Hi! Thanks for the question.
Here are ways, some virtual communities or those which encourage much
viewer participation, use their sites to generate income.
Craigslist ? One of the most popular community based website which
features jobs and other product offerings.
Fees for Job Posts: $75
http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/job-cost.html
Pre-Purchase of Block Job Posts: $500
http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/accounts.html
-----------------------
LinkedIn- A popular business based virtual community.
LinkedIn Business account ? ?$15 per month and gives you 3 InMails?
per month with a 7-day response guarantee, 10 active Introductions,
unlimited reference searches, and 1-business-day customer service.?
LinkedIn Business Plus ? ?$50 per month and gives you 10 InMails? per
month with a 7-day response guarantee, 25 active Introductions,
unlimited reference searches, and 1-business-day customer service.?
https://www.linkedin.com/static?key=customer_service#c
Premium Version LinkedIn Groups ? ?Pricing for the premium version
starts at $5,000 for the first year. ?
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3521231
------------------------
Match.com ? A popular dating site which gets its revenue from paid
subscribers. Its traffic is fueled by partnerships with major portals
and content providers.
"Match's revenue statement from the third quarter of last year says
the site has over 650,000 subscribers, each of whom pay $24.95 a month
- a 158 percent increase over the same period in 2001. Match's third
quarter revenue was $33.4 million.? (2002 FIGURES)
?Jonathan Gaw, an analyst with research firm IDC, says that Match
attained its large user base partially through "a very advantageous
deal with America Online." But Match's AOL alliance is only one of
many portal relationships the site leverages for distribution; others
include MSN, Excite, EarthLink, Netscape and BET. ?
?Case Study: Match.com?
http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/news/article.php/1577861
Current Financial Highlights for Match.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/107/107288.html
----------------------------------
Boston.com (Second Chances)
http://boards.boston.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=bc-personalmain
?Boston.com, which is owned by the New York Times (Quote, Chart),
recently launched a 'Second Chances' feature that allow unregistered
users to publish short text-based notes to people with whom they had a
chance encounter. ?
?Boston.com isn't using the per-month subscription model. Instead, the
company sells credits (for $24.95, users can purchase 25 credits).
Those credits can then be used to buy access to reply to the
personals. De Sisto said more than 65,000 members have registered for
Boston.com's personals, with 10 percent of those purchasing credits.
?We're generating about 4 million page views a month. And, on those
pages, we're serving targeted ads. We have advertising geared to the
online dating demographic,? De Sisto explained.?
?Online Personals: Big Profits, Intense Competition?
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/2228891
---------------------------
Wikipedia: Wikipedia is an interesting website because it is a free
encyclopedia which can be edited by its users.
Wikipedia supports itself through donations since it is a non-profit
group. It also sells merchandise at Café Press.
Wikipedia: Donations
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising
Wikipedia: Store
http://www.cafepress.com/wikipedia
----------------------------
Finally, this very site, Google Answers is a virtual community as
well. It generates revenues when users ask questions and set their own
price to receive answers from researchers. It also gets advertisement
profits from sponsored links. Non-researchers can also post their own
views and findings for free.
Search terms used:
"business models" "virtual communities"
I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.
Regards,
Easterangel-ga
Google Answers Researcher |
