Comments on: How to make money on a digital-only community site

By: Lanie Jeanty

Lanie Jeanty — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:38:34 +0000

I am starting to take my feet on affiliate programs too, so this article is excellent starting point! Shared it on Stumbleupon and submitted on Digg

By: Sam Thurston

Sam Thurston — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:44:56 +0000

30% margin may or may not be realistic contingent upon keeping your overhead as low as possible. I think a key element to something like this is the value-add.

Unless you have a pretty sizable (or well-targeted) audience, web advertising amounts to a pittance. You have to add some kind of valuable service along with the content, and charge a small fee for it.

Create arrangements with local businesses to sell their services through your local portal, and collect a small transaction fee. Do “premium memberships” in some form or another. Sell merchandise.

I think if you look at the current crop of web2.0 startups and how their business models evolve as they come out of beta, you’ll see that the idea of ad-supported free services is generally losing traction. Where they remain, they primarily serve as gateways to get you into some low-cost payment plan.

By: tomaltman

tomaltman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:55:47 +0000

I really think a huge key is thinking more like a startup.

I just wonder if a newspaper gave 5 teams of 3 people seed money to go out and start something – what would happen?

Office space is a huge expense…do these people need an office? Can they work out of one person’s home? Maybe the parent company leases a small office and then all the 15 can work from there? At current home prices – they could probably buy a house pretty cheap.

I just think we need to “own” it – you know…really get in there and figure out what really works.