launching a successful online business and ec projects - Prentice Hall

W12.20 Part 7: Applications and Site Development
content
The text, images, sound,
and video that make up
a Web page.
dynamic Web content
Content that must be
kept up-to-date.
12.5 CONTENT CREATION, DELIVERY,
AND MANAGEMENT
Content is the text, images, sound, and video that comprises Web pages. Creating and
managing content is critical to Web site success because content is what a visitor is looking
for at a Web site, and content is what the Web site owners use to sell the site, the
product or service, and the company that stands behind the site. A successful Internet
presence has always been about effective delivery of the information the visitor wants—
“Content is king!” This section describes the role content plays in successful online business
operations and the key aspects of creating, delivering, and managing Web site content.
For details, see Rutgers (2009).
CATEGORIES AND TYPES OF CONTENT
Providing content to EC sites may be a complex job because of the variety and quantity
of sources from which to acquire content and the fact that the content must be updated
frequently. Also, B2B content, especially in online catalogs, may include pictures,
diagrams, and even sound. In addition, content may involve security, quality, and
permission issues.
One of the difficulties in Web content management is that some content needs to
be kept up-to-the-minute (e.g., news, stock prices, weather). This is referred to as
dynamic Web content, as distinguished from static Web content, which is updated
infrequently.
For each type of content, companies may use a different approach for content
creation and delivery. Exhibit 12.3 shows the content life cycle. As shown in the exhibit,
once content is created, it may appear in different formats (e.g., text, video, music). Then,
it moves to a content syndicator. A syndicator (to be described later in this section) moves
the content to a portal or news site. From there, a hosting service moves the content, possibly
via an optimizer (such as akamai.com). The optimizer delivers the content to the
final consumer. We will discuss this process and its elements in more detail a bit later.
EXHIBIT 12.3 Digital Content Delivery Life Cycle
Original Sources of
Digital Content
Text, video, music
News, scores, data
Stock quotes, etc.
Broadband or Dial-Up
ISP
Connection to Virtual
Visitor, personalized
content
Content Syndicator
(Intermediary,
content broker)
Digital Content Delivery
Optimizer
(Cache, streaming)
EC Portal or News Site
General portals
Niche sites
(financial, sports)
Web Site
Hosting Service
(Server mgmt.)