Digital Darwinism

As you can tell from the title, this a hard-nosed business manual. And in fact it's quite a thoughtful book about how websites rise and fall, about how they gain attention, and about how the Web is changing the way people do things in the world - all interesting topics.

It's well-written, and kicks off with some amusing stories about websites which did mad things to gain attention, losing shedloads of money in the process, but then, having got noticed, were bought up for millions of dollars by big companies. The Darwinism theme is used quite elegantly, although, of course, you're not sure how much of a Darwin expert the author is. He could have read most of this 'survival of the fittest' stuff on the back of a cereal packet.



Most of the book is devoted to a chapter on each of Schwartz's 'Seven Breakthrough Business Strategies for Surviving in the Cutthroat Web Economy'. Personally, I found the first one the most engaging, and then the book becomes slightly less compelling with each new chapter, although overall it remains quite interesting.

Since you can see what the seven strategies are on the website www.digitaldarwinism.com, I'm hardly giving away secrets by listing them here. [The seven principles are copyright Evan I. Schwartz 1999]:

1: Build a Brand That Stands For Solving Problems
This chapter is of most interest to web developers generally. It argues that whatever you do on the Web, if you want it to be a real success, it must have a point and address a specific need. It reminds us to look at everything from the user's point of view (a familiar but important point). Funnily enough, the chapter criticises the fabulously successful website Yahoo, which, it is argued, has added tons of features to its site -- news, email, auctions, puppy training, whatever -- without pausing to wonder what problem all of these features are meant to be a solution for.

2: Allow Your Prices to Fluctuate Freely with Supply and Demand
Tells you to copy Priceline.com and let shoppers name their own price for certain end-of-line items, basically.

3: Let Affiliate Partners Do Your Marketing For You
Tells you to copy Amazon.com and set up an affiliates programme (so that a site which refers a customer to your e-commerce site is rewarded with a percentage of the profits).

4: Create Valuable Bundles of Information and Services
Ironically, considering point one above, this chapter tells you to copy Yahoo and bung every bloody feature you can possibly think of onto one site.

5: Sell Custom-made Products Online, Then Manufacture Them
A rather boring manufacturing chapter. Tells you to copy Sevencycles.com and make things to order.

6: Add New Value to Transactions Between Buyers and Sellers
Even more boring chapter telling you to copy some models of business-to-business services.

7: Integrate digital commerce with absolutely everything
Rather obvious chapter telling you to thoroughly mix your e-commerce business up with your regular business. Examples of stupid companies who failed to do this help this chapter to seem less obvious.

So, overall, we have found that if you are the kind of person who reads the first couple of chapters of a book and then ends up skimming the rest, then this book is just right for you, since that is exactly how it should be read. Others may be disappointed that their dogged insistence on reading all of the words becomes gradually less rewarding. But still - if you have a Web-based business then the whole thing may be wonderfully exciting for you. This book is definitely a lot better than a big pile of other Internet business books.