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fred — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:27:07 -0700

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What's happenning in communities

fred — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:11:02 -0800

Just as the Long Tail has made niche markets viable in many businesses, it is creating a new social ecology in education in which “virtual niche learning” is feasible. People who are passionate about a niche topic can have opportunities to truly engage in the topic and learn more, in collaboration with other passionate learners.

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Important Post by Umare

fred — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:05:21 -0800

2008: Edge Principles - Think Bigger

OK.

Why else did almost no value get created in 2007?

A massive reason is that media players aren't thinking big. There's no scope of vision.

Consider one of my favorite lame plays - Honeyshed. A portal for branded entertainment.

Lulz. Are you kidding? Honestly - who cares?

The industry is crashing and burning, it's structural fabric has to be rebuilt, that means: new value propositions, new value chains, new market space, new industry boundaries, new revenue streams, etc.

And, instead, we keep getting stuff like Honeyshed: the same old lame thing.

It's kind of amazing.

Look. You can't be a revolutionary unless you're, well, revolutionizing something. Offering not just something new - but something audacious, big, sweeping, grand, epic.

The size of the things we're focusing on just don't cut it. Even if they're successful - so what? The marginal value they're gonna create is tiny.

Part of the problem is venture guys. They're so trapped in either glad-handing or spreadsheets, they seem to have forgotten what truly radical innovation looks like.

But a huge part of the problem is entrepreneurs. The current crop of entrepreneurs just isn't thinking big enough.

There are no shortage of massive problems next-gen media plays can help solve. Global hunger? Check. Healthcare? Check. Moral hazard across the financial system? Check. The loss of social cohesion? Check. The massive shift of global labour from town to megaslum? Check. Exploding demand for energy? Check.

Simple example. Subprime crisis, global mortgage meltdown, etc. But all Zillow's doing is pricing houses. That's now a knock on the Zillow guys - I think Zillow rocks. But I think the opportunities open to it are far vaster than the opportunities it's pursuing. How about fundamentally redesigning the way houses are bought and sold?

The point.

"Branded entertainment" - and all the other puny ideas we've had - are failing to create value because they solve no real economic problems.

In fact, they're non-ideas. Compared to the above - which are very real, very pressing economic problems - they're lame, nothing, nonexistent, tiny.

In 2008, everyone across the venturescape and mediascape, I think, would do well to think much (much) bigger.

In fact, there's a deeper economic principle at work here. In a discontinuous world, incrementalism is deeply toxic. It plunges us more and more deeply into competence traps, and leaves us more and more vulnerable to competitors who are busy revolutionizing industries, markets, products, services.

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Copyright protection was originally designed to promote the arts

fred — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:49:09 -0800

The basis of copyright law is Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution:

“To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries”

Copyright protection is for a “limited time” to “promote progress,” not for an excessive time to enrich publishers. A long copyright period was justified 200 years ago when book sales were extremely limited. What is the point of a copyright of 120 years for a popular movie or for Word 97, when the return on investment is recouped in a few years, not a century? How many fewer movies would be produced if the copyright lasted only 20 years, instead of 120?
Science and the useful arts would be better promoted with a much shorter copyright period. Having the copyright lapse on Word 97 would encourage Microsoft to make a new product that people would want to buy (instead of a new product that people have to buy because the old version is no longer sold and not compatible with new products, even though the vast majority of users do not need or want the “enhancements” in the new product.)

Like subsidies to corporate agriculture and tax breaks for oil companies, music and software publishers have convinced Congress to increase copyright term for their own greed, even though the increased terms run counter to the purpose of the copyright law, “promote the arts.”

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What are the real reasons for declining sales in the media world?

fred — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:09:33 -0800

There are many reasons why sales are slipping in the entertainment industry, none of which have been addressed. People got tired of going out to buy an album with a song on it that they heard on the radio, only to find out that this song is the only good one on the album, and the record company obviously didn’t put an money into any other songs. People got tired of building up entire collections in one format (VHS, tape, etc), only to have it go obsolete in a few years when a new format is released, forcing them to re-buy their entire catalog (with no discount for trade-ins). People got tired of having to re-buy up to 25% of their collection each year because the format was cheap and inexpensive, breaking or scratching easily and needing replacement. Digital files eliminate all of these lucrative secondary sources of income that companies have relied on. Why don’t we see these facts accounted for in any statistics? Or - how about weird stuff like this: 10 digital songs equals one album? Nope - 1 digital song equals 1 entire CD not bought because that song was the only good song on the CD.

Or maybe, people (like me) finally discovered that it’s cheaper to wait a few months and buy stuff used on eBay or Amazon. You never hear companies bringing that up…..

