Business models for blog technologies

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David Teten and Scott Allan of Online Business Networks have written a useful article on Twelve Business Models for Blog Technologies.

Some interesting ideas if you’re thinking about business or investment opportunities around blogging.

Summary:

Traditional businesses leveraging blogs:

  1. Individual virtual presence – the use of a blog to enhance your visibility and professional reputation. Benefits include marketing, job search, and business development.
  2. Corporate virtual presence – the creation of blogs by employees to connect with customers, partners and others. Benefits include one-to-one-marketing, market feedback, and humanizing the firm.
  3. Using blogs to improve existing processes – many companies are using blogs to replace email newsletters, mailing lists, discussion forums, and other existing communication tools.

Selling blog technology:

  1. Technology sales focused on individuals – generally, blog software and newsreaders. Revenue is based on a combination of one-time icensing and monthly fees.
  2. Technology sales to the enterprise – blogging tools with an emphasis on the corporate market.

Media businesses using blogs:

  1. Blog-based media – publishers who use blogs as their technological infrastructure. Revenue is typically from advertising.
  2. Premium content – the use of blogs to deliver subscription-based content.
  3. Online communities – blog-centric online communities are similar in business model to forum-centric communities. Revenue is typically made through a combination of advertising and fees for premium services.

Peripheral services:

  1. Enabling advertising to blog audience – tools that allow bloggers to receive a share of what advertisers pay for advertising on their site.
  2. Data about the blogosphere – tools for making better use of the many blogs out there, including news readers, aggregators, search engines, and other data analysis tools. Revenue is based on a combination of advertising and fees for premium services.
  3. Consulting – working with organizations to make more effective use of blogs for both internal knowledge management and externally-facing communications.
  4. Education – providing mass-market interactive training and published books and other materials for learning to make effective use of blogs.

See the original article for additional commentary and specific examples.

Online Business Networks | Twelve Business Models for Blog Technologies