We'll just put ads on
blog.codeable.io
We'll just put ads on
1–10 of 52 posts
Re: We'll just put ads on
#2> If the answer involves advertising, think again, chances are it’s a poor business model. Now you might say that [insert your favourite startup here] did it and succeeded, but let me warn you, those are the exception to the rule.
Perhaps. But the startup that succeeds is the exception to the rule, REGARDLESS of their model for making money. And I have seen quite a few that worried first about getting customers and only later about how to make a profit off them.
It's not that making a profit is unimportant (it is incredibly important, and also very hard). It is that making something that is successful is ALSO incredibly important, and is even harder. If you can solve the harder problem (being successful), perhaps later you can solve the problem of being profitable also. If you can solve both from the start that's even better, but not everyone can do that.
Re: We'll just put ads on
#3> If the answer involves advertising, think again, chances are it’s a poor business model. Now you might say that [insert your favourite startup here] did it and succeeded, but let me warn you, those are the exception to the rule. Perhaps. But the startup that succeeds is the exception to the rule, REGARDLESS of their model for making money. And I have seen quite a few that worried first about getting customers and o…
Actually I have a post planned for the market fit as well - but yes, I mostly agree with you. But the problem arises when you try to fundraise (and many startups do) - then you'll have to have a very clear idea about making money. Based on my experience, it's pretty much the only thing investors care about.
Re: We'll just put ads on
#4This advice is reasonable for most types of startup though not particularly those in media where advertising is still a leading and viable form of monetization (principally because most media companies start from and focus on the question: how do we serve advertising efficiently and profitably? It's not a side project.)
Slapping ads on a regular webapp will rarely yield much income without high amounts of traffic, but savvy media companies who can target and deliver high impact advertising aren't crazy to lean on it as their primary form of income (although diversifying into subscriptions and products ASAP is a good idea, nonetheless).
Re: We'll just put ads on
#5> If the answer involves advertising, think again, chances are it’s a poor business model. Now you might say that [insert your favourite startup here] did it and succeeded, but let me warn you, those are the exception to the rule. Perhaps. But the startup that succeeds is the exception to the rule, REGARDLESS of their model for making money. And I have seen quite a few that worried first about getting customers and o…
I don't think you can just separate these two issues. If you do not monetize your solution it will often be more attractive and thus the traction you get will be misleading. For example, I'm sure I could make a very popular product by simply giving away terabytes of free storage and bandwidth exposed through a simple API and web interface. But that would do nothing but attract the kind of takers that would never pay for anything while it hemorrhages money.
Re: We'll just put ads on
#6This advice is reasonable for most types of startup though not particularly those in media where advertising is still a leading and viable form of monetization (principally because most media companies start from and focus on the question: how do we serve advertising efficiently and profitably? It's not a side project.) Slapping ads on a regular webapp will rarely yield much income without high amounts of traffic, bu…
(principally because most media companies start from and focus on the question: how do we serve advertising efficiently and profitably? It's not a side project.)
That right there is why a lot of programmers these days fail tomake any money with advertising. They see it as an add-on, rather than the product itself. Advertising is the product.
Re: We'll just put ads on
#7This post has a very naive understanding of online advertising. Here's a breakdown:
- If you're thinking of advertising in terms of just slapping on some Google Adsense then you need high amounts (millions of users per month) of traffic to make reasonable money.
- If you're thinking of specific kinds of targeted advertising, this can be very powerful depending on your niche. If you can hire a sales team to push advertising in those niches, you may be very successful, especially if you can show quality ROI to advertisers. eg. a cancer hospital advertising on a site with cancer related information.
- If you're thinking of other kinds of advertising, business partnerships in terms of 'upsells' to a free product work really well too.
The above is a gross generalization but claiming that 'advertising' is a broken business model is laughable. There are definitely certain use cases where online advertising can be your business model and of-course others where it would absolutely not work.
The main downside of advertising supported business is that advertising can go in and out of demand, so you add an additional issue/unknown/risk in terms of product revenues.
TLDR; most high traffic sites can make reasonable money from online advertising.
Re: We'll just put ads on
#8This post has a very naive understanding of online advertising. Here's a breakdown: - If you're thinking of advertising in terms of just slapping on some Google Adsense then you need high amounts (millions of users per month) of traffic to make reasonable money. - If you're thinking of specific kinds of targeted advertising, this can be very powerful depending on your niche. If you can hire a sales team to push adver…
In my personal experience 90% of people with ideas think about advertising, when in reality, only 5% (I'm guesstimating) make serious money with it. Or maybe even less.
Re: We'll just put ads on
#9This advice is reasonable for most types of startup though not particularly those in media where advertising is still a leading and viable form of monetization (principally because most media companies start from and focus on the question: how do we serve advertising efficiently and profitably? It's not a side project.) Slapping ads on a regular webapp will rarely yield much income without high amounts of traffic, bu…
(principally because most media companies start from and focus on the question: how do we serve advertising efficiently and profitably? It's not a side project.) That right there is why a lot of programmers these days fail tomake any money with advertising. They see it as an add-on, rather than the product itself. Advertising is the product.
The users are the product. Advertising is how you sell them. If you think about the advertising model as selling your users/visitors then the high volume required becomes more obvious. You don't sell an ad slot for $1k. You sell a user for a tenth of a penny.
Re: We'll just put ads on
#10Advertising is a beautiful business model that can work very well. I mean, it's obviously working for a LOT of people. And very well.
The only reason I don't want to do ad-supported products is because I believe in delivering value that users are willing to pay for. That's the kind of products I want to build. Simple as that.
Something something, business and user interests aligned.