Disqus - Latest Comments for jwesley

Re: Scale Economics

Ted Murphy — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:11:16 -0000

I agree with you. The hopelessness of advertising as an online business model apart from keyword search and classifieds is apparent to any objective analysis.

Here are some numbers from the third qtr for TheStreet.com, the only successful publicly traded pure play online publisher that I know of.

In summary, traffic was up 27% year-over-year and advertising dollars were down -6.5% -- resulting in a -26.4% drop in CPMs. At the same time, revenuje from paid subscriptions was up +11.5%.

Q3 2008 Q3 2007 % Chg
Net revenue (9/08 v 9/07):
Paid services 10,244,212 9,188,329 11.5%
Marketing services 6,478,367 6,930,030 -6.5%
Total net revenue 16,722,579 16,118,359 3.7%

Unique visitors: 24,000,000 18,897,638 27.0%
Mktg per 1000 visitors: $269.932 $366.714 -26.4%

http://idea.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1080056...

Re: Scale Economics

kidmercury — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:17:49 -0000

yes! "content as ads." there it is. the simple idea that disrupts everything.

IMO the problem for much of the current internet world is that the "content as ads" paradigm shifts value to the content creators, not so much the web service creators. though of course there will be opportunities for code visionaries, but IMO they are a bit different than your standard SaaS appraoch.

Re: Scale Economics

jwesley — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:55:02 -0000

"Affiliate marketing is a black art that needs to be repackaged."

Exactly. Affiliate marketing has been misused by blackhat SEO's, spammers, and unethical webmasters. But there is really nothing wrong with recommending a product, if the recommendation is genuine. It's a fine line, but for publishers able to build trust and not abuse it, affiliate marketing is amazing. Even better if you have your own products and services to sell.

Re: Scale Economics

chris sukornyk — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:47:15 -0000

I agree. This is great news for advertisers but it will drive revenue down for publishers and will lead them to explore alternative revenue sources.

I think there will be a huge rise in affiliate marketing revenue, but only if the tools become easier for publishers to use. Right now affiliate marketing is a black art that needs to be repackaged.

Re: Scale Economics

jwesley — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:33:20 -0000

"In that model, display advertising will perform as well as search."

Yes, for advertisers. But for publishers it's a disaster. Unless you are a big name brand, the CPMs available to you are pathetic. Generally less than $1. At those levels its nearly impossible to make money off high value, high cost content. Your only hope is to get traffic from Google and funnel that search intent into AdSense or relevant affiliate offers.

I think online publishing is forming 2 distinct classes. The only sites that can survive off pure ad revenue are the high traffic, high brand recognition sites with inhouse sales teams (mainstream newspapers, magazines, massive blogs). To survive, smaller publishers will need to abandon the ad model and make money by funneling visitors towards their own products and services, or those of another business through an affiliate relationship. Basically, they need to use their content and audience to promote themselves, rather than selling display ads at basement CPMs. Content as ads, etc.

Re: louisgray.com: Social Media Experts are the New Webmasters

jwesley — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:21:56 -0000

"There's no money to be made Digging up stories, hitting the StumbleUpon button or refreshing FriendFeed or Twitter, after all."

True, but there is a boat load of money in using these sites to drive traffic and attention to a business. That is the ability a social media expert should have, above merely being a user.

Re: The Power Of Google Juice

gregshove — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:08:41 -0000

Fred, transferring google juice is not so easy. We have done what all the search gurus have told us (redirects etc), and we are four months climbing back to our previous position after a name/domain change. Will probably take a total of 6-9 months on the terms we care about to reclaim our page one status. Of course, the longer you wait, the harder it gets.

Re: The Power Of Google Juice

fredwilson — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:24:04 -0000

thanks

Re: The Power Of Google Juice

fredwilson — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:24:03 -0000

That's awesome

Re: The Power Of Google Juice

jwesley — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:59:34 -0000

One thing I wonder about....with much of the conversation moving to Twitter, FriendFeed, etc. (Services that no-follow links) Will individual voices stop getting the link juice they deserve?

Re: The Power Of Google Juice

jwesley — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:41:28 -0000

My ideal domain is jo.hn. It's Honduras. We'll see if the guy will ever sell.

Re: The Power Of Google Juice

jwesley — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:39:17 -0000

It's too bad you don't own you own name on Google or the juice associated, but it makes sense not to leave. Building an online brand takes a lot of effort and you've done a great job with your blog. You bring a lot humanity and intelligence to the VC world.

All the same, if you were starting today what domain would you use?

Re: The Weird Economics of Information

jwesley — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:58:15 -0000

This makes excellent sense. When you share an idea with someone, the first thing they are likely to do is poke holes in it. The more flaws you are aware of, the better your chances of adapting and surviving as a business.

Re: Bitchmeme: Do blogs deserve advertising?

jwesley — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:26:33 -0000

Oh my. The old blog about blogging and bloggers will blog about you theme. I don't see where the controversy is here.

Re: Why today’s solo bloggers may not see Scoble-like fame…

jwesley — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:17:39 -0000

Much of the conversation is now taking place off of blogs at places like Twitter and FriendFeed. This makes it easier for new voices to build a following, it just isn't all concentrated on their blogs.

Re: Twhirl

jwesley — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:55:33 -0000

This is interesting and I await to see how Loic will integrate. Twhirl is by far the best Twitter client in my experience. I think Seesmic has potential, but right now the site is French dominated. Not a bad thing, but it's hard to get into the site when you can't understand most of the videos.

Re: Nick Denton, blog warlord and economist

jwesley — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 09:26:24 -0000

Methinks the pageview pay structure adds to the fun. Although it kills soild reporting. But this is Gawker anyways. Just keep me entertained.