4 ms·

Buffeted by the Web, but Now Riding It

29 points by codelion 14y ago

panacea 14y ago
Sounds a lot like what Ryan Block did after leaving his Editor-In-Chief post with Engadget and set up gdgt.com.
jacques_chester 14y ago
This exact problem has motivated my major startup project (and the major project has indirectly motivated the other project). Basically, here are the major ways to make money: 1. Advertising. This sucks and will get worse. The supply of eyeballs grows slowly, the supply of inventory can grow at an unlimited rate. Thus, rates are always falling. 2. Merchandise. Jerky, jittery cashflow. Sucky. Difficult to scale. Hit-driven. 3. Subscription. Now you're competing against everyone else with the same idea. You're about to learn about subscriber fatigue. Plus you're competing with everyone who's yet to work out that advertising sucks. 4. "Other" Affiliate programs pay well but there's a lot of dodginess under the hood. Micropayments have been tried. Nobody's hit the right model yet. Naturally I have a dog in the game under "Other". I call it "microsubscription", as it combines elements of micropayments and subscriptions. Going on the reference class, I can forecast with some confidence that I will fail (several others have tried this model or variants of this model -- Contenture, Readability -- and failed). What I do have is foolish optimism and a patent pending on a reliable tracking protocol. I'll be back to announce it ... when it's ready.
JacobAldridge 14y ago
Having launched last week on a business model of affiliate and advertising, this concurs with my research (too soon to say it concurs with my experience). I do disagree that advertising will only get worse and not be profitable - our plans assume that that decline will be the case with AdWords, remaindered banner ads etc, but that the opportunity for good margins will remain when directly linking advertisers with relevant content and an audience. Again, too early to speak from experience.

29 points by codelion 14y ago

Sounds a lot like what Ryan Block did after leaving his Editor-In-Chief post with Engadget and set up gdgt.com.

This exact problem has motivated my major startup project (and the major project has indirectly motivated the other project). Basically, here are the major ways to make money: 1. Advertising. This sucks and will get worse. The supply of eyeballs grows slowly, the supply of inventory can grow at an unlimited rate. Thus, rates are always falling. 2. Merchandise. Jerky, jittery cashflow. Sucky. Difficult to scale. Hit-driven. 3. Subscription. Now you're competing against everyone else with the same idea. You're about to learn about subscriber fatigue. Plus you're competing with everyone who's yet to work out that advertising sucks. 4. "Other" Affiliate programs pay well but there's a lot of dodginess under the hood. Micropayments have been tried. Nobody's hit the right model yet. Naturally I have a dog in the game under "Other". I call it "microsubscription", as it combines elements of micropayments and subscriptions. Going on the reference class, I can forecast with some confidence that I will fail (several others have tried this model or variants of this model -- Contenture, Readability -- and failed). What I do have is foolish optimism and a patent pending on a reliable tracking protocol. I'll be back to announce it ... when it's ready.

JacobAldridge 14y ago

Having launched last week on a business model of affiliate and advertising, this concurs with my research (too soon to say it concurs with my experience). I do disagree that advertising will only get worse and not be profitable - our plans assume that that decline will be the case with AdWords, remaindered banner ads etc, but that the opportunity for good margins will remain when directly linking advertisers with relevant content and an audience. Again, too early to speak from experience.