Ten Monetization Myths

Heather Luttrell knows all about online advertising. She’s the president of Indieclick, an ad network for online communities. She’s talked to many advertisers, publishers, and community members, and she knows how to monetize without upsetting the community.

Luttrell shared 10 myths and misconceptions about growing and monetizing communities:

1. If we build it, they will come.
2. Member acquisition won’t cost us anything.
3. Bandwidth is cheap and won’t cost any more as we grow.
4. We can add advertising space to the design after we have built an audience.
5. Our audience won’t accept ads.
6. Ads will look terrible.
7. Direct (or indirect) sales will sell our ads.
8. We need detailed data to manage sales.
9. We are getting 1000s of hits. Surely they are worth some ad dollars.
10. Advertising is our only source of revenue.

(This is part of the CommunityNext Week in Lists. Photo credit: Marc Levin.)