I have been working on a social network that has garnered more than 11k active users and I am trying to look at a few business models, I am not all in for the classic ad model and hence looking for alternatives, what are your thoughts?
Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
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Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
#2Do you have a front page? People can pay to make posts to the front page. It is advertising; i don't think there is any other kind of viable model for a social media / forum site, they are themeselves essentially personal advertising boards
Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
#3Depending how much your social network involves self-expression, you could maybe charge for allowing extra avatars, customising fonts and colours of their posts, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
#4Unless there is an unexpected change in human nature, any social media platform will need to be FREE.
So the only way to make one work without ads is to have a philanthropist fund it. Another option might be for it to be set up by some research organisation which wishes to mine certain aspects of social interactions.
Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
#5Depending how much your social network involves self-expression, you could maybe charge for allowing extra avatars, customising fonts and colours of their posts, etc.
Didn't Second Life try that? Was long before Facebook.
Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
#6Perhaps non-tracking, contextual ads could also help if nothing else works.
Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
#7Maybe some kind of VIP features?
Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
#8It depends on the product. You could try premium features (pay to unlock avatars, or an exclusive area/forum, that kind of thing.)
The challenge is you already set the expectation that everything is free. Advertising is probably the least disruptive way to monetize. I would reconsider advertising. There’s a reason it’s a popular business model.
Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
#9First, kudos on thinking beyond advertising.
Depending on the Terms, analytics of your data might be valuable. What data do you have, what could be learned from it, and who would pay for that knowledge?
Depending on user stickiness, you could move to a paid model. And depending on your definition of "monetize" this wouldn't need to be prohibitive, e.g. $1 per year, or $1 for lifetime/device membership. Of course, we're all spoiled by "free" services at the moment, so obvious caveats apply.
If you own the platform and the code, could you make a corporate or white-labelled version? Would Megacorp pay for a branded version for their 1000s of users?
Could you exit and sell to Megacorp? Are you screwing over your users if you do this? Is there some sort of halfway-house alternative, e.g. a big player in a relevant field who would pay you to continue development and support? See recent HN conversations about monetising open-source projects for discussions about this sort of model (whether yours is open-source or not these conversations might still be relevant).
Could your users monetise their own content, and pay you a slice, kinda like substack et al?
Re: Ask HN: How can you monetize a social media platform without ads?
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