Is there empirical evidence for the proposition that the availability of pirated music causes increased CD sales?

Look at the US Album Charts. No. 1 is the new album from Radio Head, that could be downloaded legally for nothing before the sale. (actually, as people could pay for it also, it seems that the group made a mean profit of 3$ per download - more than they make in selling the CD)

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fred — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:19:19 -0800

Exploring using Qumana with Microsoft Vista.

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Test post

fred — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:16:53 -0800

Exploring using Qumana with Microsoft Vista.

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Great gifts for the Mac

fred — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:15:23 -0800

Among the “10 great gift ideas,” he suggests for “the Mac user on your list,” Ryan Faas (computerworld.com) singles out such products as Mac OS X Leopard (“a holiday winner because it includes Time Machine, the easiest—and coolest—backup software on the planet and screen-sharing via iChat”), iPod nano (it’s “the lowest priced video-capable iPod ever available and is a great gift for anyone on the go who wants a small fully powered iPod”), and a variety of other enticing options.

Tags: gifts

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Making money on the Long Tail

fred — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 11:37:45 -0800

You can make money on the long tail but not in the long tail. The precise point of Anderson's argument is that it is a collective of the long tail amounts to substantial dollars because the volume is there. The retail/advertising game is a game based on volume. You make money on a lot of traffic to a single popular site or the sum of smaller amounts of traffic to many less popular sites.

Source: The Read/Write Web

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Is this the new generation gap?

fred — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:36:49 -0800

Radio broadcasters don't understand this generation. It's a generation that wants control. They are used to getting control. They want what they want when they want it. Baby boomer parents gave it to them that way. The same parents, by the way, who still run America's radio stations. Ironic.

Source: Inside Music Media

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User Generated Radio

fred — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:23:01 -0800

Baby boomer managers think they can control radio stations by devising formats that different demographics will listen to. It’s always been that way so why not follow the logical conclusion.

But the next generation is different – very different.

They want to be the program director.

They want to be involved in their lives every step along the way. They turn to YouTube and are happy enjoying content created by other people --- even other people who are not their age. User generated content.

They have their own social website pages – Facebook, MySpace and increasingly smaller niche sites. They want to discover their own music, share it and enjoy the music of others even it isn’t number 12 with a bullet in Billboard.

Source link: Inside Music Media

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Facebook missed the mark with Beacon

fred — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:10:13 -0800

Facebook has missed out on a tremendous opportunity to use recommendation permissions to annotate their social graph with trust information – that’s an order of magnitude more valuable than the graph itself.

They got it wrong. No one is going to say “please show me more ads based on what my friends like.” But plenty of people will ask a friend to recommend digital cameras or books to them. There are subtle and important differences. First, there’s the asking. Asking someone for recommendations puts both parties in a position of giving permission. That changes the feel of the transaction.

Second, and more importantly, most of the people who are friends on Facebook are probably complete bozos when it comes to buying cameras or LCD TVs. I’m not dissing them, it’s just a fact of life that we trust certain people for certain kinds of things. I may trust one friend’s judgment on clothes and another’s on music.

Source link: ZDNet

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Umair on Contexual vs. Behavioral Advertising

fred — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:15:36 -0800

Why was contextual advertising superior? The economics of behavioral targeting don't make any sense. The benefits are clear for advertisers, but not for audiences. Since behavioral targeting imposes greater costs on users (cost of privacy loss, cost of lost attention from more invasive ads) than contextual targeting does, it must offer audiences greater gains as well.

How could it do this? Well, the most straightforward way is to push ads that consumers want to see. Unfortunately, behavioral targeting can only be marginally better (if that) at this than contextual targeting can. Assuming behavioral targeting can't offer consumers gains, consumers have great incentives to disable behavioral tracking systems - and they do. What this, in turn, means, is that behavioral targeters have the incentive to hide their actions from consumers - it's a classic case of moral hazard. This is how adware/spyware emerged.

So contextual targeting has, and I think will continue to, be more efficient at advertising to consumers the stuff they're searching for.

What this means is that behavioral targeting will continue to stay locked into the (profitable) niches that it's been successful in: serving ads in places where consumers spend a lot of time (and so can be costlessly tracked). Think NYT. In other words, behavioral targeting will pick up where contextual targeting stops. You search for 'Ferrari Dino' (and see contextual ads), and then visit a car review site (and see behavioral ads). This is the thinking behind the funding of plays like Revenue Science from fairly heavy hitters.

source: http://www.bubblegeneration.com/2005/04/advertising-2.cfm

This allows profile-based targeting, which I think has the potential to be the aforementioned disruptive tech - it can be superior to both behavioral and contextual targeting on value-driving attributes, but inferior in others.

