Jim Rhodes and the Web are both young, both multifaceted, both full of surprises and changing all the time. In large part they are mirrors, each a reflection of the other.
January 14, 1998
Jim lives in London, the principal of Deadlock Design and one of the few true authorities in the black art of Internet marketing and promotion. His advice and opinions are both useful and free -- an uncommon fusion - and available in "The Art Of Business Web Site Promotion"" which is online at http://deadlock.com/promote.
Here is an interview I conducted with Jim Rhodes in December of '97, amid the holiday shopping rush.
WDJ: How did you get into the business of Web marketing and promotion?
JR: It was an accident.
About 4 years ago I came into possession of a 386 running Win 3.1. I got fascinated with it and soon had a modem for it, Netscape 0.9 (yeah, really) and a CompuServe account. Inevitably I got interested in HTML and wanted to 'do a site' and the first topic that came to mind was the hotel where I was working.
To cut a long story short, this hotel site which I wrote as a hobby was pulling 50% sales within a year and a lot of people were asking me to build sites for them. One of the people who contacted me in the early days was Jim Heath (www.viacorp.com) who has now become a great friend and business partner, although I've never met him.
Jim Heath is a copywriter and his site is about Web design and copy, but until I mentioned it to him in conversation one day (I mean email - he lives in Perth, Oz), he'd never considered the importance of getting search engine listings etc. so one afternoon, when I was bored, I wrote an article for him, as a "gift" to add on to his own site. The info came from my own experiences doing all this Web work.
Shortly afterwards I started getting a lot of positive feedback from it and, as any writer will tell you, if people like what you write it motivates you to write more, so I kept adding bits on to it and sending it to him for updating. Eventually, we both realised that people were actually interested in this, so I moved it over to my own server, and the prototype of "The Art Of Business Web Site Promotion" was born.
After a few more months I was doing so much Web work that it became impossible for me to hold my full-time job at the hotel and do all this other stuff as well, so I took the plunge and left the hotel to set up business on my own.
WDJ: And quite a successful one, from what I've been able to gather. What would you say have been the keys to your success?
JR: I get asked that all the time. I have a list:
Common sense, which seems to be an endangered species on the Net.
Unlimited patience. This is officially extinct on the Net.
I just happened to get interested in it early, by luck, so I've ended up with a lot of first-hand experience which most people don't have.
I've shared my knowledge, for free, which has given me some kind of reputation and ultimately a very healthy customer base. People trust me, and I work very hard to earn and build on that trust - 90% of my working hours are dedicated to replying to email. The other 10% is paid work. I'm not exaggerating.
WDJ: Your Web site is jammed with advice for a merchant who's contemplating an e-commerce Web site. Is there anything you'd like to add to it?
JR: Off the top of my head?
WDJ: Off the top of your head.
JR: A few miscellaneous tips:
Most people on the Web aren't searching for a product to buy, they're searching for information. The trick is to suck people into your site with info, then once they're there you have all the time in the world to sell them related products. Be an expert on your topic - there's nothing new in this, it's the most basic sales technique. The Carphone Warehouse is a perfect example, their TV advertising campaign talks only about their expertise, they never mention any of their products.
If you build your site using ideas taken from other sites you may be partially successful but you'll always be picking at the leftovers. To get the lion's share you need to have original content that can't be found anywhere else, and/or you have to present it better than others. It's not easy by any means.
It also helps if you have a proven market for your product or service. It's better to sell computer games than hand-carved walking sticks despite the stiff competition; a competitive market is better than no market at all. Something in between is ideal.
WDJ: What do you tell the people who are worried about security issues?
JR: Make sure your hosting service gives you a secure server for your order form (or shopping cart, or whatever). As a merchant, the only "security issue" you should be worried about is whether your order form shows as secure in a browser. That's what your customers are looking for.
WDJ: What's your honest opinion of the state of the Web today as a shopping environment?
JR: What else is there? Quite frankly, those who say "people are scared to purchase on the Web" are seriously out of touch with reality.
WDJ: What have you, personally, actually purchased on the Web?
JR: I can't think of any software I use today which I didn't purchase on the Web. I do my grocery shopping on the Web (my shopping then gets delivered to my door, on a truck), and I also have online banking with Barclays. Much of my Christmas shopping consisted of books, purchased at Amazon (www.amazon.com) and when I hired my accountant I did so on the Web. I simply won't do business with anybody who doesn't at least have an email address.
All in all, whenever I want to buy anything, I look on the Web first, and I grumble if I have to leave the house to go to the (physical) shops.
WDJ: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter are of the opinion that the Internet is the next mass medium, with somewhere around 150 million Websurfers logging-on regularly by the turn of the century. They think the Web will become a major retail vehicle, eventually replace catalogue sales. Do you agree with these predictions?
JR: It's not a prediction, it's already here - in the UK, I might add, and we're a long way behind the USA.
WDJ: Do you think there's a future for small retailers on the Web? Or are we going to see the emergence of a few dominant, large sellers?
JR: Yes, there is a future for small retailers.
My opinion is that the small sites have an advantage because they don't have to maintain huge sales objectives in order to justify the advertising costs etc. They have more flexibility and can be more appealing to customers because of the personal attention, especially if they're selling online services or advice. I'm a one-man-band, and I'm doing very nicely in one of the toughest markets on the Net, with monster competitors like Submit-It.
WDJ: Would you say, then, that personal service is the key to success for small retailers?
Jim lives in London, the principal of Deadlock Design and one of the few true authorities in the black art of Internet marketing and promotion. His advice and opinions are both useful and free -- an uncommon fusion - and available in "The Art Of Business Web Site Promotion"" which is online at 
