Flux Research: Business Changes

Direct To Fan Music Marketing & Revenue Streams

Direct to Fan Music Marketing from Michael Brandvold

Related Webinar Available for $5:
The World of Direct-to-Fan Music Marketing presented
by Music Biz Weekly and Hypebot

Google Shuts Down One Pass Paywall Service

Google One Pass 404 Notice

In a note hidden amongst a bunch of other news on the Official Google Blog, Google announced the shutdown of its One Pass online news subscription platform. They note that they are helping publishers transition to such offerings as Google Consumer Surveys which basically require responding to single question microsurveys in order to view full articles on publishers' websites.

Apparently use was limited and only a few newspapers were signed up for Google One Pass.

It's not that big a surprise. They took a long time to roll it out and limited who could use it. Google Consumer Surveys is a much more flexible product that fits web publishers who haven't gone the paywall route whereas newspaper publishers already had a variety of paywall options.

Flux Research is Focused Like a Laser [Being Tuned]!

Laser Hacking [Photo: Audin Malmin]

There's nothing like focus to get you more focused. Trimming things down at Flux Research is helping me to see how to trim things down even more.

The limits on my time and energy have already saved me from going down the path of following every bit of breaking news related to monetizing web and mobile businesses. Now cutting back on what I write about at Flux Research is helping me to see that my interests remain indie content producers, web and mobile startups and related efforts by SMBs.

So if I write about the big boys it's in order to inform my fellow upstarts.

Honestly, I'm not sure that laser tuning is the best metaphor for my process, since I don't really understand it and I believe in choosing metaphors based on their broad range of potential meanings rather than just the meanings I want them to have.  It feels a lot more like the DIY project pictured above than anything involving budgeted lab work!

Plus, whenever I hear leadership talking about being focused like a laser, I'm reminded of Dr. Ben Chavis' "personal laser-like focus" and the fairly rapid ruination of H3 Enterprises.

Related Flux Research Coverage:
Back To The Future at Flux Research: Business & Revenue Models

SAY Media Debuts Cost-Per-Exposure (CPX) Ad Pricing Model & Content Ads Offering

Content Ads in Action on Remodelista

SAY Media, one of the more innovative hybrid ad/media companies currently in the game, today announced their new Cost-Per-Exposure (CPX) ad pricing model that does what should have been done long ago. The basic idea is similar to cost per impression pricing but only for ads that are viewable in the browser. They can do this because "we have the technology"!

This new pricing model, one relying on SAY Media proprietary technology, is currently being applied with their new Content Ads offering that provides a placement below content similar to Outbrain's related links widget. Given that such widgets are now widespread and often contain advertising, this is a smart adaptation of that idea to create a new ad unit.

You can see Content Ads in action on Remodelista, a SAY Media property, on this post from which I grabbed the above screenshot. It both advertises for Williams & Sonoma and cross advertises for SAY Media property Dogster.  That's good for SAY Media but also good for advertisers who apparently won't be placed next to an empty box or an "advertise here" message.

The Content Ads provide a less expensive option for advertising on SAY Media sites than previously available via SAY's AdFrames offering. But the real innovation is the CPX pricing model that is a response, in part, to the recognition that up to 31% of web ads are never even viewable in one's browser. On some sites I bet that's a lot higher.

The combo of CPX pricing and Content Ads makes for a strong paired introduction since the Content Ads are below the fold and the CPX approach ensures that advertisers are only paying when they are actually viewable.

Daily Deal Business & Revenue Models: Constant Contact's SaveLocal, Facebook Offers, GrouponLive's G-Pass

Constant Contact Infographic: The State of the [Daily] Deal 2012

The daily deals and coupons space is heating up with three major platforms entering the arena or expanding their services in keeping with their current business and/or revenue models

Constant Contact is geting into low-cost local deals with SaveLocal and promoting their presence in the space with the above State of the Deal 2012 graphic designed to go viral. This is another step in expanding their current business model of providing a suite of marketing services to SMB's that adds an additional and potentially potent revenue stream.

Facebook is gradually introducing Facebook Offers, the only service being introduced for free though it will probably be a paid service on down the line. This fits their revenue model of providing variations on advertising to brands trying to reach Facebook's social network users.

And Groupon, the only pure play deal service of the three, is bringing it's G-Pass program out of beta. This move is designed to enhance their event deals, a revenue stream, and strengthen their partnership with Live Nation, an expansion of their overall business model.

