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What is a Content Business?

by Ann Gynn | Jun 10, 2021 | Audience Building , Revenue

What is a Content Business?

The crazy thing about starting a content business is that it’s not like launching a more traditional business.

You don’t make a plan and a few months later open a storefront, stock it with products, and market it to bring in customers.

Nope, you have to plan your strategy, construct your base, bring in audiences, and then start the revenue-earning opportunities.

And that takes an average of 18 months, according to Joe Pulizzi, founder of The Tilt and author of the recently released Content Inc. , which details a model that works for content businesses.

The Tilt Advice

Let’s explore the seven stages of a content business start-up. And then, we’ll touch on the similarities a content business has with any new business.

For regular readers of The Tilt, some of this should sound familiar. The success differentiator, though, happens when you put them all together.

  • Identify your content sweet spot. I like to think of this as a Venn diagram with your knowledge and skillset in one circle and your audience’s interests in the other. The overlap is the sweet spot for your content business. Let me emphasize your circle. It is not about your interests and passion; it is filled with your knowledge and skills. Now, if your expertise intersects with your passion, that’s great. But too often, content entrepreneur wannabes put passion over knowledge, and that usually doesn’t work.
  • Make your spot sweeter with a tilt. Many content creators fall off the content business path here. They never progress to find a tilt . But a tilt is essential – it’s the differentiator that makes your content business stand out from the rest.  Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables didn’t just launch another parenting podcast. They gave it a tilt – the sticky bits of parenting. And their business name reflects that: What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood. Yes, we talk about having a content tilt every chance we get and even named this content brand because it’s that important for a successful content business.
  • Build your base. You need to pick a single content format and a single distribution platform to start your content business. It takes a while and sometimes can feel like a drudge, especially with all the other attractive formats and sites you see. But grind it out. Put all your efforts into constructing this building before even considering expanding to other “locations.” Maria Popova did that with Brain Pickings . She focused on her weekly newsletter and points all her social to that. She didn’t even launch a mid-week newsletter until recently. Joe says most content creators fail because to become content entrepreneurs they want to be everywhere to encounter as many people as possible. Be far more deliberate.
  • Grow an audience. Now that you carved out land and begun building, you need people to further the construction of your content business. You need an audience. Traditional businesses often operate as transactional businesses. Without customers, the business’ asset value is in its inventory. In a content business, the audience is the most valuable company asset. Without an audience, the business has little or no value. Ali Carr knew this. She cultivated a Facebook community (Basecamp Outdoor Jobs & More) of people interested in outdoor-related work before she brought in brands to post job listings.
  • Earn revenue. Yep, you’re at step five – and your content business is probably about 18 months in. Now that you have something of value to monetize, you can bring in some revenue because you’ve got something of value to monetize. Some content entrepreneurs start by partnering with brands eager to connect with their audiences through affiliate links or sponsored posts. But the opportunities are limitless. You could sell subscriptions to a premium version of your content, develop a membership program, etc. Ryan Brainard’s Rybonator brand started earning revenue on YouTube, then added Amazon affiliate links, Patreon, and some brand deals.
  • Diversify. Money is coming in the door because your audience is strong (and growing) and your single content format and platform are working well. Now, you can look at those other shiny formats and platforms you’ve been ignoring. As you expand your content business, don’t forget your content tilt –  that shouldn’t change. You should only grow the avenues to communicate it.
  • Sell or go big. It may seem like odd advice to think about your exit strategy now, but you always should be thinking about the future of your content business. Your end goal should influence how you operate the business from day one. For example, if you plan to sell the business, you may not want to tie your personal identity to the business name. But using your own name might be OK if you plan to grow a big business with you always as the face of it.

While the “content” part of your business is different from a traditional business, that doesn’t mean you can ignore all aspects of traditional businesses. In the early days, you should create a legal structure and open up a business checking account.

Also, establish a simple accounting system. Even though you aren’t earning revenue in the first phase, you are spending some money (computer, website hosting, etc.) and that will affect your taxes from day one. As your content business grows, you’ll add in other traditional business aspects, such as owner compensation vs. salary, outsourcing vs. hiring, expansion of marketing and promotion, etc.

By following the Content Inc. business model and addressing all the regular start-up business requirements, you put your content business on the right path to lead to big success.

About the author

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Ann regularly combines words and strategy for B2B, B2C, and nonprofits, continuing to live up to her high school nickname, Editor Ann. An IABC Communicator of the Year and founder of G Force Communication , Ann coaches and trains professionals in all things content. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter .

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How to Start a Content Writing Business That Succeeds (for Beginners)

Julia mccoy.

Creator and Co-founder

So, you want to learn how to start a content writing business?

I didn’t mean that as somber as it sounded.

But, let’s be real. Learning how to start a content writing business—any business, really—is tough .

Hopeful entrepreneurs start around 543,000 businesses every month. And according to the Small Business Association, barely half of those businesses will still be around in five years. The other half will be long gone, with the majority of them failing in two years or less.

Yikes! That’s why I wrote this guide on how to start your own content writing business.

If you want to start a content writing business, you’ve got your work cut out for you – but fear not! Every truly great accomplishment at first seems impossible. I’m not promising it’s easy, but it will be worth it.

Everyone knows my writing agency was my primary source of income for ten years before my exit in 2021 ( exit story here ). Here’s why I’m sharing this guide:

a.) I was personally asked by several readers for this guide, and I like to write about topics my audience cares about.

 b.) I believe there is room for everyone in today’s market. With nearly 5 billion people and 60% of the world’s population online, now is a better time than any to seek to build a brand in the digital space.

As the former 10-year CEO of a successful content writing business, today’s guide will walk you through the things you must consider when you’re embarking on your own journey in building a writing biz.

  • What skills and tools you’ll need to succeed
  • How to build your brand and reputation
  • The inside scoop on hiring and managing writers

By the time you’re through, you’ll have everything you need to lay the groundwork for your own content writing business.

Without further ado, here’s how to go from unpaid to paid and start a content writing business. 

Want to sit with me and learn? Join me for a free class on content strategy, skills and systems, customized to your level (solopreneur or established founder). Over 2,000 entrepreneurs have LOVED this class. → Watch now.

How to Start a Content Writing Business: Table of Contents

Part 1. how to start a content writing business: do your homework before you start that (content writing) business, part 2. identify your priorities & goals for your content writing business, part 3. transition from presence to process when starting your content writing business, part 4. get your team together for a content writing business, part 5. leverage the power of ai content writing tools (and aio writers), conclusion: start a content writing business in months, not years, watch me explain what goes into starting a content writing business.

Succeeding at planning is planning to succeed.

The single most important thing you can do when starting a content writing business (or any business) is laying your foundations. And how do you get started with that?

By doing your homework.

Transforming your freelancing efforts into a full-fledged content writing business takes a few specific steps. Here are the two specific things you need to do.

1. Identify Your Area of True Expertise

Your research into the industry should give you insights into who and what is out there – and what isn’t. That’s good, because you’ll need to niche down into a specialty to succeed with your content writing business.

We’ll refer to this niche as your Area of True Expertise. It’s what you’re known for and what you strive to be the best at as you can.

When I was just getting started with Express Writers way back when, I wasn’t terribly picky about my clients. I picked up all manner of content, often starting my days at 4 a.m. just to send out dozens of emails to potential clients and agencies. It eventually worked, but that was because the industry at the time simply needed writers to stuff keywords into posts.

That will not work today.

In 2020, the content writing industry has matured and become more sophisticated. Your clients will expect you to be an expert in what you do. Therefore, it’s better to be a True Expert in one or two things than it is to be adept at several.

As you review the state of the industry, think about where you fit in (or where you don’t). This will give you a sense of what you need to do to begin scaling your operations. In particular, identify these things:

  • Who is your ideal client? Startups? SMBs? Fortune 2000 companies? SEO agencies? You’ve got a lot of options.
  • What do you do (and not do)? You may already have specific areas of expertise, such as executive ghostwriting or long-form content for tech startups. You may be still finding your feet but have nature aptitude at things like SEO or content marketing.
  • Is what you want to do sustainable? Identify what you do and figure out whether or not you can position yourself as a True Expert. Then, identify whether a market need exists – some 42 percent of businesses fail because there isn’t one. Finally, determine if you can turn your position into a unique selling proposition.
  • How can you turn your Area of True Expertise into a USP and a CDF? You want to differentiate, offering something your competitors can’t.

Your CDF is your “it factor” and you need it when starting a content writing business.

2. Analyze Your Business Competency

As a writer, you already know how to do a lot. However, starting a content writing business and scaling one both take skills that you may not have developed in your freelance writing career . Some things you should pick up if you haven’t already:

  • Marketing. If you don’t have a grasp on marketing, you’ll need to get it down ASAP. This includes everything from digital marketing to content strategy and marketing .
  • Project management. Ultimately, your goal will be to remove yourself from your agency’s processes so you’re no longer trading time for money. You’ll need to know how to manage projects to create project processes.
  • Accounting. You must know how to manage money. From paying your subcontractors to dealing with taxes, consider taking a basic course in accounting.
  • Leadership skills. As your team grows and your business takes on more ambitious projects, you’ll find yourself leading teams and people . Make sure you know how to handle them.
  • Communication skills. You’re probably already versed in dealing with clients . Now, you’ll need to learn to deal with managers, contractors, business partners, and more.

3. Build a Business Website

You’re a content writer.

And all the content you create gets published on your clients’ sites.

But have you stopped to build your own online presence? 

If you haven’t yet, you need to put together a professional-looking website ASAP!

This will help you display your portfolio and expertise.

It will also help you leverage SEO to reach a wider audience and generate organic leads.

So, you know who you are, what you’re doing, and what you’re up against. Now, it’s time to establish where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. In the next phase, you’ll need to do three things: identify your priorities, establish your goals, and write your business plan.

What Do You Want Out of This?

People go into business for many different reasons . Sometimes it’s because we feel stifled by the corporate world. Sometimes it’s because we’re chasing a passion.

Before you sit down to actually build your business, spend some time identifying your priorities with your business. These are the things that are important to you and will impact your goals or strategies. Some examples of priorities include:

  • Profitability . Who doesn’t love making more money?
  • A superior customer experience . Are your clients waiting weeks for content?
  • Free time . Perhaps you need to delegate or automate aspects of your business. 

Here are a few things my students have said about what they’re trying to accomplish.

“I have been a freelance copywriter and editor for just over five years. I haven’t niched the work I do, but I’m fortunate to have some very loyal clients who have achieved impressive results with my content thus far. Although I have a company, that is merely a store-front for the solo work I do. I have become so busy that I am turning work away and some of my very patient clients are waiting 1-2 weeks for content. This is far from what I want for them, and for me .” – Elizabeth
“I have a natural love for writing as well as for fitness and motivating others. But I have been stuck in HR/recruitment jobs in the corporate world. I’m looking to break out, follow my passions and do what I love … trying to start my own business, my own website, but I also still have to work while doing all that.” – Heather

You can see that each of these two students has different priorities. Elizabeth needs to scale an existing operation to provide better service to her clients. Heather needs to develop a profitable, sustainable content writing business to pursue her passion.

Establish Your SMART Goals

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Timely. It’s a formula for creating achievable goals with defined steps.

Some SMART goals when starting or scaling a content writing business might include:

  • Land three clients in a specific niche by the end of the year.
  • Build a five-page website showcasing my expertise within the next 30 days.
  • Produce ten pieces of thought leadership for the blog to support the content marketing efforts in the next 90 days.
  • Delegate five projects to five writers this week to free up 20 hours of my time for other activities.

Build Your Writing Business With a Slow, Steady, Practitioner-First Approach

Do you know the top reason why startups fail ? According to CB Insights, 42 percent of failed startups indicated they found no market need.

In other words, they created a product that nobody wanted.

That’s one of the dangers when you simply get a team together and go into business.

Fortunately, you can sidestep that by becoming a practitioner in your field first. That means going out, getting clients of your own , and learning what it takes to create great content.

Once you go into business, you’ll find that things become so much easier. That’s because you’ll:

  • Know what the final deliverables should look like.
  • Have the ability to step in at any point in your business to help make things work.
  • Understand how to sell your service or products.
  • Be able to identify new hires who know what they’re doing.

How do you build your skills faster?

Mentors are an age-old recommendation to accelerate learning that’s well-regarded in business. Yet, it’s a tool that’s routinely under-utilized. In one study of 3,000 people , 76 percent of respondents agreed that mentors were important. Yet only 37 percent of people currently had one.

I highly recommend you find a mentor. Identify who’s a voice of authority in your industry and take them on as a role model. These are my three:

  • Jon Morrow at Smart Blogger .
  • Joe Pulizzi at Content Marketing Institute .
  • Kimanzi Constable at Results Global Impact .

And remember, an investment in your skills is not an expense; it’s an investment.

I may have written a book called Skip the Degree , but that doesn’t mean I don’t advocate paid training. (I’ve invested over $8,000 into my own in the past six months.)

In contrast, don’t be shy about investing in paid courses, seminars, workshops, or anything else from your mentors or other industry leaders. Small doses of the right training can accelerate your career much faster than any degree that takes years to complete.

Your professional development is not an expense. It’s an investment that pays dividends in the long run.

Of course, not all courses are created equal or of equal use to everyone. When considering whether or not to invest in a course, ask yourself:

  • Will it help me move forward? Is this a hard or soft skill I need to be successful at [x]?
  • Are they credible? Is the instructor someone who’s known and respected in my field?
  • Do they have proof? Does the instructor have their own business that proves their teachings work, or does their business seem to be simply teaching certain skills?

If the answer is yes to all three, figure out how to make it happen!

Have you made it this far? Congratulations!

But if it seems like I frontloaded this guide, it’s because I did. Everything covered so far is the groundwork upon which you’ll build the next steps. The more thoroughly you’ve completed parts one and two, the stronger foundation you’ll have for starting your content writing business.

So, spend as much time as you need on the above. Once you know where you’re going and why, you can begin to build the engine that allows your brand, client base, and profits to scale.

I’m talking about your processes .

Processes Keep You Focused, and Help You Scale

If you’re a solopreneur, you’ve been doing everything on your own this whole time. That might have worked for you. Or, like Elizabeth, you quickly discovered that you have more demands on your time than you can manage.

Now, you need more writers. Maybe even a project manager, a bookkeeper, and a social media marketer. You need a team.

But with more hands touching the business, there are more opportunities for it to get pulled in multiple directions. How do we solve that?

By creating processes. Having detailed, documented processes lets you:

  • Standardize the business and amplify the brand. Everyone will do everything the same way. Additionally, you can develop templates that keep branding and image consistent.
  • Accelerate new employee or subcontractor training. Imagine explaining the same thing over and over again to every new hire. Now imagine handing them a document that they can study before getting to work.
  • Lets you maintain your Area of True Expertise. Stick to your processes, the things you do. Say no to everything else, and you’ll never water down your brand.

How to Create Processes for a Content Writing Business

Creating processes for your content writing business doesn’t need to be difficult. However, you should be consistent with them. Do:

1. Identify things that you already do a lot. These business activities are the best candidates to be standardized and replicated across the board. Some examples of this might include:

  • Client onboarding and interviews
  • Writer interviews and onboarding or offboarding
  • Content creation
  • Content strategy or keyword research
  • Quality control
  • Editing and revisions
  • Client invoicing
  • Subcontractor payments

2. Document everything. Even if it’s simply in Google Docs, make sure that you’ve written down what to do. This gives you a paper trail for others to study and for you to improve upon.

3. Identify where you need technology and invest. This may include hardware or software, subscriptions, services, and the like. I highly recommend that you invest in:

  • Accounting software
  • Plagiarism detection
  • Cloud storage
  • Audio and video calling software

4. Create templates. Templates help standardize the formatting, language, and layout of your most critical documents. Such consistency helps you present a more professional image to your clients and saves your team time.

5. Disseminate the processes to your employees or subcontractors. Build into your processes a process for getting information into the hands of the people who need to know. Again, it can be as simple as a Google Drive that has everything your writers, managers, or clients need to know.

6. Check in with people about what’s working and what’s not. At the end of the day, it’s your people who will make the processes run. Check in with them to learn what’s working and what isn’t. Then, make changes to improve your processes.

Up until this point, you’ve been at it solo. But that means the business stops working when you stop working. That’s what we’re trying to escape.

At some point, you’ll realize you need people power to drive your content writing business to the next level. However, you don’t want just anyone touching the business you’ve built.

As you get your team together, let your mantra be: People create value. When chosen well, your people are your most valuable business asset.

In general, you’ll interact with three groups of people:

Writers & Editors

You’ll need writers (and if you invest in AI tools to speed up content production, you’ll specifically need AIO writers – more on that later) to delegate work to and editors to check the work.

It’s very easy to access writer pools, but your writers will make or break your reputation for quality.

Upwork is a great place to look for talented freelancers, but plenty of other places exist as well. Wherever you go, to succeed with hiring writers:

  • Require fluency in the language you work. In most cases, that’s English. It’s up to you whether you want to hire U.S.-based writers only, or if you’re willing to look globally. Just be aware that will have tax implications and potentially complicate quality.
  • Headhunt, don’t post jobs. Content writing is one of the easiest careers online to get into, which means everyone is doing it. Posting jobs is a great way to get flooded with randos. Instead, identify talented writers with expertise in your company’s niche, then approach them.
  • Don’t ask for lengthy, unique “samples. ” Instead, ask for a portfolio. If they don’t have one, consider giving them a writing test and requesting a unique paragraph or two. Asking for an entire article as part of the interview process (especially if you have no plans on paying for it) is something scammers do – and good writers know that.
  • Be upfront with what they can expect. Don’t promise $2,000/month in work if they’re not going to consistently make that.
  • Pay by the word. The industry standard for content writing is to pay your writers by the word. You may charge your clients a lump sum for the entire project, but your writers are expecting a per-word agreement.
  • Don’t go for the cheapest you can find. You get what you pay for. Avoid sites where you can hire writers for rock-bottom rates.
  • Set up an NDA and a contract ahead of time. Protect your processes and internal documentation by having everyone you hire sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Support Staff

Support staff may or may not be necessary depending on where you are in scaling your operations. They can help a business run more smoothly, especially if you’ve got multiple processes that require the human touch. Bring on support staff as you need. They may include:

  • The web admin or IT support
  • Customer success agents
  • Writer support agents
  • Business and project managers
  • Specialists, such as content strategists or SEO experts

Business Partners

Business partners can breathe life, perspective, and capital into a growing enterprise. However, if you’re just starting a content writing business, it’s unlikely that you’ll need one. You may naturally have one, such as a spouse. That’s also fine!

Bringing on a business partner lies beyond the scope of this guide, but it’s worth mentioning because some people have asked me if they’re critical when you start a content writing business.

When you have a partner whose skills and competencies complement your own, that relationship will propel your business to profitability. However, don’t feel pressured to bring one on if you don’t feel like you need it.

A Few Other Tips for Working With Subcontractors

At the end of 2019, freelancers and independent contractors constituted some 36 percent of the U.S. workforce. It’s expected that they’ll be the majority by the late 2020s.

When you hire your writers and editors (and possibly others), you’ll likely hire them as independent contractors. However, you need to be aware of what that means for you as a business owner.

Here are a few tips:

  • Be wary of the IRS rules around employees and independent contractors. The IRS is very clear about what you can and cannot require from independent contractors. Familiarize yourself with these rules before hiring anyone.
  • Be careful with non-compete agreements. NCAs are extremely common , but come with some major caveats. In the U.S., enforceability varies by state (they’re often unenforceable with online work). However, they may scare off some potential hires.
  • Get your subcontractors’ availability and work around them. The easiest way to keep your staff happy is to work with them. Have everyone give you their availability, then task out work accordingly. This makes it easier to enforce accountability and deadlines, while making it more obvious when you need to hire more writers.

Part 5: Leverage the Power of AI Content Writing Tools (And AIO Writers)

AI (artificial intelligence) is one of the best inventions of modern times, especially for writers. It has brought so many benefits to the content marketing industry that you, as a writer and business owner, can’t ignore.

AI comes with many benefits and opportunities that can significantly enhance your productivity, creativity, and overall success. Here are some compelling reasons why you should integrate AI into your writing business:

Why Should AI Be a Critical Part of Every Writer’s Business?

So why should you embrace AI as a critical tool in your business?

Sure, the camp is divided on whether using AI is good or not.

And others advocate for AI-generated content to be labeled .

However, at the end of the day, one thing is certain — AI is an excellent tool for boosting your writing business. 

The main reason for that is AI can help you run a writing business with tantalizing profit margins of over 70% !

Here’s why:

  • Scalability : AI helps you write faster without compromising on quality. Because of this, you can easily take on more clients and projects. You can scale your business and exponentially grow your income.
  • Speed and efficiency : AI-powered tools can automate various writing tasks, such as idea generation, grammar and spell-checking, proofreading, and content formatting. This allows writers to focus more on their creative process and spend less time on mundane editing tasks.
  • Content generation assistance : AI can assist in generating content ideas or even drafting portions of articles, blog posts, or other written content. While the final creative touch remains with you, the writer, AI can serve as a valuable co-writer, offering suggestions and inspiration.
  • Enhanced content research : AI can assist you in finding relevant and reliable sources quickly. Other more powerful ones, like Content at Scale , even add links to sources in their drafts. With the ability to process vast amounts of information, AI-powered content writing tools can streamline the content creation process and help you discover valuable insights and facts to add credibility to your content.
  • SEO : SEO is an integral part of content creation, and AI can help ensure your content is SEO-friendly. It can suggest relevant keywords and analyze search trends, ensuring that your content is primed to rank and drive traffic. 

However, it is essential to remember that while AI can be an incredible tool, it’s not a replacement for creativity or the human touch. You should only use AI as a complementary tool to enhance your skills and efficiency rather than relying solely on it for content creation. 

By combining the power of AI with your unique perspectives and creativity, your businesses can enjoy a significant advantage in today’s competitive digital landscape.

By the way, I used to be THE biggest AI critic. I was totally against using it in my content marketing for a long time — but then I came to my senses once the right tool came along that emphasized integrity in content. 😅 

Need help convincing or converting your team, business, bosses, or clients to the AIO way? Want me at your next event? I can teach your people how AI in content can be done ethically, with that aforementioned integrity. Get me to speak at your next event!   📣

Best AI Content Writing Tool

Now that you’ve seen the value AI adds to your writing business, let me show you the best AI content writing tool . 

It’s called Content at Scale .

Content at Scale AI has the ability to produce a high-quality 2,000+-word blog draft in mere minutes!

This is the first-ever content automation platform built to help writers and business owners scale content marketing without losing touch with quality, authenticity, and accuracy. This is a powerful tool built by long-form SEO content marketers for long-form SEO content writers who want to create impeccable content at scale.

Unlike most AI content generators out there, Content at Scale outputs content that is truly human-like, bypasses AI content detectors, and is optimized for search. 

As if that wasn’t good enough, Content at Scale also integrates with Copyscape, so you can rest assured your content is plagiarism free. It also has a WordPress plugin that enables you to sync your content directly to your blog right from the Content at Scale dashboard.

It also has my personal stamp of approval, which isn’t easy to earn. Plus, as an AI speaker , I’ve tested a lot of AI-powered tools and this one is by far the best one I’ve tried.

Check out my tutorial below to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how powerful this tool really is.

Find and Train AIO Writers

As your reputation grows, you’ll soon find yourself with a good problem — more clients than you can handle as a one-person team.

When this happens, you have two options — pass on the work to other businesses, or hire writers to help you with the workload.

I’d personally go with hiring and growing my business into an AIO writing agency .

But where do you find writers who can use AI tools proficiently and produce fantastic content? Plus, how do you vet, hire, and train them?

No need to fret – I’ve got you. 💪

I’ve created an in-depth guide to help you source and hire the best AIO (artificial intelligence optimization) writers. 

Check it out here .

However, here’s a simple 3-step process:

  • Craft a detailed job listing 
  • Use relevant and reliable hiring platforms
  • Train your new hires

Here’s a short video tutorial explaining the process 👇

Growing your team may be a daunting step if you’re a solo writer, but it’s a critical part of business and personal growth.

AI: Supercharging Your Content Creation

Leveraging AI in your writing business is a no-brainer.

It’s the missing piece in your content creation production line.

With your processes and team in place, AI gives you that extra boost you need to ensure content production is effective and runs like a well-oiled machine.

So, don’t be discouraged by the naysayers. AI is here — and it’s here to stay.

Those who embrace it early will have a huge advantage over the competition. 🥇

Part 6. 6 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Content Writing Business

Whether you’re starting a content business or scaling up a solopreneurship, there’s plenty of room for things to go wrong. I’ll round out the guide with a few lessons I’ve learned the hard way over the years.