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New releases have doubled in the last six years

fred — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:25:36 -0700

Interesting tidbit from the Unsprung Artists blog: there has been a dramatic increase in the number of new titles released in the last seven years.

The DAWG (Digital Audio Workstation God) has also dramatically driven up the number of choices for consumers to sift through. Consider the number of new titles released each year between 2000 and 2006 (Source: Billboard: 35,516, 31,374, 33,443, 38,269, 44,476, 60,331, 75,774). With this much competition, it’s easy to see why artists and labels feel more compelled then ever to focus on promotion instead creation.

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Interesting analogy

fred — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:24:47 -0700

I always try to write articles that help both artists and labels. Usually I focus on marketing and leveraging the power of the Internet. However, for this post, I want to talk about dirt sifting. Have you ever seen a large-scale dirt processing plant - sifters, conveyors, shakers, trucks, hoppers and dust overwhelm the landscape?

Prior to modern dirt processing, man had to sort his dirt by hand. Imagine sifting tons and tons of dirt, sticks and stones into separate piles organized by size and weight. The process was hard and messy and it took forever.

Music is like dirt. There’s tons of it, and the process of sifting through it was hard and it took forever. Then came digital music technology – ah the modern dirt processing plant for music. It neatly allowed us to sort out the sticks and stones, and pile them into little neat folders by mood, genre, tempo, artist, or into any pile we could imagine.

You know the mechanized dirt processing plant put the human dirt sorters out of business; but the dirt sorters didn’t quit, they learned how to drive tractors and trucks and how to run the sifters and sorters.

Then the dirt sorters grew the dirt market, and it grew and grew and grew, and now you can get every type of dirt, stone and wood chip imaginable; blue rocks mixed with white rocks, yellow wood chips, pink sand; if you can imagine it, you can probably buy it.

The dirt sorters were smart; they learned how to run the machines that made the neat little piles, and how to rapidly move the piles to the people that longed for different types of dirt, stone and chips. And, they made a lot of money. And they didn’t have to get dirty any more.

So, if you are an artist you should know that if you can find the exact pile to put your stones into, someone will eventually buy that pile. And, if you are a record label, go down to the dirt farm, watch the dirt processor, ask questions, learn from the dirt farmer, and you will see – he is clean and he prospers.

Bruce Warila – Unsprung Artists

— Posted by Bruce Warila

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The next big moneymaker

fred — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 12:58:52 -0700

The music business is resisting rather than exploiting the Long Tail. Here’s the lesson from the Web 1.0 bubble - in the long tail - value context over content. A music search application that will let you find the indie artists that you appreciate out of all the terabytes of music available will be the next money maker. And the musicians won’t get rich, but they will get played. The loser: the people who made their money out of artificial scarcity and payola.

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Important quote from Peter Rojas

fred — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 12:44:49 -0700

The Internet, combined with low-cost (or even no-cost) digital tools, has led to an explosion of creativity, with millions of amateurs making music for every conceivable genre, sub-genre, and microgenre, and then sharing their creations online. Andrew Keen might look down on these results, and no doubt 99.9 percent of the music being created today is terrible; but that’s besides the point. Even that one-tenth of one percent means that there is more great music being created than any of us will have time to listen to — and that’s not even taking into account all of the “professional” music that still manages to get made. Many professional artists are discovering that, regardless of how well their music sells, they’re still able to make a healthy living from live appearances, merchandise, and licensing — and the Internet only makes it easier for them to build a fan base. It’s the Britney Spearses of the world that are hit hardest by all of this change. Manufactured pop doesn’t do quite so well when consumers have better options to choose from.

The majors thrived in an era of artificial scarcity when they were able to control the production and distribution of music. Today, we have an infinite number of choices available to us, and when content is infinitely abundant, the only scarce commodities are convenience, taste, and trust. The music companies that are successfully shaping the Internet era are recognizing that the real value is in making it easier to buy music than to steal it, helping consumers find other people who share their music tastes, and serving as a trusted source for discovering new music.

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An important quote from Bob Lefsetz on the music industry

fred — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:24:14 -0700

The old model is dead. 360 degree deals will be the norm. But with WHOM? New entities. Just like Microsoft supplanted IBM, just like Google supplanted Yahoo, just like Apple supplanted Tower Records, unforeseen entities will eclipse the usual powers and rule in the future. We're in an era of chaos. But it won't last forever. Just like only a handful of the millions of blogs get a disproportionate share of the hits, new companies will control the music sphere. They'll have money. Their charges won't starve on the street. Musicians will give up income to get the reward. But they'll believe they're getting a fair deal. And, they will know exactly what their deal and revenue are. This is what is going to appeal to the musician. This transparency. We're not talking indie labels running on a shoestring here. Rather, well-financed companies that control talent. A veritable cabal out to rape and pillage traditional powers all in the defense of the artist, for the benefit of the fan. You've got to reference Irving Azoff again here. What did the aforementioned Mr. Henley say at the Eagles' induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? "He may be Satan, but he's OUR Satan?" You want Satan on your team. Someone who has a direct interest in your success. And no one at a major label fits this paradigm. Hell, they may not even be there when your record comes out, never mind your fifth. And what can they do for you anyway?