Constant Contact Expands SMB Services With SaveLocal

Constant Contact's SaveLocal is focused on delivering low cost deals to local businesses. The setup is free, businesses set the limits and users are charged "for each customer that buys your deal—$1, $2, or $3—depending on how much your deal is worth." This is really a smart move given the sometimes devastating experience of many small businesses using Groupon.

In an interview with the NY Times, Constant Contact CEO Gail F. Goodman states:

"We’re changing the whole economics of the deal. The daily deal companies not only make merchants offer about half off, they keep about half of what the merchant takes in on the deal. We only charge $1 to $3 for each coupon. And we help our customers think through the best way to structure the deal."

"Restaurants can offer a coupon for less than the average ticket and make more when the customer buys up, so that if customers spend $40 on a dinner, the merchant can offer a $20 coupon for $10, and keep all of the extra $20 that the customer spends. "

This is in keeping with Constant Contact's business model of providing a suite of marketing services for SMB's that are reasonably priced and designed for self-service:

• Email Marketing
• Event Marketing
• Online Survey
• Social Campaigns

Such an approach can lock-in customers over time, assuming they remain satisfied with the services. That's nearly impossible for companies like Facebook and Groupon who offer advertising and deals in an increasingly crowded space with flavor of the month dynamics.

Introducing Facebook Offers

Facebook Offers expands Facebook's low-cost advertising options with a coupons service.

Acccording to ZDNet, these "special discounts and promotions" will be directed to people who have liked a particular brand's Facebook Page. They will appear in the News Feed and as Sponsored Stories.

This is actually pretty smart in that it leverages Page likes without otherwise creepy targetting and can be of use to SMB's or major corporations. It adds a new revenue stream to their current revenue model and builds on their current strengths.

Groupon Rolls Out G-Pass

After a beta testing run beginning back in October, Groupon has rolled out G-Pass, an enhancement to GrouponLive. GrouponLive is a partnership with Live Nation, the ticketing and events overlord that includes Ticketmaster in its portfolio of companies.  The partnership approach is an expansion of their initial business model and a strong move.

G-Pass provides expedited entry to events and can be compared to such enhancements to ticketing services as Ticketmaster's interactive seat maps.

Both Groupon and Live Nation are in similar situations in that they are focused on higher end services undergoing an ongoing disruption from a growing number of startups and established companies entering their space.

For Groupon such enhancements are crucial yet, given the business and revenue models of companies like Constant Contact and Facebook, they don't address the underlying issues of margins that will inevitably shrink over time combined with a pure play daily deals business model and public financing.

Related Flux Research Coverage:
Daily Deals-a-Day: Endless Growth Ahead!
Thrillist Builds Out Daily Deals at Thrillist Rewards, Connects Editorial,
Advertising & Ecommerce
Daily Deals: Facebook, Bing & LocalDeals Enter, Groupon & LivingSocial Go Big, Plus Mo' Groupon News

Does Your Digital Publishing Business Model Include Augmented Reality Glasses?

Project Glass: Google's Augmented Reality Glasses (A Simulation)

Just wondering.  Puzzling over that myself!

Actually, I'm scheming about digital art projects and augmented reality empires...

Google+: Project Glass

Bits: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

This Business of Blogging Relaunches on Twitter

 

I recently relaunched the far too long neglected blog, This Business of Blogging, as a Twitter stream:
twitter.com/thisbloggingbiz

It's for people interested in the business of blogging beyond chasing pageviews and Google Ad clicks.  There are lots of resources at that level but not so many at the next.

Clyde Smith Included in Most Influential Music Marketing Experts List on Klout

I finally started using Klout and it's kind of a fun game. Did so just in time to get included in Michael Brandvold's Most Influential Music Marketing Experts list on Klout.

I guess that means I need to step up my game and do something worthy of inclusion.  Or more of you could just start following me on Twitter and save me extra work in my climb to the top!

Music Biz Blogs Relaunches

I recently relaunched a project from back in my ProHipHop days called Music Biz Blogs.

It features a selection of mixed RSS/Atom feeds from 50+ music industry blogs plus a search engine to search those blogs.

It also has a sidebar featuring tweets from my Music Biz Linkmasters list plus a Flickr strip that displays the most recent Flickr pics tagged either musicindustry or musicbusiness.  I switch between the two searches when one gets slow.

