The French call people who use the Internet \”Internautes.\” I like that. It makes us sound like explorers seeking out new life and new civilizations in cyberspace. When I open my browser, I half-expect to bump into a French Captain Kirk.
It\’s certainly a better term than any of the words we have in English. \”Users\” makes our readers sound like drug addicts. \”Surfers\” makes them sound like Californian beach bums. And \”readers\” doesn\’t work either because people do much more than read online. They also play, watch, listen and, of course, click and buy.
When it comes to describing audiences, the terms might not matter too much. We know what people do online and as website owners, we work hard to produce different kinds of content to make them happy.
But how we describe ourselves does matter.
When I first started on the Web, we were \”webmasters.\” But that was because much of the work was technical and webmasters were people who knew how to make the Web work. Today, the technical side of running a website requires no more skills than the ability to open drop-down menus and hit the \”publish\” button.
So we\’re \”publishers.\” But that\’s not right either. Sure, we bring out content and we make it available to the public. We also bring in advertisers and manage ad campaigns to support our sites.
But sometimes we also sell directly. When you create an information product or turn your expertise into a white paper, an ebook or a report that you offer yourself, you become a seller as well as writer and a publisher. And when you put up ads for affiliate products, your income depends on your ability to persuade people to buy.
That makes you a retailer.
Those different jobs require different skills and different kinds of behavior. As a retailer, you\’re going to have to choose the products carefully, understand their benefits, build a relationship with your customers and lead them to buy. It also means preparing for peak buying times and looking for items that match the season.
As Christmas approaches, it\’s worth remembering that you\’re in the retail business too.