Someone did it better (stories)

Do you have any? do you dare to share?

[explorador]

Forum topics are as fun and educational as we want to. I've seen threads like this one (my attempt) on other forums and damn, it's been surprising and entertaining. I know the rules of WW regarding specifics, that could make this difficult but let's see if we can share some stories about this. There are some very good threads about successful websites or techniques around here but it's always cold, like talking about the materials used on bakery, but not bakery itself.

Let's try. There is a challenge on ego here as well. I will write some on the next post.

[explorador]

A big company started a set of websites, they had the budget and the team (writers, editors, photographers, etc), it was a media company so they knew their game. It was around year 2000. The website was received in celebration. Due to zero experience whatever the stat reports showed, it was "good" as there was nothing to compare to. Later there were symptoms the websites were not doing well, after all there were no specific goals anyway so it was like walking on the desert.

The incoming mails from readers showing people being bored, no repeating visits, short time reading the articles, lots of complains. Turns out the website was boring. Why? I said they knew their game yes, but they knew nothing about web. The articles were written as old news: you had to stick to the very end to see the big picture. The project (the whole set) was left adrift and my dept got it, we took over and rebuilt everything. The website started around 400 daily visitors (with lots of effort redirecting traffic), it turned into steady 200-240 daily unique visitors. In a matter of 6 months after we took over the websites jumped right into 500 daily and since then up and up reaching 1000 at the end of the same year. Since then it was all going up year after year.

So we did it better.

The story doesn't end there. Soon a lot of people showed interest, the articles were written in a slightly diff way but after seeing the stat reports everyone at the top wanted a piece, they had plans. Suddenly the websites adhere to internal policies that were hurting the growth. I didn't like that. One website of the whole set was in my exact hobby area so I made a proposal. As usual big companies move slowly and refuse certain changes.

So I decided to do something about it. On my own. I built my own website about that topic(s). It was fun. Everything I researched (and read here) was put in practice in that website (not the company's). I didn't have the same budget, a team, etc, but my learning proved right and I was able to see both websites compete. Mine went up. Being a one man band my website easily beat that other website.

So I did better. I was happy and it was just part of my own set of websites (still running).

[explorador]

The other side of the story (directly related to the thread title).

Well I had my limits, specially being one man band with time limits too (not just budget), there is so much one man can do in terms of coding, design, photos, creating content, etc. So I put effort on doing my best, it was exhausting. At times it wasn't as exhausting as boring. I needed a set of writers. I tried but it was very difficult working with other people (they didn't understand the rules and didn't want to adhere to them), to them other stuff sounded more reasonable (as it did to the media company but that was the wrong direction).

Long story short I reached a steady limit because I didn't want to quite my permanent job. I kept working on my site the best I knew how to. Sure, I was limited. There was money coming in but honestly, I was afraid of making big changes like formally hiring permanent content creators, training them, set rules on paper as commandments for content creation and also, I didn't want to be in the spotlight. Inside the company some would understand me managing a corporate website and my own, not being competitors in terms of business (they did in terms of website), some were ok with that, some didn't. After all the company was quite big.

I didn't feel sure on making a big bet on my largest project, it was big already but just that, within my limits. I knew people in the business trying to compete on their own, they couldn't. My website was on top alone for a long time, not anymore.

This is where it hurts to write the story but it's ok. One guy decided to do what I refused. He started a company and worked within the principles we know here in webmasterworld, he was good, he is good. But he got money (investors) God knows where or how. So he founded some headquarters and hired people, put some rules and made them create content as I did, as you webmaster-world member do, but constantly like crazy.

Their content creation farm was very productive, still is. They can't compete against me in some aspects, but they beat me in many others specially moving way faster (they are a big team, I'm just one). I was able to see the potential result of "If I had done this...".

Sometimes someone else knows better than you. They beat you.
Sometimes they know the same as you or similar, but they decide to invest big. They beat you.
Sometimes they just jump into the ocean and swim. They beat you.

They did it better.

What now? I don't have that much money to go that big, and I've been a one man band for too long. Direct sales specially are my weakest point. Hiring a salesman that I can trust is still a big issue inside my head. It's very easy to write on paper "invest, hire, get a salesman" but it's not that easy.

This same situation can be the same scenario of many successful webmasters in this forum. The difference on being good on their own and not going big on a team. In this story the know how was very similar, they just jumped into the ocean, I didn't. And sadly it affects me not being interested on being in the spotlight. Something difficult to change. Perhaps your story is different. perhaps they did something different as selling something with a diff color, share your story if you have one. I have some others in my pocket, but this is enough for today.






s