The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

First, a little about us...

Robert W. Harris (comm ‘79)

• COO - International

• Original team member at About.com

• HBO, Paramount, CPA

Linda Osborne

• VP Content

• Programming Director, ParentSoup.com/iVillage Inc.Programming Director, ParentSoup.com/iVillage Inc.

• Programming/Journalism backgroundProgramming/Journalism background

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Community and MonetizationCommunity and Monetization

Community (What is it?)

How can you make money from “community” now?

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

What is Community?

In the “Old Days” (pre-internet)

• Primarily geographical

Online Buzzword

• Chat

• Boards (Forums)

True Community

• “Communities of Interest”

• Buzzword still in use

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Community makes money - I

Traditional Community

• Classifieds

• Special interest publications

Old Online world

• Chat and boards made big money because the meter was running

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Community model changes

Online money model changes

• Time - $ connection ends

Chat now monetizes poorly

• Low ad rate

Communities of interest grow on the web

• Highly valuable content

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Community Makes Money - II

A true community is a highly desirable audience

Portals are broad

Rise of verticals

• What’s a vertical? A community!• iVillage, VerticalNet, Marketwatch, Sportsline

• Monetize pageviews at a high rate

• Commerce in context

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

About.com’s way of making money

The leading network of niche vertical sites

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Communities Overseen by Trusted Human Guides

Communities Overseen by Trusted Human Guides

Overview

- Supervised- TrainedExpert

Professional - Entrepreneurial

Committed - Passionate

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Real Community

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Commerce Engine

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Commerce Engine

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Commerce Engine

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Commerce Engine

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Communities Overlap

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

650 sites

Scale!

Network EffectNetwork Effect

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

40 “channels”650 sites

$$ $$$$

Scale!

Network EffectNetwork Effect

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

RON Channels Sections Site Specific 1 18 113 650

From macro to micro targetingFrom macro to micro targeting

High Monetization

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Channels

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

Other ways communities make money

Classifieds

Auctions (replacing classifieds)

PR/Brand Value

• Affinity

Subscription Model

The Leading Network of Niche Verticals

The Future?

Branding Ads

Wireless

Micropayments

Business-to-Business Communities

• SAP (mysap.com)

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