You can subscribe to the Music Business Blogstream via an RSS feed or by daily email.  I tried to set up a Twitter account as well but it's just not working due to issues with the feeds.

When I created it a number of years ago, many of these tools were new and I was experimenting with lightweight information sites for the web.  Most of them never really took off beyond a certain core audience but now that I'm writing for Hypebot, I thought it would be worth reviving.

How Many of Your Customers Own Tablets?

Often when writing about publishing and mobile opportunities, bloggers like myself will refer to stats regarding how much of a particular population has smartphones or tablets in order to make a case for developing mobile versions of one's website or services. But it's much more important to focus on the population of potential customers, since not everyone is going to be interested in your publication or service, and even more important to focus on your current customers, given the frequently high cost of customer acquisition.

Recently trade publication Packaging World conducted a survey and found that 46% of their subscribers owned a tablet, such as the iPad or an Android tablet, and 78% said they planned to own one by next spring.

Of the 46% who are current owners, "74% said they read work-related digital magazines on the devices. At the same time, 55% said they accessed work- or industry-related websites with their tablets."

I'm not familiar with the mobile solutions employed by Packaging World but, given that many customers with tablets, I'd certainly want my website to have a nice tablet version to keep those customers engaged and to let them know my company was keeping their needs as subscribers in mind.

Beyond the issue of specific mobile devices, this news brief is a strong reminder of the need to survey one's customers on a periodic basis.

Sometimes they'll surprise you!

The Business of Hip Hop: Talking Hip Hop Business & All In The Game

In late 2004, I founded the first hip hop business blog called ProHipHop. I eventually sold it in and fully exited by late 2010. I originally wrote the following hip hop business essays for ProHipHop and have since archived them at Hip Hop Logic where I still, on rare occasions, blog about hip hop.

At ProHipHop I planned a regular series of business interviews to be called Talking Hip Hop Business but only completed one, an interview with Tahir titled:

The Revolutionary Heart of the Dirty South: Tahir on Hood Economics

I also wrote a handful of hip hop business essays for a Canadian publication, Pound Magazine, in a series called All In The Game, that were intended to address misconceptions about hip hop and business:

How Much Longer Can Hip Hop Claim Outsider Status?

50 Cent and the Violence of Money

When Did Selling Out Become Cashing In?

Clyde Smith, PhD: My So-Called [Academic] Life

Since Flux Research is intended, in part, to be a place to connect my diverse writing activities, I thought I'd mention that you can find an archive of some of my academic writing at Cultural Research. Topics include study of a dance conservatory well-known for abusive treatment of students, gender studies and curriculum design.

Most of this was written while earning my MA in Dance Studies at UNC-Greensboro followed by a PhD in Cultural Studies at Ohio State University in the final decade of the 20th Century.

I was fairly prolific with numerous peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations as well as a few book chapters. I took full advantage of academia's blind review system which features peer review without identifying the author of the submitted research. On the web, nobody knows you're a dog. In academia, blind peer review means nobody knows you're a grad student!

Sadly, I was one of those who did not end up with a teaching position in higher ed. But, if things go the way I'd like them to, it may all work out just fine.

I am highly critical of higher education in many respects but I'll save that for another day. Also, I intend to return to certain research topics but with writing for a popular audience. That, too, is for another day.

Tapjoy: Making Money on Mobile Games

Making Money on Mobile Workshop:
Best Practices & Tips for Driving Revenue on Mobile Games

7 Questions for Business Model Evaluation

The folks at Business Model Alchemist, creators of the process-oriented book Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers, have 7 questions to consider when evaluating your business model though they pack a whole lot more into this post:

1. How much do switching costs prevent your customers from churning?

2. How scalable is your business model?

3. Does your business model produce recurring revenues?

4. Do you earn before you spend?

5. How much do you get others to do the work?

6. Does your business model provide built-in protection from competition?

7. Is your business model based on a game changing cost structure?

In addition to digging into what such questions should entail, they make the statement that "ultimately, customers are the only relevant judges of your business model."

I understand where they're coming from but I'd try running that one by the Foxconn employees who manufacture great products like those created by Apple and see what they have to say!

Available on Barnes&Noble.com:
Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

Simply Zesty Turns Music Industry Stats Into Fun Video

Shifts in Music Business Models & Related Stats

This is a fun little video created by Simply Zesty.  Don't know where they got the stats from and I haven't been gathering that sort of thing but there are some interesting points to consider.

Via Mashable.