There’s a big difference between a community and a marketplace. A community means a group of people gathered around a locality, a similar governing style, or a common set of beliefs. (In fact, most definitions stopped at locality being the organizing factor- something to consider). A community, by itself, has nothing to do with money, making money, exchanging wealth, or sustaining the greater good. A marketplace, however, thrives on it.
Big Al’s
When I got into archery in 2003, I found a really local archery store up the street called Big Al’s Archery. I found that the folks there were engaging, had lots of great information, and didn’t seem too eager to spend my money, as much as they were interested in making sure I had a good time with archery. Sometimes, I’d want to buy something that was way too expensive and professional for my meager skill level, and they’d show me the cheapie version that’d get me by. Other times, they’d warn me when I was going to buy low and need something better.
Big Al’s is a marketplace. Tons of people gather around there and it feels like community, but they’re set up to make money.
The Call for Merchants and a Marketplace
Most of the people I know creating an audio or video podcast are all wondering how they’re going to make money doing it. They want to quit their day jobs and earn a living. And yet, are we creating a product? Are we creating something that can be sold at a marketplace? Yes and no.
Traditional media was created to build audience, and then the audience was sold to advertisers to place ads against. Simple enough, eh? The marketplace activity was the show’s owners (like a network) showing their numbers (demographics, and the audience size, etc) to advertisers, and then asking a certain price to grant the advertisers access to those markets. To make this work, advertisers need to know that their ads ran, and get a sense as to how many people consumed the ads. And as technology has advanced, this has, of course, become trickier.
What about you? What’s your product?
The Marketplace
There are more tools than you can shake a stick at for creating a marketplace these days. There are lots of people looking to make money using these tools. But at the end, we really all have to step way far back and consider what we’re proposing here: we’re thinking (“we” = podcasters, bloggers, videobloggers, and of that subset, folks trying to make a dime in this field) that the value is in our content. Partly true. The value is in creating an audience, growing the audience, being able to reach the audience and have that audience respond to what you ask it to do, and then finding a way to make money from that active response system.
Hit them for money all the time, and your marketplace will run away. And yet, public radio and broadcasting have raised money the old fashioned way forever. So which is right? I don’t know, but I know I don’t want to be pitched to spend money all the time. So how can you make it feel more like a system of give and take? What kinds of EXTRAS can you give to an audience? Galacticast puts your name up in their credits. I think that’s cool, right? But how many hits will they get before that runs dry? That’s another question entirely. Sustainable income sources is even trickier to consider.
Deeper Channels
If the future of new media is building a deep niche and servicing it, then it falls upon you as a new media type to better understand what your niche needs, and to service that need. Reaching the audience is the first hurdle. Growing it, the second. And then from there, it’s a question of better understanding how you’re going to dig in there and get people to participate and spend money and help grow your future.
Hits and Misses?
Who out there has been successful in making money from their niche or their audience? Who out there has seen some great failures? The more we communicate, the faster we’ll find those tools you need to make a little income from your effort.
And what about those of you (like me) who don’t want to make money off our blogs and podcasts? It’s still okay to just do it for fun, for promotion, for a platform. What are YOU getting from this space? Are you truly just a community and not a marketplace?
Oh, and that’s another question entirely: are you a merchant, or are you the marketplace? There’s a place for both. Which are you?
Photo credit HeySandra
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