Some common mistakes include…

1. Scaling Too Fast (or Too Slowly)

If you scale too fast, you end up with bloat that eat away at your profits. This may include things like hiring too many people or jumping into too many projects. At the other end of the spectrum, scaling too slowly may mean overworked people or lacking the infrastructure you need to take advantage of opportunities.

To fix this: Think long-term, identify your priorities and your goals, then focus on creating value with your people and your processes.

2. Not Doing Content Marketing for Your Business

I didn’t start content marketing with Express Writers until 2016. The moment I did, the brand took off and became the multi-million-dollar agency it is today.

Why? Content marketing is one of the most powerful ways for you to demonstrate your expertise and showcase your content differentiation factor . It’s how you prove you’re a True Expert at what you do without pushing yourself into people’s faces.

To fix this: Draw up a content strategy when you do your business plan. Your content and your business goals should align. That will also help you produce content without feeling burnt out .

3. Saying Yes to Projects Outside Your Scope

The most valuable weapon in your arsenal is also one of your smallest: It’s the word no.

Most freelancers aren’t trained in this weapon. As a business owner, you’ll need to be because you don’t want to take on projects that are outside your Area of True Expertise. There are several pragmatic reasons for this:

  • They’ll take longer because you don’t have the processes or people for it
  • They’ll water down your brand
  • They’ll force you to tweak the very processes you built to try to make them fit

To fix this: Go back to your Area of True Expertise. Develop processes for everything in which you’re a True Expert. Say no to any jobs or work for which you don’t have processes already.

4. Not Learning How to Handle Money

You need to learn how to manage money – and no, I don’t mean simply hiring a bookkeeper who will handle everything.

I learned this the hard way when I discovered the people that I had put in charge of money were stealing from me .

Even if something as severe as that never happens to you, not knowing how to manage money may mean unnecessary expenses, lost revenue, or inaccurate records that get you in trouble down the line.

To fix this: Take a course on accounting for business online or at your community college. Then, play an active role in the money of your company.

5. Being Scared of Delegating

I get it. Your business is your baby. You’ve worked hard to build a reputation and a client base. Handing that over to someone else can be terrifying.

But you’ll need to do it to grow. Getting in the way by trying to continue to do everything yourself will only hamstring the rest of your efforts.

To fix this: Make your processes extra well-thought-out to give you the peace of mind that everyone is doing things correctly. Then, hire the right people. Here’s a good video from my archives on what I learned from hitting $180k in one month in my agency.

6. Not Firing People When They Need to Go

It sucks to fire people, but sometimes it needs to happen. Having the wrong members on your team is just as bad as not having any people at all – in fact, it can be worse as your reputation will be on the line.

Don’t be afraid to put your foot down and make room for better professionals to join your team.

To fix this: Create a list of behaviors for which you have no tolerance, then refer to this list to determine if someone needs to be let go. Some examples may include consistently missing deadlines or going MIA when you need revisions from them.

There you have it – close to everything you need to consider when you start a content writing business.

From thinking about your position in the industry to the details of dealing with independent contractors, you’re now equipped with the insights you need to get started.

Plus, with the power of AI to help you, there’s no reason why you should struggle to scale and grow your business!

Of course, the skills I’ve outlined here are just the tip of the iceberg of what you need to know. The content writing industry itself is constantly changing. In addition to running your business, you’ll need to keep pace with the state of content writing best practices and tools.

Knowledge is power, as they say.

And if you want to turn insights into action, with 1:1 guidance from me along the way, you need my Content Transformation System. 🚀  

This strategic coaching program teaches you the skills, systems, and strategies to turn your struggling business into a sustainable, cogs-turning, 6 and 7-figures-busting brand.

Apply today to start your journey to the next level.

Get a taste of my program for free right now in our training class.

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Business Models for Content and Technology Plays

Geoffrey graybeal.

A business model helps to clarify a company’s main purpose, such as who they’re serving, how they help, and how the company can sustain its operations. A business model is distinctly different from an organization’s strategy, which typically addresses product, pricing, and marketing decisions. A formal business plan, however, may include some of these elements as part of the company’s long-term goals and objectives.

Defining Key Terms

Each business model is unique to a company. There is not an industry-wide business model per se although companies may coalesce around a dominant company’s successful business model and seek to emulate it.

Business models provide a rationale for how a business creates, delivers, and captures value, [1] and examine how the business operates, its underlying foundations, and the exchange activities and financial flows upon which it can be successful. [2]

A business model canvas is a tool to map out and plan the different components to a business model. The components vary based on the canvas tool you use, with the most widely used one developed by Osterwalder and Pigneur in the book Business Model Generation, or available online through a series of customizable tools and canvases available for a fee on strategyzer.com .

The Business Model Canvas tool helps you plan and map out different elements of a business model. This canvas contains the following elements: Key Partners, Key Activities, Key Resources, Value Propositions, Customer Relationships, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure, and Revenue Streams. This image is linked to a video that fully explains how this particular canvas works. You can access the video to hear an audio description of the canvas at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=QoAOzMTLP5s

The Osterwalder and Pigneur canvas blocks [3] include revenue stream, customer segments, value proposition, cost structures, channels, key activities, key partners, key resources, and customer relationships.

Early on, your greatest focus should be on the right side of the canvas because:

  • These are in many ways the most critical aspects of starting a new venture (customer segments, value proposition, channels, and revenue streams).
  • The most fluid (revenue streams, channels, and value propositions will likely differ for the differing customer segments and as you iterate and pivot throughout the customer discovery process could change).
  • It follows a logical temporal order (there’s no need to focus on the costs of building a company if you won’t have customers).

In a follow up to Business Model Generation, the Strategyzer team created a second canvas, the Value Proposition Canvas. Value Proposition Canvas [4] is a new tool that pulls out the customer segment and value proposition blocks of the business model canvas and encourages more in-depth exploration of those blocks to achieve “fit” between the two. The Value Proposition Canvas tool looks at customer pains, gains and jobs-to-be-done on the customer side and painkillers, gain creators, and products and services on the value proposition side.

A revenue model focuses on an organization’s revenue streams, e.g., how a company will make money, whereas a business model also concerns itself with other issues such as who the product is serving, how it is distributed and promoted, and key partnerships used in implementing it. In short, a revenue model is just one component of a business model. A typical business model has multiple elements (nine in the case of the Osterwalder and Pigneur model). A revenue model is primarily focused on how a company will make money.

For traditional legacy media outlets, such as a newspaper, revenue streams typically encompassed advertising and consumer payment either through subscription or alternate payment methods like single-sale purchases.

Hayes and Graybeal (2012) provide an overview of categorizations of online business models from the late 1990s to late 2000s from scholars and industry practitioners, including many online content plays. Revenue models were the most common components found in all forms of business model classifications. Value streams and logistical streams were also equally important in e-commerce models. [5]

Think of a business model canvas as an ideation tool to help brainstorm and flesh out your startup concept. The business model is a more adaptable, flexible tool that can be used to formulate the ideas that would later be fleshed out in a more formal business plan.

A business plan is a formal document, presented to prospective investors, that typically includes elements such as an executive summary, business description, marketing strategy, and competitive analysis. A business plan may also include a business model canvas as supplemental material in an appendix.

You should usually develop a business model before a business plan. But before you get to a business model, first and foremost, you need an idea. There are numerous resources for brainstorming activities and entrepreneurial processes to help develop an idea and flesh it out to be “market-ready.” (see previous chapter on Ideation [6] ) Original ideas are sometimes hard to come by.

Early research into competitors helps as a starting point. Who else has had this idea? Has this idea been tried before and failed? That’s not necessarily a dealbreaker. As renowned media economist Robert Picard notes, just because an idea failed at one point in time, under a certain set of circumstances, that doesn’t mean a failed idea can’t be revisited. [7]

Another entrepreneurial startup truism is that no matter how great your idea may be, if no one will use your product, then you’re dead on arrival. So startup ideas need customers to become a business. Thus, the various entrepreneurial processes, whether that is business model canvas tools, lean startup principles and methodologies, or other approaches, focus a great deal on the customer.

The Osterwalder and Pigneur book describes a process of creating a customer empathy map to distill down your ideal target customer. Bring to life an individual, and delve into his or her fears, dreams, aspirations, and what she or he does in the everyday life. After identifying your target customer, you can begin to segment your audience. But start with an individual customer, idealized or actualized, and distill deeply into that customer profile. [8]

This graphical representation of an empathy map by Paul Boag from Boagworld depicts a hypothetical customer in various dimensions. What does she Hear? What are friends, family and other influencers saying to her that impacts her thinking? Then, what does she think and feel? What really matters to her? What occupies her thinking? What worries and aspirations does she have? Continuing clockwise, what does she see? What things in her environment influence her? What competitors is she seeing? What is she seeing friends do? And finally what does she say and do? What is her attitude toward others? What does she do in public? How has her behavior changed? At bottom, the map shows Pain: What fears, frustrations or obstacles is she facing and also Gain: What is she hoping to get? What does success look like?

The Customer Empathy Map is an idealized portrayal of your fictionalized target customer, the most promising candidate from your customer segments. Give him or her a name and demographic characteristics, such as income, marital status, and so forth, before delving into the pains, gains, thoughts, feelings, and surroundings of this individual you bring to fruition.

This is an approach that has long been used in media and communication fields such as advertising and strategic communication. Advertisers and marketers often create customer personas–fictional, generalized representations of ideal or existing customers–as part of campaign plans, pitches, strategy, and creative concept delivery.

When you peel away the language used to describe business models, the early startup planning stages come down to asking a series of questions. Another popular framework used in entrepreneurial circles when it comes to formulating a business model for a startup concept is that of desirability-feasibility-viability .

This forces the entrepreneur to address broad questions about the startup concept.

Desirability: How desirable is the product? Who will use it and why?

Feasibility: How feasible is this idea? What are the costs to make it? How practical is the concept?

Viability: Will this idea remain viable? How will it make money? How will it be sustained over time?

These questions then begin to connect together to form a narrative about where the startup concept came from, who it serves, why it’s needed, how it will make money, and how it will be sustained in the future.

Strategyzer also has a great “Ad-lib” template [9] that will help you figure out a few potential value propositions. They also offer other resources [10] you can access after signing up for a free account.

Business Models

Although there is not a single definition to the term business model and usage varies widely, in standard business usage a “business model” can denote how costs will be covered as well as how a business creates and delivers value for itself and its customers, including the ways in which products are made and distributed. Academic strategists tend to use the term business model to describe the configuration of resources in response to a particular strategic orientation. [11] [12] [13]

Most people are familiar with Business to Consumer models (also referred to as BTC or B2C). In a Business-to-Consumer model, the business primarily provides services to consumers. Many of the common media content plays are considered B2C. Newspapers, television shows, films, and video games are primarily B2C companies. Many apps that individual users download and then consume content from are B2C. Because media companies are typically providing content that is of value to consumers, they look like a B2C, however, they use the attention of those consumers to sell advertising space to businesses, effectively operating as a B2B. Business to business to consumer (or B2B2C or BtoBtoC) is another prominent e-commerce model, that combines Business to Business and Business to Consumer in a complete product or service transaction.

Nascent startup Shine, which officially launched its inspirational text message service in Spring 2016, is an example of following a classic Business-to-Consumer model. (Full disclosure: I taught one of the founders.) Through automated texts, Shine delivers daily self-help, encouragement and advice to its subscribers via either SMS or Facebook Messenger. Anyone can use the free service, but it is primarily aimed at millennials and about 70 percent of users are female.

On the Brooklyn-based company’s one-year anniversary in April 2017, the Shine team announced that it had obtained half a million users.  Co-founders Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi raised $2.5 million to further develop Shine in a funding round led by Betaworks and Eniac Ventures, and including Female Founders Fund, Felix Capital, Comcast Venture, BBG Ventures, The New York Times , and Ed Zimmerman.

They want to expand the service to be included on other platforms like Line and WeChat.

The problem Shine tackles is that “self-help is broken” and its value proposition addresses in part what is known as “the confidence gap,” often cited as a barrier that holds women back when it comes to advancing in their careers, raising money, investing, and planning retirement.

Shine has four pillars it is built to address: mental health, confidence, daily happiness, and productivity.

In 2015, Hirayabashi and Lidey began to focus on turning their idea into a reality. The two met at and worked together at DoSomething.org, a youth-oriented global nonprofit organization. They conducted a closed test with 70 individuals before publicly releasing Shine in beta in October 2015. They formally left DoSomething.Org in April 2016 and Shine was born.

While the messaging service is free, the company has experimented with adding revenue streams through additional consumer services. Shinevisor provides advice and guidance from real people who are certified life, career, and school coaches. That service currently runs $15.99 per week billed on a 12-week basis. Shinevisor is an early effort of Shine to add additional services that bring in revenue, as multiple revenue streams are most often needed for a company to succeed.

While Shine, apps and a majority of content plays are primarily B2C, the other predominant business model is that of a Business to Business, also commonly referred to as B2B or BTB. Whereas Shine is a business whose product serves customers, in a Business to Business model, a company primarily serves other businesses, not individual consumers.

MailChimp, an Atlanta-based company, began as a B2B in 2001. More than 15 million people and businesses around the world use MailChimp. MailChimp enables many B2B marketing transactions. A leading marketing automation platform, MailChimp sends more than a billion emails a day. MailChimp’s primary customers were businesses that used the platform to send marketing emails, automated messages, and targeted campaigns to its individual users.

Historically, media companies that provide analytic services have sold that data and analysis to other businesses. Bloomberg’s financial terminals sold to businesses around the world is a classic example of a B2B service.

Küng, Picard & Towse (2008) also note “elements of different business models can be combined [so] in that sense, every business model of a company is unique.” [14] For those reasons, a business model can be a source of competitive advantage, with business model design and product-market strategy serving as complements, not substitutes. [15] Strategy functions like an architect creating a homeowner’s design, while the detailed floor plan based on choices in the design process would constitute a business model design. [16]

When you go to get funding for your startup (more on this in a later chapter ), [17] having an understanding of your business model will come in handy.

Media are among the handful of industries that face industry-specific policies and regulations that other businesses do not face. The broadcast industry is regulated in the U.S. through the Federal Communication Commission. The print media industry is impacted by certain postal and governmental notice regulations. Banking and pharmaceuticals are other industries that face such industry-specific regulations. Reduced barriers to entry, promotion of trade, promotion of small enterprises, and regulation of consolidation and concentration are among some of the policies and regulations media must face. Media strategy can be influenced by these environmental factors, firm factors, industry factors, and media-specific factors, among others. [18] Some regulation can hinder startups.

That’s why policy is one of the domains of enabling an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Government supports can come in the forms of tax breaks and incentives, regulatory frameworks, venture-friendly legislation, institutional investments, financial support, and policy initiatives. [19] Regulation and policy limitations to the strategic choices available to media companies are two examples of media-specific characteristics.

Regulation can help or hinder incumbents or startups based on policies that are set. For example, regulations pertaining to net neutrality have been debated for years, with many startups of the past decade arguing that without net neutrality they would have faced disadvantages instead of the environment that enabled them to grow and prosper. Many technology startups, for example, banded together in July 2017 to form a protest over FCC proposals to eliminate Obama-era net neutrality rules. Y Combinator, a popular technology startup incubator, was among the backers of the protest, along with companies like Kickstarter, Etsy, GitHub, Amazon, and Reddit.

Government policies can also support entrepreneurship. Some U.S. cities have staff dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship. New York City for example uses revenue from its film and television projects to fund media entrepreneurship efforts like the NYC Media Lab.

New York City’s media and tech startup scene, so-called “Silicon Alley,” is no longer confined to a small alleyway in NYC’s financial district and is more of a concept than a location. Media companies such as Google and IAC/InterActiveCorp make up part of NYC’s media ecosystem. In 2012, the Center for Urban Future proclaimed that NYC witnessed over 1,000 media startups including Tumblr and Mashable .

During this time, NYC was also witnessing the growth of media cooperative working spaces, accelerators and incubators including New York University’s (NYU) Polytechnic Institute Tandon Future Labs supported by the New York City Economic Development Corporation. During this time Mayor Bloomberg advanced tax breaks and funding opportunities for media startups in NYC as part of his five-borough economic plan.

The NYCEDC, in a public-private partnership, also helped launch the NYC Media Lab in 2010. The primary goal of NYC Media Lab is to connect the media industry during the dot-com revival in NYC and colleges and universities in the area to advance media entrepreneurship. The consortium, which includes Columbia University, New York University, The New School, the City University of New York (CUNY), the IESE Business School, and the Pratt Institute, work under the NYC Media Lab umbrella to generate media research and development and advance media entrepreneurship. The Combine serves as NYC Media Lab’s incubator and its main goal is to position NYC as the media capital of the world by advancing and launching “one-of-a-kind” media and communication technologies. Specifically, the Combine aims at supporting and growing media startups from faculty and students from collaborating universities with a high potential to launch. The Combine is funded by the NYCEDC, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and NYC Media Lab’s corporate members.

Some current projects include an experiment with metadata extraction from book manuscripts for Audible, a market research project for MBA students in New York City on augmented reality products for Hearst Ventures, an augmented reality fellowship in design and engineering through Bloomberg and Lampix, and a virtual reality fellowship for Viacom NEXT.

Many European countries also provide funding for entrepreneurial initiatives. In 2004, the Flemish government established iMinds, a digital research center and business incubator to focus on information and communication technology. The European Union and other European nations routinely fund innovation and entrepreneurial projects.

Applicable Techniques

Content models.

Revenue streams are a common element of most definitions of business models, particularly ones used to address electronic commerce. [20] Many online news business models, historically, have been similar to traditional business models, as subscription, advertising, and transactional are the most common categories of online business models. [21] [22]

Advertising and subscription still remain the most dominant forms of revenue streams used in most content business models. Content plays involve the creation and dissemination of content, such as news or entertainment, which users will want to receive.

Here’s an example to help you better understand what I mean by a content company. There’s an excellent episode in the first season of Startup, [23] the podcast about creating a startup from Gimlet Media in which the founders, Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, debate whether Gimlet is a content company or a technology company. In the episode, Gimlet Media thus far has gone the route of being a content company. The company produces content—in this case compelling podcasts—that are then distributed on other technology platforms, such as through Apple or Spotify. If Gimlet became a technology company, it would launch a proprietary podcast-playing platform. For comparison’s sake, Spotify provides a platform for streaming audio but does not produce the content—the music, the songs, the podcasts that play on that platform.

See the additional resources included at the end of this chapter for lists of many revenue streams for many digital media, mobile, and e-commerce companies.

Some of the most common forms of revenue streams used in content companies include:

Subscription

When the newspaper industry moved into online content delivery, many companies initially gave its content away online for free. Within the past decade or so, most newspaper companies have offered digital-only subscriptions and bundled online delivery along with the traditional print product. Within the United States, the leading paywall system was developed by PressPlus. Paywalls offer users a certain number of free page visits, before being blocked with subscription, the primary means to gain additional access.

Many digital media companies that offer content, particularly those that offer content that compete with traditional companies such as newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters, have implemented a Paywall approach. A paywall can be hard where the only way to access the content is to pay for it, usually through a subscription, or soft , where the user is given a certain number of free visits or views per month before being asked to subscribe.

Another common subscription model used for content and technology plays is that of a freemium model. Under a freemium model, access to basic content is free, but users can choose to subscribe to premium content for a fee that provides improved access (such as an ad-free experience) or additional services. The online music streaming service Spotify is a classic example of a freemium model, with basic access to ad-supported music online available for free, with monthly premium subscriptions for a fee. Dropbox is another commonly used digital startup that relies on a freemium model. The cloud-based file storage service offers free storage up to a certain amount, and charges a monthly fee beyond that.

Membership is another subscription model. Under a membership model, the content can either be free or paid, but users who purchase a membership receive perks and bonus materials, exclusive access to supplemental materials, and so forth. In many instances, these content companies have been focused on a certain content form (technology, politics, sports) rather than general interest publications. Musician fan clubs and sporting teams are classic examples of non-digital content entities that excel at offering memberships. That same model is applied to media companies, typically ones that diversify their offerings through some of the other miscellaneous revenue streams discussed later (such as events and conferences; archival data, etc.).

Classic subscriptions, of course, are the most prevalent. Netflix is probably the most well-known media content company that offers access to its content through monthly subscription options. As previously mentioned, some media companies offer subscription access based on content delivery mechanism (online, mobile delivery/web, all access).

Increasingly, more and more entertainment content is being sold through subscription packages, with over-the-top services independent of cablevision subscriptions being offered for individual channels (HBO, Showtime, ESPN) or in packaged bundles (Sling, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.).

Advertising

There are various forms of advertising for content and technology companies, with many forms specific to the delivery mechanism and form of the company. Traditional legacy media companies sell local direct advertising (newspapers, broadcasters), classified advertisements, sponsorships (most common in broadcasting) and are part of national advertising networks, among other forms.

Advertising networks are still prevalent for digital media content and technology companies, alongside selling direct advertising on various platforms. Native advertising, the use and sale of microsites dedicated to paid clients, the use of Google AdSense, and the sale of Outbrain-style links to external sites are common on web-based content and technology plays.

Content and technology companies can sell display advertising, search advertising, video ads, text/SMS advertising, mobile and digital forms of advertising, and location-based advertising among other forms, particularly in the mobile space. Content and technology startups can also develop their own proprietary forms of advertising content based on the system. For example, Twitter developed and sold promoted tweets and sponsored ads in its platform. Sponsorships, particularly used in podcasts, are another form of advertising available for content and technology plays.

Mobile advertising (“in-app ads” and “mobile display” ads) and variations of charging for content are the most prominent ways traditional media have sought to monetize content thus far, but there are many other alternative business models under consideration, including free and paid SMS alerts, social media platform distribution, and free applications.

Sponsored Content

One sometimes controversial revenue stream is brand storytelling, or advertisements that are written in the form of articles in the “voice” of the publication, and displayed alongside regular editorial content. Brand-sponsored content typically falls under the larger umbrella of “native advertising” as the ads appear “native” to the environment in which they’re displayed. Many top traditional journalistic outlets have an entire team or division dedicated to creating sponsored content for brands (e.g. New York Times’ T Brand Studio, HuffPost’s Partner Studio, Washington Post’s WP BrandStudio, Conde Nast’s 23 Stories and Forbes’ BrandVoice).

Transactional/e-Commerce

Content and technology plays often employ various forms of transactional, or e-commerce revenue streams. Some of these allow for an in-between option for users who want access to content, whether that be one-time or more, but don’t want a full subscription option. Let’s explore some of the most common.

Micropayments

Micropayments are small payments, typically $5 or less, for an individual piece of content. Every time you buy an individual song from Apple for download, for instance, you’ve made a micropayment. The iPod popularized the consumption of individual forms of music, chiefly song downloads, disaggregating individual song purchases from complete albums.

Virtual currencies can be a form of micropayment, typically employed within videogames or on online platforms, such as Facebook or Twitch, where users are making individual small purchases for virtual items, such as increased game playing ability, items used within game, or donations to other users.

Newspapers, magazines, and other forms of micropayments for news and digital delivery of content were tried unsuccessfully in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with companies like Flooz, Beenz, CyberCash, Bitpass, Peppercoin and DigiCash just a few examples of failed micropayment companies from its first era.

From about 2010 or so onward, additional efforts at micropayments have had varying success, usually within various regions. Blendle , a Dutch-based online news startup, has probably had the most success at selling access to individual news articles and magazine content, both in Europe and the United States.

Kachingle, CarrotPay, Knack.it, and Ganxy are a few other companies that offered various forms of micropayment platforms for content companies to utilize in recent years.

My colleague Jameson Hayes and I developed theoretical modified micropayment models for news and media content that introduce the ability for users to microearn for sharing content in addition to having to micropay for it but there are no functioning platforms that fully execute that conceptual vision. [24] [25] Many tend to agree that micropayments must be used in tandem with other revenue streams and can’t alone sustain a media operation.

Failure itself is widely embraced by the entrepreneurial community, as the entrepreneurial process encourages and promotes a series of failures along the way that lessons can be learned from (pivots, etc.) Entrepreneurs have even held annual FailCon conferences in which speakers share entrepreneurial failures and lessons learned in cities around the world.

Failure doesn’t mean an idea can’t be revisited.  Micropayments were tried unsuccessfully in the 1990s, but with the advent of Blockchain and Ethereum digital transactions have found more success in recent years.  With the creation of browsers like Brave, some predict micropayments and digital transactions to become more mainstream in the not-too-distant future.  Management and economics scholars have predicted that blockchain has the potential to transform intellectual property and content licensing, access to information and digital goods, and increase the value of curation of digital content.  They envision artists who license music on Apple or Spotify being able to easily track how many times songs are played by consumers, backers on crowdfunding sites obtaining royalties each time a song is played, digital goods priced and delivered using a blockchain for payment, contract enforcement, and authentication.