The new company, probably controlled by a youngster, will OWN Facebook. I don't mean literally, just that it will be wired in the online sphere. The new company will have a database of every music fan in the genres within which it operates. It will know how to solicit and motivate without overpressuring. It will be in the long haul business, not solely desirous of instant gratification.

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Where do we find out about new things?

fred — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 11:46:24 -0700

A quote from a Columbia Music focus group study, called Big Red.

"The kids all said that a) no one listens to the radio anymore, b) they mostly steal music, but they don't consider it stealing, and c) they get most of their music from iTunes on their iPod. They told us that MySpace is over, it's just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That's how they hear about music, bands, everything."

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Wow! There are a lot of social networking sites out there!

fred — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:36:05 -0700

Thanks to the socialsoftwareweblog and Judith Meskil for compiling this list.

business networking sites

Affinity Engines, Appiir*, Business Parc, BusinessPartnerships.ca*, Contact Network, Doostang*, ecademy, eConozco, Eliyon, EntreMate, eXtremeNetworking.biz*, Friendly Favors, GoingProfessional, Growth Company, I'm Not From Here, InterAction, ITmob, ItsNotWhatYouKnow, Join Network PLUS, LLC, Kickstart-Connect*, Konnects, LinkedIn, Link Silicon Valley, matcheroo, Mediabistro, Monster Networking, NetMiner, Netmodular Community, Networking For Professionals, Online Business Networking Resource, Open Business Club (openBC), OrderGenerator, PeopleThatClick*, Point Relevance, Polypol, PowerMingle, RealContacts, ReferNet, Reunion, Ryze, SelectMinds, Senior Management Network*, Shortcut, Silicon Valley Pipeline, Spoke Software, Sullivan Executive Networking Community, Tacit - ActiveNet, TENG, Viaduc*, Visible Path, WisdomBuilder, Zerendipity Networks, Zerodegrees.

common interest networking sites

50 Something.com, 50Yearsplus.com, ANTfriender, ArtistNow!, AveMariaSingles, Bigcampus.net, BookCrossing, Buzznet, CampusNetwork*, Classmates, Collegester, Community Zero, Company of Friends, ConnectU*, DeanSpace, Delphi Forums, Digital Squeeze, Downelink, FilmTrust*, Foodsters, FunHi, GamersGlue, Globe Alive, gradFinder, HRTS - Hollywood Radio & Television Society, Jewster*, LDS Circle*, Mediabuddies, Meet Me at HOT or NOT?, naboe*, Netplaya Burning Man Community, Neurona, PayDemocracy, quad5, Schoolster, SongBuddy, Talk City, Thefacebook, TheSquare, threedegrees, TimeBucks*, UpMyStreet, UrScouted*, UUSwap*, Wealink*, Xfire*, Yelp!*.

dating sites

AfroRomance, ajewishdatingsite, americansingles, Amigos, AsiaFriendFinder, Berkzter, BlackPlanet, BUZZSession, Cherish, collegeluv.com, ChristiansTogether , Country Singles, Cupid, Cupids Database, Date.com, Date the UK, Dating.dk, Dating Jewish Singles, eHarmony, Equally Yoked, FriendFinder, Gay Christian Dating, Gay Jewish Dating, Gay Military M4M, GermanFriendFinder, HookUP*, hotsaints, IndianFriendFinder, InterMingle, Introducing, It'sJustCoffee*, jdate.com, JewishCafe, JewishFriendfinder, JewishLoveMatch, Jewish Matchmaker, Jewish Personals, JMatch, Lavalife, LDS Singles Mingle, LDS Singles Network, LDS Singles SingleSaints, Love, M4M Seniors, Magoori, Match.com, Mature Dating.org, meetic, MyCountryMatch, MyEMatch, Overweight Date, Passion, POP! PeopleOnPage, PlanetOut Partners, Inc., RateOrDate, RedDate, Relationship Exchange, RogueConnect*, Senior Dating Exchange, SeniorFriendFinder, SeniorsCircle, SingleJew, Single Seniors, SpeedDating Online-Jewish Dating, Spicy Senior Singles, Swappster, Totally Jewish-Dating Channel, TrueBeginnings, uDate, UrbanTraditional, Vegetarian singles, webdate, Yahoo! Personals, YID - Single Jewish Dating.

