One business model involves taking information that is largely available elsewhere for free, putting it behind a pay- or registration wall, and charging for admission. Let’s call it the obfuscation business model. It’s not a novel concept, nor is it entirely a sham. In theory, the verticalization or aggregation will add a certain amount of value to a select group of people. For folks that are creative or persistent to do enough digging around, the information is available elsewhere, but for others who are either in a hurry or not technologically inclined, there’s an option to pay for access.
The secret’s out.
Here’s the thing. As more of the web’s content gets indexed (yes, Google can index some AJAX; yes, Google completes forms to index more content from your site), RSS feeds like Google Alerts and aggregation searching and filtering methods like Yahoo pipes, Google Reader and Netvibes become more mainstream and accessible, (ie, if streams are the new pages) these sites will no longer be able to monetize commodity content by putting it behind a pay wall. Both traditional and web-based content businesses are finding a need to evolve just as other business models were challenged when a ‘paradigm shifted.’ (Forgive me, I couldn’t resist the cliche)
Here are a list of non-content businesses that were dramatically affected when something similar happened to them: Travel agents were crushed by the first wave of travel sites and further by kayak; their ‘deals’ were no longer exclusive. Realtors were affected by zillow and trulia. Recruiters and premium job boards were affected by indeed and simplyhired. Ebay by craigslist…
The idea of ‘you have to come to my site and pay to play because I offer something unique you can’t get elsewhere’ is waning, now, for content businesses.
Where does that leave us?
- Write fresh, unique content that offers a new perspective and provides value – err.. no shortcuts. Nothing clever for me to say here. Hundreds of brilliant folks have used publishing content as a way to add value to customers and prospects while demonstrating their expertise.
- Let users generate your content and win on technology – Any platform provider has done this. Twitter, Bazaarvoice, Facebook…
- Leverage partnerships for content; win on biz dev and sales - Demand Media comes to mind here.
What else can businesses do when obfuscation no longer works?
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