“As web giants continue to consolidate power around their respective properties and platforms there are opportunities for startups to become more atomic, more distributed and more networked. In doing so to the old models of slapping ads on a website to “monetize” your audience or building an expensive sales force to elephant hunt won’t apply to all comers. Finding a revenue model that goes with the grain of your business should require some deeper thinking and even more difficult decision making. But, the web will reward those that do.”
Find a revenue model that goes with the grain of your business, Bryce Roberts
I am finally catching up on his blog and agree with Bryce here that just slapping banner ads on a website to “monetize” is not going to be best for all successful sites going forward. A couple of my favorite sites are finding creative ways to make money. Twitter is using its promoted tweets as a much more native and organic advertising experience. Tumblr isn’t advertising (I remember hearing an interview where the founder, David Karp, said he was very opposed to advertising). Instead, for now, they have a theme marketplace that at least makes them a little money. I’m sure they will find a more lucrative (but still native) way to monetize the great service and community they’ve developed. Om Malik had a similar article about clever business models that I thought was very interesting as well - go check that out too.
