« Kickoff! | Main | A case for prepaid »
April 19, 2006
Revenue models for bloggers
My guess is that most bloggers, although they might not admit to it, have the highest hopes to one day achieve fame and riches and a respectable standing. The road is - quite naturally - bumpy and the fewest will actually achieve any success worthwhile mentioning. Such is life, it's always been like that.
Bloggers who do eventually reach a respectable readership will inevitably start to wonder whether their publication has the potential to generate some form of income.
The first option that springs to mind is to include banners or, better, google ads. Not a single German blog can boast enough traffic to qualify as a banner or Google Ads cash cow. Unlike The Deck, a conglomerate of 7 top-notch publications such as Kottke and Coudal Partners, who will only accept products and banners of a certain standard; their reach: 19 million page views per month. Germany's top 100 blogs achieve roughly 300.000 page impressions per day, that's 9 million per month. For one hundred blogs.
The next logical step would be to include a merchandise shop. But even Spreeblick, one of Germany's top 2 blogs and probably with the strongest 'cult following', compares to a small corner shop when merchandise is ordered in batches of 50.
To my belief, the strongest proposition and the greatest strength of a blog is to create an environment which is compelling for readers. In other words, to offer marketing mechanisms that go far beyond banners, Ads or merchandise. Offer some qualitative components, sell it as market research. Engage your readers. This will take you away from CPM.
WOM network trnd, which I was part of earlier this year, is an excellent example. They run so-called projects, where network members can experience a product, talk about it - and describe their experience to trnds clients. It's a bit like bzzAgent, but with some intelligence added. Not to say that US consumers are stupid, but Europeans and Germans in particular tend to be more sceptic. There's plenty of convincing to do before someone takes off and does WOM endorsements for a product. For the clients who engage trnd, the payoff so far has been excellent, especially on the qualitative side.
Problem is, marketers still think in CPM. Therefore, there is a definite need for a solid reader / customer base as a starting point for earning money. Personally, I think specialist blogs like my Feuerwehr Weblog, that tend to large niches, have most potential when combined with WOM elements. One, you build a format that reaches plenty of readers and hold on to them, two, you have a good base from which to run WOM-based projects.
Of course, it takes some experience and a really great client to kick off the first specialist WOM project. So far, I've been lucky. Let's see how things go and whether I'll have to revise this prediction.
Posted by Irakli at April 19, 2006 06:27 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.rakeman.net/mt-tb.cgi/1672