Getting Paid (after a while)

Recently a couple of my business partners (slight exaggeration) and I were discussing how to monetize our website. We've yet to build it but we aren't building it just for fun. I had an idea, an idea that we felt could drive some traffic and then we went from there. Unfortunately our monetization strategy was driven primarily by having advertising and lots of traffic.

Realistically though I think a huge amount of traffic would have undermined the purpose and effectiveness of our site. It's obviously difficult to discuss this without me sharing the purpose of the site, but my buddies probably wouldn't be really happy with me blogging about our business idea. I mean, I've had 45 page views...

The articles this week really helped organize my thoughts on the model for the site. Though we had developed ways to make money, we didn't really have a cohesive strategy. Fortunately our site was geared towards building and encouraging membership, a free membership. I think that generates a little bit of commitment from people, or at least gives you an idea of how committed to your site people are. When I'm using a site for something and it pops up and tells me I must be a user to perform some action, I'm typically just going to close the window. But there are a few times when I don't close it. One of those times is when I feel like I need to say something, post a comment to a news article. I'm not a serial poster. But some people say some things that warrant a response from me. Then once I begin the registration process I can get discouraged pretty quickly if it's tedious. I want my voice heard and I want it heard now typically. Of course this doesn't imply any long term commitment. Typically I'm just committed to saying something in the moment. But now that I have registered, it's easier for me to post so there aren't those barriers that would normally discourage me from doing so. I think one of the biggest problems is a tedious registration process. I think we'll do ours in tiers. The initial registration will be a password and email, nothing more. I don't need to gather customer data about age and gender. Most people lie anyways. I'm not saying I lie about my age... But aren't you supposed to? I don't want my birthday all over the internet. I know it's out there, but I'm not going to make it as easy as possible.

This post is moving away from the business model aspect of things, but I think my buddies and I kinda got that part figured out a little better. The important part is getting those loyal customers/members first. Some websites approach it like fishing. As soon as you nibble on the bait, they yank the line, set the hook and you start thrashing and maybe you eventually succumb, or maybe you break the line. I look at it more as getting a stray dog to come to you when he's a little skittish. You start by tossing those treats out to him. And slowly bring those treats in closer and closer. Before you know it he's eating out of your hand, hopefully not biting you, and you're best friends. From a consumer perspective, I'd rather be a stray dog than a dead fish.

Have a happy 4th of July! Happy Birthday America!