Sometimes it seems like everybody is trying to blog their way to wealth and Internet fame. Endless hours are spent creating content, all in the pursuit of traffic and revenue.
I have a better idea. Why not let people create content for you?
All of the most successful Internet businesses, yes I did say all, are really just massive forums for user generated content. I highly recommend this business model for anybody looking to build a high traffic advertising funded web-business. Let’s take a look at the business models of a few of my personal favorites.
Bring on the Shovels
Social Media websites like Digg, Reddit, and Mixx embody one of my absolute favorite business models. Users submit content from anywhere on the Internet to these websites where the best content is then voted to the top. A casual user can spend hours looking through the popular sections knowing that they are going to find excellent content. Developers will spend hours on the sites submitting and promoting their content.
Then, due to the knowledge that the sheer amount of traffic guarantees a response, commenting and discussion that would normally happen on individual websites ends up taking place on the Social Media sites. This business model produces a cascade effect that causes users to spend more and more time in front of increasingly valuable advertising space. These websites are literally traffic magnets. You could even say that they are addictive.
YouTube: Obliterating Boredom Since 2005
Rich streaming media on the web is the future, but YouTube was already there three years ago. The ability to upload videos for free completely revolutionized media on the Internet. People looking to communicate in new ways use the service. People who are bored and want to watch specific videos on certain topics use the service. People looking to be the next internet celebrities use the service. I use embedded YouTube videos in my posts to make them more interesting. Companies use YouTube to create viral ads. The only problem is the website uses over one million dollars in bandwidth per day and it isn’t profitable. Go Figure.
My Face Space Book: The Stalker’s Best Friend
MySpace and Facebook are Social Networking websites. Users create personalized profiles and add friends. They are then able to use a variety of services to interact with other people. MySpace offers video, chat rooms and forums, Facebook offers applications and groups. This makes for an environment that users will spend countless hours exploring. All of this content is either user generated or created by a 3rd party, yet the social networks get to host and place their own advertisements. The large amount of personal information allows these advertisements to be targeted to extremely precise demographics. It is important to note that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the world’s youngest self made billionaire.
Check out this video if you want to hear some musical complaining about some of Facebook’s user generated content.
Google: I Was Searching For Gold… And I Found It
Let’s talk about Google Search, AdSense, and Gmail. To find anything on the Internet, you must search for it. When you use Google, you are presented with relevant search results created by other content developers while you are presented with Google ads.
Google AdSense is also incredibly brilliant. The service is offered to developers and it allows them (us) to put well targeted ads on their (our) websites. Google has to pay the developers but they are now getting a percentage of the ad revenue from content pages all across the internet. A huge percentage of traffic on the web is being exposed to Google ads even when the traffic isn’t on Google itself. Google also didn’t have to spend any time or money creating or promoting this content. Wow.
Gmail is a free browser based e-mail service hosted by Google. Users write back and forth to each other, and Google gets to display targeted ads based on what is written in each e-mail. Everybody is creating their own content but Google is getting paid. Brilliant.
The Wonderful World of Wikis
The Wiki is the definition of user generated content. The largest and most popular Wiki of them all, Wikipedia, is a non-profit that doesn’t display advertising, but there are countless other niche Wikis that do. If you currently are running a niche website with decent traffic, I suggest offering a Wiki. Your current users can build it for you, and it should give your site a good boost.
So, fellow Internet entrepreneurs, I suggest you think long and hard about this one. I am currently in the process of creating my own user generated content money fountain, and I will be happy to share my results after I launch it. Good Luck!