face-to-face meeting facilitation sites

8minuteDating, Evite, First Tuesday, Food and Friends*, GeekDinner, HurryDate, The Lunch Club NYC, Lunch Partners, MEETin*, MeetUp, MixerMixer, Netparty, new-in-town, Social Circles, WhizSpark.

friend networking sites

Backwash, bobojam*, Breedster, BuddyBridge, Chia Friend, ChosenNet,Christianster, Click2Friends, easeek, eFriendsnet, enCentra, everyonesconnected, FriendFan, Friendity, Friend MAP, Friendoo, friendsand, friendsbay.de, Friends of Friends, Friends Reunited, Friendset, Friends of Friends, Friendster, Friend Surfer, Friendsync, Friendzy, Gruuve, HeiYou, hi5, hipstir, Huminity, HummingBoard, The Impersonals, iSocialite, Korea Data House, LDS LinkUp, LianQu, LinkEstadao*, linkyourfriends, Living Directory, MeineFreunde*, Metails, mrNeighborhood, myfriends, Myspace, NetFriendships, Neurofriends, orkut, PalJunction, peeps nation, qpengyou, Ringo, saywhatz, Swirve*, The Bomb*, Tickle by Emode, ticqle, Tribe.net, TribungPinoy*, UUFriends, Wallop, WiW, WorldShine, YeeYoo, YOYO, zenetwork.

MoSoSo sites

ActiveMatch, AirCQ, asphaltgames, awaRE, BEDD, Beliefnet Mobile, BusyThumbs*, BuZZone, CrowdSurfer, Dodgeball, Earthcomber*, Encounter Bubbles, Flickr, Fluidtime, Hocman*, IcyPole, ImaHima, Jabberwocky, JAMDAT, Jukola*, Mamjam, MeetingPoint*, Meetup, Mobido*, MobiLuck, mobster, Mooble, modus, MTONE, nTAG*, PeepsNation, Playtxt.net*, Plink Mobile, Plazes*, Pocketster, Portabible*, proxidating, Proxpro, PurpleAce*, Saw-You, Serendipity, socialight, Socializer, SoundPryer*, Speck, TagText*, Traces of Fire, tunA, TxtMob*, Urban Plexus*, Wavemarket, weemee, WhoAt, WiFi.Bedouin, Wow Friends*.

pet networking sites

Backwash for Pets, Catster*, Dogster, HAMSTERster, KissyKat, Neopets.

photo sharing emphasis sites

Buzznet, Expressions, Findapix, Flickr, FotoAmigo*, Fotolog.net, Fotothing, FriendBlend, MyShoots*, Nokia Lifeblog, PictureM*, PixParty, smugmug, SocialCanvas, Textamerica, Webshots, Zorpia, Zoto.

social networking 'plus' and/or 'edge cases'

Blogpod, BuddyZoo, clevercactus*, del.icio.us, dodgeball, Dude Check This Out!, eTwine, Eurekster!, eventSherpa, fonetango, Funchain.com, Gush, HelloWorld, Home Exchange, HomeLink, imeem*, InsiderPages*, Intervac, JournURL, KnowMates, LiveJournal, MixedNutz.net, Mooble, Mosuki*, motime*, M-Tone, Multiply, Nioki, The Opinion Exchange, Palbook, PeopleAggregator, RepCheck, SmallPlanet, Small World Project, Social Grid, Splinder*, Squiby, StumbleUpon, TXTParty, Upcoming.org, WiredReach, Xanga, Yafro Moblog, Zdarmanet, Zopto.

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A Very Relevant Comment

fred — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:10:31 -0700

From a Globe and Mail article by Matthew Ingram:

People don’t wanna go somewhere separate just for music — they want music to enhance their existing online social life," he says. "Where would you rather see a notification that your buddies are going to see Snow Patrol: on a separate music website, or in the Facebook news feed that you’re already checking five times a day?

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fred — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:32:54 -0700

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Master List of Revenue Sources for Your Blog

fred — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 09:47:46 -0700

Thanks to Ryan Shamus for creating this comprehensive list. I am copying the whole thing as opposed to linking to just so I know i will have it in the future.

Google Adsense - definintely one of the most popular ways to make money on the internet, easy to be accepted and easy to blend in with your site.

Kontera ContentLink - A contextually relevant keyword that is discovered in real-time on a web page from within Kontera´s vast network of publishers, and is automatically turned into a link to the most relevant ad from among Kontera´s thousands of advertisers. Very popular with bloggers.

