Web Marketing is Like the Monopoly Board Game

An exercise: Name a video-hosting/sharing site on the web.

Did you guess YouTube? Good for you! Now name *another* video-hosting/sharing site on the web.

Oh, kind of stuck, weren't you? Maybe you thought of Google's own Google Video (redundant now that it bought YouTube) and then you're completely stumped, aren't you? If you're really plunged deep into web society on a daily basis, maybe you thought of Vimeo, Metacafe, Liveleak, or Dailymotion. And there's dozens more that didn't make the list, ones that you just don't care about, because they also ran, and are just about as good, but they did one thing wrong.

They got there second.

YouTube landed on the "default web video brand name" space first and snatched it up. YouTube has the brand name recognition. And that's what we mean by the Monopoly Board of the website marketing game. The board is in people's heads. In every brain, there's a space for every future innovation that comes along. The first name they hear is the one that buys the title to that space. It doesn't matter if you start a video-sharing site today that pays people a million dollars to visit. Even if your site succeeds, it will forever be "the other YouTube."

Computer technology is in a state in history where humans can barely comprehend it at all. Let's face it, even the experts are still grappling with some aspects. Because the human race is so unfamiliar with the concept, people have a baby-like tendency to only learn about computers through simple syllables and vowels. You see this with every market, and every new technology, actually.

It's not a pop, it's a Coke. It's not a copy, it's a Xerox. It's not a facial tissue, it's a Kleenex. In many cases, it's not a convenience store, it's a Seven-Eleven (or a Kwik-Stop, or a Circle-K, or an AM-PM, or whatever convenience store was local to your area when you grew up). It's not an image editor, it's a Photoshop. It's not an operating system, it's a Windows. It's not an online encyclopedia, it's a Wiki (or if you're very old, an Encarta). And of course, it's not a search engine, it's a Google! "Google" is now in the dictionary as the word meaning "to search the web." Even if Microsoft sees success in its Bing search engine (dream on!), the best name it can ever hope to be known by is "the other Google."

Even in entertainment we see this effect. Say webcomic and you hear "XKCD!" The second player in that market, "Doomed to Obscurity," hardly gets mentioned, even though it publishes exactly half as often with art twice as good. "XKCD" got the Boardwalk spot on the webcomic Monopoly board, and it's not selling.

In website marketing, it's important to be aware of this. You do not steal Boardwalk or Park Place lightly. It may be impossible; the original holder may not ever relinquish their deathgrip on the public consciousness, and there you are shut out of the market. In that case, you save money and time by not fighting a loosing battle. On the other hand, you might think of snapping up Marvin Gardens the next time you come around to it and its vacant. It may not be Boardwalk, but at least it's not in the cheap half of the board. Number two sometimes makes a bit of money. And lord help you if you find yourself stuck on Baltic Avenue.

What's your Baltic Avenue strategy? Build a hotel and pray. You can see this all over the web; making up in volume what they lack in name brand appeal. We see nothing but hate directed at MySpace by anybody but its users, but it has over 100 million accounts. The very best MySpace page looks worse than the lousiest Google Blogger.com website, but MySpace at least has a strategy.

Peter Brittain is a website marketing expert from Perth in Western Australia. Peter also owns web development directory, Web Design Source.