Some newspapers abandoned early efforts at digital subscriptions and for the better part of two decades the industry norm was free online content. Now, of course, digital content payments have been adapted by many companies. Blockchain enables an easy ability for micropayments to be implemented in a browser where users could pay a single subscription and navigate between different newspapers.

Some media organizations, such as The Guardian , allow for direct donations from readers. These outlets may make a direct plea on their homepage, or at the beginning or end of articles. Donations are also much more commonly used in nonprofits as outlined in the next chapter, but soliciting donations from users can also be done by for-profit media ventures.

Merchandise

Whether you’re a nascent startup or a more established company, selling merchandise with your company’s brand, name, logo, and slogans can serve as an additional revenue stream in addition to serving marketing purposes. T-shirts, mugs, keychains, and hats are commonly sold merchandise. Google, for example, has a physical store on its main campus that sells all sorts of Google-branded merchandise. Companies can also sell merchandise online.

Some other forms of e-commerce:

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding, defined as “an open call, essentially through the Internet, for the provision of financial resources either in form of donation or in exchange for some form of reward and/or voting rights in order to support initiatives for specific purposes.” offers a novel way of funding projects. [26]

Crowdfunding involves creators of a project soliciting donations from funders, or backers, of the project, through an online platform that features the project request.

Five basic kinds of crowdfunding models have attained widespread reach: donation-based, pre-purchase-based, reward-based, lending-based, and equity-based. [27] In donation-based crowdfunding, the backers support a particular cause with no expectation of any kind of returns. [28] However, in reward-based crowdfunding, the backers are provided with non-monetary benefits in exchange for their support. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the most well-known and commonly used rewards-based crowdfunding platforms.

A pre-purchase model is similar to rewards. A backer receives the product the entrepreneur is making, such as a music album. Lending-based crowdfunding platforms offer a loan to small-scale lenders with an expectation for a return on capital investment. For instance, Kiva is the most premier lending crowdfunding platform that operates in 66 countries. Equity-based crowdfunding is that in which the backers receive an equity or stake in the profits of the project they have invested in. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012 allowed equity funding in the U.S. for the first time. Title III of this act allows small-sized business owners and entrepreneurs to retail investment that was previously restricted to select accredited investors and potential investors on various Internet-based crowdfunding platforms.

Crowdfunding gained popularity somewhere in the late 2000s. Since then it has shown unprecedented growth and is particularly common among startup entrepreneurs and investors. Circleup, Equity Net, AngelList, and Wefunder are examples of some popular equity-based crowdfunding sites.

Retail/Marketplace

One revenue stream for media startups could come from a “digital retail mall” or “transactional experiences” like shopping purchases through a digital credit card or online payment system.

Group Buying

Popularized and most well-known by the startup Groupon, this method provides discounted deals en masse to groups of consumers who scoop up the coupon-like savings that can be purchased and used at a later date.

Applicable techniques

Technology plays.

Many of the models previously mentioned for content plays (subscription, advertising, and transactional) are also applicable for technology plays, and we’ll discuss some miscellaneous categories beyond the Big Three for both.

One of the considerations for technology plays is the distribution mechanism, whether the product is available online, or mobile, some combination of the two, or neither. If the technology play is an Internet-dependent one, such as an app, then the choices are whether it is accessible through the mobile web (HTML5 is a common tool), or proprietary app stores. If it’s an app, then you must decide whether it will be formatted and available in Apple’s iOS format or Google and Android capability. Many universities and cities hold appathons or hackathons that bring together interdisciplinary teams to work on the creation of an app and/or the business plan and pitch for an app concept over a weekend. These are useful and can help flesh out some of the necessary steps and considerations for startup tech plays. Look for such efforts at your university or city. MediaShift also sponsors a popular hackathon several times a year that brings together students, faculty, and professionals from universities across the country.

If you are creating an app, decisions include whether the download is free or if you charge a one-time download fee. Then, you can consider some of the above-mentioned revenue streams, such as subscription, and mobile advertising.

Some other revenue models commonly employed in technology plays include:

eBay is probably the most well-known auction site, where users can post items for sale and get bids from other users.

Sharing Economy

Apps and websites that take advantage of the sharing economy have proliferated in recent years. Also referred to as the collaboration economy, this business model is predicated on collaboration, whether that is sharing an apartment or home (as is the case in Airbnb), sharing a ride (Lyft or Uber), or sharing office space (coworking spaces).

Miscellaneous revenue streams for both content and technology plays:

Events/Conferences

Mainstream media outlets like The New York Times excel at organizing live events and conferences as an alternative revenue stream, but startups can also do the same.  Media organizations sponsor live events, such as conferences and banquets, and charge a fee to attend.

Foundation Funding

See resources elsewhere in this textbook for lists of foundation funding sources. Many nascent entrepreneurs and media startups have benefited from foundation funding in the past. The Knight Foundation historically has been a large funder of media entrepreneurial efforts. The Lenfest Institute for Journalism is a new funding source for entrepreneurial journalism efforts. And organizations like the Kauffman Foundation and VentureWell fund entrepreneurial efforts writ large. Grants and competition prizes from foundations focusing on entrepreneurship are worth exploring as a funding source.

Sell Archival Access

Content companies who have created archives of past content can sell access to the archives to users for a fee.

Sell Data and/or Analytic Services

Analytics are usually more of a B2B play, where the business sells access to user data and analytics to other companies. In some instances, companies can sell analytic tools and services to users as well.

Commonly used in technology plays, licensing as a revenue stream involves licensing out some form of proprietary technology, such as software or analytics tools, for use by other companies for a fee.

This chapter has introduced the concepts of business model, revenue model, and business plan. You should have an understanding of what comprises a business model and business plan, some common revenue streams used in traditional media companies, and revenue streams available for content and technology startup plays, along with the role regulations and government can play among startups. You can start to develop the business model for your startup concept by sketching out the basic idea and its target customer, then identifying how it will make money through one or more revenue streams discussed in this chapter.

TRY IT: NAPKIN SKETCH

Sketch out the start of a startup concept on the back of a napkin.

I would encourage doing this assignment after you’ve developed a customer empathy map and have a target customer segment in mind for your concept.

Address the following questions in your napkin sketch:

  • What is your idea (concept) and why is it valuable (value proposition)?
  • Who will it serve (target customer)?
  • How will it make money (revenue streams)?

For the first question, you’ll want to keep it succinct. The equivalent of a 140-character or less tweet is a good starting point. This forces brevity, as does using an actual napkin for this exercise. There’s only so much space on a napkin.

Napkin sketches are a commonly used brainstorming tool. The napkins at Walk-Ons Bistreux and Bar, a sports bar started by Louisiana college basketball players in 2001, include the original napkin sketch for the sports bar concept.

When my Lede, LLC cofounder Jameson Hayes and I first sketched out our idea for a news micropayment business model, we did so on a napkin over beers and fried pickles at the Blind Pig Tavern in Athens, Georgia. While the napkin sketch is somewhat of a cliché, I can attest firsthand that when inspiration hits you have to use whatever you have handy to put it on paper– even if that is in fact an actual napkin.

If your concept is a content play or a technology play, you may want to mention that as well.

The napkin sketch and brainstorming activities, such as the customer empathy map, are good tools to begin the process of formulating a business model for your startup concept. The customer segments and revenue streams are two of the nine blocks for the business model canvas tool anyway.

This chapter has discussed a number of different revenue streams and business models that are ideal for media startup companies. You can pull one or more revenue streams from some of the models mentioned in this chapter for the third question.

Value chiefly what’s referred to as the value proposition, is also important to consider. This directly connects to the customer segments. What value will you offer the customer? Essentially this also addresses the “why?” question. Why you? Why would anyone use this product and/or pay for it? What value is offered?

Before fleshing out additional blocks of the business model canvas, it’s useful to continue to ask and answer a series of questions.

Chris Guillebeau’s book,  The $100 Startup , provides a nice resource in the form of the one-page business plan. You’re encouraged to answer each question on the form with one to two short sentences.

Suggested Readings

  • Guillebeau, Chris. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the way you make a living, do what you love, and create a new future. Crown Pub, 2012.
  • Osterwalder, Alexander, and Yves Pigneur. Business Model Generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
  • Ries, Eric. The Lean Startup: How today’s entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Crown Books, 2011.
  • Maurya, Ash. Running Lean: iterate from plan A to a plan that works. “O’Reilly Media, Inc.,” 2012.

Strategyzer video series [29]

Strategyzer Ad Lib Value Proposition Template [30]

Hackpad [31]

The Ultimate Master List of Revenue Models Used by Web and Mobile Companies [32]

  • 76 Ways to Make Money in Digital Media [33]

Geoffrey Graybeal is a clinical assistant professor in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute at Georgia State University. He is a media management scholar and entrepreneur who uses economic and management theory to explore issues of media sustainability. Graybeal teaches courses on media entrepreneurship, media management, media economics, and innovation. Reach him on Twitter at @graybs13 . 

Leave feedback on this chapter .

  • Osterwalder, Alexander; Pigneur, Yves. Business Model Generation (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2013). ↵
  • Picard, Robert. “Changing Business Models of Online Content Services: The Implications for Multimedia and Other Content Producers.” International Journal on Media Management 2 (2000): 60-68. ↵
  • Osterwalder, Alexander; Pigneur, Yves. "Business Model Canvas," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas#/media/File:Business_Model_Canvas.png . ↵
  • "The Value Proposition Canvas," Strategyzer ,  https://strategyzer.com/canvas/value-proposition-canvas . ↵
  • Hayes, Jameson L and Graybeal, Geoffrey M. “Synergizing Traditional Media and the Social Web for Monetization: A Modified Media Micropayment Model.” Journal of Media Business Studies 8 (2011): 19-44. ↵
  • Michelle Ferrier, "Ideation," Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship ,  https://press.rebus.community/media-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/chapter/ideation-2/ . ↵
  • Picard, “Changing Business Models,” 60-68. ↵
  • Osterwalder and Pigneur, "Business Model Generation." ↵
  • "Ad Lib Value Proposition Template," Strategyzer , https://assets.strategyzer.com/assets/resources/ad-lib-value-proposition-template.pdf . ↵
  • "Resources,"  Strategyzer , https://strategyzer.com/platform/resources . ↵
  • Johnson, Mark. Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal (Boston: Harvard Publishing Company, 2010). ↵
  • Küng, Lucy. Strategic Management in the Media: From Theory to Practice. (Los Angeles: Sage, 2008). ↵
  • Küng, Lucy, Picard, Robert and Towse, Ruth. The Internet and the Mass Media (Sage: Los Angeles 2008). 153. ↵
  • Zott, Christoph and Amit, Raphael. “The Fit Between Product Market Strategy and Business Model: Implications for Firm Performance.” Strategic Management Journal 29 (2008): 1-26. ↵
  • Zott, Christoph, Amit, Raphael, and Massa, Lorenzo. “The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research.” Journal of Management 37 (2011): 1019-1042. ↵
  • CJ Cornell, "Startup Funding," Media Innovation & Entrepreneurship , https://press.rebus.community/media-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/part/startup-funding/ . ↵
  • Picard, Robert. “Environmental and Market Changes Driving Strategic Planning in Media Firms.” In R.G. Picard (Ed.). Strategic Responses to Media Market Changes 2 . (Sweden: Jonkoping International Business School, 2004): 65-82. ↵
  • Isenberg, Daniel. "The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Strategy as a New Paradigm for Economic Policy: Principles for Cultivating Entrepreneurship." Presentation at the Institute of International and European Affairs (2011). ↵
  • Laudon, Kenneth C. and Traver, Carol Guercio. E-commerce: Business. Technology. Society (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008). ↵
  • Graybeal, Geoffrey M. and Hayes, Jameson L. “A Modified News Micropayment Model for Newspapers on the Social Web.” International Journal on Media Management 13 (2011). 129-148. ↵
  • Mings, Susan B. and White, Peter B. “Profiting From Online News: the Search for Viable Business Models.” In Internet Publishing and Beyond. Kahin, B. & Varian, H.R. (Eds.) The President and Fellows of Harvard College (2000). ↵
  • StartUp podcast , https://gimletmedia.com/startup/ . ↵
  • Graybeal and Hayes, "Modified News Micropayment Model" ↵
  • Hayes and Graybeal, "Synergizing Traditional Media" ↵
  • Schwienbacher, Armin and Larralde, Benjamin, Crowdfunding of Small Entrepreneurial Ventures (September 28, 2010). Handbook of Entrepreneurial Finance , Oxford University Press. ↵
  • Mitra, Devashis. "The Role of Crowdfunding in Entrepreneurial Finance." Delhi Business Review 13, no. 2 (2012): 67. ↵
  • Bradford, C. Steven. "Crowdfunding and the Federal Securities Laws." (2012). ↵
  • Strategyzer video series, YouTube , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwShFsSFb-Y . ↵
  • "Web And Mobile Revenue Models (final)," Hackpad , Accessed July 13, 2017. https://hackpad.com/Web-And-Mobile-Revenue-Models-final-EgXuEtSibE7 . ↵
  • Kumar, Abash, "The Ultimate Master List of Revenue Models Used by Web and Mobile Companies," YourStory.com,  March 20, 2014, Accessed July 13, 2017,  https://yourstory.com/2014/03/ultimate-master-list-revenue-models-web-mobile-companies/ . ↵
  • Plotz, David, "76 Ways to Make Money in Digital Media," Slate Magazine,  August 29, 2014, Accessed July 13, 2017,  http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/08/29/_76_ways_to_make_money_in_digital_media_a_list_from_slate_s_former_editor.html . ↵

The most valuable design sits at the intersection of three questions: can we do this; should we do this; do they want this?

A scenario in which people can use parts of a product for free, but must pay for upgraded functionality or features.

Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Copyright © 2017 by Geoffrey Graybeal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Stratechery by Ben Thompson

On the business, strategy, and impact of technology.

The Unified Content Business Model

In 2017 BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti declared that “if you’re thinking about an electorate and you’re thinking about the public and you’re thinking about people being informed, the subscription model in media does not help inform the broad public”; in 2017 The Athletic CEO Alex Mather went in the opposite direction, telling me in a Stratechery Interview that his publication would be differentiated by “less clickbait, no ads, no game recaps, no hot takes, really focusing in on the deeper stories, the insider stuff, the minutiae for the really diehard fan.”

Today in 2023 BuzzFeed has shuttered its News team and The Athletic has been acquired by the New York Times ; the latter’s top priority was adding advertising .

BuzzFeed’s bet on news was a bet on Facebook and Google’s willingness to subsidize free news, a bet that didn’t pay off. The Athletic had a happier ending, even if there are arguments that the New York Times overpaid, given that the sports publication had never made a profit; it’s also the case that neither BuzzFeed News nor The Athletic were running the proper business model for content on the Internet. The question going forward should not be advertising or subscriptions; the answer, in meme form:

"Why not both?" meme

This is, of course, a return to form for content production; it’s also both an evolution and refutation of a point I argued in 2015’s Popping the Publishing Bubble :

It is easy to feel sorry for publishers: before the Internet most were swimming in money, and for the first few years online it looked like online publications with lower costs of production would be profitable as well. The problem, though, was the assumption that advertising money would always be there, resulting in a “build it and they will come” mentality that focused almost exclusively on content production and far too little on sustainable business models. In fact, publishers going forward need to have the exact opposite attitude from publishers in the past: instead of focusing on journalism and getting the business model for free, publishers need to start with a sustainable business model and focus on journalism that works hand-in-hand with the business model they have chosen. First and foremost that means publishers need to answer the most fundamental question required of any enterprise: are they a niche or scale business? Niche businesses make money by maximizing revenue per user on a (relatively) small user base Scale businesses make money by maximizing the number of users they reach The truth is most publications are trying to do a little bit of everything: gain more revenue per user here, reach more users over there. However, unless you’re the New York Times (and even then it’s questionable), trying to do everything is a recipe for failing at everything; these two strategies require different revenue models, different journalistic focuses, and even different presentation styles.

I think my position today is more of an evolution than a refutation, because I do still think it is essential for an content entity to understand if it is in the niche or scale game; the refutation is twofold: first, everything is a niche , and second, nearly all content businesses should have both subscriptions and advertising.

Three Success Stories

Three companies have helped convince me that “both” is the best business model for content businesses.

New York Times: I shouldn’t have been so quick in that 2015 Article to dismiss the New York Times: last year the company had $2.3 billion in revenue; $1.6 billion from subscriptions, and $523 million from advertising (the rest was from “Other”, including licensing, affiliate referrals, live events, etc.). Moreover, the advertising business, at least according to New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, is compelling precisely because it’s attached to a subscription business; from a Stratechery Interview :

We have painstakingly built an ad business that we as a growing subscription-first business can feel really proud of, and painstakingly built a business where the ad business runs on the same high octane gas as the subscription business. That is registered, logged in, highly engaged qualified audience who spend a lot of time with our product and where we get a lot of signal in privacy-forward ways, non-intrusive ways about what’s interesting to them.

In other words, the New York Times has a big advantage in terms of first party data, in addition to serving a premium advertising segment, precisely because it has focused first-and-foremost on having a subscription-driven editorial approach . This gets back to my “evolution” point: what the New York Times got right is that while it has both business models, it has been very clear-eyed that the subscription model aligns with its editorial approach (and vice-versa), and subsequently made clear that advertising is valuable as long as it it is subservient to that model.

YouTube: Speaking of 2015, that was the year that YouTube launched YouTube Premium (it was called YouTube Red at the time), and I didn’t get it at first. I wrote in an Update :

My initial reaction to YouTube Red was befuddlement; while the “pay-to-remove-ads” business model may make sense for a small independent developer just slapping an ad network inside their app, for a company operating at YouTube’s scale the model has a potentially fatal contradiction: the people who are most likely to be willing to pay to remove ads are usually the exact same people advertisers most want to reach. True, few if any customers are likely to generate $120/year worth of advertising revenue, but the entire point of an advertising business model is to sell access to a wide audience at scale; YouTube Red potentially limits the size of that audience even as it makes it less valuable on an average user basis. Moreover, this seems a particularly strange time to reduce the focus on advertising for YouTube in particular: for years we have been waiting for a significant shift in brand advertising dollars from TV to digital, and with TV viewership suddenly declining significantly, particularly amongst millennials, it seems that time is finally nigh. Why not double-down on advertising?

All discussions of YouTube need to include the very large caveat that Google still — in what I believe is a violation of SEC rules — refuses to disclose YouTube’s costs (and thus profit); the company also doesn’t break out YouTube Premium subscriptions. However, it was notable on the company’s last earnings call that management called out the fact that YouTube subscriptions drove 9% growth in “Google Other” revenue, even as YouTube ad revenue once again declined (because, I suspect , Apple’s App Tracking Transparency changes). That ad revenue, though, is still up massively from 2015; there doesn’t seem to be any tension in having both models at the same time.

What is notable is that YouTube Premium is a much simpler product than YouTube Red tried to be: the latter invested in original content, both from Hollywood and from YouTube creators; the rebrand to YouTube Premium, though, led to the end of most of those initiatives. Instead the value proposition was as simple as could be: YouTube without ads (and some additional functionality, including downloads and background listening, for music in particular). This, in the end, is the subscription model that I think makes the most sense for a scale product whose primary business model is ads: pay to remove them, but otherwise leave the product the same.

Netflix: The company I should probably use here is Hulu; one of the reasons I argued Why Netflix Should Sell Ads is because Hulu had already shown that a streaming service could have a higher average revenue per customer on a cheaper ad-supported plan than on a higher-priced no-ad plan. Netflix has already achieved exactly that; last quarter the company’s $6.99 “Basic + Ads” plan had a higher average revenue per member than the company’s $15.49 “Standard” plan in North America.

Netflix has already adjusted, changing “Basic + Ads” to “Standard + Ads”; the only difference with the regular Standard plan is that, as with YouTube, there are no downloads with the ad-supported plan (which makes total sense: if a device is offline then it can’t be served ads). I think, though, the streaming service should go further. Work backwards from the proposition that the only difference between the ad-supported plan and the Standard plan is the absence of ads, and layer on the fact that Netflix is a scale service that seeks to have content for everyone, and it follows that Netflix should probably end up in the same place that YouTube is: have one free ad-supported plan and one paid plan, with the only difference being the presence or lack thereof of ads.

Leverage and Content Costs

The irony of Netflix being both ad supported and subscription supported is that that was the business model of TV; customers paid for cable (which passed along affiliate fees to cable networks and retransmission fees to broadcast networks) and also had to endure advertisements during their favorite shows.

TV, meanwhile, was only one piece of a larger content strategy for entertainment companies: the products that required the most investment — movies — were subject to a windowing approach, where a film was first released in theaters, then pay-per-view, then premium TV, then cable, and finally free TV. The logic behind this approach was to utilize time to maximize leverage on the costs necessary to create the content in the first place. Netflix isn’t particularly interested in windowing (which I think is understandable in the case of movies , even if I think they should do weekly releases for their most popular shows), but offering the choice of whether or not ads are included is leveraging convenience and the overall user experience to achieve a similar sort of segmentation.

What is important to note is that leverage is still very important: Netflix has an advantage over other streaming services because it has the most subscribers, which means its per-subscriber cost for new content is lower. That advantage grows with the new subscribers Netflix is able to attract to their ad-supported tier; if Netflix had a free ad-supported plan that advantage would be even larger. YouTube, meanwhile, gets its content for free, but has to make major investments in infrastructure, moderation, etc. (the amount of which we don’t — but should — know). The key takeaway, though, is that while the means of leveraging content may have changed with the Internet, the importance of doing so remains the same.

The Hole in the Funnel

Of course YouTube isn’t the only “free” content on the Internet: social networks like Facebook or Twitter and user-generated content networks like TikTok have tons of content as well. There are also things like video games, and even traditional TV — the amount of content available to end users is infinite, and covers every possible niche; AI is only going to make the abundance more overwhelming, and perfectly customized to boot.

In this world the only scarce resource is attention: even if a user is “second-screening” — on their phone while watching TV, for example — they are only ever paying attention to one piece of content at any given moment. It follows, then, that value is a function of attention, because value is always downstream from scarcity.

This has further implications for content companies: to maximize leverage on their costs content companies must have well-considered funnels for acquiring customers and monetizing them. One example I’ve been thinking a lot about is the NBA: the league’s social media presence is very strong, but there was a major disconnect between broad awareness of players and teams and the league’s business model, which, as I explained earlier this year , was anchored in the cable bundle, with a looming weak spot in terms of local rights and regional sports networks. The conundrum facing the league was clear:

The NBA's hole in the funnel

In a world where everyone has cable then having a strong social media presence is great; people can simply turn on the TV to check out a game. If a huge number of households have cut the cord, though, particularly in younger demographics that will hopefully grow into lifelong fans, then the price of entry is signing up for Pay TV, a major commitment that hardly seems worth it for a sport you are only vaguely aware of.

The Phoenix Suns, though, are trying something different: the team is (pending litigation from its former regional sports network) going to make its local games available over-the-air and on a team-branded streaming service. As I discussed yesterday this fills in the missing piece of the funnel:

This is why I have been concerned about the long-term outlook for the league: it’s hard enough to get attention in the modern era, but it’s even harder if your product isn’t even available to half of your addressable market. That was the reality, though, of being on an RSN: social media gave the NBA top of the funnel awareness, but there wasn’t an obvious next step for potential new fans who weren’t yet willing to pay for pay TV. However, if this deal goes through, that next step will exist in Phoenix: potential fans can check out games over the air or through a Suns/Mercury app; if they like what they see they will soon be disappointed that they can’t see the best games, which are reserved for the national TV networks. That, though, is a good thing: now the Suns/Mercury are giving fans a reason to get cable again (or something like YouTube TV), increasing the value of the NBA to those networks along the way. And, of course, there is the most obvious way to monetize content on the Internet: deliver a real-world experience that can’t be replicated online — in this case attending a game in person. All of this is good news for the long term value of [Suns owner Mat] Ishbia’s teams, and, by extension, good news for the NBA and the networks that buy its rights. Yes, forgone RSN money will hurt, but not having an effective customer acquisition funnel hurts even more.

This exact reasoning applies to Netflix, too: the company used to offer free trials, but given how easy they were to abuse the company ended them in 2020; that, though, meant the company had its own hole in the funnel. Potential users might hear about shows that interested them, but the only way to check them out was to actually pull out their credit card; that is, to be fair, still the case today, but at least the ad-supported plan is cheaper. This is also the argument as to why the ad-supported plan should eventually be free: the best way to get customers interested in your premium subscription is to get them watching your content and getting annoyed that ads are in the way of consuming more of it!

