At a recent networking event I was talking to someone who was trying to sell me into the idea of a purely advertising based website with no other content.

I questioned them on whether they were keen to be operating as a market place or as a site displaying clever and effective advertising, similar to an art gallery of adverts. The answer was a categorical NO.

They were at pains to point out that they had sunk a vast amount of investment into the site and also had two financial backers, so it must be a great idea! I then quizzed them on their success to date, as you may have guessed it was appallingly low. This lead me to question why this may be the case, the person in mind had no concept of the site needing a hook to attract an audience and in turn advertisers.

This is a worrying trend I have noticed more often where individuals are throwing money into on line businesses without understanding the market place and their offering. I don’t for one second believe we are looking at another DOT COM bubble burst, as these are all small start ups and I hope the financial institutions have learned their lesson from the last time round.

I do hope that individuals looking to take their business on line fully understand their offering within what is a very competitive and savvy marketplace.