Bloggerwave - Give your valuable feedback to advertisers with respect to their web sites, products, services, and companies and get paid for it. Disclosure required.

SponsoredReviews - Earn cash by writing honest reviews about our advertiser’s products and services.

ReviewMe -Earn cash by writing honest reviews about our advertiser’s products and services.

Auction Ads - Auction Ads allows you to monetize your website by displaying live eBay auctions next to your related copy.

Ebay Affiliate - Drive your traffic to eBay and get paid for it. Generous commissions.

Ebay Reseller - The Reseller Marketplace by eBay is a business-to-business (B2B) liquidation site where eBay PowerSellers can acquire inventory for resale.

Amazon Assosciate - By linking to Amazon products and services you can make money online with your blog or website.

Yahoo Publishers - Simply display ads that are relevant to the content of your site and earn money from qualified clicks

Bidvertiser - Make money online by adding the BidVertiser ads to your site or blog and get paid for clicks

Text Link Ads - they sell text link ads from your website/blog

TTZ Media - JohnChows ad network - shopping/comparison network.

AGLOCO - Use the Agloco Viewbar and get paid (not sure how well this one is working atm..)

FeedBurner Ad Network - ads in your RSS feed.

Feedvertising - uses Feedvertising technology (TLA feature) to run text link ads in your RSS feed.

Thanks to JohnChow for this list of primarily CPM based Ad Networks:

Phorm
24/7 RealMedia
Accelerator-Media
Ad Solutions Network
Ad World Network
AdAgency1
AdBonus
AdDynamix / Pennyweb Networks
AdOrigin
AdPepper
AdSmart
Adtegrity
AdZuba
Ampira Media
Bannerconnect
BannerSpace
BlueLithium
BURST! Media
Claxon Media
Click Agents
CPX Interactive (Formerly Buds Media)
EuroClick
Experclick
FastClick/ValueClick
Federated Media
Gold Group
Gorilla Nation Media
Hurricane Digital Media
Impression|Up
InterClick
Interevco (Interactive Revenue Company Ltd.)
Joetec
Mamma Media / FocusIn
MaxOnline
Oridian
Premium Network
Quake Marketing
Quin Street
RealCastMedia
RealTechNetwork
Revenue.net
Right Media
Rydium
The Robert Sherman Company
TMP
Tribal Fusion
Valuead.com
Yes Advertising
HyperBidder
And the list goes on….
PriceGrabber - shopping/cpomparison network
Chitika - Shopping/comparison network
Shopping.com - shopping/cpomparison network
CNet Shopper - shopping/cpomparison network

Thanks to John Chow for having a list of the following:

AdForce
AdHearUs
AdKnowledge
AdSonar
Affiliate Sensor
All Clicks
AllFeeds
BannerBoxes
BClick
BidClix
Bidvertiser
CBprosense
Clicksor
ExpoActive
IndustryBrains
Mirago
Miva
Nixxie
One Monkey
Oxado
TargetPoint
Textads Dot Biz
TextWise
Text Link Ads
Vibrant Media
WebAdvertising.ca
AdBright
7AdPower
PayPopUp
PointRoll
PopUpTraffic
Tremor Network
WhenU
PayPerPost
Opt-Media
CreamAid
Axill
Azoogle Ads
ClickBank
ClickBooth
ClickXChange
Commission Junction / BeFree
CoverClicks
DarkBlue
DrivePM
emarketmakers
Linkshare
Maxbounty
Meta Reward
ProfitCenter
Revenue.Net
ShareASale
Strategic Affiliates
WebSponsors
Advertising.com
Absolute Agency
AVN Ads - Adult
BlogAds
CrispAds Blog Advertising Network
HerAgency
HispanoClick
Pheedo RSS & Weblog Marketing Solutions
Qumana Adgenta Blog Ads
WayPointCash - Adult
ClickHype
DMO Global
Response Republic
PeakClick

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The 7 Levels of Revenue for your Blog

fred — Tue, 08 May 2007 23:54:21 -0700

Copied from Chad Randall, director of sales with b5media, the seven different levels of blog advertising

Level 1: Bottom Level = Google AdSense. Yes, even though I strongly dislike AdSense, it can be used to soak up and remnant ad inventory that you have on your site.   Google, the biggest pimp in the ad industry world, will take any traffic they can get which includes the international traffic that most ad networks avoid. Average CPM = $1

Level 2: Affiliate programs: Either directly from the supplier or through a network like Commission Junction affiliate programs are still one of the lowest forms of revenue you can generate from your blog.   For example if you have a video game blog and you link to Buy.com to purchase a PlayStation it might get you the odd sale, but the best way to do it, is to do a blog post on a very relevant product to your site, with an affiliate link to the offer. (Use full discloser that the embedded link is an affiliate link as well)