Creator Services

All of this is not, for the record, a prelude to introducing ads on Stratechery. While Stratechery arguably competes with the New York Times for user attention, I don’t have the resources to sell ads, even if I think it would be a perfectly fine thing to do (although my approach to ethics would preclude accepting advertising from any company I cover).

Things would be different if and when I ever launch video: one of the things that makes YouTube such a brilliant platform is that from the very early days the service has had a revenue share with creators. This lets creators benefit from the capabilities of the largest digital ad company in the world without any additional work; the creator’s only job is to create content that is compelling enough to earn views (and thus advertising revenue), which benefits YouTube.

Spotify is working to build out something similar for podcasting: yes, there is podcast advertising, but the market is fundamentally limited to high-price or high-LTV products, and the barrier to being a viable podcast is fairly high as far as total listeners go (and the market, at least anecdotally, seems to be struggling). What Spotify is trying to build is something much more akin to YouTube: targeted advertising at scale, where the only responsibility of content creators is to make something that users want to listen to.

I think that Substack is making a mistake in not doing the same thing for writing: it’s simply not viable for one-person or small-team publishers to sell ads effectively; Substack, though, has aggregated a whole slew of them, and thus is uniquely positioned to create value for its writers collectively by building out an ad product. This, by extension, could help Substack authors with their own hole in the funnel: moving readers from links in tweets to paying subscribers would be easier if there were a money-making layer in the middle.

Of course the freemium strategy is a good alternative; that has always been the business model here on Stratechery, both for my writing and my podcasts. Indeed, that really is the real name for the “Unified Content Model”: everything, in the end, is on its way to freemium. The right place to draw the line will and should differ based on whether a product is niche or scaled, and on the cost structure of the content producer; what seems less necessary, given the need to both leverage content costs and acquire customers effectively, is being religious about only making money in one specific way.

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What is content modeling?

Emily Nielsen

Emily Nielsen

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# What is a content model?

Every piece of digital content is at its core a piece of a content model. A content model breaks down the different elements of the content and can be an essential part of organizing an efficient workflow around creating new content. It enables teams to sync on their ideas of the goals behind the content as well as ensure that when that content comes to fruition, it has all of the elements that were discussed in planning. But exactly what is a content model?

“A content model documents all the different types of content you will have for a given project. It contains detailed definitions of each content type’s elements and their relationships to each other.”

Rachel Lovinger

The difficulty of modeling content comes when teams attempt to strike the balance between building content models with a single presentation layer in mind and when content is overly modular that it becomes devoid of meaning. Content models should be flexible and easy to decipher across the team of stakeholders and should scale easily as the project grows.

Content models help designers structure their designs and understand what content elements will be present for the presentation layer. Content teams should be able to efficiently create content workflows and include all of the information that is essential to the content model in their content. Developer teams should be able to develop resilient content models that can be created without time-intensive iterations if the outcomes of the project change. Business development teams must trust that content discusses the agreed-upon outcomes and KPIs. Users and customers should be able to find the information they are looking for easily in an intuitive way. An effective set of content models affect more than just the content or editorial team, it can determine how well a team is able to communicate with the user. An ineffective system of content modeling can lead to costly slowdowns and extra work across teams as they try to rectify the problem.

# What are the benefits of content modeling?

Modeling content is essential when working with a CMS. Taking a collaborative approach to content modeling and being intentional about how content is modeled leading to whether or not it will serve its purpose. The problems come when teams do not take the time when modeling content to collaborate with other members of the team. Teams should take time at the beginning of new projects to evaluate how content should be modeled and understood by the end-user. In aligning from the beginning of the process, teams are able to consider the evolution of a content piece from start to finish rather than being surprised by too many uncertainties as content passes through the various stages of development. There are a variety of exercises and approaches to content modeling which can be helpful in these early stages of content modeling.

Content modeling, when done thoughtfully, can help teams prioritize content goals and create a high-level overview of the types of content that the team will create. These content models also give structure to the content teams to understand what are the necessary pieces of information that must be present in each content entry. Content models that are flexible can help encourage the production of reusable, adaptable content where it is relevant to make the content team’s job more efficient.

# What are the essential elements present in modeling content?

There are several definitional elements that will make it easier to discuss content models in more concrete terms. The first being what information will be present in every type of content model. Fields will be present in every content model. Fields can be broadly categorized as either storing the various types of content in the model or describing how that content should be presented in the frontend. In the cases of fields like Richtext Editor and Markdown, sometimes they do a combination of those two goals. At Hygraph we have fields that range from simple plain text to WYSIWYG, to assets, to geographical location points, to relations. The most common types of fields being text fields and relation fields. Relation fields are one of the most important fields because it allows content editors to keep structured content flexible and reusable where appropriate.

In your content model structure, there will be two different types of content models. The content models that contain all of the structured content that will populate the project, which we at Hygraph call “Subject Models,” will be the backbone of the content needed for the various presentation layers. The second type of content model, which we here at Hygraph refers to as “Specification Models” which clarify how the information is presented in the presentation models. The Subject Models should be flexible enough to adapt to various presentation layers; whereas the Specification Models should be more rigid depending and rely on fields like relations, a color that defines a specific component. For more specific instructions and qualifications, check out the content modeling best practices below.

Content Modeling also introduces the concept of "Sortable Relations". This allows for more flexibility, giving content creators the ability to rearrange the order of their relations within a content model, without the need for development and/or more work on the content modeling front. Taking the example of a burger restaurant's menu, a "burger" simply needs a relation to "cheese", "patty", "lettuce", and "bacon", for instance. Editors can simply sort, include, and exclude the order of these relations when creating "burgers", so as to define their own variations, rather than requiring a new content model per burger.

With Hygraph, all of this structured content can be understood programmatically using the GraphQL API Explorer within the platform. To quickly get an overview of the content being stored in specific models or under certain conditions it is possible to query the data and receive the queried information in an organized, structured manner. If elements of the project change and those changes need to be reflected in the CMS, it is even possible to make larger changes programmatically using GraphQL mutations which speeds up the process and ensures that changes are not overlooked.

# What are the steps for modeling content?

Before it is possible to start creating content modeling diagrams there are several things that teams should consider. Completing these steps do require an initial time investment from a variety of stakeholders; however, time invested now will save time in the long run by avoiding simple pitfalls that can occur if not all of the stakeholders are considered. The first step is gathering team members from the design team, development team, content team, and business team to discuss how the content will be presented or users are intended to interact with this content and what are the agreed-upon outcomes for this content.

Some good questions to have answers where the stakeholders agree are:

  • What is the most important piece of information that needs to be communicated?
  • What is other information that also needs to be communicated?
  • How will people find/interact with this content?
  • Will this information change very often/stay the same over long periods of time?
  • How critical is this information to the broader messaging of the project or essential to the functionality of the application? (ie. metadata for a products UI)
  • What is the goal of communicating this information to the user? What action should they take now that they have this information (ie. sign up for your product, share the information, tell people about the brand)
  • What is the workflow for creating new content?/Which stakeholders need to interact with the content before it can be published?

It can be a good idea to have these examples accessible in a collaboration tool, such as Miro or Google Docs so that team members can reference the discussion quickly as they continue to work on their individual tasks. After the various stakeholders come to a consensus on these various foundational questions. It is possible to create the first iteration of a content diagram. In the same way that it is helpful to keep a digital log of the iterations of the foundational questions, this is also true with content modeling. Content modeling needs feedback from the various stakeholders, particularly in the early stages. Working with tools that enable this collaboration will help modernize workflows and save your team time.

# Creating a content model diagram

There are a variety of strategies that a team can experiment with when practicing content modeling. Creating a spreadsheet with a high-level overview of the different content models, their intents, and the presentation layer can be helpful, especially for content teams to reference after the content models have been created. In order to build content models, especially when working with modular, structured data, visually building out the content models using a whiteboard or digital whiteboard tool will help conceptualize the ideal content models for your data. At Hygraph, we use Miro as a digital whiteboard to collaborate with our globally distributed team and to be able to keep a digital record of our iterations of content models.

To start the whiteboarding exercise, it is helpful to know the various types of fields available in the CMS, and if there are any limitations to the way data can be structured. In a highly flexible system like Hygraph, data can be modeled in an endless array of combinations depending on the type of project and the team’s capabilities. The three most basic elements of the content modeling whiteboard exercise are the model itself, fields which will serve as the way to structure data and highlight what information will be communicated in the model, and relations between various models.

For the purpose of the exercise, models are rectangles and will house the various fields as well as the title of the model. Fields are small ovals that display the type of field and what kind of information will be housed in the field. Relations are shown as various colors of arrows that connect the fields from different models. Once these preliminary steps are accomplished, your team is set up to be able to collaborate on building out content models for the project. There are a variety of strategies that can help get into the mindset of structured data.

A sample of what a content modeling exercise could result in is as follows.

Content Modeling

After collaborating with the team to come up with some content modeling wireframes, these models should be replicated in the CMS. From there the content team can go through the process of creating some dummy content to see if there are changes that need to be made before working on the frontend. This will also give the content team a chance to familiarize themselves with the concept of structured content modeling and how it looks when it is applied to their projects.

# What are some good strategies for content modeling?

Top-down approach.

Top Down Approach to Content Modeling

The top-down approach to content modeling starts with thinking about the intended outcome first, then the high-level information, then the details that are essential to the content model. In the case of wanting to build a category of landing pages. First, you begin with the Subject Model of the Landing page. Populate this model with information such as the title and header image. Then discuss with the team what makes the most sense for the content workflow and team for the rest of the details such as: how do people feel about markdown vs rich text fields. Another important thing to consider during this approach is what type of information will be repeatable or reusable throughout the project? Should this instead receive its own model? This will help modularize content and save time and energy for the content team later down the road.

Bottom-up approach

Bottom Up Approach to Content Modeling

The bottom-up approach is essentially the opposite of the top-down approach. Instead of thinking about the content from a high-level first, in a bottom-up, you consider all of the details that need to be communicated throughout the project and see what is a good candidate for being repeatable or reusable information. From here you create small modular content models that can be connected together using relations. After you create these modules, you can prioritize how you think this information is best communicated and build out the high-level structure.

Divorcing Page Builder Mentality

One of the biggest learning curves when modeling content for a structured content approach, or with a headless CMS in general, is to remove the notion that models and projects will only be used to build different kinds of webpages. Even if you are building a website, it can save a lot of time, in the long run, to think of content as something that can be used across the project in different ways. In the diagram below, you will see how a single SEO metadata model is used throughout the project and connected via relations rather than all of these fields being housed in the various landing pages. This is a relatively straightforward example; however, it demonstrates that this mentality can be carried out across different types of content.

Creating a Balance of Modular and Presentation-centric Content Models

One key point in the creation of content models that can often be overlooked when teams are knee-deep in modeling exercises is that these content models in most cases are going to be used by people to create content. While it may be true that content is being fed to the CMS programmatically, throughout the content creation process there is likely at least some human contact with modular content. This is why testing the content models is a critical step that should not be overlooked. When content becomes too fractured into tiny modules, it can sometimes be difficult to decipher how it all fits together to form the intended output. It is important to find the balance between a total webpage template approach and a modular approach with your team. Giving descriptions to fields can be a helpful tip as well to ensure that content gets added where and how it was intended. Working with a headless CMS to model content can require teams to reorient their traditional mindsets of content modeling but it can also enable teams to serve content easily to previously underused presentation layers and serve as the glue between a variety of microservice systems.

# Frequently Asked Questions

What is a content model.

A content model documents all content types or fields associated with an entry, and defines the relationship between those content types. With a content model, you can visualize the purpose of each piece of content enabling the organization of a website's content ecosystem. For example, a Blog Post is a model, with Title , Description , Author , and Date being the fields that compose the content model.

What is Content Modeling?

Content modeling is the process of creating a logical taxonomy structure for the content you create and distribute online. The process of assembling content types into a content model is what is referred to as the process of content modeling. A common way of modeling content is by first considering the intent of each content type and model.

What are the steps of Content Modeling?

Content modeling is usually a 4-step process.

  • Establishing the intent of the content by deciding what purpose it needs to solve in the short term, as well as leaving room for extensibility in the mid-to-long term when that content could serve multiple purposes.
  • Analyzing the requirements and determining what types of content would be needed.
  • Identifying the structure of what this content model should look like, and how many other content types or models need to be referenced.
  • Developing the content model with a combination of fields that fulfill the intent of that content.

Blog Author

Emily Nielsen

Emily manages content and SEO at Hygraph. In her free time, she's a restaurant lover and oat milk skeptic.

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The Unified Content Model – A New Way to Think about Managing Business Content

content business model

It’s rapidly becoming apparent that digital transformation (DX) is not a finite destination, but rather a journey. Early DX initiatives were siloed and focused on short term gains. Organizations later scaled these initiatives across the enterprise, with a broader set of long-term goals, Today, organizations are looking at how they can leverage their digital capabilities for new value creation. This includes new operational efficiencies, how an organization engages with customers, how it attracts and retains employees, as well as new digital products and services. At IDC, we are calling organizations in this stage a “digital-first business”.

Because a digital-first business seeks to increase operational efficiency and productivity and improve both customer and employee experiences, these organizations need a new category of technology solutions for managing content. Cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and new services-based architectures have made the legacy categories of capture , enterprise content management (ECM), content sharing and collaboration (CSC) , digital asset management (DAM), and web content management (WCM) obsolete. In reality, these older labels refer to a set of use cases which are all supported by a common library of content services. These application categories made sense in the era of on-premises, standalone monolithic applications, but are cumbersome and inefficient in the context of the modern cloud and services architectures of the digital-first business.

Instead, IDC is proposing a new way to approach the content supply chain— a Unified Content Model that supports a common set of content-related services related to security, governance, archiving, measurement and analysis as well as the tasks to manage the supply chain stages shared by all content applications. The model also recognizes the need for sets of specialized services that may only apply to certain types of content or use cases. These services can be accessed and utilized via low-code/no-code tools to construct solutions for explicit jobs to be done that lead to specific business outcomes. In other words, the job to be done is separate from the supporting “plumbing” underneath. Solutions based on the Unified Content Model will orchestrate the content supply chain throughout the organization.

The Unified Content Model

content business model

The Unified Content Model has the following components:

  • Interface to one or more data repositories – Repositories include structured and unstructured data, including text, image, audio, video, QR code assets and atomic componentized content.
  • Measure/Analyze – A library of services to measure the usage and effectiveness of content. There is a closed feedback loop between measurements and the experiences that present jobs to be done.
  • Manage – A set of services that are common to all use cases, including version control, templates, and permissions management.
  • Domain – Specific Metadata Model – Common metadata that is shared across the content supply chain to facilitate interoperability, processing, and personalization.
  • Plan, Produce, Publish, Promote – Categories that correspond to the “verbs” that describe actions performed on content as it traverses the supply chain journey. These are a set of services that may be chosen for a specific job to be done. These activities may be accomplished by a human, a machine, or both.
  • Retain and dispose of documents correctly
  • Execute non-disclosure agreement
  • Collaborate for image review and approval
  • Communicate quarterly financial results
  • Update product pricing information
  • Remove expired licensed materials
  • Stream episodes at a virtual event 
  • Delivery Channel – Content may be delivered via a broad range of channels or edge devices – frequently delivered via more than one – depending on producer and consumer preferences. Content must be responsive and displayed in a manner that is appropriate for the channel.
  • Audience App Experience – Consumption/usage by employees, partners citizens, patients, students, accountholders, and other end users
  • Industry App Experience – Consumption/usage by industry users or applications, for example healthcare systems and portals, banking, or insurance policy systems
  • Departmental App Experience – Consumption/usage by the business user or business application, such as enterprise resource management (ERP) or human capital management (HCM)

Benefits of the Unified Content Model

Why should an organization adopt a Unified Content Model? Solutions architected according to the model will increase operational efficiency by eliminating content silos and duplicative applications and/or platforms. This will afford several benefits to organizations:

  • Enforce a common brand and company “voice”
  • Support a 360-degree view of the customer
  • Efficiency in content creation, management and reuse across solutions and applications
  • Scale in using best in class cloud-based services
  • “Future-proof” technology by making it easier to add or substitute services and delivery channels
  • Improve the overall experience for both content producers and content consumers

What the Unified Content Model Means for Organizations

In IDC research early in 2022, 46% of respondents indicated that improving operational efficiencies is the top business objective for content services investments. Of course, organizations can’t scrap existing workflows and related solutions overnight, but as modernization initiatives progress, organizations should adopt the Unified Content Model as a blueprint for that modernization. We are seeing implementations of the model appear in the marketplace as technology vendors leverage the opportunities afforded by cloud computing and services-based architectures to redesign the content repository and open it up for interplay between systems and actions. The value for these vendors comes not from reproducing the “plumbing” of content management but rather in the expertise in tasks of the content supply chain, jobs to be done or applications at the edge.

How to get started? Begin by evaluating your current content-centric workflows, stakeholders and applications asking the following questions:

  • What content is your organization creating and for what purpose? How much of that content is redundant (or worse, uncontrolled)? What content can be (or should be) reused and/or used for multiple purposes?
  • Who is producing, reviewing, approving, delivering the content? In other words, who participates in the content supply chain? What actions must be performed on that content?
  • How is that content updated, revised, retained, redistributed, disposed of?
  • Who (or what) is consuming the content and when? Is similar content consumed at various stages of a relationship or supply chain? What integrations are required with other enterprise systems? What formats are required for delivery at each stage?
  • How are you measuring the use and effectiveness of your content?  Have you established a feedback loop? How do you know what is working and what is not?

Once you answer these questions, develop a plan to architect a solution that maximizes the storage, analysis, management and data descriptors of content based on the Unified Content Model with your developers, vendors and/or partners. Develop a migration and change management strategy to minimize disruption. Proceed down the path to greater content agility and becoming a digital-first business.

For more information on IDC’s research on unified content models, read our perspectives:

  • Future of Customer Experience: Measuring Content Effectiveness to Reduce Customer Effort and Improve Customer Experience Satisfaction
  • Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Enterprise Content Strategies, 2022
  • Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Persuasive Content and Digital Experience Management Software, 2022
  • Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide and U.S. Intelligent Document Processing, 2022

content business model

Holly is responsible for research related to innovation and transformation in content solutions, including intelligent document processing, esignature and other content workflow services. Her core coverage also includes work transformation and the role of technology in driving the Future of Work. Holly brings to IDC more than 30 years of experience in product management, product marketing, strategy development and market research within the content and document solutions industry.

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The Business Model for Content Startups

Empirics Asia

A business model helps to clarify a company’s main purpose, such as who they’re serving, how they help, and how the company can sustain its operations. A business model is distinctly different from an organization’s strategy, which typically addresses product, pricing, and marketing decisions. A formal business plan, however, may include some of these elements as part of the company’s long-term goals and objectives.

Graphic contains three definitions, as follows: Business model: A business model provides a rationale for how a business creates, delivers and captures value, and examines how the business operates, its underlying foundations, and the exchange activities and financial flows upon which it can be successful. Business plan: A business plan is a formal document that typically describes the business and industry, market strategies, sales potential, and competitive analysis as well as the company’s long-term goals and objectives. Revenue model : A revenue model outlines the ways in which your company will make money (e.g. revenue streams). Empathy map: A tool to identify your idealized target customer and develop a better understanding of his or her environment, behavior, concerns and aspirations.

Each business model is unique to a company. There is not an industry-wide business model per se although companies may coalesce around a dominant company’s successful business model and seek to emulate it.

Business models provide a rationale for how a business creates, delivers, and captures value, [1] and examine how the business operates, its underlying foundations, and the exchange activities and financial flows upon which it can be successful. [2]

A business model canvas is a tool to map out and plan the different components to a business model. The components vary based on the canvas tool you use, with the most widely used one developed by Osterwalder and Pigneur in the book Business Model Generation, or available online through a series of customizable tools and canvases available for a fee on strategyzer.com .

The Business Model Canvas tool helps you plan and map out different elements of a business model. This canvas contains the following elements: Key Partners, Key Activities, Key Resources, Value Propositions, Customer Relationships, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure, and Revenue Streams. This image is linked to a video that fully explains how this particular canvas works. You can access the video to hear an audio description of the canvas at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=QoAOzMTLP5s

The Osterwalder and Pigneur canvas blocks include revenue stream, customer segments, value proposition, cost structures, channels, key activities, key partners, key resources, and customer relationships.

Early on, your greatest focus should be on the right side of the canvas because:

  • These are in many ways the most critical aspects of starting a new venture (customer segments, value proposition, channels, and revenue streams).
  • The most fluid (revenue streams, channels, and value propositions will likely differ for the differing customer segments and as you iterate and pivot throughout the customer discovery process could change).
  • It follows a logical temporal order (there’s no need to focus on the costs of building a company if you won’t have customers).

In a follow up to Business Model Generation, the Strategyzer team created a second canvas, the Value Proposition Canvas. Value Proposition Canvas is a new tool that pulls out the customer segment and value proposition blocks of the business model canvas and encourages more in-depth exploration of those blocks to achieve “fit” between the two. The Value Proposition Canvas tool looks at customer pains, gains and jobs-to-be-done on the customer side and painkillers, gain creators, and products and services on the value proposition side.

A revenue model focuses on an organization’s revenue streams, e.g., how a company will make money, whereas a business model also concerns itself with other issues such as who the product is serving, how it is distributed and promoted, and key partnerships used in implementing it. In short, a revenue model is just one component of a business model. A typical business model has multiple elements (nine in the case of the Osterwalder and Pigneur model). A revenue model is primarily focused on how a company will make money.

For traditional legacy media outlets, such as a newspaper, revenue streams typically encompassed advertising and consumer payment either through subscription or alternate payment methods like single-sale purchases.

Hayes and Graybeal (2012) provide an overview of categorizations of online business models from the late 1990s to late 2000s from scholars and industry practitioners, including many online content plays. Revenue models were the most common components found in all forms of business model classifications. Value streams and logistical streams were also equally important in e-commerce models.

Think of a business model canvas as an ideation tool to help brainstorm and flesh out your startup concept. The business model is a more adaptable, flexible tool that can be used to formulate the ideas that would later be fleshed out in a more formal business plan.

A business plan is a formal document, presented to prospective investors, that typically includes elements such as an executive summary, business description, marketing strategy, and competitive analysis. A business plan may also include a business model canvas as supplemental material in an appendix.

You should usually develop a business model before a business plan. But before you get to a business model, first and foremost, you need an idea. There are numerous resources for brainstorming activities and entrepreneurial processes to help develop an idea and flesh it out to be “market-ready.” (see previous chapter on Ideation ) Original ideas are sometimes hard to come by.

Early research into competitors helps as a starting point. Who else has had this idea? Has this idea been tried before and failed? That’s not necessarily a dealbreaker. As renowned media economist Robert Picard notes, just because an idea failed at one point in time, under a certain set of circumstances, that doesn’t mean a failed idea can’t be revisited.

Another entrepreneurial startup truism is that no matter how great your idea may be, if no one will use your product, then you’re dead on arrival. So startup ideas need customers to become a business. Thus, the various entrepreneurial processes, whether that is business model canvas tools, lean startup principles and methodologies, or other approaches, focus a great deal on the customer.

The Osterwalder and Pigneur book describes a process of creating a customer empathy map to distill down your ideal target customer. Bring to life an individual, and delve into his or her fears, dreams, aspirations, and what she or he does in the everyday life. After identifying your target customer, you can begin to segment your audience. But start with an individual customer, idealized or actualized, and distill deeply into that customer profile.

This graphical representation of an empathy map by Paul Boag from Boagworld depicts a hypothetical customer in various dimensions. What does she Hear? What are friends, family and other influencers saying to her that impacts her thinking? Then, what does she think and feel? What really matters to her? What occupies her thinking? What worries and aspirations does she have? Continuing clockwise, what does she see? What things in her environment influence her? What competitors is she seeing? What is she seeing friends do? And finally what does she say and do? What is her attitude toward others? What does she do in public? How has her behavior changed? At bottom, the map shows Pain: What fears, frustrations or obstacles is she facing and also Gain: What is she hoping to get? What does success look like?

The Customer Empathy Map is an idealized portrayal of your fictionalized target customer, the most promising candidate from your customer segments. Give him or her a name and demographic characteristics, such as income, marital status, and so forth, before delving into the pains, gains, thoughts, feelings, and surroundings of this individual you bring to fruition.

This is an approach that has long been used in media and communication fields such as advertising and strategic communication. Advertisers and marketers often create customer personas–fictional, generalized representations of ideal or existing customers–as part of campaign plans, pitches, strategy, and creative concept delivery.

When you peel away the language used to describe business models, the early startup planning stages come down to asking a series of questions. Another popular framework used in entrepreneurial circles when it comes to formulating a business model for a startup concept is that of desirability-feasibility-viability .

This forces the entrepreneur to address broad questions about the startup concept.

Desirability: How desirable is the product? Who will use it and why?

