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Does the Medium Change the Message?

May 20, 2009

No doubt in the first years of the content for fee model, professional online content will be dominated by properties that are well known in the offline world. When people download fiction on their e-reader they will favor such names as Stephen King, John Grisham and J.K. Rowling. When they look to license a cartoon they will gravitate toward Dilbert, Baby Blues and other features at CartoonResource.com. Well known columnists in the hard copy newspaper world are, and will continue to be for some time, the names that people seek to find in their Google and ALOT searches.

The internet will spawn its own properties and famous creators. These creators will understand the specific characteristics and aesthetics of the internet, and even more importantly will understand in what ways the human brain, spirit and attention span have been changed by search and surfing. Also of prime importance to a creator is the main fact of the internet, and perhaps the single biggest fact to be considered in contemporary human society: the internet offers the potential to reach every single human being in the world right at this moment in time.

If every one in the world, every member of every race, religion, tribe, country, political belief and economic condition, will eventually be on the internet, why not create properties for them now? Internet creators have already accepted one condition: faith. Ten years ago, if you were spending precious work hours doing web development for e-commerce sites, it was because you believed that the potential of the internet would become a reality. Believe that still for the vast tracts of the world that lack the technology adaptation and political leadership to have access. The barriers will fall. Consider the importance, then, of creating an online novel, comic strip, music and movie library, that will provide a welcoming appeal to those who will soon meet us here.

Consider also the following characteristics, their connection to information and to the collective subconscious of humanity:

1. Hyperlinks between all knowledge, emotion, human experience, between all humans.

2. First hand accounts of life in all parts of the world, therefore avoiding a media filter.

3. Open space of close communication, and within the openness created by one-on-one communication,

the tantalizing chance at endless space provided by one-with-and-among-four billion communication.

This is a new universe we are creating.

Category: Kindle, Blogging

The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached

or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Andrew Grossman.

He can be contacted through the All Content Network at: andrew@andrewgrossman.net

Future Blogger Income

-Andrew Grossman

April 24, 2009

Yesterday, AT&T gave testimony before a House subcommittee regarding the need

for stricter standards to protect consumer privacy online. Specifically, many consumers

resent having details of their web surfing culled by tech companies and then sold

to advertisers for the purpose of developing targeted ads. Telecom companies such as

AT&T have been criticized for an experiment called 'deep packet inspection'. This

technology gathers info about web users by examining the data on their networks.

Google, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo increasingly use such information to develop and

sell targeted ads.

The standards to which we hold media companies today will effect the individual

content site owner of the future. Consider that a primary source of revenue for

bloggers is to sell space on their sites for product promotions. For instance, the owner

of a popular blog for mothers is paid to publish promo text about a new baby stroller

Viewers assume that the site owner is recommending the product because of personal

experience, not because of being paid.

Additionally, the blogger's list of viewers, as established through means such as an

opt-in newsletter signup, is of value to advertisers. Such a list is pre-sorted because

of the topic of the site, meaning the blogger is essentially providing focus group results

for marketers. The more viewers the more valuable the list. Ethically, however, it is a

no-no to take viewers info for one purpose, such as a subscription, and sell the info for

another purpose, such as ad targeting.

How to get around this? One way, of course, is to tell viewers that a sign-up would

make their info available to marketers. The majority of viewers would then refuse to

sign. Some companies offer an inducement, such as a free gift or subscription, for

signing. Could bloggers economically do the same? Yes they could. In fact, the same

companies that pay for promos now could provide part of the payment in branded

products. The owner of 'www.pipesmokersanonymous.com' could negotiate a payment

of 2000 pipe cases with the site name emblazoned of them, in return for access to

the viewer contact. The viewer would be happy with the free gift, the site owner

would be happy with the free product giveaway, the marketing company would be

happy with the info.

It's all about the viewer numbers. When bloggers understand the value of what

they know about viewer habits, the price for the knowledge will skyrocket.

This column is part of a larger article. To receive the full article, contact:

andrew@andrewgrossman.net

Category: Online Marketing, Online Sales

The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached

or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Andrew Grossman.

He can be contacted through the All Content Network at: andrew@andrewgrossman.net