Question

Topic: Strategy

Monetization Strategies For Social Network Sites?

Posted by Anonymous on 4/17/2009 at 2:29 PM ET 250 Points
We have a consulting opportunity with a large, established social media site (addressing a consumer enthusiast audience). Traffic is about 2 million visitors and 26 million pages views per month. More than 750,000 registered users with a reported HH income that skews adult (34+), male and affluent.

The site has been operating successfully with modest monetization objectives (AdSense, self-served banners, classified ads) but the owners would like to broaden the revenue model to capture what they believe is greater income potential.

Site content is non-commercial: product reviews, how-to guides, etc. Members are admonished and banned from making public posts to sell products, although they often do so at the private-message level. And, as with any popular social media site, hardcore users may revolt if their sensibilities are ruffled (witness the dust up with the T.O.U. on Facebook).

We’re looking for all thoughts and ideas to be sure we’ve covered everything. We’d also like to hear from people with unique services that may generate more income that AdSense, such as other syndicated ad networks. Affiliate programs would not really work since the website doesn’t really sell anything. Sponsorships have been tried but advertisers (manufacturers) have not renewed most programs. Sponsorships by retailers have not been tried, but the feeling is that this level of sponsorship might cross an invisible line of commercialism. (I'd love to hear about any websites that have successfully embraced sponsorships from retailers.)

We’d also like to hear of any positive and negative case studies: sites that have grown without offending their core audience, and sites that have stepped on a third rail.
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by Bill Schick on 4/17/2009 at 3:58 PM Member
    The company that really nails what you're asking for is going to be huge, and make a ton of money. I'm not entirely certain that you'll get input on this for free. I'm interested to see what sort of response you get.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 4/17/2009 at 7:17 PM Member
    If this were my consulting project, in addition to expanding revenues from the current base, I would explore expanding the current base, e.g. internationally.

    For example, I would look up my potential client's site on www.alexa.com or similar sites to get an estimate of traffic by country, and compare those stats with similar companies, to see if there is an opportunity to expand the base internationally. Naturally, we could provide more accurate advice if we knew who your potential client was, but it is probably not wise for you to post that information in an open forum.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/18/2009 at 9:22 AM Member
    Here's a couple of ideas:
    1) Offer select members an opportunity to be in an online focus group. Companies can have the focus group test their product and provide feedback. Companies would pay for such a targeted offering and members may be compensated as well.

    2) You can offer sponsors a "contest platform". Allow a sponsors to showcase a product, and have members offer ideas: home-made videos, funny copy, copy critiques, best testimonial, etc. Winning entrants would be compensated.
  • Posted by matthewmnex on 4/19/2009 at 9:14 PM Accepted
    Let's face it, There is no magic formula.

    You need to get either 'users' or 'advertisers' to spend money.

    You can generate income from.

    1. Selling advertising
    2. Selling products to the users (digital online and Hard goods offline).

    You can package it a thousand different ways but in the end, it all comes down t your audience.

    Banners and Display ads are only a small part of what can be generated.

    Since you are a 'product review site' then I am sure that the users are interested to actually buy some of the products that you have reviewed.

    Get them optedin to receive special offers from the product owners. You can shoot the emails yourselves and earn either CPM, CPL, or CPA or you can provide the opt in addresses to the advertisers to shoot the campaigns for a fee.

    Just be 100% certain that the users are fully opted in.

    You can create premium online services that match the needs of this specialised user group and sell them subscriptions to access the service. ($29.00 per month) is a good rate right now for online subscriptions.

    Users will pay for advise and expertise (Just like this Marketing Profs Site that we are using :) ).

    You can also set up 'Webinars' with experts in the filed that your users are interested in and charge a fee for attendance to listen to the experts.

    If you want to go further - then you can start to set up 'offline' events. Here you can charge even more money to invite the users to attend a conference / Seminar based on the social groupings you are building on the site. This works well as users reach a point where they want to go further than just exchanging online messages, they want to meet. If you instigate the group meeting in a controlled environment with a specific agenda, then they are much more comfortable to come and join.

    Good luck.

    Matthew



BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Strategy)