Feasibility: How feasible is this idea? What are the costs to make it? How practical is the concept?

Viability: Will this idea remain viable? How will it make money? How will it be sustained over time?

These questions then begin to connect together to form a narrative about where the startup concept came from, who it serves, why it’s needed, how it will make money, and how it will be sustained in the future.

Strategyzer also has a great “Ad-lib” template that will help you figure out a few potential value propositions. They also offer other resources you can access after signing up for a free account.

BUSINESS MODELS

Although there is not a single definition to the term business model and usage varies widely, in standard business usage a “business model” can denote how costs will be covered as well as how a business creates and delivers value for itself and its customers, including the ways in which products are made and distributed. Academic strategists tend to use the term business model to describe the configuration of resources in response to a particular strategic orientation.

Most people are familiar with Business to Consumer models (also referred to as BTC or B2C). In a Business-to-Consumer model, the business primarily provides services to consumers. Many of the common media content plays are considered B2C. Newspapers, television shows, films, and video games are primarily B2C companies. Many apps that individual users download and then consume content from are B2C. Because media companies are typically providing content that is of value to consumers, they look like a B2C, however, they use the attention of those consumers to sell advertising space to businesses, effectively operating as a B2B. Business to business to consumer (or B2B2C or BtoBtoC) is another prominent e-commerce model, that combines Business to Business and Business to Consumer in a complete product or service transaction.

Nascent startup Shine, which officially launched its inspirational text message service in Spring 2016, is an example of following a classic Business-to-Consumer model. (Full disclosure: I taught one of the founders.) Through automated texts, Shine delivers daily self-help, encouragement and advice to its subscribers via either SMS or Facebook Messenger. Anyone can use the free service, but it is primarily aimed at millennials and about 70 percent of users are female.

On the Brooklyn-based company’s one-year anniversary in April 2017, the Shine team announced that it had obtained half a million users.  Co-founders Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi raised $2.5 million to further develop Shine in a funding round led by Betaworks and Eniac Ventures, and including Female Founders Fund, Felix Capital, Comcast Venture, BBG Ventures, The New York Times , and Ed Zimmerman.

They want to expand the service to be included on other platforms like Line and WeChat.

The problem Shine tackles is that “self-help is broken” and its value proposition addresses in part what is known as “the confidence gap,” often cited as a barrier that holds women back when it comes to advancing in their careers, raising money, investing, and planning retirement.

Shine has four pillars it is built to address: mental health, confidence, daily happiness, and productivity.

In 2015, Hirayabashi and Lidey began to focus on turning their idea into a reality. The two met at and worked together at DoSomething.org, a youth-oriented global nonprofit organization. They conducted a closed test with 70 individuals before publicly releasing Shine in beta in October 2015. They formally left DoSomething.Org in April 2016 and Shine was born.

While the messaging service is free, the company has experimented with adding revenue streams through additional consumer services. Shinevisor provides advice and guidance from real people who are certified life, career, and school coaches. That service currently runs $15.99 per week billed on a 12-week basis. Shinevisor is an early effort of Shine to add additional services that bring in revenue, as multiple revenue streams are most often needed for a company to succeed.

While Shine, apps and a majority of content plays are primarily B2C, the other predominant business model is that of a Business to Business, also commonly referred to as B2B or BTB. Whereas Shine is a business whose product serves customers, in a Business to Business model, a company primarily serves other businesses, not individual consumers.

MailChimp, an Atlanta-based company, began as a B2B in 2001. More than 15 million people and businesses around the world use MailChimp. MailChimp enables many B2B marketing transactions. A leading marketing automation platform, MailChimp sends more than a billion emails a day. MailChimp’s primary customers were businesses that used the platform to send marketing emails, automated messages, and targeted campaigns to its individual users.

Historically, media companies that provide analytic services have sold that data and analysis to other businesses. Bloomberg’s financial terminals sold to businesses around the world is a classic example of a B2B service.

Küng, Picard & Towse (2008) also note “elements of different business models can be combined [so] in that sense, every business model of a company is unique.” For those reasons, a business model can be a source of competitive advantage, with business model design and product-market strategy serving as complements, not substitutes. Strategy functions like an architect creating a homeowner’s design, while the detailed floor plan based on choices in the design process would constitute a business model design.

When you go to get funding for your startup, having an understanding of your business model will come in handy.

Media are among the handful of industries that face industry-specific policies and regulations that other businesses do not face. The broadcast industry is regulated in the U.S. through the Federal Communication Commission. The print media industry is impacted by certain postal and governmental notice regulations. Banking and pharmaceuticals are other industries that face such industry-specific regulations. Reduced barriers to entry, promotion of trade, promotion of small enterprises, and regulation of consolidation and concentration are among some of the policies and regulations media must face. Media strategy can be influenced by these environmental factors, firm factors, industry factors, and media-specific factors, among others. Some regulation can hinder startups.

That’s why policy is one of the domains of enabling an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Government supports can come in the forms of tax breaks and incentives, regulatory frameworks, venture-friendly legislation, institutional investments, financial support, and policy initiatives.Regulation and policy limitations to the strategic choices available to media companies are two examples of media-specific characteristics.

Regulation can help or hinder incumbents or startups based on policies that are set. For example, regulations pertaining to net neutrality have been debated for years, with many startups of the past decade arguing that without net neutrality they would have faced disadvantages instead of the environment that enabled them to grow and prosper. Many technology startups, for example, banded together in July 2017 to form a protest over FCC proposals to eliminate Obama-era net neutrality rules. Y Combinator, a popular technology startup incubator, was among the backers of the protest, along with companies like Kickstarter, Etsy, GitHub, Amazon, and Reddit.

Government policies can also support entrepreneurship. Some U.S. cities have staff dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship. New York City for example uses revenue from its film and television projects to fund media entrepreneurship efforts like the NYC Media Lab.

New York City’s media and tech startup scene, so-called “Silicon Alley,” is no longer confined to a small alleyway in NYC’s financial district and is more of a concept than a location. Media companies such as Google and IAC/InterActiveCorp make up part of NYC’s media ecosystem. In 2012, the Center for Urban Future proclaimed that NYC witnessed over 1,000 media startups including Tumblr and Mashable .

During this time, NYC was also witnessing the growth of media cooperative working spaces, accelerators and incubators including New York University’s (NYU) Polytechnic Institute Tandon Future Labs supported by the New York City Economic Development Corporation. During this time Mayor Bloomberg advanced tax breaks and funding opportunities for media startups in NYC as part of his five-borough economic plan.

The NYCEDC, in a public-private partnership, also helped launch the NYC Media Lab in 2010. The primary goal of NYC Media Lab is to connect the media industry during the dot-com revival in NYC and colleges and universities in the area to advance media entrepreneurship. The consortium, which includes Columbia University, New York University, The New School, the City University of New York (CUNY), the IESE Business School, and the Pratt Institute, work under the NYC Media Lab umbrella to generate media research and development and advance media entrepreneurship. The Combine serves as NYC Media Lab’s incubator and its main goal is to position NYC as the media capital of the world by advancing and launching “one-of-a-kind” media and communication technologies. Specifically, the Combine aims at supporting and growing media startups from faculty and students from collaborating universities with a high potential to launch. The Combine is funded by the NYCEDC, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and NYC Media Lab’s corporate members.

Some current projects include an experiment with metadata extraction from book manuscripts for Audible, a market research project for MBA students in New York City on augmented reality products for Hearst Ventures, an augmented reality fellowship in design and engineering through Bloomberg and Lampix, and a virtual reality fellowship for Viacom NEXT.

Many European countries also provide funding for entrepreneurial initiatives. In 2004, the Flemish government established iMinds, a digital research center and business incubator to focus on information and communication technology. The European Union and other European nations routinely fund innovation and entrepreneurial projects.

APPLICABLE TECHNIQUES

Content models.

Revenue streams are a common element of most definitions of business models, particularly ones used to address electronic commerce. Many online news business models, historically, have been similar to traditional business models, as subscription, advertising, and transactional are the most common categories of online business models.

Advertising and subscription still remain the most dominant forms of revenue streams used in most content business models. Content plays involve the creation and dissemination of content, such as news or entertainment, which users will want to receive.

Here’s an example to help you better understand what I mean by a content company. There’s an excellent episode in the first season of Startup, the podcast about creating a startup from Gimlet Media in which the founders, Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, debate whether Gimlet is a content company or a technology company. In the episode, Gimlet Media thus far has gone the route of being a content company. The company produces content—in this case compelling podcasts—that are then distributed on other technology platforms, such as through Apple or Spotify. If Gimlet became a technology company, it would launch a proprietary podcast-playing platform. For comparison’s sake, Spotify provides a platform for streaming audio but does not produce the content—the music, the songs, the podcasts that play on that platform.

See the additional resources included at the end of this chapter for lists of many revenue streams for many digital media, mobile, and e-commerce companies.

Some of the most common forms of revenue streams used in content companies include:

Subscription

When the newspaper industry moved into online content delivery, many companies initially gave its content away online for free. Within the past decade or so, most newspaper companies have offered digital-only subscriptions and bundled online delivery along with the traditional print product. Within the United States, the leading paywall system was developed by PressPlus. Paywalls offer users a certain number of free page visits, before being blocked with subscription, the primary means to gain additional access.

Many digital media companies that offer content, particularly those that offer content that compete with traditional companies such as newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters, have implemented a Paywall approach. A paywall can be hard where the only way to access the content is to pay for it, usually through a subscription, or soft , where the user is given a certain number of free visits or views per month before being asked to subscribe.

Another common subscription model used for content and technology plays is that of a freemium model. Under a freemium model, access to basic content is free, but users can choose to subscribe to premium content for a fee that provides improved access (such as an ad-free experience) or additional services. The online music streaming service Spotify is a classic example of a freemium model, with basic access to ad-supported music online available for free, with monthly premium subscriptions for a fee. Dropbox is another commonly used digital startup that relies on a freemium model. The cloud-based file storage service offers free storage up to a certain amount, and charges a monthly fee beyond that.

Membership is another subscription model. Under a membership model, the content can either be free or paid, but users who purchase a membership receive perks and bonus materials, exclusive access to supplemental materials, and so forth. In many instances, these content companies have been focused on a certain content form (technology, politics, sports) rather than general interest publications. Musician fan clubs and sporting teams are classic examples of non-digital content entities that excel at offering memberships. That same model is applied to media companies, typically ones that diversify their offerings through some of the other miscellaneous revenue streams discussed later (such as events and conferences; archival data, etc.).

Classic subscriptions, of course, are the most prevalent. Netflix is probably the most well-known media content company that offers access to its content through monthly subscription options. As previously mentioned, some media companies offer subscription access based on content delivery mechanism (online, mobile delivery/web, all access).

Increasingly, more and more entertainment content is being sold through subscription packages, with over-the-top services independent of cablevision subscriptions being offered for individual channels (HBO, Showtime, ESPN) or in packaged bundles (Sling, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.).

Advertising

There are various forms of advertising for content and technology companies, with many forms specific to the delivery mechanism and form of the company. Traditional legacy media companies sell local direct advertising (newspapers, broadcasters), classified advertisements, sponsorships (most common in broadcasting) and are part of national advertising networks, among other forms.

Advertising networks are still prevalent for digital media content and technology companies, alongside selling direct advertising on various platforms. Native advertising, the use and sale of microsites dedicated to paid clients, the use of Google AdSense, and the sale of Outbrain-style links to external sites are common on web-based content and technology plays.

Content and technology companies can sell display advertising, search advertising, video ads, text/SMS advertising, mobile and digital forms of advertising, and location-based advertising among other forms, particularly in the mobile space. Content and technology startups can also develop their own proprietary forms of advertising content based on the system. For example, Twitter developed and sold promoted tweets and sponsored ads in its platform. Sponsorships, particularly used in podcasts, are another form of advertising available for content and technology plays.

Mobile advertising (“in-app ads” and “mobile display” ads) and variations of charging for content are the most prominent ways traditional media have sought to monetize content thus far, but there are many other alternative business models under consideration, including free and paid SMS alerts, social media platform distribution, and free applications.

Sponsored Content

One sometimes controversial revenue stream is brand storytelling, or advertisements that are written in the form of articles in the “voice” of the publication, and displayed alongside regular editorial content. Brand-sponsored content typically falls under the larger umbrella of “native advertising” as the ads appear “native” to the environment in which they’re displayed. Many top traditional journalistic outlets have an entire team or division dedicated to creating sponsored content for brands (e.g. New York Times’ T Brand Studio, HuffPost’s Partner Studio, Washington Post’s WP BrandStudio, Conde Nast’s 23 Stories and Forbes’ BrandVoice).

Transactional/e-Commerce

Content and technology plays often employ various forms of transactional, or e-commerce revenue streams. Some of these allow for an in-between option for users who want access to content, whether that be one-time or more, but don’t want a full subscription option. Let’s explore some of the most common.

Micropayments

Micropayments are small payments, typically $5 or less, for an individual piece of content. Every time you buy an individual song from Apple for download, for instance, you’ve made a micropayment. The iPod popularized the consumption of individual forms of music, chiefly song downloads, disaggregating individual song purchases from complete albums.

Virtual currencies can be a form of micropayment, typically employed within videogames or on online platforms, such as Facebook or Twitch, where users are making individual small purchases for virtual items, such as increased game playing ability, items used within game, or donations to other users.

Newspapers, magazines, and other forms of micropayments for news and digital delivery of content were tried unsuccessfully in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with companies like Flooz, Beenz, CyberCash, Bitpass, Peppercoin and DigiCash just a few examples of failed micropayment companies from its first era.

From about 2010 or so onward, additional efforts at micropayments have had varying success, usually within various regions. Blendle , a Dutch-based online news startup, has probably had the most success at selling access to individual news articles and magazine content, both in Europe and the United States.

Kachingle, CarrotPay, Knack.it, and Ganxy are a few other companies that offered various forms of micropayment platforms for content companies to utilize in recent years.

My colleague Jameson Hayes and I developed theoretical modified micropayment models for news and media content that introduce the ability for users to microearn for sharing content in addition to having to micropay for it but there are no functioning platforms that fully execute that conceptual vision. [24] [25] Many tend to agree that micropayments must be used in tandem with other revenue streams and can’t alone sustain a media operation.

Failure itself is widely embraced by the entrepreneurial community, as the entrepreneurial process encourages and promotes a series of failures along the way that lessons can be learned from (pivots, etc.) Entrepreneurs have even held annual FailCon conferences in which speakers share entrepreneurial failures and lessons learned in cities around the world.

Failure doesn’t mean an idea can’t be revisited.  Micropayments were tried unsuccessfully in the 1990s, but with the advent of Blockchain and Ethereum digital transactions have found more success in recent years.  With the creation of browsers like Brave, some predict micropayments and digital transactions to become more mainstream in the not-too-distant future.  Management and economics scholars have predicted that blockchain has the potential to transform intellectual property and content licensing, access to information and digital goods, and increase the value of curation of digital content.  They envision artists who license music on Apple or Spotify being able to easily track how many times songs are played by consumers, backers on crowdfunding sites obtaining royalties each time a song is played, digital goods priced and delivered using a blockchain for payment, contract enforcement, and authentication.

Some newspapers abandoned early efforts at digital subscriptions and for the better part of two decades the industry norm was free online content. Now, of course, digital content payments have been adapted by many companies. Blockchain enables an easy ability for micropayments to be implemented in a browser where users could pay a single subscription and navigate between different newspapers.

Some media organizations, such as The Guardian , allow for direct donations from readers. These outlets may make a direct plea on their homepage, or at the beginning or end of articles. Donations are also much more commonly used in nonprofits as outlined in the next chapter, but soliciting donations from users can also be done by for-profit media ventures.

Merchandise

Whether you’re a nascent startup or a more established company, selling merchandise with your company’s brand, name, logo, and slogans can serve as an additional revenue stream in addition to serving marketing purposes. T-shirts, mugs, keychains, and hats are commonly sold merchandise. Google, for example, has a physical store on its main campus that sells all sorts of Google-branded merchandise. Companies can also sell merchandise online.

Some other forms of e-commerce:

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding, defined as “an open call, essentially through the Internet, for the provision of financial resources either in form of donation or in exchange for some form of reward and/or voting rights in order to support initiatives for specific purposes.” offers a novel way of funding projects.

Crowdfunding involves creators of a project soliciting donations from funders, or backers, of the project, through an online platform that features the project request.

Five basic kinds of crowdfunding models have attained widespread reach: donation-based, pre-purchase-based, reward-based, lending-based, and equity-based. In donation-based crowdfunding, the backers support a particular cause with no expectation of any kind of returns. However, in reward-based crowdfunding, the backers are provided with non-monetary benefits in exchange for their support. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the most well-known and commonly used rewards-based crowdfunding platforms.

A pre-purchase model is similar to rewards. A backer receives the product the entrepreneur is making, such as a music album. Lending-based crowdfunding platforms offer a loan to small-scale lenders with an expectation for a return on capital investment. For instance, Kiva is the most premier lending crowdfunding platform that operates in 66 countries. Equity-based crowdfunding is that in which the backers receive an equity or stake in the profits of the project they have invested in. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012 allowed equity funding in the U.S. for the first time. Title III of this act allows small-sized business owners and entrepreneurs to retail investment that was previously restricted to select accredited investors and potential investors on various Internet-based crowdfunding platforms.

Crowdfunding gained popularity somewhere in the late 2000s. Since then it has shown unprecedented growth and is particularly common among startup entrepreneurs and investors. Circleup, Equity Net, AngelList, and Wefunder are examples of some popular equity-based crowdfunding sites.

Retail/Marketplace

One revenue stream for media startups could come from a “digital retail mall” or “transactional experiences” like shopping purchases through a digital credit card or online payment system.

Group Buying

Popularized and most well-known by the startup Groupon, this method provides discounted deals en masse to groups of consumers who scoop up the coupon-like savings that can be purchased and used at a later date.

Technology Plays

Many of the models previously mentioned for content plays (subscription, advertising, and transactional) are also applicable for technology plays, and we’ll discuss some miscellaneous categories beyond the Big Three for both.

One of the considerations for technology plays is the distribution mechanism, whether the product is available online, or mobile, some combination of the two, or neither. If the technology play is an Internet-dependent one, such as an app, then the choices are whether it is accessible through the mobile web (HTML5 is a common tool), or proprietary app stores. If it’s an app, then you must decide whether it will be formatted and available in Apple’s iOS format or Google and Android capability. Many universities and cities hold appathons or hackathons that bring together interdisciplinary teams to work on the creation of an app and/or the business plan and pitch for an app concept over a weekend. These are useful and can help flesh out some of the necessary steps and considerations for startup tech plays. Look for such efforts at your university or city. MediaShift also sponsors a popular hackathon several times a year that brings together students, faculty, and professionals from universities across the country.

If you are creating an app, decisions include whether the download is free or if you charge a one-time download fee. Then, you can consider some of the above-mentioned revenue streams, such as subscription, and mobile advertising.

Some other revenue models commonly employed in technology plays include:

eBay is probably the most well-known auction site, where users can post items for sale and get bids from other users.

Sharing Economy

Apps and websites that take advantage of the sharing economy have proliferated in recent years. Also referred to as the collaboration economy, this business model is predicated on collaboration, whether that is sharing an apartment or home (as is the case in Airbnb), sharing a ride (Lyft or Uber), or sharing office space (coworking spaces).

Miscellaneous revenue streams for both content and technology plays:

Events/Conferences

Mainstream media outlets like The New York Times excel at organizing live events and conferences as an alternative revenue stream, but startups can also do the same.  Media organizations sponsor live events, such as conferences and banquets, and charge a fee to attend.

Foundation Funding

See resources elsewhere in this textbook for lists of foundation funding sources. Many nascent entrepreneurs and media startups have benefited from foundation funding in the past. The Knight Foundation historically has been a large funder of media entrepreneurial efforts. The Lenfest Institute for Journalism is a new funding source for entrepreneurial journalism efforts. And organizations like the Kauffman Foundation and VentureWell fund entrepreneurial efforts writ large. Grants and competition prizes from foundations focusing on entrepreneurship are worth exploring as a funding source.

Sell Archival Access

Content companies who have created archives of past content can sell access to the archives to users for a fee.

Sell Data and/or Analytic Services

Analytics are usually more of a B2B play, where the business sells access to user data and analytics to other companies. In some instances, companies can sell analytic tools and services to users as well.

Commonly used in technology plays, licensing as a revenue stream involves licensing out some form of proprietary technology, such as software or analytics tools, for use by other companies for a fee.

About the Author

This article was produced by Rebus Community, made up of faculty, students, and staff from schools, colleges, and universities around the world, along with regular people who believe that educational materials for every subject should be a free and open public resource. see more .

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How to Start a Content Writing Business in 4 Simple Steps

Starting a content writing business is a great way to achieve financial freedom with very little investment. But that also means that it’s an increasingly competitive industry–one that’s hard to establish a new business in. 

That’s why understanding how to set up your business the right way, attract high-paying clients, and compete with established agencies is essential to finding success. Once you start your business, you’ll be able to choose your own income, decide your working hours, and cherry-pick your clients–all from the comfort of your own home.

4 Steps to Start a Content Writing Business

This guide will cover the steps you need to take to start a content writing business that’s profitable, how to find clients, and how to compete with other agencies. 

  • Make a plan
  • Organize the logistics
  • Find clients

How to start a content writing business in 4 easy steps

The Easy Parts of Starting a Content Writing Business

The easiest parts of starting a content writing business are the technical aspects, like setting up your website and social media. 

Web hosting companies and website builders can help you set up your website using prebuilt themes and templates. You can have your business site ready to launch within a day, especially if you use a hosting provider like Bluehost. 

Bluehost includes both a domain and a WordPress site, plus prebuilt themes that save you from hiring a designer. All you need to do is choose your business name and customize the site with your content. 

Bluehost web hosting solution homepage.

Writing the content for your business can also be easy, even if you write it yourself instead of hiring writers. There are plenty of tools that can help you with grammar, SEO, and even AI that help produce copy, so you can become a successful writer even without formal training. But if you’re starting a content writing business, you probably have this part covered.

The Difficult Parts of Starting a Content Writing Business 

One of the hardest parts of any business is marketing, and a content writing business is no exception.  

Content writing is a competitive industry, so finding a unique selling proposition (USP) can be difficult. You’ll have to find a way to stand out from established businesses and convince clients to choose you over cheaper writers. 

Another aspect of starting a content writing business that many people struggle with is managing client relationships.

If you’ve never owned a business before, navigating client requests and demands can be difficult. Good writing can be subjective, and you might find clients who don’t know what they want or clients who undervalue you.

You’ll need to learn to think like a business owner, negotiate, and justify your services. You’ll also need to learn how to deal with rejection and criticism, and you may even have to fire clients or employees. 

Step 1: Make a Plan 

Before you even think about launching your business, there are a few things you’ll need to plan out. This includes creating a business plan, deciding on a niche, and choosing your business model. 

Starting any business can be overwhelming, and this is especially true for content writing.

Content writing requires exceptional time management and organization skills, so you need to be crystal clear on all the details while still having time to get organized. 

Your ability to market your business also relies on your having a clear plan from the start. You need to know what niche you’ll write in, who your business helps, be able to articulate your value, how much you can afford to spend, and how you’ll run your business day to day.

We have a detailed guide if you want some guidance on what to include in your business plan . 

Choose a niche

People want to hire experts, and they’re willing to pay more for them. Niching down makes it easier for you to market yourself, find target clients, and charge higher rates.

When choosing a niche, you want to consider three things:

  • What do you have experience in (academically or professionally)?
  • What are you passionate about? 
  • Is it profitable?

Create a list for each of the above categories, and if you find a correlation for all three, that’s a great niche to focus on. 

To know whether or not something is profitable, research blogs in that niche. If lots of results come up, that means there’s a lot of interest in content writing in that industry, and it will be easier for you to find clients.

Another thing to do when looking at profitability is to look through various job boards for writers in that niche or industry. Are there a lot of postings? What rates are they offering?

If you’re going to hire writers, then prioritize profitability. If you are writing the content yourself, prioritize something you’re passionate about. 

Content writing is time-consuming and requires patience and long-term concentration, so if you’re writing about something you hate, you won’t be able to stick with the business long enough to make a good profit. 

Decide on a Type of Writing

Once you have an idea of which topics and industries you’ll write on, you can niche down into a TYPE of writing.

You might decide that your business will focus on writing blog posts, whitepapers, website copy, or email marketing copy. There are many different types of writing, and the one you choose will dictate how much you charge.

Whitepaper writing, for instance, is VERY profitable, with many writers earning $7000 per paper. But not all writers want to do that type of in-depth and specific writing.

