What Would You Do If You Owned Hypebot?
No Hypebot isn’t for sale. (OK, I guess everything has a price…). But I do want to make it better.
So if I gave you the keys to the kingdom (aka passwords to the Typepad account), how would you change Hypebot? What topics would you cover? Would you do more interviews or fewer? What polls would your run, if any? Would you do more commentaries?
And how would you monetize all of this hard work? Sell ads direct to the industry? Job listings? Consulting? Tip jar? A Hypebot ebook? Don’t even try?
PS – Thanks to those who convinced me to keep up the time consuming daily music industry briefing. I’m glad its a daily first look for some of you and promise to keep it going.
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What would be great is if, when clicking on links, the address bar didn’t continue to show hypebot. It makes it a real pain to bookmark links and I think the site loses value because of it, at least to a researcher like myself who is constantly referencing things.
Having said that, I have moved from digital msuci news e-mails to just reading hypebot recently. It has all the info I need and is written in a clear concisive manner, while I feel DMN has this 1970’s MBA tint to it: were everybody thought the way to communicate was to try to sound smart. The best way to communicate (later MBAs would learn) is to be clear and understood! I really treasure this site!
Bruce –
This answer is probably no surprise coming from me – sell advertising! As a reader I expect valuable free content to include advertising.
Marc
hey bruce,
I always thought your interviews were great, but a little short. I’d like more indepth and probing interviews around some of the subjects you’ve already covered.
I don’t think a tipjar is a bad idea. I know Coolfer deserves a few bucks from me every couple of months. I don’t mind advertising but can’t comment on it’s effectiveness to make you $$$
Make an eBook out of your “Top 100 Promotion Tips” and ask for a donation for each copy. Can’t hurt – and there was some very useful stuff there.
Keep it up!
Bruce your topics are well picked but too short on the analysis side. I would prefer less frequent posts and more deepness.
Don’t change a thing.
Feel free to sell more ads if you like.
Hypebot has all the important relevant news in a concise fashion which is great, and keep up the analysis stuff too – interpretations of events and perspectives are really important to readers.
And of course go ahead and sell advertising…everyone needs to be paid for their work, unless you feel this site is giving you additional exposure and leads in your other lines of business
Please continue doing what’s most comfortable, this site is an outstanding resource for me. I’ve started a record label this past year and this site is invaluable knowledge. I thank you much.
Blog Monetization: A tough one. I don’t think you have the traffic to make banner or Adsense advertising a serious source of cash. Your audience is small yet highly diverse. This makes it difficult for a niche advertiser to justify a buy as well. However your daily industry headlines draw traffic…from a desirable target market…in the entertainment and media industries. Big companies want that attention as well.
As an example, NBCU-NWS is trying to tell the world about HULU…but no one’s listening or believing. Likewise we hear Universal beginning the dreambeat on Total Music. You could provide them with a trusted platform to discuss their plans with the “industry”. However just as no one reads sponsored sections in the Economist proclaiming the wonders of investment in Macedonia, you’d need to add interactive features. Get feedback. Have a debate (albeit controlled). Perhaps CDBaby, Amazon, Emusic and FYE could tell their stories and really debate their value propositions. (Yes I’m a 1970s MBA).
If you can do something big for the big boys they’ll take care of you.
Thanks everyone for these great comments and ideas. Very inspirational. Please keep ’em coming.
And thanks for reading.
I think what ya do is great…and is fine as it is…
more interviews would be great, or even news on the international front…
p.s you can save the “deepness” for ranters like Lefsetz & those who can have time for such crapola…
keep the shallow end free for the people that want to get toes wet, but not drown in the sorrows…
p.s adds can be a somewhat tacky but easily obtained source of revenue, however unless a solid sponsor appears…you are looking at lil’ checks of $50-$100 every couple months for text etc if traffic is good.
a better arranged deal with specific sponsor might get ya more solid cash…