Backfence co-founder Mark Potts has done a “final word” on Backfence. The post is a good catch-all, but contains no revelations. Don’t look for much second-guessing of the company’s strategy, either –although he clearly wishes he could have ridden the social networking boom that emerged after Backfence’s launch two years ago. He also thinks that local media companies have gained real appreciation about the opportunities in hyperlocal, and would now be helpful partners.
In his post, Potts contends there is “most certainly a robust hyperlocal advertising business,” based on Backfence’s sale of ads to 400 advertisers across all 13 community sites (plus an undisclosed number of cheaper Yellow Pages ads). But he doesn’t discuss average buys, upsells, renewal rates, or any kind of track record for return on investment. The number of ads sold actually seems underwhelming to me.
Although Backfence’s content wasn’t very interesting and likely didn’t inspire people to return on a regular basis, I do like what Potts says about the need to focus on “strong, well-defined communities.”
“We chose the communities in which Backfence launched based on demographics, population density, local governance, commercial viability and competition, among other factors. But as much as any of these, we chose them because they had a strong, well-focused sense of place and community pride—I live here, I don’t live over there.
“Moreover, they were well-defined geographically. Beyond a certain size, communities lose their focus–there are too many different governmental bodies, local organizations, schools and people to get a clear grip on what it means to be a community. It’s possible to argue, in fact, that a hyperlocal site ideally should operate at the neighborhood level—that even a town is too big. Trying to create a hyperlocal site that covers a large area increases the potential population and spreads the focal points of interest too broadly. You only care about the high school your kid goes to; the one across town might as well be 3,000 miles away. It’s all about focus: local, local, local.”
Thx for calling this to my attention.
No different that the 90′s, when you could be anything in PowerPoint, today, you can be anything in a Web Site (community site or otherwise). However, if you can’t effectively take it to the people, it’s no different than a 90′s PowerPoint presentation available to the masses.
I think businesses still expect the magic ‘if you build it, they will come’ from Field of Dreams to happen in reality. This is not the case and we can all learn from Mark’s comments regading the importance meaningful engagement at the local level.
They only sold 400 ads in 13 different communities??? This is something to be proud of?
I first read this three months ago, and my jaw dropped. They won’t tell us how much they sold the ads for, or if they even had any long-term, repeat advertisers, but let’s be very generous and say they sold their 400 ads at $1,000/year. BackFence’s annual gross revenue was $400,000 before costs – and this from 13 entirely different properties, all with separate editorial costs, management, etc, etc. – after three years in business?
No need for tortuous academic analyses here, this is just lousy execution, plain and simple.
And from this debacle, we’re now supposed to learn something about “the importance of meaningful engagement at the local level.” If by that he means “selling ads to local businesses”, well, yes, that is pretty vital.
Hit the streets, Mr. Potts, pound the pavement, smile and dial, sell something, bring some money in the door – and then go out and do it again tomorrow, and the day after that.