Decide your company's monetisation strategy
Elaborating on the business models, I’ve broken down different instances of four popular models, with examples of how companies have used them to their advantage.
Of course, these are not the only strategies in existence for making money on the internet, but they are all in widespread use by a range of successful web enterprises, and have been shown to work. As such, they should provide a good basis for you to start thinking about how your own business can monetise its products and services, taking into account the unique factors mvolved in your market.
1. Cross-selling model
Gillette does this very well, selling its razors at a (relatively) affordable price, but making the real money on the blades, which have to be replaced.
2. Traffic volume/ monetising eyeballs model
This is something Facebook has learned to do extremely well, offering us its platform to share data, photos and so on in exchange for a captive audience for advertisers.
3. Consultancy model
This is where your ‘product’ is your time and your expertise, sold on an hourly or daily rate. A website here is used primarily as a portfolio/brochure from which to drive business.
4. Peer-to-peer market model
The model used by firms such as eBay, which brokers buyers and sellers and takes a cut from transactions. There’s also the intermediary model, used by the likes of MoneySupermarket, which aggregates data to drive a high audience (very appealing to advertisers).
