Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla
There are a plethora of examples of very large and active forum-type sites that do not need to charge users money to stay alive. I cannot for the life of me see why a site dedicated to books and reviews should be any different.
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It's getting more difficult than it used to be. Using GR as an example, there are three noticeable camps of users:
- users that don't mind ads
- users that say nothing but just turn on their adblocker
- users that vocally wish for a paid membership option to turn off the ads
In order for ad-based monetization to work, the majority of active users needs to fall into the first camp, balanced with enough members in the third camp to fund the site costs on an ongoing basis between the two of them (assuming you choose to implement the paid option). You can swap the numbers of those two groups, but they always have to overcome the adblocking group.
The difficulty for a new site starting up is not yet knowing the traits of your user base, because they haven't shown up yet. One must plan based on what currently works and hope that the same applies, and
must be willing to adjust and even take a temporary loss if the plan isn't working.
A site that monetizes with ads from the get-go risks turning off users if they don't implement it with the right balance, which can be very tricky since your ad space has little value in the beginning. A start-up sponsorship from a related company can work, if you can get one, but it has to be relevant and it has to look like something other than commercialization of the resources you provide to users. You also have to have a plan in place in the event your sponsor tanks or has a damaging event, to avoid damage to your own brand.
I'm actually in the process of drafting a monetization and development road map for a new site right now, though it's not about book reviews. In my case, the only way forward is to focus on community development first, then seek appropriate sponsorships once my on-screen real estate value increases.
TL;dr - it's not as easy as it seems.