Level 3: Ad Networks. ContextWeb, ValueClick, AdOn and hundreds of others.   There are loads of Ad networks out there that will re-sell your banner inventory for you and everyone you speak to will ‘guarantee’ the highest CPM’s in the industry, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of the ads they display on your site will be low quality and the fill rates may be only 25% - 50%. Another thing about ad networks is most of them only want US traffic so they will push back any international traffic you get. Average CPM’s $1-$2

Level 4: Automated Text link Ads. Yes, text link ads not only outperform AdSense, they blow away ad networks when it comes to eCPM’s as most text links are bought on a monthly fixed rate and not on a CPC basis. The pure industry leader in this game is http://www.textlinkads.com One thing is you should do is manually approve the links bought on your site to ensure that they are at least somewhat relevant. The best part about TLA is the pure automation of it, set it and forget it. And another wonderful thing is it will even continue to make money long after your audience moves on. ( A distant second in this field is TextLinkBrokers.com) Average price $25 per link x 6-8 links

Level 5: Fixed Text link Ads: These are the direct buys you get from someone contacting you about buying a fixed link on your site. Don’t let Matt Cutts find out your doing this J Average price $50 per link.

Level 6: Graphical Banner Ads: Getting advertisers to buy ads on a CPM basis on your site that you yourself set. Put together your own rate card and have it on your ‘Advertise with Us’ page. Anywhere from $5CPM to $20CPM.

Level 7: Fixed Monthly Sponsors - Graphical or integrated: The top of the food chain and the top of the money chain. Getting a sponsor to pay a fixed flat monthly rate to have a graphical ad or an integrated ad on your site is the single highest paying and best option for your Blog. Even one sponsor of your site, can potentially beat out all your other forms of revenue generations combined. This one takes pounding the pavement and contacting relevant companies, but the payoff is sweet. This is the Holy Grail.

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What's wrong with the music business?

fred — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:54:22 -0700

It’s not like music has lost its power, it’s not like people don’t want tunes. Hell, more people possess more tracks than ever before.

The problem isn’t music discovery. It’s not like talent is hidden. If anything is good, it bubbles up on the Net. The majors labels simply haven’t figured out a way to charge them for this acquisition, and instead are suing those assembling collections. There is incredible demand and they refuse to fill it. They say the problem is managers and lawyers?

So great artists are now going it alone. The music landscape will be ruled in the future by a completely different coterie. People who are trustworthy, who aren’t into winning through intimidation. They’ll gain their toehold via the Internet that still has majors scratching their heads. They’ll use the new systems to deliver desirable music to niches however small. They’ll realize we’re living in a golden era of opportunity.

An answer? To sign more acts at a lower price and let them percolate. People want music that touches them. The old system isn’t working and it needs to be reinvented.

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Here is the Focus

fred — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:48:07 -0700

But now all the old systems have broken down, we’re rebuilding. And we’ve got to start with not how you look, not whether you fit the slot, the niche, the potential marketing possibilities, but the MUSIC!

You’ve got to concentrate on the music. It’s got to reach people in their heads and hearts. And if it does, you’re on the road, to success, to riches.

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The new rules of the music business

fred — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:24:43 -0700

From Bob Lefsetz:

You can hear everything before buying it. Even the most amateur of Web-surfers can hear four songs on MySpace. You get a feeling for an act. So, you either only buy the single, the song you want, or the whole album if you like most of the tracks. Assuming you pay for your acquisition at all.

This is a problem. Not only does the consumer want control over what he buys, he has control over the price too, which is free. Not a good business model. You’d think those in power would address this, for this goes to the core of their revenue stream, but they’d rather try to sue their consumers back to the twentieth century, and go on about the good old days. There is a model for monetization of Web acquisition, by licensing P2P, whether an individual service or at the ISP level. Then again, you can’t monetize hard drive swapping and IM transfer, so the boat leaks. Bad if you’re in the recorded music business. Not necessarily bad if you’re in the music business.

Creators should get paid for their work. But this is problematic today. So, musicians must turn to other revenue streams. Like live and merch. This is fact. One can rail about the injustice, how it was better when you could live off recorded music sales, but that world is in disarray.

In the heyday of MTV, the way to get people to come to the gig was to get airplay of your video. It was cause and effect, airplay begat attendees. Not necessarily long term fans, but if you had a hit you could book short term revenue. But now MTV plays no videos. And radio listenership is down. So it’s harder to drive revenue streams, not only recorded music, but live and merch. So, you’ve got to go another way.

