How to Monetize a Social Network

A review of ways marketers can align with these consumer hot spots. 

Online social networks are hot. Those who participate in them belong to two, three, four, maybe even more than 10 or 20 different ones. They enjoy their features, upload photos, request business contacts and talk with friends. 

For now, consumers get to do this for free. For now.

Although social networking in the offline world may be well-established -- monetized through conferences, venues, referral fees and headhunters -- the online world seems to just be examining the methods of monetization. The general principle still stands: if you have a large database of active users, you can make money -- right?

Here is how it is being done today:

Advertising -- A quick review of ad dollar expenditures in the U.S. reveals that only a small portion of the total is spent online -- but that is going to change fast. Online advertising is once again booming -- and just as public television and print media often can be sustained from pure advertising models, online is no different. The leading social networking sites (MySpace, Friendster and LinkedIN, along with many others) are primarily supported by advertising. Although their aggressive growth strategies mean that some may still be losing money, advertising represents a substantial amount of revenue. 

Revenue Share/Per Transaction Fees -- Someone clicks on her friend’s profile on Friendster and sees that he loves HBO’s hit series "Deadwood." Clicking on the term ‘Deadwood” brings up all the other members who have the same interest -- and an easy-to-purchase link for the "Deadwood" Season One DVD through Amazon. It’s essentially a focused advertising arrangement -- marketers now have precision targeting through social networking profiles, tapping into user interests -- and offering purchase options within very specific filters.

Events -- Although revenue numbers generated from MySpace-style events are difficult to come by, these events are known to be well attended and a driving force behind MySpace’s impressive growth. In general, while it’s unlikely that offline events account for more than 10 percent of any social network’s revenue, events do make for great content and word-of-mouth advertising.

Moving forward, compelling new ways to monetize social networks will continue to emerge. The downside, however, is that some of these methods may not be in the user’s best interest -- and they might end up taking the “cool” edge off these communities. 

The Buying Club/Affiliate Revenue Models -- With Buy.com’s purchase of Metails, a major offline and online retailer has recognized the power of social networking and made a commitment to the space. Yub.com enables users to develop their own social network focused around products, product ratings and, more importantly, a point-based rewards system that lets members benefit from a friend’s purchases. While Yub.com feels like heavy retail -- with a full online mall that has grown rapidly in the last few months -- the site is building a large user base and enticing members to recommend products to friends.

Although the buying club mentality might work only within certain types of social networks, the notion of a point system that rewards users for certain activities should be embraced more broadly. By developing a currency system, a social networking site can create very real incentives (promotions, giveaways, contests, fundraisers) for specific actions, from which everyone can benefit.

Corporate Sponsorship -- Does being a fan of a brand mean that you want the owner of that brand to have all of your personal profile information? Practically speaking, the answer has to do with the type of brand and the reward the user receives for sharing that information. Corporations will take notice of these social networks and begin offering competitive services with products and (if they are smart) experience-based rewards. Just as Icelounge (described as a “MySpace for skaters”) was launched, larger brands will begin to do the same. Increased brand loyalty and sales opportunities will lead directly to monetization.

Country Clubs/Membership Fees -- The SNS world can be a field of dreams -- albeit for a price. As social networking site ASmallWorld.com has recently demonstrated, if you build a great social network -- making it “invite-only,” with restrictions on activities -- well, everyone wants to join. Naseeb likewise has proven that a focused social network, aimed at a specific niche, can justify an admission charge. From where I sit, I’d much rather be part of a social network with fewer members, no advertising, and no corporate sponsorship but that charges for entry. 

Overall, social networking sites are experiencing hockey stick growth and, in the process, influencing new types of two-way brand experiences and community building on the web. Although the approaches to monetization outlined here just scratch the surface, revenue models abound. Any repository of personal data and contact information on a large group of users (perhaps better to call them “consumers”) inevitably translates to profit opportunities. 

Let’s just hope that all our email accounts and personal profiles don’t end up in a spam database though a dot-com SNS auction.

An Increasing Internet Culture Social Media Optimization

Social media optimization is not a tool but it is today’s internet culture. With the social media sites on internet, people have got a good platform to become more social, more interactive and more communicative. Social media optimization doesn’t only allow discovering and reading the content and information but also encourages you to share the knowledge what you have. It is no more a one-way process but is a two way communication.

Social media optimization stresses the fact that your target audiences are real people and you need to be friendly and real to them as you are with your friends and acquaintances. A great way to understand your target audiences is to engage then in an honest conversation and to know them. In social media optimization, you have to provide your target people with grounds like video, audio, mobile accessibility, widget etc. There should regularity in updating the content and providing them a fresh content. You have to expand your network of influences (bloggers, digg etc) and expand your network of content too.

Key factors in social media marketing are to focus on social media sites and knowing your target spectators. Apart from creating a quality content, you have to track and measure the conversion to calculate ROI. Social Media optimization enables the advertiser to create a conversation with the target audience. Social Media can spread across multiple mediums very quickly, and increase your advertising reach. It also creates instant brand awareness. Social media optimization enables us to position your brand to your customers on their own terms and in their environment which results in a more authentic marketing message.

Social media optimization works on the fundamentals of getting people into a conversation and winning them. It is really important to arouse their interests and encourage them to talk about themselves or the things they like. Don’t be afraid introducing a new topic and reward helpful and valuable users.

There is the need to prepare some ground work before you actually start with your social media optimization campaign. Before getting your Social Media Optimization campaign into full swing, your SEO campaign should be put into place to have the highest-ranking site for the keywords that you will be promoting. Once you have ranked your site for all of your important keywords you will be ready to receive all of the new searches. You may call social media optimization a new approach to Word-of-Mouth medium. Social media optimization allows you to efficiently spread the word and generate a curiosity and interest for a relatively unknown or a new product or service.

