Website Business Models
Written by Randy
Many people forget that the web is not a place or location, it is a medium, a method of communication. But much like in the real world, doing business on the web requires that we have a clean sensible business model. The days of "If you build it they will come" have long gone. Today, successful websites use a host of innovative ways to make their money, but in the end it all comes down to a specific set of business models that have existed since long before the internet.
Where did these models come from?? Simple! Almost any business model on the internet came from television, radio and newspapers.
Now I can see many of you saying "Not a chance... this is an entirely new way of doing business!" But in truth, it's just a new medium being used to do the same business we have always done elsewhere.
The Basic Business Models
Internet sites can be broken down into several straight forward categories:
- The Business Presence Site - A brief commercial for a business or service
- The Information site - If they are not selling something, this is the web version of NPR or Public Broadcasting
- The Public Content Generated site - Reality TV on the web.
- Message Boards - Call in shows
- e-Commerce Sites - Infomercials, Shopping Networks, and more
- Membership sites - Pay Per View.
- Affiliate Network Sites - Syndicated Television
There are more models if we look closely, and some of the above models will mutate slightly because of such things as web 2.0 or community building, but much of the effect of these features is on the marketing side of the business model, not the website design end.
In future articles, we will look at each of the business models above and discuss their main features, as well as how they pay for themselves (if they actually do). Lets face it, nothing is free, you just don't always realize how it's being paid for.