(Not) Waiting for Broadband

Broadband is coming to residential households. It will happen sooner or later, depending on whose projections you bought; but it's coming all the same. The situation today is roughly analogous to the rollout of quality cable services in the mid- to late-1970s. I don't know about you, but I remember waiting with bated breath for my MTV. That cable channels would proliferate — and become a routine part of the landscape — was common knowledge, but difficult to believe, way back when.

This is not to say that you should ignore the present realities, though. How many times have you heard the CEO of some streaming media startup or other say, "Of course, once broadband comes along, all our problems are solved"? This statement is often made near the end of an investment pitch or a job interview. It's a good bet that the speaker, and his or her company, is doomed. Not every streaming media company will survive during the transition to the broadband era. How can the typical streaming startup prepare for broadband without breaking the bank?

1) Launch early

You need to start building your audience, and your brand, before a Big Media Giant steps in with a larger marketing budget. (Every niche, no matter how small, has its own version of a Big Media Giant with a thirst to dominate.) The lessons you learn with early adopters as your audience, will pay off in spades — and may even help you keep that Big Media Giant at bay, whenever it actually does decide to lumber onto the scene.

2) Pay next to nothing for almost everything, including:

Hosting: If you've just launched, there is no reason to be buying streaming media services from a high-level CDN at thousands of dollars a month. Get a $10/month account from one of the most basic streaming service providers, or your own Web hosting provider. You might want to look into installing the free version of RealServer, the open source Darwin Quicktime Server, or Windows Media Server (which comes "free" with a Windows NT Server license) on your own box. When you need more service, you'll know you need it.

Design: Launch with a dog-ugly site you made yourself. If your content is good, people won't mind (take a look at joecartoon.com or new grounds.com, for example — they're two of the most popular entertainment sites around). You can hire that dreadlocked design wunderkind later. If you don't know HTML, buy a book.

Marketing: If you've targeted your niche correctly, and if you live, eat, and breathe your niche, you already know how to reach your audience. Or, to put it another way: If you don't already know how to reach your audience, your concept will never work, anyway. (See last month's column if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

3) Remember, the content is all that matters

Yes, it helps if your site is easy to navigate. Yes, it is nice to have lightning-fast page loads. But none of this matters at all if your content sucks. The reverse is also true: If your content is spectacular, your audience will put up with all kinds of inconveniences — for a short time, anyway, while you're building and growing. The only thing you should be spending significant amounts of money and time on is your content.

4) Broadband does not change the rules

You will note that I didn't mention the word "broadband" in items 1-3 above. That's because the rules for a successful transition from narrowband to broadband are exactly the same as the rules for a successful narrowband content site. Broadband really isn't any different from the current Web — only faster and better. That might sound short-sighted. But I'm willing to bet that success in the narrowband Web is a better indicator of broadband success than any other. Let's meet back here in 10 years and see.