With every profit you have to be prepared for losses too. There are certain risks involved herein too. There is no guarantee that your submission will be popular and hit the first page of the social media site.

5 Proven Ways To Find Link Exchange Partners

If you're like most small business websites on the internet today, you use link exchanges to market your website. But sometimes finding websites to exchange links with can be a time consuming task. Here are a few proven methods for finding websites to exchange links with.

  

1: Search Engines Queries

Using Google or Yahoo, perform the following searches, replacing “keyword” with a keyword related to your site.

Keyword add url

keyword add site

keyword add link

keyword submit url

keyword submit site

keyword submit link

keyword link exchange

keyword link swap

keyword reciprocal link

keyword related sites

keyword links directory

2: Find out who's linking to your competitor's.

If you can find out who is linking to your competitors, you can try to acquire a link to your site ob each site that already links to your competitors. Just search for link:http://www.competitors-url-here.com

3: Other link directories

Find sites that relate to your site that have link exchange directories. Visit each site in their link directories and attempt to exchange links with each site.

4: Link exchange tools

There are several excellent websites that match webmasters with related sites that are interested in exchanging links. Two of the best are Linkalizer and SiteSell's Value Exchange. In general, you'll want to stay away from sites that completely automate the link exchange process. I have used some of them, but the search engines do not like these sites, and may penalize your site if you use them.

5: Software

There is also software available that searches for and automatically emails sites to see if they will link exchange with you. I have used and like LinkAssistant. If you decide to use this method, ensure that you comply with all spam laws and the search engine's guidelines.

All 5 of these methods are proven, dependable ways to find link exchange partners. Use them and start gaining more free links to your website today!

Avoiding Online Paid Surveys Scams

The bottom line is, if the hype for online paid surveys sounds too good to be true, it likely is. That's the safest way to screen out "offers" that hype big rewards for small investments of time or money. Don't be fooled by:

Testimonials - Ropers and shills typically write these for scams, not satisfied customers.

Documented Proof - Some questionable paid survey sites provide checks and other documental replications as "proof." But just because someone made money at least once, doesn't mean that you will. Besides, with today's computer technology, anybody can counterfeit just about any document and make it look authentic.

Guarantees - Don't believe guarantees that promise the Moon. paid survey sites can't possibly guarantee you much of anything, except that they'll refund your fees if you're not satisfied. But good luck collecting your refund if it's a paid surveys scam.

Reliable- and Trusted-Site Logos - Some questionable paid survey sites display these logos to indicate that they are self-regulating in compliance with the standards represented by the logos. But even legit logos can be stolen, such as those trademarked by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), with a simple right-click of the computer mouse. Click the logos to see where they lead. If they don't lead to valid reports at reputable sites (such as the BBB's official, national reliability site, the URL for which begins with https://www.bbbonline.org/) or the reports are unfavorable, be wary.

The "fine print" at questionable paid survey sites often contradicts much of what their hype implies. (That's how they try to cover themselves legally.) Don't let the hype alone sell you. Read all of the fine print too and ask questions if it's vague or you don't understand it. Think twice about submitting your personal information to any paid surveys site that does not provide a clear privacy policy or arouses your suspicion in any other way. Also read disclaimers, terms, conditions and any other fine print. Avoid sites that don't answer your questions in a satisfactory and timely manner. Be wary of conducting business with sites that list only email or PO box addresses for questions and other matters, as they might be fly-by-night, paid survey scams.

Perform "whois" lookups to reveal if paid survey sites were registered by proxy. If so, be wary of doing business with them too. Site owners might be hiding their contact information behind proxy services, because they're running paid survey scams. Whois lookups will also tell you if different sites were launched by the same owners (unless they were registered by proxy). If so, be wary about that too. Owners might have launched multiple sites so to make their "industry" appear to be more legit, dupe you into buying the same list of paid surveys more than once, or both.

Check with the BBB for complaints against specific online paid survey sites and their owners. But, be aware that, just because there are no complaints, it doesn't mean that all who have conducted business with the sites are 100-percent satisfied. It just means that no one has yet complained to the BBB about those specific sites. More about that is below.

Browse scam forums, such as Scam.com and RipOffReport.com, for messages from consumers who think they've been duped by online paid survey scams. But, proceed with caution. Some messages are posted by ropers and shills pretending to "rescue" those who've been duped by paid survey scams or who are looking to avoid it. For example, the "rescuers" might say that all online paid surveys are scams, except for the "wonderful opportunities" they've found. But, what they don't tell you, is they profit from recommending the "wonderful opportunities". (The same goes for many sites that claim to screen out paid survey scams.) Scam-forum moderators typically remove such messages. But, natch, they'll remain posted until the moderators screen them.

For more information about avoiding scams, see the consumer advice from the FTC and BBB. But, although both have issued general warnings about easy-money schemes (such as work-at-home and Internet business-opportunity scams), at this writing neither has specifically warned about online paid surveys. To issue specific warnings, both agencies typically require many complaints in short order. But many victims don't file complaints, because they're embarrassed that they were duped. Additionally, online paid surveys are a fairly new easy-money scheme at this writing. So, the agencies might not have collected enough complaints to issue specific warnings. But this writer is willing to bet that it won't be long before they do.

If you've been ripped-off by online paid survey scams, as indicated you may file complaints with the FTC and BBB. You may also file complaints with the U.S. government's Internet Fraud Complaint Center.

One of the questions I get most often is how to tell whether a work from home job posting is a scam or a legitimate job. There are some warning flags. In addition, there are sites that can help you determine what's a real work at home job and what isn't.