Making Money from Free Content
Chris Anderson gives a nice summary of revenue models for free content:
Here's my start at a list all the revenue models you can find in the media industry, all based around a core of free or almost-free content:
- CPM ads ("cost per thousand views"; banner ads online and regular ads in print, TV and radio)
- CPC ads ("cost per click"; think Google ads)
- CPT ads ("cost per transaction"; you pay only if the customer brought to you from a media sites becomes a paying customer. Here's an example.)
- Lead generation (you pay for qualified names of potential customers)
- Subscription revenues
- Affiliate revenues (think: Amazon Associates)
- Rental of subscriber lists
- Sale of information (selling data about users--aggregate/statistical or individual--to third parties)
- Licensing of brand (people pay to use a media brand as implied endorsement)
- Licensing of content (syndication)
- Getting the users to create something of value for free and applying any of the above to monetize it. (Like Digg or our own Reddit)
UPDATE: Michael Cader suggests a few more good ones (some of which are exhibited in his own Publishers Marketplace)
- Upgraded service/content (ed: aka "freemium")
- Alternate output (pdf; print/print-on-demand; customized Shared Book style; etc.)
- Custom services/feeds
- Live events
- "Souvenirs"/"Merchandise"
- Co-branded spinoff
UPDATE2: Fred Wilson adds: (see his comments section for even more)
- Cost Per Install (popular with top Facebook apps who can help others get installs)
- E-commerce (selling stuff directly on your website)
- Sponsorships (ads of some sort that are sold based on time, not on the number of impressions)
- Listings (paying a time based amount to list something like a job or real estate on your website)
- Paid Inclusion (a form of CPC advertising where an advertiser pays to be included in a search result)
- Streaming Audio Advertising (like radio advertising delivered in the audio stream after a certain amount of audio content has been delivered)
- Streaming Video Advertising (like streaming audio but in video)
- API Fees (charging third parties to access your API)