Here are a few of the most profitable types of writing that you might want to niche into: 

  • Blog and Article Writing
  • Video Script Writing 
  • Whitepapers 
  • Technical Writing 

If you want to hire writers and expand your business quickly, you can cover all these writing styles in one industry and market yourself as the overall expert in your niche. Just be sure to hire writers who specialize in those types of writing because you want to build a reputation for creating high-quality work.

You must also pay those high-quality writers fair rates.

Set Your Budget and Goals 

Even though starting a content writing business requires very little upfront investment, you should still put together a budget and set financial goals. 

How much you’re willing (or able) to invest will dictate whether or not you hire writers and how many, for instance. Or whether you’re able to join a paid job board.

You’ll also need to set goals on how much you need, and want, to be making a month. This will determine how you run your business and which type of clients you’ll pursue. 

You’ll find when you start working with clients that not everyone pays in the same way. Some clients will offer to pay on a per-project basis, some pay hourly, and some on a monthly retainer.

Some clients pay on a net-30 basis (30 days from receipt of invoice), and others might be paying upfront or upon completion. Your contract with each client will decide when and how you get paid. 

Having clear goals in mind will help you decide what you need to quote in these situations to meet your income goals. 

Choose Your Business Name 

You’ll need to choose a business name so that you can set up your website and market yourself. 

You don’t need to choose a complicated name. You’ll want to choose one that is available as a domain and across different social media platforms for consistency. If you’re starting a business as a solopreneur, you may just want to choose your own name, such as Firstname Lastname Writes. If you are hiring writers and functioning like an agency, consider including a keyword related to your niche in your business name, like CopyHackers or BlogPoint. You can use Bluehost’s domain checking tool to see if your name is available and then cross-check it on social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook to see if it’s a good fit.

Bluehost domain checking tool example.

Decide On Your Business Model

Once you’ve decided on a niche and your budget, you’ll need to get clear on how you’ll run your content writing business. 

You might want to run your business as a solopreneur, where you do everything yourself, or you might want to work more like an agency and outsource the writing to other writers and focus on marketing your business instead.

Whether you want to work solo or hire writers will be based on whether you’re tight on time or tight on budget.

Hiring writers will save you time and allow you to expand your business faster and take on more clients. Doing the writing yourself will save you the cost of hiring writers (which can often cost more than $1000 per month per writer) but take more of your time.

It is important to note that being a solopreneur does not preclude you from later hiring writers and functioning more like an agency. If you’re tight on money right now and have the skills, start by writing the clients’ projects yourself, and as you make money, you can bring on outsourced writers.

This step also includes setting your prices. Research the market to see what other writers in your niche or industry charge. You don’t want to under or over-price yourself, as you may get taken advantage of or price yourself out of the market. 

When setting your rates, start by deciding what you need to be making per year and per month to hit your annual goal. Then you can break it down further to set an hourly rate.

Remember, you won’t be able to charge for every hour you work, as some of your work will not be for clients, such as marketing, bookkeeping, and other administrative tasks. You might choose to charge per hour, per project, or monthly. It is up to you and your client.

Step 2: Get Set Up 

The next thing you’ll need to do is set up the technical aspects of your business. 

This includes creating a website, a portfolio of work, and your social media platforms.

One of the biggest perks of starting a content writing business is that you can do it all virtually. There’s no need to invest in offices or equipment. 

But this does mean that your online presence is essential to success–it’s the only way clients will find you, and it’s the only chance you have to make an impression.

Here are some things you’ll need to set up before you launch your content writing business. 

Your Website

You need to have a professional website with your own domain if you want clients to take you seriously. 

Luckily, there are so many options for web hosting and site builders that it’s really easy and affordable to get set up. 

Bluehost is the most popular web hosting company, and you can be up and running within a day. It comes with WordPress included, a free domain, and plenty of website templates to choose from. It also offers a site builder if you want to be more hands-on and 24/7 support if anything goes wrong. Alongside hosting, Bluehost has also started offering marketing services, like helping you optimize your website for SEO. 

Bluehost is also known for being affordable, with plans starting at just $2.95 per month. 

Bluehost web hosting provider pricing plans.

Your Portfolio

Before you can start approaching clients, you’ll need some writing samples to show them. 

How you go about doing this will depend on whether you’re working as a solopreneur or hiring writers.

If you’re outsourcing, you can ask your writers to give you samples of their work or write test pieces, which you can then show clients.

If you are writing the content yourself, you’ll need three to five writing samples in your niche that you can show to clients to prove you know what you’re doing. 

This is where many new content writing businesses struggle–trying to create examples before they’ve actually worked with any clients.

This is when hiring writers can be a good option–they’ll already have portfolios of work, so potential clients know your team is experienced. The other option is simply to look at your niche and write a few samples yourself.

For example, if you choose to focus on blog writing in the healthcare industry, write three content pieces on three different healthcare topics. Samples don’t need to be longer than 500-750 words. 

If you want live links for your portfolio, consider adding a blog to your site, or guest posting for businesses in your target industry. 

Your Social Media 

The next thing you’ll need to do is set up your social media accounts so that potential clients can find you.

For most content writing businesses, the best platforms for finding clients are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also use LinkedIn to find writers for your business. If possible, keep your social media handles consistent across all platforms.

When you set up your social media pages, keep them consistent. You can create a free logo on Canva for your profile picture and banner, and you should use keywords related to your niche in your bio.

ContentWriters search on Twitter example.

Step 3: Organize the Logistics 

Once you have a business plan and you’ve set up your website, you can get started on the logistical side of your business, including registering it, hiring writers, and setting up a tax account. Even if you’re running your business as a solopreneur, it’s worth registering the company to look professional. It will also help you come tax time and taking payment from clients, as some platforms like PayPal require you to keep personal and business accounts separate. Here are some of the logistical aspects of your business you should organize pre-launch. 

Register Your Business 

If you want to hire writers and pay taxes as a business, you’ll need to register your business with your state and get a business number and EIN. 

As your business is virtual and doesn’t use equipment, it’s unlikely you’ll need a license, but every state is different. Make sure to check your local requirements carefully, and if in doubt, contact a local attorney to find out what you have to do to keep your business legal. You can also choose to become an LLC, which provides personal asset protection.

Once you’ve registered your business, you can apply to have a business tax account. It’s always a good idea to keep your personal expenses separate from your business expenses, even as a sole proprietor. 

Draw Up Contracts 

You’ll need two types of contracts: one for your writers (if hiring) and one for your clients. 

For writers you’re hiring, your contracts should include the payment terms, the scope of work, whether there’s an NDA, and whether they’ll be credited. The contact for your clients will be similar, but make sure you include a clause that protects you against liabilities and theft. 

It’s worth working with an attorney or online legal service for this because contracts aren’t something you want to get wrong. For a list of the best online legal services, check out our guide . 

Some clients may have their own contracts and NDA’s for you to sign when you work with them. It should go without saying, but NEVER sign anything without reading it in detail first. 

Create an Onboarding Document 

Having an onboarding document makes sure your client’s first impression is a good one. 

It can also help give you structure during your discovery calls with clients and provide your team with consistent outlines. 

What you need to include in your onboarding document will vary based on your business model and niche, but some things you may want to have are: 

  • A brief step-by-step outline for how you’ll approach the project 
  • A timeline of how long it will take and deadlines/milestones moving forward 
  • The contract
  • Payment terms and invoicing schedule 
  • Details about their first point of contact 
  • Any restrictions or rules (e.g., whether or not your answer emails on weekends)

Step 4: Find Clients

Now that you’ve set up your site and registered your business, you can get down to finding your first client.

Because content writing is such a competitive industry, it can be challenging to feel confident enough to approach clients when you first start. It can also be difficult for clients to trust you while your business is new. 

Once you get clients, you’ll start to get referrals and new projects through word of mouth. Until then, you should try looking for clients in as many places as possible. Here are some of the best places to look for clients for your content writing business.  

Networking is a great way to find clients. You’ll make connections that enable you to send warm pitches to editors, business owners, and other writers, which have higher success rates than cold pitching.

You’ll also meet other writers in your industry and stay up to date with trends and startups. You can network in person, or you can join online networking groups to build connections.

Two places that are especially good for this are LinkedIn and Facebook groups.

LinkedIn content writing search results example.

Social media isn’t just a goldmine for marketing–it’s also the perfect place to find clients.

Aside from networking, you can also reach out to clients through direct messages, create posts that add value and show your expertise, and even pay for ads for your business. 

Social media also gives you another way to start connecting with clients before pitching them, which will help you build trust with them and improve your chances of success. 

Cold Emailing

Cold emailing is another great way to find clients, no matter how much you might hate it.

Although not as successful as warm leads or networking, some businesses reach up to 20% success rates with cold emails. If you are sending cold emails, make sure that your strategy and pitch are well-researched and well-planned. 

While you’re first starting, job boards can be a way to find clients that need content writing. 

Job boards tend to be split into two types; paid and free ones.

The paid job boards have better leads and higher quality clients, but you’ll also have a lot of competition from established content writing businesses.

The free ones will have less competition, but you’ll also have to look through a lot of VERY low-paid work to find decent clients. 

When searching job boards, try keywords like “freelance,” “remote,” and “anywhere.”

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9 Online Business Models for 2023 (Types of Online Businesses)

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Online Business Models

Are you thinking about starting an online business but don’t know which type is right for you? You’re not alone.

With so many popular online business models, it can be tough to decide where to start as an entrepreneur.

In this blog post, we’ll outline nine popular types of online businesses with a brief overview of each. So whether you’re looking for ideas or just want to learn more about the different types of businesses out there, read on!

The Best Online Business Models

Of course, there are many different types of businesses to make money online. However, most of them could be classified as one of the online business models listed below.

1. Content-Based Websites Business Model

Blogging

A content-based website provides visitors with written information on a specific topic, usually articles or blog posts. Whether you want to call them blogs, authority sites, niche sites, or something else, they all follow a similar business model.

Content-based websites attract visitors who arrive at the site to read the content. The site owner may make money in a few different ways, including:

  • Display ads
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Selling digital or physical products
  • Publishing sponsored content

These websites may use different methods to attract visitors, including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, and sometimes paid ads.

Websites with different monetization strategies may have very different approaches. But, in the end, all content-based websites rely heavily on written content to drive traffic that ultimately produces income.

For example, a website that uses an advertising revenue model may take a much different approach to producing content and driving traffic than a blog monetized by selling an e-book. However, the free content on the site is the cornerstone in both cases and essential for the business’s success.

Most content-based websites constantly need to produce new content to keep the traffic flowing and spark growth. As the site owner, you’ll either need to write a lot of content yourself or outsource the work to freelance writers or a content agency.

Those who drive the majority of their visitors through organic search engine traffic also need to do a lot of keyword research to find words and phrases people are searching for and create content based on those keywords.

The Pros of Content-Based Websites

  • The model is relatively simple to understand and implement (simple, but not necessarily easy), which is why it’s often considered the best online business for beginners.
  • It’s an appropriate choice for beginners just starting an internet business.
  • Startup costs are very low, and the business can be run on a minimal budget if you do the work yourself.
  • Can be very scalable (and lends itself well to outsourcing) if you’re able to produce enough high-quality content.
  • It’s also duplicatable, so you can use the same strategy to build multiple successful websites.
  • There are many different ways to monetize a content-based website.
  • Even though there are millions of websites online, there are still plenty of underserved topics, so you can avoid the heaviest levels of competition.

The Cons of Content-Based Websites

  • Producing high-quality content takes time and effort (or money if you outsource it).
  • You need to be able to produce a steady stream of new content to keep traffic coming in.
  • Because this type of business is easy to start, there’s nothing to prevent others from becoming your competition.
  • It’s challenging to stand out in a crowded market.
  • New content-based sites usually take several months or longer before making money.

For more, please read our Guide to Building Profitable Niche Websites .

2. Audio/Video Content Business Model

Podcaster

Here, we’re talking about podcasts , vlogs , and YouTube channels . Essentially, this is a content-based business, but the focus is on audio or video content instead of written articles.

With the popularity of audio and video content spiking over the past several years, this type of business presents a tremendous opportunity.

The most significant difference between an audio/video content business and a written content business is the time investment required. Producing high-quality audio or video content takes much more time than writing blog posts or articles.

But since it takes more effort, fewer people are willing to do it. As a result, you may face less competition than you would face with a content-based site that produces written content.

This business is also unique because you could publish the content on your own website, on YouTube, or popular podcasting platforms. While having a website is ideal, it’s not completely necessary.

Monetization options include sponsorships, the YouTube Partner Program (ads), affiliate marketing, and selling your own digital products .

Audio/video content can be more challenging to outsource than text-based content. This is partly because the show’s host is essentially the face of the business. Video or audio content produced by many people would likely make it more challenging to brand your business and build a following. As a result, you should be willing to create the content yourself if you choose to pursue this online business model.

Audio/Video Content Pros

  • You can make a lot of money with sponsorships and the YouTube Partner Program if you have a large enough audience.
  • It can be more engaging and entertaining than written content, making it easier to hold people’s attention.
  • The demand for audio and video content continues to increase, and there are still far fewer podcasts and YouTube channels than blogs.

Audio/Video Content Cons

  • It takes more time to produce audio or video content than it does to write an article or blog post.
  • You’ll probably need to create the majority of the content yourself since it is difficult to outsource.
  • Suppose you don’t have a website. In that case, you’ll be reliant on platforms like YouTube or iTunes, which could change their policies at any time (making it difficult to predict the long-term sustainability of your business).
  • This type of online business can be more challenging to sell compared to a blog/niche website/authority website. That’s partly because if you’re the face of the business, a transition can be difficult for the new owner.

3. E-Commerce Business Model

E-Commerce Business Owner

E-commerce businesses come in all shapes and sizes. For this article, we’re talking about selling products online. This can be through your own website or online store, selling on a major marketplace like Amazon, or even dropshipping (where you don’t hold any inventory).

Starting an online shop is much more involved than starting a content-based site because you’ll need to choose a product, find a manufacturer or be able to produce it yourself, order inventory, and deal with fulfilling orders and shipping the goods to customers.

You’re also likely to face cash flow challenges , especially as you attempt to grow the business and add new products. You may need to pay for inventory several months before you start to generate any revenue from that inventory, so managing cash flow is a significant part of the business .

Taking cash out of the business and putting it in your pocket is more challenging with an e-commerce business than with many other online businesses that don’t involve physical products.

The income potential for e-commerce businesses is outstanding. While content-based sites might make money in several ways, product sales will account for close to 100% of the revenue for most online stores.

Suppose you’re hiring someone to manufacture the products and use Amazon FBA or another shipping and fulfillment service. In that case, much of the day-to-day responsibility will be out of your hands. That frees you up to work on big-picture things that may help to grow the business faster.

E-Commerce Pros

  • Finding a niche with low competition and high demand can be very profitable.
  • Some e-commerce businesses can be run with little day-to-day involvement from the owner.
  • You won’t need to constantly create content as you would with a blog, niche website, podcast, or YouTube channel, especially if you use ads to drive paid traffic.
  • Marketplaces like Amazon make it possible to reach a massive audience very quickly.

E-Commerce Cons

  • It’s more challenging to start than other internet business models because you need to deal with inventory, shipping, and manufacturing.
  • May require more capital to start since you need to purchase initial inventory.
  • Income can be very unpredictable since it often depends on seasonal trends.
  • If you sell on an online marketplace, the marketplace will take a cut of every sale you make.
  • Lower profit margin than many other types of online business.

For more, please read How to Sell on Amazon FBA .

4. Service-Oriented Business Model

Freelancer

Service-oriented businesses are often overlooked in favor of some of the other online business models, but offering a service may be the most practical and realistic way to reach a full-time income online .

There are many different services you could offer as a freelancer , and chances you, you already have some skills or experience that could be used for clients.

For example, if you’re a web designer, you could offer to build custom websites for small business clients. If you’re a graphic designer, you can offer design services or create graphics for bloggers and other content creators. If you have experience with social media, you could set up profiles and manage campaigns for clients.

The opportunities are endless.

One of the benefits of starting a service-based business is that it’s often one of the quickest ways to earn money online. You can start offering your services immediately after coming up with an idea and start making money as soon as you land your first client .

That’s much different than the other online business models we’ve looked at so far, which would take several months before generating any money.

Starting a service-oriented business is usually less capital-intensive than starting another business. In fact, you could start without spending any money at all.

Many people considering a service-based business fear they won’t be able to find clients. However, you can use many different methods to find paying clients. You may have people you already know who would be interested in hiring you. Free ads on sites like Craigslist can also be highly effective.

Paid ads on Google and Facebook may produce an excellent return on investment. And once you’ve gained momentum, word-of-mouth and referrals will probably be the best method.

Service-Based Business Pros

  • Can be started very quickly with little to no upfront investment.
  • May be a great way to use the skills and experience you already have.
  • You can offer your services to clients worldwide since you’re not limited by geographical boundaries.
  • Many services allow you to earn an excellent hourly rate.
  • Can be done part-time or full-time. It’s possibly the best online business for the average person to earn a full-time income.

Service-Based Business Cons

  • Your income will be limited by the number of clients you can take on at any given time (unless you hire others).
  • Can be challenging to find new clients, especially at first.
  • Requires good time management skills to juggle multiple clients.
  • Some of your clients may be challenging to work with.

5. Education/Course Business Model

Online Course Creator

If you have expertise in a particular subject area, you may want to consider starting an online course business. This is a great way to share your knowledge with others and generate income simultaneously (it can be one of the most lucrative business models ).

Thanks to platforms like Udemy and Skillshare , creating and monetizing online courses is easier than ever. You can use one of these platforms or a platform like Teachable that allows you to create a website and sell the course on your own.

When creating an online course, it’s essential to choose a topic that you’re passionate about and that you know quite a bit about. It’s also important to ensure there’s a demand for the course before putting in the time and effort to create it.

You can do this by checking out other online courses on Udemy and Skillshare to see what’s popular or by conducting market research on Google and other search engines.

Creating an online course can be time-consuming, but once it’s complete, you can generate passive income from it for years to come. And best of all, you can offer the course to people worldwide without having to deal with geographical boundaries.

Courses aren’t the only possibility here. There are other ways to build education or information-based businesses. Of course, writing and selling e-books would be another possibility. Membership websites and hybrid products that involve an online course and a membership or subscription model are extremely popular right now.

Education/Course Business Pros

  • Can be a great way to share your knowledge and help others.
  • Can generate passive income for years after the initial work is completed.
  • Excellent income potential.
  • Relatively inexpensive to start.

Education/Course Business Cons

  • Can take a lot of time and effort to create a quality course.
  • You may have to continue to promote the course to generate sales.
  • It can be challenging to stand out in a crowded market.

For more, please read How to Make Passive Income from Online Courses

6. Software or SaaS Business Model

Software Developer

If you’re a tech-savvy individual, you may want to consider starting a software or SaaS (Software as a Service) business. This online business model has become increasingly popular in recent years thanks to the rise of cloud computing.

With a software or SaaS business, you create a piece of software that people can use online. This could be a desktop application, a mobile app, or even a web-based app. Alternatively, it could be a plugin or add-on for another piece of software.

The great thing about this business is that once the software is created, it can be sold to an unlimited number of customers. And since it’s delivered over the internet, there are no geographical boundaries.

The main difference between the software and software-as-a-service models is that SaaS typically involves recurring subscription payments . For example, email marketing services like ConvertKit and AWeber charge monthly fees.

As a result, a SaaS business has the potential to generate significant ongoing and recurring revenue . On the other hand, the software is often sold for a one-time upfront payment.

Because of the recurring revenue stream, SaaS businesses are fascinating to buyers or investors. Some buyers look specifically for SaaS opportunities over other profitable online business models.

Knowing details like the churn rate , a buyer can buy a SaaS business with high confidence that it will continue to generate a specific income level over the next several months and even years. As a seller, this is ideal because you may get a higher price for the business.

Software or SaaS Business Pros

  • The product can be sold to an unlimited number of customers.
  • Recurring revenue (passive income) is possible with this model.
  • SaaS businesses often generate a lot of interest from buyers and investors, leading to a high valuation.

Software or SaaS Business Cons

  • Getting started can be a significant investment, especially if you need to hire developers.
  • Requires ongoing digital marketing and promotion to generate sales.
  • May require a lot of customer support.

7. Affiliate Marketing Business Model

Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing is an internet business where you promote another company’s product or service and earn a commission on each sale you generate.

Some of the business models we’ve already covered (content-based websites, audio/video content) can be monetized with affiliate programs. However, you don’t need to have your own website to make money with an affiliate business; this can be a business model of its own.

Many high-earning super affiliates make money by paying for ad clicks and/or promoting products to their email list.

Affiliate marketing can be highly lucrative for successful affiliates, and there’s no need to create your own product or content to get started.

As the affiliate, you’ll have no responsibility for providing customer service or support. The company that’s selling the product will be responsible for support.

The commission you’ll earn from each sale or referral will vary from one product to the next, but commissions for digital products tend to be very high. In some cases, the affiliates earn a bigger cut than the company selling the product.

Affiliate Marketing Pros

  • No need to create your own product or content.
  • No customer service or support responsibilities.
  • Can earn high commissions.
  • Affiliate products exist in every industry or niche imaginable.
  • Can be scaled up. For example, if you have a successful ad campaign, you can increase your daily ad spend to make more money.

Affiliate Marketing Cons

  • High level of competition in some niches.
  • Many affiliates spend a lot of money on ads/traffic. You need to be good with numbers to be sure that your ads are profitable, or you could lose money.
  • You may have to test many ads before finding profitable ones.
  • In many cases, the affiliate business model is not a sellable asset.

8. Digital Products Business Model

Typing Hands and Laptop

The terms “digital product” and “info product” are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are so many other types of digital products you could create aside from info products like courses and e-books.

Printables like planners, organizers, and checklists are extremely popular and could be possible in many niches. Other possibilities include spreadsheet templates, slideshow templates, website templates, WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, icon packs, Photoshop files, add-ons for popular software, audio files, photos, and more.

Creating digital products can be enjoyable and rewarding, especially if you’re passionate about the topic. Once you’ve created the product, it can be sold an unlimited number of times with little to no additional work required.

Some products take a lot of time to create, but others can be done relatively quickly. You could also outsource the product creation by hiring freelancers at sites like Upwork and Fiverr.

If you have an existing website or blog, you could choose to create products as a way to monetize the site. Or, if you don’t have an existing site, you could build your business around downloadable products.

You can sell the products at your own site or set up a shop at marketplaces like Etsy and Creative Market . Of course, if you create a site, you’ll have complete control and won’t need to split the revenue with anyone. But existing marketplaces do make it easy to get started quickly.

Digital Products Business Pros

  • Your products can be sold an unlimited number of times.
  • No inventory costs or shipping fees.
  • Delivery is instant, so customers don’t have to wait to receive their purchase.
  • Can be automated with the use of an e-commerce platform or shopping cart software.
  • Many digital products have high profit margins.
  • Can be done part-time or full-time.
  • Digital products could be created in just about any niche or industry.

Digital Products Business Cons

  • Some products take a lot of time to create, and there’s no guarantee you’ll make sales.
  • The initial investment can be significant with certain types of products.
  • You’ll face lots of competition if you sell at popular marketplaces like Etsy.

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9. Print-On-Demand Business Model

T-Shirt on Hanger

The print-on-demand business model is similar to the digital products business model in that there’s a minimal overhead cost, and you can sell unlimited products.

The main difference is that the products are physical goods like t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, and phone cases with print-on-demand. However, you don’t need to deal with inventory since the products will be printed and shipped as they are purchased.

Numerous print-on-demand companies will handle all of the printing, packaging, and shipping for you. All you need to do is design the product and upload your artwork. With marketplaces like Redbubble and CafePress , you don’t even need your own website.

If you want to set up a website (strongly recommended for maximizing your income), you can use Shopify and easily integrate it with a print-on-demand supplier like Printful .

Print-on-demand is a great online business model for creative people who want to sell physical products but don’t want to deal with the hassle of manufacturing, inventory, and shipping.

In addition to the types of products listed above, you can also sell books with the print-on-demand business model. Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, anyone can become a self-published author. You’ll write the book or hire someone to ghostwrite it for you, and Amazon will print and ship the book when a customer purchases it.

Print-on-Demand Business Pros

  • Very low startup costs.
  • No need to worry about manufacturing, inventory, or shipping.
  • An excellent option for designers and creative individuals to make money.
  • The design work can be easily outsourced if you prefer.

Print-on-Demand Business Cons

  • The profit margins can be low unless you sell high-end items like canvas prints and framed posters.
  • You’ll need to market your products effectively to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

For more, please read How to Start a Print-on-demand Business .

Frequently Asked Questions

There’s no exact answer to this question because there are many online business models, and the best one depends on your abilities and interests. Content-based websites are excellent for beginners. A YouTube channel or podcast could be ideal if you have an engaging personality. Freelancing may be the best online business if you have existing skills you can monetize.

