PlusOne - Musings of a marketer

Every day there are new people coming to the web. I have some who are recent retirees who are looking at a new business venture they can easily manage from the comfort of their own home. On the other end of the age spectrum, there are those who are lookig to the internet as their future. Never mind about boring stuffy jobs in an office or factory! One such person is Stephanie Meagher, of blahblahbox.com. This dynamic young webmistress is taking the world head on - and by all accounts, winning!

I was interested to learn of her promotional techniques and approach to search engines at the end of the interview.

The internet provides access to global audiences and markets. Where are you located and is your market influenced by your location?
I live in a small village in Ireland, with no broadband access yet which can make running an Internet based business difficult. But I’ve got people from all over the world signing up to my website and most of them assume I’m American, so I don’t think it matters too much where I’m located.

What were the circumstances that led you to start blahblahbox?
Both my parents are tech savvy and constantly watching new trends on the web so I picked up a lot from them. I wanted a break from school and took a year out to learn some new skills. The Internet was the first place I started. Also I got hooked on social networking sites and thought it would be great to have one of my own. So I went for it.

I’m mixing business and pleasure. I have fun with my site doing what I like to do, meeting new people but I’ve also got to think seriously about it and manage it as a business. I’ve got to plan for growth and the costs associated with it and marketing is a big issue for me. I’m constantly trying to find new ways to get the word out on a low budget.

What does blahblahbox do?
Blahblahbox is a social networking site. This means that people sign up, create profiles for themselves and start building friendship networks. It’s not the first of it’s kind and is competing against huge players such as Bebo and Myspace. It will be interesting to see how fast and how quickly I can grow blahblahbox with a limited budget and staff. Most similar sites are backed by millions but social networking sites are viral and I’m relying on my members to spread the word and help grow blahblahbox.

Is this your only site?
No, I have another site, The Rock Hut [www.therockhut.com] which is the forerunner to blahblahbbox. It was my first attempt at building a social networking site was but it wasn’t very successful. The software I was using was too limited to allow the kind of communications and interactions I needed. By the time I got the software solution right, The Rock Hut was building up momentum and doing well in the search engines, so I maintain it and now use it drive traffic to Blahblahbox.

Are you a full time web business person or do you have other income as well?
I’m full-time. I gave up school for a year to make a success of my website. I don’t expect to earn money from it in the first year or two but by the time I’m 17 or 18 I hope to make a full time living from blahblahbox. I do run some Google ads on the site but I find the type of market my site attracts are not too interested in clicking ads. So I plan to move towards private ads in the near future.

There are many methods of promotion for website. What do you do and which do you think are the most effective?
When I first launched Blahblahbox I was advised to forget about search engines and focus on building relationship and PR. I think this was good advice. People don’t tend to search for social networking sites, they hear about them, so it makes good sense to focus on spreading the word far and wide.

The first thing I did was have a press release distributed through PRweb. This was successful and news of my site spread as far as Malaysia which has lead to some good publicity opportunities and interviews. I also focused on sites such as Digg.com , Fark.com and other high volume sites that focus on new and exciting news.

I’ve also used a lot of guerrilla tactics such as advertising on people’s heads at music festivals and offering members incentives to spread the word about blahblahbox.

Where do you see yourself in a few years time?
I’ve just turned 15. I’m working with a three year plan. For the year I want to focus on building up members on blahblahbox, adding features to improve the site and learning everything I need to know about managing a large website. During the second year I want to start to earn money from blahblahbox so having built up a large member base, I will focus on advertising revenue and merchandise. During year three, I would hope to receive financial support to help me maintain and grow blahblahbox even more!

If you could give two pieces of advice to aspiring or new webmasters/internet business owners, what would they be?
1. Believe in your products/service. Even if it’s not the best out there believe it can be. If you believe in what you are selling or offering other people will too. Good feeling is contagious and let it spread.
2. Take time considering the best marketing solution for your type of product or service. Too often people rush into throwing money at the most obvious options, such as search engine optimization or Google Adwords. Sometimes a more creative solution can give better results. And always spend money on a good press release.

Thanks Stephanie!

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