Do you have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account? The answer is likely yes as these social platforms are dominating the internet and collecting users faster than my glass table collects dust. However, have you thought about the different ways people are monetizing this “stream” of information? There is a pretty divided debate going on across the internet right now about whether or not Twitter, Facebook etc. should allow their users to interject advertisements into their streams because they are afraid it will damage the overall experience that users have with the services. What the pundits don’t realize about these ads is that all other forms of content publication have been generating revenues for their efforts on blogs, newspapers etc. for decades and there is no reason that someone with a large following should not be allowed to create money from this new age audience as well.

In fact some streams are actually made more interesting with the addition of an advertisement as pointed out by 1938media’s Loren Feldman (a largely anti-social media member). These ads may actually enhance the stream because they offer direct value to the audience (a product, service, event etc.) as opposed to simply being the daily ins and outs of a celebrity. As a follower you may actually be more interested in a marketing platform than if your favorite online marketer has gotten his 3rd cup of coffee today.

The current media and social platform love child for monetization is Ad.ly which has paired “top publishers” with “top brands” for extremely successful payouts, and huge returns for the advertisers. These sponsored streams have garnished a high number of click throughs and a high level of follower trust regardless of their transparent and clearly marked “#ad” or “#spon” denomination. Some of the highest profile users include Internet celebrity “Shoemoney” or Jeremy Schoemaker who has been preaching the benefits of in-stream advertising since day one, including an endorsement for SponsoredTweets.com (an Izea company) even with their low payouts. In fact he has even mentioned that he would be entering the segment had he not signed a non-compete following the sale of his largely successful AuctionAds platform.

What are they doing right?

Ad.ly got it right immediately upon launch, they realized that in order to be successful they needed a volume of publishers (who were willing) and a high payout to keep these publishers motivated to push through the advertisers message. By going with higher profile publishers and advertisers they were able to get a large sample size, prove the model and take only a small cut in the process. This small cut has led to increased payouts to publishers who then wrote up rave reviews and even bragged about how they were absolutely killing it on Twitter by “Making 15k from 6 tweets in a month” etc. If Ad.ly can keep up this momentum (which is likely with their current 12% referral program) they should be able to confidently corner the market and either reap the benefits off of the advertising revenues or sell to a giant such as Google much like Ad Mob did just last month for $750 Million.

What can they do better?

They are extremely sensitive to the fact that in order to become the defacto standard, they must also cater to the smaller scale publishers. Much like AdSense was able to do for small scale publishers in the traditional web content Ad.ly hopes to bring revenues into the long tail by using self service advertisements that allow any advertiser (most potentially affiliate marketers) and infuse their advertisements into a variety of publishers (or publishers based on keywords). These additional dollars will not only allow the small publishers a piece of the action but will allow for relationship control that is not managed by Ad.ly itself.

Arguably these self service platform could diminish the gigantic returns that advertisers and publishers have been seeing through the service, however it should bring enough new faces and dollars into the system that everyone should come out on top. If you are interested in checking out the Ad.ly program we have included a link below, as well as to SponsoredTweets.

For full disclosure, both links below are affiliate links; therefore any sign ups will benefit this blog.

Ad.ly – InStream Advertising

SponsoredTweets – Izea

With the launch of MyBigGive I have been asked quite frequently about why I decided to go with a for profit organizational structure with such an altruistic ideology. The problem with most consumers is that we have all been trained to think that only registered non-profits can create value for good causes without some hidden advantage. That being said however, it should be clarified that even if an organization is labeled as a true “non-profit” this does not exempt these organizations from having ridiculously high salaries for their executive that deduct from the total value the organization can offer their intended cause.

So back to the primary question, why choose a for profit business model when your ultimate goal is create impact for well known charities and causes? Can a business actually thrive under these circumstances? I believe that the answer yes it can thrive, however there is some work to be done in the area of consumer interpretation for your business model. If the business is able to convey that they profit based on performance and percentages, thus only when the causes earn more money does the firm earn more money. This model of performance puts the core functionality of the business first in line, and in this case that core functionality and desire is to create profits and impact for the charities/causes in order to develop a small profit for the firm itself.

Another item to note with a for profit business is that when it’s primary goal is to drive additional revenues so that it can execute on generating funds for causes it is allowed to build up a cash reserve to strategically grow the business and help float the firm through down times when it would otherwise have to let employees go. This built up cash reserve would not be possible with a non-profit leaving it more vulnerable to volatile markets as well diminishing the promotional leverage that the entity would have when opportunities present themselves. With a for profit business model, the firm is able to truly maximize it’s returns when specialized opportunities arise and holistically drive more dollars and value long run into a cause than a simple non-profit would be able to on its own.

My belief that for profit businesses can drive the next wave of socially responsible consumerism, and allow for value without inflated cost is why we chose not to be a non-profit with MyBigGive. We still feel that we have a streamlined process that will allow for a huge portion (70% of all commissions) to be drive back to causes that the users/community vote on and create a profit. We want to strategically make the biggest impact possible, and we don’t see any other way to accomplish such an ambitious task without building ourselves in this fashion.

If you have any feedback or questions please leave them in the comments section, or reply on our facebook fan page and/or a public reply with our twitter feed. All links will be provided below on ways you can interact, engage and enable social change.

http://www.facebook.com/mybiggive

http://www.twitter.com/mybiggive

http://www.mybiggive.com

It has been noted a few times that Digg wants to change the way they monetize their advertising inventory by engaging their visitors to judge the quality of the advertisement (as well as relevancy to the audience). Digg’s methodology for completing this is to charge an advertiser less for the higher amount of “Digg’s” the advertisement receives. Thus rewarding the advertiser for creating high quality ad copy and finding suitable content that actually resonates with Digg’s installation base.
Today I caught a glimpse of Digg Ads in action and I have to admit that I like this integration much more than the standard banner ads that most websites run as a revenue model. The content is suitable, interesting and unobtrusive. An advertisement that actually provides value? Google thinks their AdSense program adds value by offering “additional content to users”, but this is the first system that I have seen that might truly add value to the user experience of any given website.