Monetising Digital Communities

With the rise of Web 2.0 promoting participation, sharing and collaboration it still requires that someone pays for it all. Advertisers may now be able to target viewers by their individual profile and as pay per view gives way to pay per response the theory goes that communities means money. Subscriptions are another way of generating revenue and the great thing about online is that you can collect this little and often or integrate a smorgasbord of premium services at a price, while maintain the ethos of everything being free at the point of delivery. Taking a percentage requires an online transaction, but for some communities this may be part of the business model. How to gain users is always the first challenge, but how to turn users into revenue is always a bigger one!

The likes of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook (Microfoft paid about $500 per user for their stake) can put of the day they make a buck (although with the fikkle nature of consumers they might need to hurry it up) , but for others the balance between building a community and getting paid in something other than spirit is a little more pressing.