Review: StrikingItRich.com

Subtitled "Profiles of 23 Incredibly Successful Websites You've Probably Never Heard Of," StrikingItRich.com is one of the most important books about online marketing and e-business to be released this year.

How many times have you heard the question, "Is anybody making money online?" Jaclyn Easton's book ought to be the definitive answer: Yes! It consists of 23 careful and revealing profiles. Recognize Cassette House, HorseNet, and KoreaLink? Perhaps not. How about FragranceNet, iPrint, The Mountain Zone, or Reel.com. Maybe so. Most of these companies sell products directly, though some employ an advertising revenue model, and one is what pundits sometimes derisively call "brochureware." All the businesses are relatively small, and easy for small business people to learn from.

In preparation for the book, Easton, a TV and radio journalist and e-commerce columnist for the Los Angeles Times, first identified a number of seemingly successful sites, to which she sent a 121-question survey. Those that made the first cut were interviewed and sent a series of follow-up questions.

What resulted is a detailed and very readable analysis of what worked and why, often supplemented with financial details seldom available in print for any kind of online business, public or private. For company after company Easton details orders per day, average sale per order, conversion rates, banner ad click-through rates, and the like. I found it fascinating. Easton's analyses seemed to capture the essential business models and strategies for each site.

Yesterday, a would-be entrepreneur phoned me with a half-baked online business plan. I tried to point out the flaws, but he didn't want to listen. "No one really knows what works on the Internet," he replied. That's just not true any more. Armed with Easton's facts and figures, troubleshooting a business plan will be easier. While business on the Net yields many failures or so-so successes, at least with Easton's companies you're able to see what success looks like. For example, I was impressed by how many of these businesses worked to develop their international markets, often comprising 15% to 20% of the total.

In addition to entrepreneurs, this book will also be helpful to those who advise business people about the Internet: ISPs, site designers, writers, speakers, and consultants. This collection of successful online businesses will illustrate many a lecture and business meetings over the next year.

The only weaknesses I found (and it's minor) is that the index is next to useless for researching specific topics wherever they occur in the book. The index is company-centered rather than topic-centered.

StrikingItRich.com won't do much for enterprise-size businesses (except, perhaps, to generate envy for their smaller, quick-stepping cousins). The primary target is small business people and those who advise and serve them. StrikingItRich.com is my pick for the most important Internet book for small business in 1998.

Read additional articles from Web Marketing Today, Issue 51, December 1, 1998