To conquer the world of online publishing we need to try something different. We need to think about changing the way we make our products better and the targets we set for success.

The web is a constantly evolving environment in which to be truly successful we have to think two steps ahead.

Fundamentally I think we should develop an online publishing environment that puts the user first.

Form should follow function. This is particularly relevant on the web. At the moment many sites form is decided by the function required by advertisers to drive page impressions, I would say this is true of many websites.

Advertisers do not make the site successful, users do. Without users you don’t get advertisers. We can grow audiences millions if we put users first. This will ultimately bring in more advertisers.

- The form of our websites should be a direct result of the need to provide content to users. Not provide users to adverts.

- We should put users before advertisers in order to grow our audience and increase the amount of time they spend engaging with our products.

What is a better measure of success?

A. A site that has 25 page loads per user and engages users for 10 minutes
B. A site that has 5 page loads per user and engages users for 20 minutes

Time wins for me, every time!

1. Page impressions will mean little in the future.
2. We seem very focused them.
3. This is great short term, but not for the long term.

- Unless you can sell 100% of them then they serve no positive purpose. They just add extra stress to servers and frustrate people who ultimately want to engage with content as efficiently as possible.

- Page loads only serve to put people off browsing sites further and spending more time on them.

- The faster a site can get people to content the more time they will be to spend on the website.

4. Unique users mean everything.
5. They should be our number one priority.
6. Building dedicated, actively engaged audiences is the future.

Time is the single most important thing we all possess, it’s precious, finite and because of this users are rightly increasingly careful about how they choose to spend it online. If we can make users spend more time with our products the products will become more valuable venues for advertisers to talk to consumers.