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<html>
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  <title>Model 2: Web Community</title>
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    <td align="left"><h2>Model 2: Web Community</h2></td>
    <td align="right"><a href="slide-5.html">Prev</a> | <a href="slide-7.html">Next</a></td>
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<blockquote>

This is the classic web community.  It's revenue streams are the same
as those found in the <a href="slide-5.html">Standard Web
Publisher</a> model, although with it's more dynamic elements it may
be able to make some money on transactions.  The variable costs are
lower as you have to generate less magnet content, but it has a higher
technical/initial cost as you have to build web services to allow
users to interact.  Depending on your community there may be other
revenue streams which are defined by the community's theme.  In this
sense revenue streams may eventually be "discovered" as the scope and
nature of your site evolves. Does this model really work? 

<ul>

  <li><a href="http://www.slashdot.org/">Slashdot.org</a>: One of the
      older online communities, this website has so many techies
      reading it a day that a site linked to Slashdot may experience
      the Slashdot effect.  What is the Slashdot effect you may ask?
      If one day your traffic goes through the roof and a strange
      burning smell is emitted from your server room you may be
      experiencing it.  Even mighty websites can be taken down by the
      sudden rush of hundreds of thousands of users requesting pages
      over the course of an hour.  With a lot of media attention in
      the US turning to online communities slashdot is getting a fair
      amount of media play.  Is it profitable?  I honestly don't know.
      They have adopted an advertising model and a subscription system
      which does net them some dough.  I tend to assume that it is
      enough, but I doubt that the website is bringing in the millions
      of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</li>

  <li><a href="http://www.photo.net/">Photo.net</a>: Founded by Philip
      Greenspun, the man who created what would eventually become
      OpenACS, this website is a hub for photo enthusiasts.  After a
      few years of success it eventually become the bully pulpit from
      which Philip would publicize himself, his company, and his
      theories.  For a website without a major corporation behind it,
      it gets a huge # of hits a day.  For a short bit it was
      sponsored by arsDigita, but as the end neared Philip spun it off
      into it's own company.  Although Philip has the money to keep it
      afloat I suspect/hope that the website is somewhere near
      breaking even.</li>

  <li><a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/">Yahoo! Groups</a>: A
      community site where you can build your own community Yahoo! has
      continued to build one of the most solid websites on the planet.
      While most dot-coms tried to publicize themselves and eventually
      ran out of money Yahoo! has quietly lowered it's profile and
      gone on to being a solidly profitable company.  Although Yahoo!
      Groups is only one part of the extensive Yahoo! website, this is
      a classic example of a company who uses it's groups and many
      other features to build a profitable whole.  I Yahoo!, do you?*</li>

</ul>

<small>* Tristan Cohen is in no way affiliated with Yahoo! corporation</small>

</blockquote>
<hr>
<a href="tristancohen@yahoo.com">tristancohen@yahoo.com</a>
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by admin — last modified 2003-04-28 10:11
 

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