Some people employ corporate endorsements and/or advertising/TV/movie synchs. Corporate cash is short term, it runs out. And, you can only usually get it if you’re big already. Advertising…it hurts your cred. TV and movie synchs, not bad, but there aren’t that many slots, and there isn’t that much repetition.

In other words, it’s hard to get your music heard without selling out. And even if you do sell out, it’s still hard to get your music heard.

That’s why when you’re a wannabe, when you’re starting out, you give your music away for free. Forget the fact that you want to be paid. The problem is, nobody knows who you are to buy your music. Your free campaign is a way to get traction. Revenue is down the pike!

Kind of like Google. There was no revenue at first. Just the truly great search engine. They got eyeballs, and then they came up with their advertising model. There’s already a business model in music, live, merch and the recorded music sales you can garner, but it pays to look at Google. Google is constantly releasing new products, that are free to use. Google News. Google Earth. Google Video, Blogs and a whole host of other features. You see they want you hooked, they want you to be a member of the club. They’ll figure out how to make money off you later. Funny, but this strategy not only decimated Yahoo, it put a huge dent in Microsoft’s online strategy.

Once again, why was Google successful? Because its search engine worked quickly and came up with the correct result right away. And you didn’t have to wade through ads, you weren’t bombarded by come-ons. You got what you came for, nothing more unless you so desired. This is why the endorsement/commercial tie-in aspect of music is so problematic. It undermines the experience and the trust. Sure, it gets the message out, but it muddies the cred and the belief and the bond. Google’s bond is so good that searchers see the ads on the side as a bonus, a benefit!

And isn’t it interesting that Google doesn’t sell the ads to the highest bidder. Oh, they do at first. But if a subsidiary ad gets more traffic, it ascends the ladder.

Insanely great thought and execution. If only Yahoo could duplicate it. It can’t.

There aren’t that many good bands out there. It doesn’t matter if you sell out or play for cred, if you suck, you’re not going to make it. But if you are good, manage your cred, and your mailing list. Pay attention to the bond with your fans, nurture it. People will do anything for you as long as you don’t trick them, if they believe in you. Have great music, create a fan base, and then collect the money. Yes, this does mean you’ll starve or leave money on the table at first. But if you give it away for free up front, or cheap, it’ll pay dividends later. This is the benefit of Arcade Fire staying indie, of having cheap shows, their fans love them. It’s more than the music. And it has to be more than the music to have longevity today.

Remember, bond first, money second.

Also read Giving It Away.

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Here's a Keeper

fred — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:43:33 -0700

I have to save this video and show Michael.

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Are you a musician or an entertainer?

fred — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:23:59 -0700

This may sound oversimplified, but many bands overlook it. Fans want to have fun. They work all day. They want to go out and have a good time. That's why they came to the club in the first place. Are you prepared to give them a good time? How do you intend to do this? Practicing your music in a place other than your basement is not fun. (I call it practicing in front of people when bands don't do anything any differently at their show than they do in their practice space). This is 99% of the bands. Imagine your buddy who'll sit through your practice. He usually ends up falling asleep halfway through it. What makes him go nuts at your live show? Think about the difference.

Read the full article here.

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You recorded your first album in your home studio. what do you do now?

fred — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 11:32:31 -0700

Brandon Drury from Recording Review has some very good starting points on "Getting Started With Music Marketing".

Some other related articles are:

Band Marketing 101: Always Have CDs To Sell

Tour AFTER You've Conquered Your Home Town

CD Release Parties

mindblast

Test post

What's happenning in communities

Important Post by Umare

Copyright protection was originally designed to promote the arts

What are the real reasons for declining sales in the media world?

Test post

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Great gifts for the Mac

Making money on the Long Tail

Is this the new generation gap?

User Generated Radio

Facebook missed the mark with Beacon

Umair on Contexual vs. Behavioral Advertising

New releases have doubled in the last six years

Interesting analogy

The next big moneymaker

Important quote from Peter Rojas

An important quote from Bob Lefsetz on the music industry

Where do we find out about new things?

Wow! There are a lot of social networking sites out there!

Thanks to the socialsoftwareweblog and Judith Meskil for compiling this list. business networking sites

common interest networking sites

dating sites

face-to-face meeting facilitation sites

friend networking sites

MoSoSo sites

pet networking sites

photo sharing emphasis sites

social networking 'plus' and/or 'edge cases'

A Very Relevant Comment

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Master List of Revenue Sources for Your Blog

The 7 Levels of Revenue for your Blog

What's wrong with the music business?

Here is the Focus

The new rules of the music business

Here's a Keeper

Are you a musician or an entertainer?

You recorded your first album in your home studio. what do you do now?

Thanks to the socialsoftwareweblog and Judith Meskil for compiling this list.

business networking sites