Life in the media is interesting.  There are so many things to do and a great sense of urgency.  And now I think it is time for WebDev to put on it’s “full court press“.

So, what is the big idea we can do that will change the game?  Results based development.  Now, I know the first thing you are going to say is “Isn’t WebDev a customer service driven department?”, and my response is – yes, kind of.

We do fulfill tasks ask of us by the different departments – but the one difference is, we are also the experts in the company, for now at least; at what works on the web, what is new and cool and are a fairly small and nimble team.  So we can’t do everything that is asked of us and all the things were asked to do are not the right thing to do.

So my thought is we break it up by revenue and traffic.  Now the numbers below may change, I’ll talk to the data team to get a better idea of what “successful” is – but that is easily changeable.  So here goes.

We will offer web sites in three tiers

1. Tier one is  the concept stage, it will be a site which is very quick to market, will allow some options but for the most part – simple, lean and mean.  Oh, and we’ll guarantee this is up and ready in 1 business day.
2. Tier two is the rising star stage, this is a site that has started to get noticed.  You’ll need a good bit of traffic a day, 5000-7000 visitors.  Content will need to be fresh and we’ll want to make sure there is buzz going on in this site’s niche.  At this point we’ll offer to customize the site a bit – iron out some kinks and offer around 15-20 hours of custom design and development.
3. Tier three is big dog stage.  This site has made it – the site has traffic (12,000+ visitors a day),  the site has revenue ($10,000/month) and people are buzzing.  This site will get the full treatment – custom creative, working on custom API’s and integrated data and design.  This site will be used as a “best practice” for our company and the industry.

So that is what I’m thinking.  I told my boss I would work on a plan – so we’ll see what he thinks.  It will need to be refined – but I think it is a good model.  It allows WebDev to get some breathing room, it encourages our “customers” to get serious about a site (and content) before they send it to us and it encourages a more entrepreneurial attitude – something our whole company has been asked to do.  It also allows us to help niche sites get up and running in hours.

Please let me know if you think it will work!

Related articles by Zemanta

• 3 Elements of Quality Website Traffic (craig-edmonds.com)
• Using Trends to Get More Links (nichetitans.com)
• Announcing Niche In a Box at KeywordNicheFinders.com (internetmarketingformommies.com)
• The Importance of Listening (andreavascellari.com)
• Don’t Be So Shocked: Excellent Service From Citibank CSR [Above And Beyond] (consumerist.com)