ebay. Yahoo
continues their service and uBid marketed pretty hard at the time to be noticed.
uBid still invokes reserve prices for PC Mall/MacMall to get rid of their
overstock and outdated products.
The days of competing on the internet have gotten much harder. With heavy
television campaigns and buying ad space on the radio, as well as partnering with
radio hosts, 1-800-flowers and monster paid a good sum to make themselves
synonymous with their respective industries.
There are other stories of web success. Check out our top website section for other stories that mirror
ebay's story.
We feature several oustanding sites that are common in our cerebrum that have
triumphed on the web and some that are up and coming. There is so much time spent on the
internet with so few truly good sites out there, the gems stand out. If you know
of a great site, let us know, so we can review it.
Ebay is a good example of a site that was one of many auction sites. They
weren't the first and they're certainly not the last, but they are the king. They
offered simple services to enhance their system. It can be argued that some
other auction sites that were vying to be counted offered some services that were
better, but more complex than the simple services. They got the traffic and over
a short time, a nonsense word like ebay became synonymous with the word auction.
At this point in time, ebay would have to royally screw up and raise their
pricing dramatically to lose any kind of edge. When they were competing, other
auction sites offered better services, some cheaper and some even free, yet if
you want to sell your wares online, you go where the people go and that is ebay.
