The Pay-For Content Debate

Every business, big or small, needs a healthy and regular revenue stream to maintain quality and continually improve what they do. Running a content website is no different. If you believe you can achieve your financial goals whilst giving your content away for free, then do it, but as Warren Buffet famously said “only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” As the recession bites, there will be a lot of website owners exposed to the harsh truth.

The good news is a lot of the rubbish on the web will disappear and the quality content will become more visible. The key to success is generating multiple revenue streams.

• Every content website should provide free content. This will drive traffic, help build credibility and, of course, generate some advertising income.
• Affiliate marketing will become more important in bad times as merchants try to get more bang for their marketing bucks. Online publishers need to hook into this lucrative market.
• eBooks, research and other downloadable products should be sold.
• Events, webinars and courses should be created and promoted via the site.
• Every website owner should strive to find a way of getting monthly subscription income to give their site financial stability.

Ultimately, free content is good, but you need paid content to survive.

The recession will lead to thousands or maybe millions of free content websites closing down.

I think this is a good thing.

As Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, recently said the internet is a cesspool of false information. A major clearout will give oxygen to quality content and allow it to float to the surface.

If you are already an online publisher producing quality content for a niche target audience, keep going, your time has come.

If you are considering setting up a niche online publication, I would say there has never been a better time to get started, since the internet began …. provided that:

• You focus on creating fantastic content
• You know your audience
• You plan on making multiple revenue stream(including, if possible, subscription revenues)
• You understand that it will take hard work and persistence

Is the Secret to Twitter Success Link Sharing?

When it comes to using Facebook to promote your business or blog, it seems pretty straightforward as to how exactly to use it. Sure, there are always things we can learn to help boost our Facebook fan numbers and interaction with them, but as far as structure goes, it’s pretty simple.


But what about Twitter? What’s the secret to Twitter success? According to this article, it’s link sharing. The article is rather long, but basically what it’s saying is that we have the same basic tool – 140 characters – but it’s exactly how you use those that counts.

A few interesting studies have been published lately that

all seem to point to the same conclusion –

the secret to Twitter success is driving links.

This infographic shows the top reasons why people follow brands. For Twitter, it shows the third reason is interesting or entertaining content – so link sharing.



The article sums up Twitter success as seeing what works best for you. Do you get better results when you do one link a day, link to a video, say something before the link that grabs your followers’ attention?

What do you use Twitter for the most? Getting information, entertainment, interacting with your followers and do you think link sharing is the key to Twitter success?



By Jennifer Pricci