The startup costs vary for different internet business models. Some businesses can be started with no money at all. For example. you could work as a freelancer or start a print-on-demand business without investing any money. Other businesses, like a content-based website, could be started with less than $100. And some business models, like e-commerce, may require a few thousand dollars for initial inventory.

I believe a content-based business, like a blog or niche website, is the most straightforward. It’s not necessarily easy, but the process is fairly straightforward for new business owners.

Final Thoughts on Common Online Business Models

Now that you know about the different types of online businesses, it’s time to decide which model is right for you.

Of course, there’s no need to limit yourself to just one business model. You could choose to sell digital and physical products or even combine multiple business models to create a more diversified income stream. The most important thing is to choose a model that you’re passionate about and that you can see yourself doing long-term.

Once you’ve chosen one of the online business models, it’s time to start planning your business.

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Hal is passionate about managing money and investing. He loves to write about the websites, apps, and techniques that he uses in his own life to manage his own money more effectively.

Disclosure: Information presented on Vital Dollar and through related email marketing is intended for informational purposes only and is not meant to be taken as financial advice. Please see our Disclosure for further information.

How Companies Make Money

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What Is a Business Model?

Understanding business models, evaluating successful business models, how to create a business model.

  • Business Model FAQs

The Bottom Line

Learn to understand a company's profit-making plan

content business model

Katrina Ávila Munichiello is an experienced editor, writer, fact-checker, and proofreader with more than fourteen years of experience working with print and online publications.

content business model

Investopedia / Laura Porter

The term business model refers to a company's plan for making a profit . It identifies the products or services the business plans to sell, its identified target market , and any anticipated expenses . Business models are important for both new and established businesses. They help new, developing companies attract investment, recruit talent, and motivate management and staff.

Established businesses should regularly update their business model or they'll fail to anticipate trends and challenges ahead. Business models also help investors evaluate companies that interest them and employees understand the future of a company they may aspire to join.

Key Takeaways

  • A business model is a company's core strategy for profitably doing business.
  • Models generally include information like products or services the business plans to sell, target markets, and any anticipated expenses.
  • There are dozens of types of business models including retailers, manufacturers, fee-for-service, or freemium providers.
  • The two levers of a business model are pricing and costs.
  • When evaluating a business model as an investor, consider whether the product being offer matches a true need in the market.

A business model is a high-level plan for profitably operating a business in a specific marketplace. A primary component of the business model is the value proposition . This is a description of the goods or services that a company offers and why they are desirable to customers or clients, ideally stated in a way that differentiates the product or service from its competitors.

A new enterprise's business model should also cover projected startup costs and financing sources, the target customer base for the business, marketing strategy , a review of the competition, and projections of revenues and expenses. The plan may also define opportunities in which the business can partner with other established companies. For example, the business model for an advertising business may identify benefits from an arrangement for referrals to and from a printing company.

Successful businesses have business models that allow them to fulfill client needs at a competitive price and a sustainable cost. Over time, many businesses revise their business models from time to time to reflect changing business environments and market demands .

When evaluating a company as a possible investment, the investor should find out exactly how it makes its money. This means looking through the company's business model. Admittedly, the business model may not tell you everything about a company's prospects. But the investor who understands the business model can make better sense of the financial data.

A common mistake many companies make when they create their business models is to underestimate the costs of funding the business until it becomes profitable. Counting costs to the introduction of a product is not enough. A company has to keep the business running until its revenues exceed its expenses.

One way analysts and investors evaluate the success of a business model is by looking at the company's gross profit . Gross profit is a company's total revenue minus the cost of goods sold (COGS). Comparing a company's gross profit to that of its main competitor or its industry sheds light on the efficiency and effectiveness of its business model. Gross profit alone can be misleading, however. Analysts also want to see cash flow or net income . That is gross profit minus operating expenses and is an indication of just how much real profit the business is generating.

The two primary levers of a company's business model are pricing and costs. A company can raise prices, and it can find inventory at reduced costs. Both actions increase gross profit. Many analysts consider gross profit to be more important in evaluating a business plan. A good gross profit suggests a sound business plan. If expenses are out of control, the management team could be at fault, and the problems are correctable. As this suggests, many analysts believe that companies that run on the best business models can run themselves.

When evaluating a company as a possible investment, find out exactly how it makes its money (not just what it sells but how it sells it). That's the company's business model.

Types of Business Models

There are as many types of business models as there are types of business. For instance, direct sales, franchising , advertising-based, and brick-and-mortar stores are all examples of traditional business models. There are hybrid models as well, such as businesses that combine internet retail with brick-and-mortar stores or with sporting organizations like the NBA .

Below are some common types of business models; note that the examples given may fall into multiple categories.

One of the more common business models most people interact with regularly is the retailer model. A retailer is the last entity along a supply chain. They often buy finished goods from manufacturers or distributors and interface directly with customers.

Example: Costco Wholesale

Manufacturer

A manufacturer is responsible for sourcing raw materials and producing finished products by leveraging internal labor, machinery, and equipment. A manufacturer may make custom goods or highly replicated, mass produced products. A manufacturer can also sell goods to distributors, retailers, or directly to customers.

Example: Ford Motor Company

Fee-for-Service

Instead of selling products, fee-for-service business models are centered around labor and providing services. A fee-for-service business model may charge by an hourly rate or a fixed cost for a specific agreement. Fee-for-service companies are often specialized, offering insight that may not be common knowledge or may require specific training.

Example: DLA Piper LLP

Subscription

Subscription-based business models strive to attract clients in the hopes of luring them into long-time, loyal patrons. This is done by offering a product that requires ongoing payment, usually in return for a fixed duration of benefit. Though largely offered by digital companies for access to software, subscription business models are also popular for physical goods such as monthly reoccurring agriculture/produce subscription box deliveries.

Example: Spotify

Freemium business models attract customers by introducing them to basic, limited-scope products. Then, with the client using their service, the company attempts to convert them to a more premium, advance product that requires payment. Although a customer may theoretically stay on freemium forever, a company tries to show the benefit of what becoming an upgraded member can hold.

Example: LinkedIn/LinkedIn Premium

Some companies can reside within multiple business model types at the same time for the same product. For example, Spotify (a subscription-based model) also offers free version and a premium version.

If a company is concerned about the cost of attracting a single customer, it may attempt to bundle products to sell multiple goods to a single client. Bundling capitalizes on existing customers by attempting to sell them different products. This can be incentivized by offering pricing discounts for buying multiple products.

Example: AT&T

Marketplace

Marketplaces are somewhat straight-forward: in exchange for hosting a platform for business to be conducted, the marketplace receives compensation. Although transactions could occur without a marketplace, this business model attempts to make transacting easier, safer, and faster.

Example: eBay

Affiliate business models are based on marketing and the broad reach of a specific entity or person's platform. Companies pay an entity to promote a good, and that entity often receives compensation in exchange for their promotion. That compensation may be a fixed payment, a percentage of sales derived from their promotion, or both.

Example: social media influencers such as Lele Pons, Zach King, or Chiara Ferragni.

Razor Blade

Aptly named after the product that invented the model, this business model aims to sell a durable product below cost to then generate high-margin sales of a disposable component of that product. Also referred to as the "razor and blade model", razor blade companies may give away expensive blade handles with the premise that consumers need to continually buy razor blades in the long run.

Example: HP (printers and ink)

"Tying" is an illegal razor blade model strategy that requires the purchase of an unrelated good prior to being able to buy a different (and often required) good. For example, imagine Gillette released a line of lotion and required all customers to buy three bottles before they were allowed to purchase disposable razor blades.

Reverse Razor Blade

Instead of relying on high-margin companion products, a reverse razor blade business model tries to sell a high-margin product upfront. Then, to use the product, low or free companion products are provided. This model aims to promote that upfront sale, as further use of the product is not highly profitable.

Example: Apple (iPhones + applications)

The franchise business model leverages existing business plans to expand and reproduce a company at a different location. Often food, hardware, or fitness companies, franchisers work with incoming franchisees to finance the business, promote the new location, and oversee operations. In return, the franchisor receives a percentage of earnings from the franchisee.

Example: Domino's Pizza

Pay-As-You-Go

Instead of charging a fixed fee, some companies may implement a pay-as-you-go business model where the amount charged depends on how much of the product or service was used. The company may charge a fixed fee for offering the service in addition to an amount that changes each month based on what was consumed.

Example: Utility companies

A brokerage business model connects buyers and sellers without directly selling a good themselves. Brokerage companies often receive a percentage of the amount paid when a deal is finalized. Most common in real estate, brokers are also prominent in construction/development or freight.

Example: ReMax

There is no "one size fits all" when making a business model. Different professionals may suggest taking different steps when creating a business and planning your business model. Here are some broad steps one can take to create their plan:

  • Identify your audience. Most business model plans will start with either defining the problem or identifying your audience and target market . A strong business model will understand who you are trying to target so you can craft your product, messaging, and approach to connecting with that audience.
  • Define the problem. In addition to understanding your audience, you must know what problem you are trying to solve. A hardware company sells products for home repairs. A restaurant feeds the community. Without a problem or a need, your business may struggle to find its footing if there isn't a demand for your services or products.
  • Understand your offerings. With your audience and problem in mind, consider what you are able to offer. What products are you interested in selling, and how does your expertise match that product? In this stage of the business model, the product is tweaked to adapt to what the market needs and what you're able to provide.
  • Document your needs. With your product selected, consider the hurdles your company will face. This includes product-specific challenges as well as operational difficulties. Make sure to document each of these needs to assess whether you are ready to launch in the future.
  • Find key partners. Most businesses will leverage other partners in driving company success. For example, a wedding planner may forge relationships with venues, caterers, florists, and tailors to enhance their offering. For manufacturers, consider who will provide your materials and how critical your relationship with that provider will be.
  • Set monetization solutions. Until now, we haven't talked about how your company will make money. A business model isn't complete until it identifies how it will make money. This includes selecting the strategy or strategies above in determining your business model type. This might have been a type you had in mind but after reviewing your clients needs, a different type might now make more sense.
  • Test your model. When your full plan is in place, perform test surveys or soft launches. Ask how people would feel paying your prices for your services. Offer discounts to new customers in exchange for reviews and feedback. You can always adjust your business model, but you should always consider leveraging direct feedback from the market when doing so.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, consider what competing companies are doing and how you can position yourself in the market. You may be able to easily spot gaps in the business model of others.

Criticism of Business Models

Joan Magretta, the former editor of the Harvard Business Review, suggests there are two critical factors in sizing up business models. When business models don't work, she states, it's because the story doesn't make sense and/or the numbers just don't add up to profits. The airline industry is a good place to look to find a business model that stopped making sense. It includes companies that have suffered heavy losses and even bankruptcy .

For years, major carriers such as American Airlines, Delta, and Continental built their businesses around a hub-and-spoke structure , in which all flights were routed through a handful of major airports. By ensuring that most seats were filled most of the time, the business model produced big profits.

However, a competing business model arose that made the strength of the major carriers a burden. Carriers like Southwest and JetBlue shuttled planes between smaller airports at a lower cost. They avoided some of the operational inefficiencies of the hub-and-spoke model while forcing labor costs down. That allowed them to cut prices, increasing demand for short flights between cities.

As these newer competitors drew more customers away, the old carriers were left to support their large, extended networks with fewer passengers. The problem became even worse when traffic fell sharply following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 . To fill seats, these airlines had to offer more discounts at even deeper levels. The hub-and-spoke business model no longer made sense.

Example of Business Models

Consider the vast portfolio of Microsoft. Over the past several decades, the company has expanded its product line across digital services, software, gaming, and more. Various business models, all within Microsoft, include but are not limited to:

  • Productivity and Business Processes: Microsoft offers subscriptions to Office products and LinkedIn. These subscriptions may be based off product usage (i.e. the amount of data being uploaded to SharePoint).
  • Intelligent Cloud: Microsoft offers server products and cloud services for a subscription. This also provide services and consulting.
  • More Personal Computing: Microsoft sells physically manufactured products such as Surface, PC components, and Xbox hardware. Residual Xbox sales include content, services, subscriptions, royalties, and advertising revenue.

A business model is a strategic plan of how a company will make money. The model describes the way a business will take its product, offer it to the market, and drive sales. A business model determines what products make sense for a company to sell, how it wants to promote its products, what type of people it should try to cater to, and what revenue streams it may expect.

What Is an Example of a Business Model?

Best Buy, Target, and Walmart are some of the largest examples of retail companies. These companies acquire goods from manufacturers or distributors to sell directly to the public. Retailers interface with their clients and sell goods, though retails may or may not make the actual goods they sell.

What Are the Main Types of Business Models?

Retailers and manufacturers are among the primary types of business models. Manufacturers product their own goods and may or may not sell them directly to the public. Meanwhile, retails buy goods to later resell to the public.

How Do I Build a Business Model?

There are many steps to building a business model, and there is no single consistent process among business experts. In general, a business model should identify your customers, understand the problem you are trying to solve, select a business model type to determine how your clients will buy your product, and determine the ways your company will make money. It is also important to periodically review your business model; once you've launched, feel free to evaluate your plan and adjust your target audience, product line, or pricing as needed.

A company isn't just an entity that sells goods. It's an ecosystem that must have a plan in plan on who to sell to, what to sell, what to charge, and what value it is creating. A business model describes what an organization does to systematically create long-term value for its customers. After building a business model, a company should have stronger direction on how it wants to operate and what its financial future appears to be.

Harvard Business Review. " Why Business Models Matter ."

Bureau of Transportation Statistics. " Airline Travel Since 9/11 ."

Microsoft. " Annual Report 2021 ."

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Business Model Canvas: Explained with Examples

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Got a new business idea, but don’t know how to put it to work? Want to improve your existing business model? Overwhelmed by writing your business plan? There is a one-page technique that can provide you the solution you are looking for, and that’s the business model canvas.

In this guide, you’ll have the Business Model Canvas explained, along with steps on how to create one. All business model canvas examples in the post can be edited online.

What is a Business Model Canvas

A business model is simply a plan describing how a business intends to make money. It explains who your customer base is and how you deliver value to them and the related details of financing. And the business model canvas lets you define these different components on a single page.   

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management tool that lets you visualize and assess your business idea or concept. It’s a one-page document containing nine boxes that represent different fundamental elements of a business.  

The business model canvas beats the traditional business plan that spans across several pages, by offering a much easier way to understand the different core elements of a business.

The right side of the canvas focuses on the customer or the market (external factors that are not under your control) while the left side of the canvas focuses on the business (internal factors that are mostly under your control). In the middle, you get the value propositions that represent the exchange of value between your business and your customers.

The business model canvas was originally developed by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur and introduced in their book ‘ Business Model Generation ’ as a visual framework for planning, developing and testing the business model(s) of an organization.

Business Model Canvas Explained

What Are the Benefits of Using a Business Model Canvas

Why do you need a business model canvas? The answer is simple. The business model canvas offers several benefits for businesses and entrepreneurs. It is a valuable tool and provides a visual and structured approach to designing, analyzing, optimizing, and communicating your business model.

  • The business model canvas provides a comprehensive overview of a business model’s essential aspects. The BMC provides a quick outline of the business model and is devoid of unnecessary details compared to the traditional business plan.
  • The comprehensive overview also ensures that the team considers all required components of their business model and can identify gaps or areas for improvement.
  • The BMC allows the team to have a holistic and shared understanding of the business model while enabling them to align and collaborate effectively.
  • The visual nature of the business model canvas makes it easier to refer to and understand by anyone. The business model canvas combines all vital business model elements in a single, easy-to-understand canvas.
  • The BMC can be considered a strategic analysis tool as it enables you to examine a business model’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges.
  • It’s easier to edit and can be easily shared with employees and stakeholders.
  • The BMC is a flexible and adaptable tool that can be updated and revised as the business evolves. Keep your business agile and responsive to market changes and customer needs.
  • The business model canvas can be used by large corporations and startups with just a few employees.
  • The business model canvas effectively facilitates discussions among team members, investors, partners, customers, and other stakeholders. It clarifies how different aspects of the business are related and ensures a shared understanding of the business model.
  • You can use a BMC template to facilitate discussions and guide brainstorming brainstorming sessions to generate insights and ideas to refine the business model and make strategic decisions.
  • The BMC is action-oriented, encouraging businesses to identify activities and initiatives to improve their business model to drive business growth.
  • A business model canvas provides a structured approach for businesses to explore possibilities and experiment with new ideas. This encourages creativity and innovation, which in turn encourages team members to think outside the box.

How to Make a Business Model Canvas

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a business canvas model.

Step 1: Gather your team and the required material Bring a team or a group of people from your company together to collaborate. It is better to bring in a diverse group to cover all aspects.

While you can create a business model canvas with whiteboards, sticky notes, and markers, using an online platform like Creately will ensure that your work can be accessed from anywhere, anytime. Create a workspace in Creately and provide editing/reviewing permission to start.

Step 2: Set the context Clearly define the purpose and the scope of what you want to map out and visualize in the business model canvas. Narrow down the business or idea you want to analyze with the team and its context.

Step 3: Draw the canvas Divide the workspace into nine equal sections to represent the nine building blocks of the business model canvas.

Step 4: Identify the key building blocks Label each section as customer segment, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, and cost structure.

Step 5: Fill in the canvas Work with your team to fill in each section of the canvas with relevant information. You can use data, keywords, diagrams, and more to represent ideas and concepts.

Step 6: Analyze and iterate Once your team has filled in the business model canvas, analyze the relationships to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges. Discuss improvements and make adjustments as necessary.

Step 7: Finalize Finalize and use the model as a visual reference to communicate and align your business model with stakeholders. You can also use the model to make informed and strategic decisions and guide your business.

What are the Key Building Blocks of the Business Model Canvas?

There are nine building blocks in the business model canvas and they are:

Customer Segments

Customer relationships, revenue streams, key activities, key resources, key partners, cost structure.

  • Value Proposition

When filling out a Business Model Canvas, you will brainstorm and conduct research on each of these elements. The data you collect can be placed in each relevant section of the canvas. So have a business model canvas ready when you start the exercise.  

Business Model Canvas Template

Let’s look into what the 9 components of the BMC are in more detail.

These are the groups of people or companies that you are trying to target and sell your product or service to.

Segmenting your customers based on similarities such as geographical area, gender, age, behaviors, interests, etc. gives you the opportunity to better serve their needs, specifically by customizing the solution you are providing them.

After a thorough analysis of your customer segments, you can determine who you should serve and ignore. Then create customer personas for each of the selected customer segments.

Customer Persona Template for Business Model Canvas Explained

There are different customer segments a business model can target and they are;

  • Mass market: A business model that focuses on mass markets doesn’t group its customers into segments. Instead, it focuses on the general population or a large group of people with similar needs. For example, a product like a phone.  
  • Niche market: Here the focus is centered on a specific group of people with unique needs and traits. Here the value propositions, distribution channels, and customer relationships should be customized to meet their specific requirements. An example would be buyers of sports shoes.
  • Segmented: Based on slightly different needs, there could be different groups within the main customer segment. Accordingly, you can create different value propositions, distribution channels, etc. to meet the different needs of these segments.
  • Diversified: A diversified market segment includes customers with very different needs.
  • Multi-sided markets: this includes interdependent customer segments. For example, a credit card company caters to both their credit card holders as well as merchants who accept those cards.

Use STP Model templates for segmenting your market and developing ideal marketing campaigns

Visualize, assess, and update your business model. Collaborate on brainstorming with your team on your next business model innovation.

In this section, you need to establish the type of relationship you will have with each of your customer segments or how you will interact with them throughout their journey with your company.

There are several types of customer relationships

  • Personal assistance: you interact with the customer in person or by email, through phone call or other means.
  • Dedicated personal assistance: you assign a dedicated customer representative to an individual customer.  
  • Self-service: here you maintain no relationship with the customer, but provides what the customer needs to help themselves.
  • Automated services: this includes automated processes or machinery that helps customers perform services themselves.
  • Communities: these include online communities where customers can help each other solve their own problems with regard to the product or service.
  • Co-creation: here the company allows the customer to get involved in the designing or development of the product. For example, YouTube has given its users the opportunity to create content for its audience.

You can understand the kind of relationship your customer has with your company through a customer journey map . It will help you identify the different stages your customers go through when interacting with your company. And it will help you make sense of how to acquire, retain and grow your customers.

Customer Journey Map

This block is to describe how your company will communicate with and reach out to your customers. Channels are the touchpoints that let your customers connect with your company.

Channels play a role in raising awareness of your product or service among customers and delivering your value propositions to them. Channels can also be used to allow customers the avenue to buy products or services and offer post-purchase support.

There are two types of channels

  • Owned channels: company website, social media sites, in-house sales, etc.
  • Partner channels: partner-owned websites, wholesale distribution, retail, etc.

Revenues streams are the sources from which a company generates money by selling their product or service to the customers. And in this block, you should describe how you will earn revenue from your value propositions.  

A revenue stream can belong to one of the following revenue models,

  • Transaction-based revenue: made from customers who make a one-time payment
  • Recurring revenue: made from ongoing payments for continuing services or post-sale services

There are several ways you can generate revenue from

  • Asset sales: by selling the rights of ownership for a product to a buyer
  • Usage fee: by charging the customer for the use of its product or service
  • Subscription fee: by charging the customer for using its product regularly and consistently
  • Lending/ leasing/ renting: the customer pays to get exclusive rights to use an asset for a fixed period of time
  • Licensing: customer pays to get permission to use the company’s intellectual property
  • Brokerage fees: revenue generated by acting as an intermediary between two or more parties
  • Advertising: by charging the customer to advertise a product, service or brand using company platforms

What are the activities/ tasks that need to be completed to fulfill your business purpose? In this section, you should list down all the key activities you need to do to make your business model work.

These key activities should focus on fulfilling its value proposition, reaching customer segments and maintaining customer relationships, and generating revenue.

There are 3 categories of key activities;

  • Production: designing, manufacturing and delivering a product in significant quantities and/ or of superior quality.
  • Problem-solving: finding new solutions to individual problems faced by customers.
  • Platform/ network: Creating and maintaining platforms. For example, Microsoft provides a reliable operating system to support third-party software products.

This is where you list down which key resources or the main inputs you need to carry out your key activities in order to create your value proposition.

There are several types of key resources and they are

  • Human (employees)
  • Financial (cash, lines of credit, etc.)
  • Intellectual (brand, patents, IP, copyright)
  • Physical (equipment, inventory, buildings)

Key partners are the external companies or suppliers that will help you carry out your key activities. These partnerships are forged in oder to reduce risks and acquire resources.

Types of partnerships are

  • Strategic alliance: partnership between non-competitors
  • Coopetition: strategic partnership between partners
  • Joint ventures: partners developing a new business
  • Buyer-supplier relationships: ensure reliable supplies

In this block, you identify all the costs associated with operating your business model.

You’ll need to focus on evaluating the cost of creating and delivering your value propositions, creating revenue streams, and maintaining customer relationships. And this will be easier to do so once you have defined your key resources, activities, and partners.  

Businesses can either be cost-driven (focuses on minimizing costs whenever possible) and value-driven (focuses on providing maximum value to the customer).

Value Propositions

This is the building block that is at the heart of the business model canvas. And it represents your unique solution (product or service) for a problem faced by a customer segment, or that creates value for the customer segment.

A value proposition should be unique or should be different from that of your competitors. If you are offering a new product, it should be innovative and disruptive. And if you are offering a product that already exists in the market, it should stand out with new features and attributes.

Value propositions can be either quantitative (price and speed of service) or qualitative (customer experience or design).

Value Proposition Canvas

What to Avoid When Creating a Business Model Canvas

One thing to remember when creating a business model canvas is that it is a concise and focused document. It is designed to capture key elements of a business model and, as such, should not include detailed information. Some of the items to avoid include,

  • Detailed financial projections such as revenue forecasts, cost breakdowns, and financial ratios. Revenue streams and cost structure should be represented at a high level, providing an overview rather than detailed projections.
  • Detailed operational processes such as standard operating procedures of a business. The BMC focuses on the strategic and conceptual aspects.
  • Comprehensive marketing or sales strategies. The business model canvas does not provide space for comprehensive marketing or sales strategies. These should be included in marketing or sales plans, which allow you to expand into more details.
  • Legal or regulatory details such as intellectual property, licensing agreements, or compliance requirements. As these require more detailed and specialized attention, they are better suited to be addressed in separate legal or regulatory documents.
  • Long-term strategic goals or vision statements. While the canvas helps to align the business model with the overall strategy, it should focus on the immediate and tangible aspects.
  • Irrelevant or unnecessary information that does not directly relate to the business model. Including extra or unnecessary information can clutter the BMC and make it less effective in communicating the core elements.

