Some thoughts on the opportunity

• The more I think about this, the more excited I get about this opportunity

• I like to write things down as a way to structure my thoughts on a subject

• These are hypotheses based on limited data

• This is far from comprehensive. At best, it’s a starting point

Before I begin…

The Situation (as best I see it) • IAC buys About Group • Good fit with IAC strategy & portfolio • Great traffic, good content, antiquated design • Price: $300M

– 4.0x $75M Revenue (source: NYT 10K *)

– 12.6x $13M Operating Profit – Feels high for a stable (shrinking? **) business

• New senior management • What does IAC expect?

– Dramatic improvement in top and/or bottom line? – Big synergies (e.g., with Ask.com)? – ???

* Forbes claims $25M Revenue, $10M Op Profit, unclear how to reconcile with 10K. Lower values only increase urgency. ** Due to Google algorithm changes

Possible Plan • A “100 day” agenda of quick hits

– Easy to implement design changes

– Focus on boosting traffic and engagement KPIs

• Follow with… – Growth-supporting features

– Mobile optimization

– Review of cost structure

• Long term strategic objectives – Rebranding About.com

– Synergies with Ask.com and other IAC properties

– ???

How I View the Revenue Side KPI Timing

Traffic 100M UV/month Near/Mid/Long

2.8 Visits/user* Near/Mid

Engagement 63% Bounce rate ** Near term

2.3 PV/visit** Near term

Monetization 2 Ads/page **** Near term

??% inventory sold Mid/Long

$1-$5 CPM *** Mid/Long

TBD Mid/Long

Integration Clicks to Ask.com? Mid/Long

UGC to Ask.com? Mid/Long

TBD TBD

* Derived from 100M UV, 650 PV, & PV/user ** Source: Alexa *** Range due to conflicting revenue data **** Excluding AdWords

How I View the Cost Side KPI Timing

SEO/SEM CPC Near term

Editorial Cost per article Mid term

Overhead (varies) Mid term

Note: I did a lot of re-org and restructuring work at Booz & Co but it’s hard to discuss without data

Tactical Examples (Revenue side only)

Traffic

Direct • Branding: what does it take for a user to make About.com his home page?

• Personalization: “My.About.com”

SEO • Optimize article text to keywords • A/B text Title and Description for SERP performance • Commission articles to match trending / underserved keywords • Standard white-hat page optimization

SEM • Automated bids to ad revenue received from session bought • Segment by device, time of day, et. al.

Traffic (cont)

Referral Links

• Ask.com integration • Syndication partnerships • Paid content discovery engines: nRelate, Outbrain, Gravity,

Taboola… • Content API/widget for blogs & smaller content sites

Social / Sharing

• Buttons much more visible: show all icons, better placement • More sharing options: No Pinterest? Really?

Newsletter • Signup much more visible: on home, category, article pages - above the fold

• Replace daily generic, single-topic newsletter with personalized, multi-topic newsletter

• Redesign & responsive design

Red: Specific examples to follow

Traffic: Paid Content Discovery nRelate (acquired by Ask.com in July 2012)

Outbrain

Also, Gravity, Taboola, Content.ad, et. al.

Traffic: Social / Sharing What is this? A treasure hunt?

• FB, Twitter, etc. icons catch attention

• Share in pop up so never leave article

• Don’t forget Pinterest!

HuffPost bar only appears after top share icons scroll above fold. Slick but overkill.

A floating share bar is always visible

Traffic: Newsletters Drive Traffic!

Patch link in header:

AOL footer overlay:

Note: footer overlay is mobile-friendly

Engagement

Relevance

• Does the page content match visitor expectations? • Get SEO / SEM right (e.g., negative keywords to reduce false

positives)

Design • Looks matter! • Use nice, large images • Avoid text overload • Clearly define /separate content areas from other elements • Make it scannable (e.g., bold section headers, bullets)

Mobile • Looks matter a lot! If it looks hard to read, user will bounce • Absolutely no side-to-side scrolling or pinch-to-zoom • Responsive design – flexible grid, flexible images • Single column of text, min. font size, resize image to width, wrap

text as nec.

Red: Specific examples to follow

Engagement (cont)

Recommendations

• Manual (editorial) suggestions • Automated suggestions (nRelate, Outbrain, Gravity,

Taboola…) • Graphics, not (just) text • Placement

Comments • Drive repeat visits • Reason to register… and a chance for About to collect data

Pagination • Increase pages per article (within reason) • Match content length to other elements to avoid awkward

gaps • Mobile (small screen): shift to single column with in-line ads

Red: Specific examples to follow

Engagement: Poor Design »» Bounce Text slaloms

around obstacles. My eyes hurt….

Are the accidental clicks worth higher

bounce rates?

No clear division between content

text and ad text

Does this picture come with a magnifying glass?

No Boldface headers to highlight the key elements and reassure me that I’ve come to the right place

• No bullet points either • (See what a difference

this makes?)

A little more white-space would also help

Even bullets can’t help break up the

NeverEndingTextLink

Engagement: Good Design Reduces Bounce (1)

Text flows unobstructed

Now that’s a (pin-able) picture!

Yep, I’m in the right place

Division of content vs. other elements is crystal clear

Engagement: Good Design Reduces Bounce (2)

Bold paragraph headers make the

article easy to scan

White space breaks up text to make it easier on the eye

Editorial selections

Algorithmic recommendations

Immediately below article seems logical to me…

… but to side of content is also popular…

Solution: Test Both

Engagement: Recommendations Increase Pages/Visit

Engagement: Comments Drive Repeat Visits

Easy way to drive return traffic…

…PLUS • Registration required – get

data for later monetization • Social sign in – encourage

comment sharing

Jump to Comments

section

Expands on hover

BUT typical placement at page bottom limits commenting. Inserting a thin commenting widget at end of content, above recommendations is a good solution.

Engagement: (Page)Size Matters

Missed ad opportunities

Proper pagination matches content

to ad space. It’s that simple

Note: not for mobile. Maximize reduced ad space using single column with in-line ads

Parting Thoughts • These are hypotheses based on limited data

– Understand the status quo – Formulate hypotheses – A/B test (and test and test and test…) – Follow the data

• These are just a few examples – there’s much more to be done!

• This is a huge opportunity – I’d love to be a part of it

I look forward to discussing this with you in more detail.