Craigslist turns classifieds and trust into $100 million in 2009
Craigslist's business model may not seem aggressive — most of the classifieds site's content is posted free — but its community-based model is on track to rake in revenue this year. Craigslist.org is projected to earn $100 million in revenue according to a study by the AIM Group.
And part of the secret sauce is in the Craigslist community. Instead of focusing on generating revenue, Craigslist says it relies on “local communities to suggest ways to make money without compromising craigslist” And that appears to be working, and CEO Craig Newmark says that he is “constantly engaged in community service,” and the site is heavily focused on engaging its community of users.
Most postings on the site are free, but the company charges recruiters and real estate brokers in major cities between $10 and $75 to post job and property listings. 80% of the projected revenue is expected to come from the more than 1 million job listings Craigslist posts a month, with real estate making up the remainder.
In contrast, newspaper ad revenues are down 29%, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
Why AT&T cares more about new iPhone users than existing ones
The new iPhone will be released on June 19th, and while data upgrades, new features and lower costs makes the product attractive to new users, current iPhone owners may experience sticker shock when they try to upgrade on June 19th.
AT&T customers purchasing an iPhone for the first time will be able to get a 16 or 32GB phone for $199 or $299. But many customers in the middle of their AT&T contracts for first or second generation models will have to spend $399 and $499 to upgrade.
The price increase has already gotten a negative response from many vocal iPhone owners. The Washington Post called the new iPhone a “sucker’s bet” yesterday, while CNNMoney is waiting until Christmas to get one, and TechCrunch thinks it's a "very questionable upgrade."
Angering early adopters may not work out for AT&T longterm — AT&T's exclusive contract with Apple could expire as soon as next year — but in light of its unusual relationship with Apple and the cost of supporting the network-sucking smartphones, it looks as if AT&T is focusing on growing the iPhone user base at the cost of customer loyalty.
Ad agencies aren't going away. But some of their services may be.
It was all about data at the Digiday conference in New York today. Marketers had converged to discuss the future of advertising agencies, behavioral targeting, and ad networks, and were probably relieved to hear reiterations that their collective demise had been overstated.
All three topics are constantly on the precipice of being verbally written off. There's talk of Google and ad networks killing off ad agencies, privacy concerns killing the practice of behavioral targeting, and ad networks cutting off air to one other.
Why free software could help save media
The notion that information wants to be free might be good for many consumers, but it is isn't exactly welcomed by people who want to sell that information. According to Simon Dumenco, however, technology wants to be free as
well. And that should help people looking to sell information.
Writes Dumenco at AdAge today: "Here's why I'm suddenly hopeful about the media industry: Because the tech industry is screwed too."
The Wall Street Journal is considering a "hyperpaid" model. Will it work?
The Wall Street Journal may be getting more expensive. The business paper has been making headlines of late for growing its revenues behind a pay wall while other papers are bleeding ad revenue. But is the Journal the exception to the rule, or just ahead of the curve of paying more money for content?
Speaking at the Digiday: Networks conference in New York, Brian Quinn, the Journal's vice president of digital ad sales, said that the newspaper is so happy with its subcription results that it is looking to push the website toward a "hyperpaid" model. And Quinn said that there are initiatives across Newscorp trying to try to get people to pay even more for its content.
Just last week, former AOL exec and current Chief Digital Officer at News Corp. John Miller suggested that Hulu content might soon go behind a pay wall. But will charging for content work for all Dow Jones properties?
Frontier Airline's customer service fail
Brands are quickly learning that they ignore social media at their own peril. Customer
service should be at the forefront of any brand’s strategy, and Twitter
presents an excellent opportunity for to engage with consumers. Instant,
helpful responses can do wonders for a brand. But ignoring customer
feedback can bury you.
One company that might learn this the hard way is Frontier Airlines. The airline recently changed its standby
policy. In so doing, they angered a very vocal customer. But he wasn’t
the only one upset by Frontier’s approach.
Internet ad revenues: How low can they go?
In a matter of months, predictions for online advertising growth have slowed, stalled, and retreated. And now that we're getting results for the first quarter of 2009, it is clear that online advertising is not immune to market forces.
According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, advertising revenues online have officially taken a dip this year. In the first three months of 2009, ad revenue online fell 5% to $5.5 billion.
iPhone advertising is about to get social
Apple fans are eagerly anticipating the release of the new iPhone on July 5, and it looks like advertisers will have a reason to get excited as well. Mobile ad platform AdMob has announced three new types of ad units. Each come with social, search
and rich media features, and will be available in July.
Digg translates its strengths into advertising
Social news site Digg is introducing a new “social advertising platform” this week that
will allow users to vote advertisements up and down the way that Digg users currently curate news content. The approach may not be new – companies like Facebook and RazorFish have created similar ads — but the Digg community offers a lot of potential for the strategy.
For starters, Digg users are already in the business of rating content.
The Mahalo Method: Cut costs by paying users to produce content
Jason Calacanis is hoping to increase user generated content at his "human search engine" Mahalo with a new revenue sharing model that lets users split the site's profits.
The two year web directory announced the changes at New York Tech Meetup on Tuesday. According to Calacanis:
"We need to get out of the page creation business and move to the next level."
Until now, entries on Mahalo were created by a small team of paid staffers. Now, any user can claim a topic, maintain and esentially own it. But unlike the Wikipedia model, where users create and update pages for free, Mahalo is letting users in on the profits of their labor, with a 50/50 split of the ad revenue on created pages.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
