1) Freeinternet.com - according to Wikipedia, this company lost $19 million bucks on $1 million in revenue, not surprsing considering that they’re giving away internet access for free. I guess the ads never really took?

2) Boo.com - those of you wondering why venture capital money is so hard to come by…Boo.com had a perfectly legitimate plan, to sell apparel online. There are lots of profitable websites doing that today. Boo.com, however, managed to burn through $135 million in venture capital dollars in about a year and a half, check it out on Wikipedia.

3) There’s one more I remember reading about, but I’m sorry I can’t remember the name. They advertised delivering anything anywhere. Go online, say you want a snickers and it’ll be at your door. It didn’t take long before millions in investor funds didn’t alleviate that fact that delivering a single candy bar halfway across town doesn’t add up.

4) Intechnic Corporation…oh wait, we’re definitely still here.

Hackers (1995)

Zer0 cool’s nemesis in the move wrote a “worm” that chipped away at the company’s profits and put small amounts of cash into his account using this 3-D super magic programming language…

Swordfish (2001)

Hackers isn’t the only one programming in 3-D. In Swordfish, where John Travolta fights terror with terror, they like to write computer viruses using some sort of goofy crystal ball. Are those Photoshop tools on the left? A nice touch is how it’s “Decrypting Data” on the floor of some virtual hallway.

(courtesy of apcmag.com)

Masterminds (1997)

Here all we have to do is type “initialize phone routing system” and everyone thinks we’re in Hong Kong. Then, we run through a video game map in under 2 minutes while facing threats from a virtual prosecutor in order to gain access to some sort of top secret database.

1) Your competition uses a particular Content Management System, what would they say it does better? After all, you are looking for the company that will best suit your needs.

2) How much time will this really take to get done? Often times schedules change as requirements get fleshed out and to arrive at an exact schedule, a development team needs to spec out the project.

3) How will my project be supported? There may be a ticket system, forum, 800 number, dedicated individual or even someone overseas as infamously pioneered by some big computer manufacturers. This is important since your websites will be a new piece of software to you and you will have questions.

4) How do you document the project? Projects are often planned in phases depending on complexity. A proposal starts the project and a technical specification gets into the details so that developers know what to do.

5) What’s the cost for the project? Here, on a project of moderate complexity, you actually don’t want an exact answer since the team you introduced the project to must get into the technical details, think through features, research APIs if that are being used, etc. and get their heads around the amount of work involved.

This list isn’t all encompassing, but should provide you with some common sense things to think about on your next web 2.0 development project.

No one wants bad reviews obviously, but if the site is run well, has good products, fast shipping, and good customer service then there generally shouldn’t be many.  Some customers saying they changed their mind about the product and got a quick return may even help others feel more comfortable to deal with the site.  Overall, in web 2.0 development, interaction with the website leads to customers having a better experience and coming back.

Simple White Paper Request Form:

Intechnic’s own Contact Form:

We’ve found that simple contact forms asking for max a name, e-mail, company name, phone and brief message work best because they’re quick to fill out and give a simple starting point for a conversation.  There have been lots of studies comparing short and long contact forms and why simple is better, bottom line is you don’t want barriers to your customers contacting you!

Technology provides tons of opportunities for companies to go Green. Another example are e-mailed news letters and blog integration as opposed to sending out regular mail. Let’s also not forget another great aspect about going green with technology - the savings to the bottom line.

Inventory management however is only the beginning.  A system fully utilizing eBay API Integration can be used to completely manage several online channels from one place.  One product catalog contains all products being sold, one list of orders contains orders from both the website and eBay and so on.  The key to being a high volume seller on the world’s largest marketplace is staying organized because organization leads to happy customers whose products are always available when they need them, who have all their questions answered, and who leave great feedback!