Steven Rubel blogs about PR and marketing. This posting caught my attention. "Rocketboom, the pioneering video blog, although quite successful is realizing that advertising alone won't sustain its future growth. According to a Marketwatch report by Frank Barnako, Rocketboom's Andrew Baron is exploring other revenue streams, including potentially charging for shows. Further, he views the show as a loss leader that is driving demand for other services like consulting. Baron is producing John Edwards' video blog.
Advertisers want eyeballs and millions of impressions. The startup sites - even the successful ones - can't deliver so they need to explore alternative streams. Video is hardest hit here because it's more expensive to operate.
I've said it before [Steven Rubel], "If you're a Web 2.0 site counting on advertising as your sole source of revenue, don't do it. Advertising is very cyclical. Yes, your overhead is low, but you might be ahead of the curve. The marketer's way of thinking hasn't shifted yet."
So if Rocketboom is facing these issues, what about Podtech and Podshow? Could a shakeout be in the works?
3 comments:
We're doing great, but, yeah, it's very tough to make money in this environment.
I try to figure out how to make the time and effort invested in Social Media, blogging, wikies, virtual organizations, etc. to give some return.
The perception is that the very well known US Web 2.0 services are doing better. However, this is probably a stage of R&D and only very few will be making real money.
Those who have sold their platforms to bigger companies are the only ones'.
For the last few years, the old media companies have belittled blogging - pretty much classifying it as writing for fun.
How many are writing for money?
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