|
|
Sådan skaffer man sig indtægter på nettet
|
De fleste trykte medier aner tydeligvis ikke, hvorfor de overhovedet
er på nettet, mener en af USAs respekterede web-skribenter,
software-pioneren Dave Winer
Af Dave Winer, dave@userland.com
»How to make money on the Internet?« spørger
Dave Winer i sit nyhedsbrev 13. februar. eJour har fået
Winers tilladelse til at gengive klummen, hvor han ikke nøjes
med spørgsmålet men også tilbyder et svar --
et svar hvis nøgleord er brugerne.
Dave Winer er både web-skribent og software-udvikler.
Han har ry for sin pioner-indsats på nettet som grundlægger,
i dag CEO (chief executive officer), af UserLand
Software, Californien, hvis vægt på brugervenlighed
har gjort stedet til et af USAs populæreste værtssteder
for omkring 20.000 websites. Winer er medlem af the Boards of
Advisers of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Han har tidligere
været redaktør på Wired og har i dag sit eget
newsletter på Scripting.com
med mange prominente abonnenter.
Winer mener, at man i dag klart ser de næste skridt,
nu da støvet efter dotcom-nedturen har lagt sig. Man kunne
tro, at de trykte medier ville have travlt med at udfylde det
ny tomrum, men de fleste af medierne aner tydeligvis ikke, hvorfor
de overhovedet er på nettet. Vi lader Winer fortsætte
på amerikansk:
Print in retreat?
In the course of doing my job I come in contact with a fair
number of print journalists and their publishers. Now that the
dotcommers are in retreat, you'd think the ones with solid print-based
business models would be rushing to fill the new vacuum, but they're
not.
Most of them are not sure why they're on the Web, and many
are pulling back.
That's OK with me, because I have the business model figured
out, and if they pull back, then there's nothing in my way. (They
could be serious competition, but that's OK too.)
Writing for the Internet
In 1994 I started writing for the Internet. I wrote for free.
Some people thought that at some point I'd charge for my writing,
but I told them I wouldn't. Almost seven years later I'm still
not charging.
Why? Because I want people to read what I write, even people
without a lot of money. I want to influence their thinking, I
know I can't implement all my ideas, but I still want to see them
happen. So I write publicly without any barriers. Anyone with
a Web browser or email client can read what I write.
It worked. I learn so much this way. People explain things
to me I'd never understand without patient and repeated drill.
And I feed back what I learn.
The result is my professional career has blossomed. I have
the influence I sought, with nothing more than my mind, a keyboard
and a few servers.
While the dotcoms burned through billions, we arrived a 'bigger'
place spending much less money. Think about that, and the power
of money, and how much more leverage you get with the Web. It
really worked. Sometimes it's good to just reflect on that.
We're now hosting approximately 20,000 sites like mine. No
one is paid to write. They do it for their own reasons, mostly
(I think) for the same reasons I do, to study, learn and teach.
And many of them have something interesting to say, some subject
that they know a lot about. The quality keeps going up as new
people join, and as people learn how this medium works and get
new skills.
Lately we've had a group of professional writers come on board,
it's so welcome.
Then groups and associations form. People discover and read
others with similar interests, point to them, comment on their
ideas, refine and develop their own thinking. Round and round,
seven days a week, 24 hours a day, it never stops.
How to make money
So all this writing and thinking and idea-sharing is fun and
gratifying but can you make a living doing it? I think so.
Imagine a group of people who run Web servers writing for an
ad hoc publication about Web servers. Since they're users, they
tell their truth, they don't worry so much about offending. »This
sucks, don't do that, if only someone would make 'this' product,
we'd buy it in droves.« You hear a lot of that.
Last year I saw this happen among Linux server operators. Then
I tried an experiment, I invited people from Cobalt and VA Linux,
companies that make Linux servers, to watch. Well, it didn't happen,
but if they had come, they would have learned about products that
users want. From there, it isn't too hard to see how money is
made.
Make the product people want and sell it to them.
But many companies seem scared of users. Our culture says that
people buy products that geniuses develop. Contact with the user
is something to say you do, but there's not a whole lot of that
going on.
The new journalism
So if the vendors won't come, what's to stop the users from
becoming vendors?
Further, if journalists won't write from a users' perspective,
what's to stop the users from becoming journalists? With the Web,
in computer and software products, not a whole lot.
Could the users make the products they want for themselves?
Yes they can. And can they make a profit doing it? Of course.
Remember Dell Computer started in Michael's dorm room. There's
no reason new companies can't start on the Web. All it takes is
the will to do it. And after computers every product that has
an embedded computer will shift to user design.
Today's companies become fulfillment houses, building products
on contract. Manufacturing margins will shrink, the real value
will be in the insight -- this is what people want now -- and
the risk taken that today few manufacturers seem willing to take.
But listening to users is actually not that easy. It's easier
to 'be' a user and make products for other users.
And that my friends, the combination of user-based information
exchange and products that reflect user experience and wants,
is where money will be made on the Internet.
|