What Are Your Thoughts on the Business Model Canvas?

Once you have completed your business model canvas, you can share it with your organization and stakeholders and get their feedback as well. The business model canvas is a living document, therefore after completing it you need to revisit and ensure that it is relevant, updated and accurate.

What best practices do you follow when creating a business model canvas? Do share your tips with us in the comments section below.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

FAQs About the Business Model Canvas

  • Use clear and concise language
  • Use visual-aids
  • Customize for your audience
  • Highlight key insights
  • Be open to feedback and discussion

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

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User-Generated Content Business Model

User Generated Content Business Model

In this era, competition is the nature of any business. Every venture is trying to win customers and drive sales. However, this is not a simple affair. For your business to succeed, you must come a robust marketing strategy and business model that will attract customers. Your strategy should inspire and build trust among your target audience for them to take the desired steps.

With many brands promising heaven and delivering hell, it is becoming hard for customers to trust them. So, how can you change this equation? The answer is through applying the User-generated content (USG) business model. Keep reading to learn more about this model and how it works.

What is the User-Generated Content Business Model?

As the term suggests, the User-generated content model is a business model that involves creating content by the users. These users are not employees, partners, affiliates, or have links with the organization. User-generated content is information about a brand that originates from the customers rather than the company behind it.

The information can be in the form of reviews, blog comments, social media posts, videos, pictures, and testimonials. In other words, this model involves using current users to promote your products among other users. You do not pay or influence the existing users to do it. When your customers leave a comment about your services or write a review of your products, it will impact other customers buying decisions.

How Does User-Generated Content Business Model Work?

The User-generated content model’s role is to allow users to be marketers of your products to other potential users. As you know, modern customers do not trust what brands do or say about their products. Many believe that brands exaggerate their marketing and ads to win customers. The products on ads are different from the ones they offer in reality.

For this reason, this model works by empowering the users to be your product promoters. The model involves a brand owner and users. The brand owner offers their products through an online platform. They then encourage customers to leave a review or share their views on social media platforms.

For instance, you can request them to share pictures and videos using your products or unboxing moments. Usually, the company comes up with a hashtag that the users can use when sharing their content on social platforms.

The next players in this model are the users. These customers enjoy your products or services. The users take a central stage in this model. They produce and share the content about their feelings on your products and services. These users are not part of your marketing team or paid to generate the content.

Hence, they play an indirect role in promoting your products for free. The USG business model works by allowing users to talk come up with content around your brands that will influence and enhance other customers’ purchase decisions.

Examples of User-Generated Content Business Model

With mistrust increasing on brand-generated content, many companies are turning to user-generated content models. Customers no longer trust the information that brands share about their products unless they hear the same from their fellow users. In this regard, the USG business model is becoming a popular gem. Some examples using this model include Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola is a renowned soft-drink brand. Some years back, the company requested its customers to send images holding their favorite and personalized drinks. The company went on to make soda bottles with individualized photos and names. This aspect influenced many customers, as each wanted to have their name on their favorite taste.

Starbuck is another company that employs this strategy.  Each year, Starbuck learns a promotion with the hashtag #RedCupContest. The company requests users to share images of their coffee for a chance of winning a gift card. Through the hashtag, the brand gains exposure and increased sales. Remember, the customers have to buy some coffee to take a photo and share it online.

Also, BMW uses the same approach to promote its product. This leading automotive brand has a Twitter hashtag dubbed #BMWRepost. Through it, they encourage the BMW owners to share their experience riding this car model. This way, BMW gains free marketing opportunity as the user keep on reposting. The list of businesses adopting the USG model is limitless

Pros and Cons

With users becoming the central players in the business, the USG model is now the new norm. Companies are focus on using customers as their unpaid brand ambassadors. While this model has varying advantages, it has its share of shortfalls. Here are some of them:

Enhance trust build

Trust in your brand is essential in driving sales. If customers cannot trust what you are offering, they will not buy it. Using the user-generated content model, you allow customers to speak to other customers about your products. As the users share experience, it inspires other potential buyers to trust and try your products. So, this concept is essential in enhancing customer trust in your brands.

Improve online visibility

As customers share information about your product with each other, your brand gain high visibility. For instance, when users share their photos using a hashtag, you gain and attract a broad audience. This aspect increases your online visibility and makes your brand popular.

Possibility of negative content

As usual, not everyone will like your products. Some will talk ill about what you offer despite not being your customers.  When using this approach, it is inevitable to have negative content about your brand. Such content can have hurtful impacts and lead to loss of sales. For this reason, you need to embark on consistent monitoring and moderation of the content shared.

In a word, a User-generated content business model is an integral approach in enhancing customer trust and brand visibility. The approach enables you to cut on your marketing budgets. It is a perfect way of promoting your products. However, it is prone to negative content that can hurt your brand perception among the customers.  

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OTT Business Model Explained: From Basics to Business Growth

Learn More about Mobile & TV Apps

OTT Business Models

  • What Is An OTT Business
  • OTT Business Model Benefits
  • Overview: OTT Business Models
  • OTT Business Examples
  • Launching an OTT App With Uscreen
  • OTT Business Model FAQ

The OTT business model is the pinnacle of content monetization as a creator.

Why? To start, people are moving to streaming services by the masses. Some 82% of US consumers have a video streaming service subscription, with the average person paying for 4 at a time. An OTT app is an excellent selling point if you want to reach today’s consumers. 

Plus, more people are making money by offering OTT content. Insider Intelligence reports that OTT video subscription revenues will climb to $64.12 billion by the end of 2026.

If you’re already generating revenue from your video content, and want to take your income to the next level, OTT is the way to go. You’ll learn the basics of the OTT business model in this guide, with examples and tips for launching your own OTT apps. 

What is an OTT business?

An OTT (Over-The-Top) business offers films, shows, and other exclusive video content to viewers online. These businesses can make money through membership fees, subscriptions, advertising, and pay-per-view models, offering customers more flexibility in how they consume media. 

Netflix and Hulu are examples of early OTT services, launching streaming services in 2007 and 2008 respectively. While YouTube is largely user-generated content, it has also played an important role as an OTT platform, giving users the ability to upload, share, and view videos.

Together, these platforms disrupted the traditional media industry, forcing cable service providers to innovate and adapt. Today, anyone can launch a streaming service with an OTT platform like Uscreen.

Benefits of the OTT business model

OTT apps let your audience stream video from their preferred devices, like mobile phones, smart TVs, and tablets whenever they want. Thanks to that convenience and flexibility, OTT apps have become the go-to way people prefer to stream content. From a business perspective, you can integrate into your members’ day-to-day with high-quality branded apps.

In fact, the latest OTT statistics show that 93% of American adults access streaming video platforms, while only 40% have cable or satellite service. 

Variety also reports that in the first quarter of 2023, TV providers in the US reported their worst subscriber losses to date, collectively shedding 2.3 million customers during the period. 

As people have more control over what to watch, when to watch, and how to watch, OTT services have become more fulfilling. Personalized content and top-notch streaming quality keep viewers engaged and intrigued by video content. 

This is why, as a video business owner, you want to consider launching your own OTT app because it’ll help you:

  • Grow video membership revenue with improved retention and in-app purchases.
  • Create simple, engaging mobile experiences for members.
  • Deliver a more accessible experience across all sizes of screens.
  • Create brand legitimacy and differentiation.

People want to access your content conveniently, or they’ll move to another content provider that lets them do that. It’s the reason media giants, like Apple and Disney, have launched their own OTT apps. They allow members to:

  • Access apps across devices like iOS , Android , Apple TV , Roku TV , and Apple Watch .
  • Make in-app purchases. 
  • Create their own customized video playlists and calendars that sync across devices. 
  • Download videos to watch without internet access.
  • Set notifications to alert them when new content is available. 

Uscreen data revealed that adding your content to an OTT app can generate up to 10x more subscription MRR. 

Creators that leveraged OTT apps also saw 2x more watch time and 10x more daily active users than just streaming content through their websites. 

Globally, media revenue from the OTT market is expected to surpass $224 billion by 2027. This is nearly double the amount of revenue in 2021, which was $135 billion.

Graph showing changes in OTT TV revenue from 2021-2027.

So, if you want to reach your viewers, get a piece of that $230 billion pie, and capitalize on that rising watch time, you need to launch an OTT app of your own! 

Here’s a full rundown of the OTT business model, so you can decide if it’s right for your business. 

Overview of the OTT business model 

The OTT business model is all about direct connection with customers. It eliminates a third-party distributor and gives content creators more revenue from their videos. 

You also get access to data that intermediaries normally gatekeep, like: 

  • Viewer demographics.
  • Consumption patterns.
  • Content discovery methods. 
  • Device and platform usage. 
  • Technical performance metrics.

The direct-to-consumer relationship opens the door for feedback and insights, so you can quickly adapt to market trends and consumer preferences. 

Suggested Read : AVOD, TVOD, SVOD: Guide + SVOD Pricing Calculator for Creators

At this point, if you’re on board with why you need to launch your own OTT app, you’ll want to know how to make money from it, right? 

Here are 5 main OTT monetization models you can pick from:

1. Membership

Memberships are different from the standard subscription model . They are more community-based. When someone signs up for a membership, they become part of the network and can interact with other members. 

For example, B TRIBAL FIT , an educational fitness brand, has a community section where members can share and like content from other members.

A screenshot shows an example of how a post within an online community like B Tribal Fit has would look like.

The membership model offers predictable revenue because members pay a monthly or annual fee. A 2022 industry report found that an overwhelming majority (81.5%) of creators enjoy the recurring revenue that comes from a membership site. 

Some advantages of the membership model also include:

  • It’s an ad-free service, so users tend to stay longer and consume more content. (Think: Netflix binge-watching!)
  • It’s a great way to build a community around your exclusive content.
  • It generates a recurring income. 
  • It’s the best way to monetize an existing community. 

Plus, you can have different OTT revenue models within memberships. For example, you could charge a flat fee for all content (AKA paid all access) or have tiered memberships, where the more people pay, the more content they get.

Build, launch and manage your membership, all in one place.

2. AVOD: Advertising Video-On-Demand

AVOD lets viewers watch content for free, or at a lower cost (think Hulu’s ad-supported paid plan). With this model creators generate the majority of their revenue by selling advertising space to other businesses. 

It’s similar to traditional TV viewing where you tune in to watch your favorite shows and accept there’ll be adverts throughout the program to cover production and distribution costs.

While being ad-supported sounds great, there are some drawbacks.

  • Ads could ruin the user experience and jeopardize viewer retention since they interrupt the flow of the content.
  • Ad revenue is a risky way to make money from videos, as you have to adhere to strict advertiser guidelines rather than creating and selling a product.
  • It’s challenging to generate as much revenue as other business models unless you have a huge number of viewers.
  • It’s a paradox: you need to serve enough ads to generate revenue without driving away viewers.

But by far, the most popular and successful AVOD platform for video creators is YouTube , where ads come in the form of:

  • Pre-roll ads that play before the main content.
  • Mid-roll ads that pause the video content at strategic points.
  • In-video ads that appear on the screen during the video. 

You’ve probably noticed at least one of these ad types in action: 

Image showing how to skip ads on YouTube.

💡 Bottom line: The AVOD model needs a large viewership to succeed. And although the content is often free, it comes with the cost of inconvenience as ads interrupt people’s favorite videos.

3. TVOD: Transactional Video-On-Demand

TVOD is where customers make one-time purchases to access specific premium content . Sometimes it’s referred to as PPV (pay-per-view) or PPD (pay-per-download) because viewers pay to watch one video rather than an entire catalog. 

For example, you might pay to watch a major televised sports event like a boxing match on Sky Box Office. 

TVOD is ideal if you’re only looking to sell or rent one video. You can use this model for real-time content like film premieres, one-time sporting events, instructional videos, and live streaming.

We invite you to read our expert guides on the best live streaming platforms and pay-per-view video platforms available on the market.

💡 Bottom line: The TVOD model will help you make a more reliable income than AVOD. But, you’ll have to make sure you’re consistently marketing your products to help you generate a steady stream of purchases and earn a reliable income.

4. SVOD: Subscription Video-On-Demand

An SVOD business model is where you sell subscription access to your videos online for a recurring monthly or annual fee. It’s like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Disney+, where you pay a monthly subscription to watch your choice of videos at your convenience. 

Research shows that SVOD in the US will reach 450 million subscriptions by 2026. You’ll have to invest in producing high-quality, original content consistently to make sure you’re improving on your product. 

It’s possible to lose subscribers when you change content or pricing or when inflation causes people to cut back on spending.

💡 Bottom line: The SVOD model is the ideal, proven way of building a stable and consistent income over time where you can monetize your existing community.

5. Hybrid: SVOD + TVOD

The SVOD + TVOD hybrid model offers something for everybody by combining elements from the different monetization strategies. It lets you cater to both long and short-term customers via recurring subscriptions and one-off transactions.

For example, Magic Stream , a company that creates and sells tutorials around learning magic, offer their students 2 packaging options:The TVOD model, where people can purchase or rent a specific course for a one-off fee:

Screenshot showing video collection subscription packages.

And the SVOD model, where students can join their Fader Pro Producers Club and pay a recurring fee to access all of their course content, plus masterclasses and exclusive content and live events:

Screenshot showing Magic Streams memberships.

💡 Bottom line: The SVOD + TVOD hybrid model is a flexible way of building a stable and consistent income over time that lets you capture short-term and long-term clients.  

OTT business examples

Studio bloom.

Picture of a fitness and yoga mobile app.

Studio Bloom is an online video streaming service and community focused on fitness for pre- and postnatal moms. Its OTT content covers workouts, recipes, meditations, mobility training, and more. 

When signing up for a membership, you get unlimited access to over 700 classes, 1:1 coaching support, and a supportive community. Members can access the content from various devices like iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV.

FanForce TV

Image of all OTT devices FanForce TV uses.

FanForce TV is another OTT streaming platform where you can watch independent films and documentaries from around the world. FanForce primarily streams types of content with a social impact, and gives people access to home entertainment, virtual screenings, and live broadcasts.

You can stream FanForce’s content on iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and more.

Your Book of Memories

Your Book Of Memories OTT mobile app.

Founder Frances Long started Your Book of Memories out of her love for crafting. She started on YouTube, but despite having thousands of followers, she couldn’t push past $380 per month. 

She pivoted to creating her own OTT streaming service through Uscreen, offering viewers her tutorials as a one-time payment or as a subscription. In just four months after her pivot, she went from earning $380 to $4,000 per month. You can stream her in-depth crafting classes on an iPhone or Android device. 

🧠 LEARN: These 19 OTT Examples Will Inspire You to Launch Your Own Over-The-Top App

Launching an OTT app with Uscreen

Now you know about the OTT business model, it’s time to choose a platform that’ll help you meet your revenue goals. With so many options to choose from, things can feel a little overwhelming.

That’s why we’ve put together an OTT platform shopping list to help you pick the best platform for video monetization based on your particular needs.

Uscreen is an all-in-one membership platform where you can build and grow a video business that operates seamlessly and profitably. 

Here are 5 main reasons why you should launch your OTT app with Uscreen:

  • It’s the most affordable + efficient way: it costs less to launch an OTT app with Uscreen vs. hiring a developer or publishing directly .
  • It’s technically hands-off: all you have to do is request the OTT apps, and the Uscreen team takes care of the rest.
  • There’s a dedicated support team: you get a dedicated team to support and maintain your OTT app (for free) after launching.
  • It’s customizable: you can customize your OTT platform to fit your branding. 
  • It’s community-focused: our community features let you interact with your community and allow members to create their own profiles and interact with one another.

Plus, our platform is jam-packed with streaming platform features, including:

  • Multi-screen video streaming services that let you deliver content to viewers via your membership website and your OTT apps, both on-demand and live.
  • A variety of built-in marketing tools that help you launch, grow, and retain your customers; including coupons, reduce churn tools, upsells, landing page builders, gift cards, and a sales funnel builder.
  • A video content management system that makes categorizing, removing, and managing videos easy.
  • An HTML5 video player that’s responsive, easy-to-use, and works on all devices.
  • Community building tools, such as live chat, comments with likes, and an option for community members to personalize profiles with custom avatars.
  • Security to protect viewers 24/7, ensuring privacy is maintained, and all information shared within your channel is encrypted.

Best of all, with Uscreen, you can launch an array of branded OTT apps available on iOS , Android , Apple TV , Apple Watch , Roku , Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV devices.

OTT business model FAQ

What is an example of an ott business.

An example of an OTT business is HBO Max, a streaming service that offers a variety of TV shows, movies, documentaries, and more. All its content is delivered over the internet without requiring people to pay for cable or satellite TV. 

What is the monetization model of OTT?

There are two ways OTT monetizes itself: subscription-based revenue, where users pay a monthly or annual fee to watch content, or advertising-based revenue if there’s free content with ads. It’s possible to get ad-supported cheaper or free plans and ad-free premium plans with some OTT services.

What is the business model of Netflix?

With Netflix, you can watch movies, TV shows, documentaries, and original programming for a monthly fee. Besides investing heavily in content creation and acquisition, Netflix uses advanced algorithms for content recommendation to enhance user engagement, and it creates a diverse content library to cater to different audience tastes.

Mike Keenan

Mike Keenan

Mike Keenan is a marketer and the co-founder of Peak Freelance, a membership community for freelance writers.

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  • The top GenAI performers have the biggest lead across five main capabilities: a clear link to business performance, modern technology infrastructure, strong data capabilities, leadership support, and a grounding in responsible AI.
  • Companies at the earliest stage of adoption should start with a few priority projects, leverage outside partners and turnkey systems, and tailor their technology governance to keep early GenAI projects on track.
  • Those with GenAI pilots underway should reprioritize the project portfolio based on potential value, assess core technology and data requirements in the context of GenAI, and upskill their people to thrive with the technology.

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/ slideshow, what genai’s top performers do differently.

By  Amanda Luther ,  Romain de Laubier ,  Nicolas de Bellefonds ,  Tauseef Charanya ,  Suraj Shah ,  Kevin Ifiora , and  Patrick Forth

Key Takeaways

Roughly a year after its launch, generative AI (GenAI) is already helping some companies create value in startling new ways. GenAI is different from earlier tech advances—more accessible to frontline employees, with a wider range of applications. A select tier of companies is capitalizing on these differences and leading the way in scaling the technology across their entire organization. As a result, they are not just experimenting with GenAI but using it to unlock efficiency gains, improve the customer experience, and boost revenue. For an organization with $20 billion in revenue, we estimate that GenAI can lead to gains of $500 million to $1 billion in profit, with nearly a third of those gains coming in the first 18 months.

Yet most companies—roughly 90% in our analysis—are further behind in their use of GenAI. These organizations often don’t know how to get started, they don’t know which applications are most impactful for their sector, and they don’t know the specific steps to take to catch up. To that end, we recently surveyed more than 150 senior executives globally across 10 sectors to understand where organizations are succeeding with GenAI. We supplemented that with in-depth interviews and our experience with nearly 200 GenAI client projects across industries and geographies.

This comprehensive research enabled us to develop a set of prescriptive, data-driven steps for how lagging companies can accelerate their adoption of GenAI and start scaling projects across the enterprise. These are the early lessons from the leaders in GenAI—and a playbook for others to take action on immediately.

Segmenting the Landscape of GenAI Adoption

Our analysis shows that companies can be grouped into three categories, based on their level of GenAI adoption so far. (See Exhibit 1.)

content business model

The top 10% of companies are scaling at least one GenAI application across the enterprise. These companies are currently winning in their use of GenAI by moving out of the pilot stage and beginning to capture real value from the technology. Moreover, they’re on the path to reimagine entire functions—or the overall enterprise—through GenAI. Overall, this group is also far more likely to have a solid foundation in predictive AI, which focuses on analytical tasks. Yet they are not satisfied with their current status. As a group, they are four times more likely than the other companies to have increased their investment in digital and AI due to the emergence of GenAI.

Although some of these organizations are digital natives like Amazon and Google, a full two-thirds are incumbent companies in industries like energy, insurance, and biopharma. For example, a US energy company launched a GenAI-driven conversational platform to assist frontline technicians, increasing productivity by 7%. A biopharma company is reimagining its R&D function with GenAI and reducing drug discovery timelines by 25%.

Roughly 50% of companies are in the pilot stage. Companies in this group have begun their GenAI journey and are developing a few focused pilots to test the technology’s value. Most of these companies have had some success with earlier digital and AI initiatives; however, they are not yet scaling them across the organization.

About 40% of companies have taken no action. The third group of companies have yet to take significant action on GenAI. The majority are still grappling with earlier digital and AI initiatives and lack many of the foundational capabilities to succeed, such as modern tech infrastructure or reliable, accessible data. Leaders in these companies may not have a robust understanding of GenAI and thus don’t see the need to take more ambitious steps to implement it.

Why GenAI Is Already Reshaping Businesses

Technology has been advancing for decades, and many companies have worked to digitize their processes and functions. Yet GenAI is different. In our research, roughly two-thirds (65%) of senior executives say it has the greatest disruptive potential of any technology over the next five years. And one-third have already increased investments, despite the tight cost environment. Why are executives so bullish on GenAI?

  • It has a faster time to value compared with other software. Based on the three broad value plays— deploy, reshape, and reinvent —leading organizations can rapidly put GenAI solutions in place and start realizing benefits in as little as three months, especially by leveraging plug-and-play applications. In basic tasks, employee productivity can increase by 10% to 20%.
  • More ambitious applications can generate correspondingly larger benefits. Using GenAI to reshape functions or invent new business models can take longer—one to three years—but trigger a much bigger impact. For example, a consumer goods company is building a GenAI-powered conversational assistant to provide customers with personalized diagnostics, trend discovery, product recommendations, and virtual try-on services.
  • The most valuable GenAI applications are already apparent. More than 50% of executives point to marketing and sales, customer operations, R&D, and IT/software engineering as the biggest value pools for GenAI. At the same time, the technology offers many sector-specific applications as well. The slideshow below shows the most impactful GenAI applications across several industries.

content business model

  • The initial GenAI applications that companies deploy are usually geared toward increasing productivity or improving customer service, but GenAI also creates new revenue streams. Of a typical GenAI portfolio, about 60% of initiatives reduce costs and 40% increase revenue (including through applications that boost engagement and increase customer satisfaction). This also increases the strategic nature of GenAI: opening up a lead on competitors offers opportunities for sustainable advantages in cost, customer service, and value propositions.

The Key Capabilities Companies Need to Scale GenAI

Our analysis points to five specific capabilities that separate the top 10% of companies from the rest. These are the areas where leaders show the strongest performance and have the biggest gap over the competition. (See Exhibit 2.)

content business model

A clear link to business performance.

More than 70% of scaling companies explicitly tailor their GenAI projects to create value. That can be both financial value (increased revenue and reduced costs) or non-financial value (such as an enhanced customer experience). Scaling companies are over 20% more likely to perceive GenAI’s potential to drive top-line growth versus cost savings potential only. In contrast, fewer than one-quarter of bottom performers link GenAI projects to value. Further, scaling companies tend to focus on a small number of targeted applications that can create significant value when scaled, rather than a more fragmented, scattershot approach. These often combine the foundational capabilities of predictive AI, which is strong in traditional left-brain activities like analysis, with GenAI’s strengths in right-brain activities like content creation. (See Exhibit 3.) 

content business model

Modern technology infrastructure.

Leading companies are three times more likely to have a modern, modular IT infrastructure. This enables companies to develop new, GenAI-powered services on top of foundational AI models and to seamlessly work with outside developers. Compared to lagging companies, these top performers are also 1.5 times more likely to focus on building the GenAI stack internally over the coming three years, underscoring their desire to make the technology a core capability for the organization.

Strong data capabilities.

Top performers are twice as likely to have data pipelines and data management practices in place, helping them to source and store high-quality data (even from unstructured data sources). This is a critical element of GenAI, given that models are only as strong as the data on which they’re trained. As the head of data and analytics at a global media company said, “If training data is biased or lacks the diversity of our global audience, the outputs from GenAI tools will replicate those issues, which would impact our ability to serve our markets around the world.”

Critically, tech infrastructure and data capabilities are not formal, ironclad prerequisites to create value from GenAI. These attributes help, but some organizations find success even with less mature skills in these areas— though it may take them longer as they need to address the specific infrastructure and data capabilities in parallel.

Leadership support.

As with any change initiative, support from leadership is crucial. Scaling companies are three times more likely than no-action companies to have leaders who prioritize innovation and actively support GenAI across the company. These leaders usually have a deep understanding of the technology’s potential impact on their industry, and they are publicly committed to ensuring that the organization harnesses it in ways that generate value. As the head of data and analytics at a global media company said, “Visible support and commitment from our leadership team has been crucial, as it provided the freedom to experiment and deal with failures along the way.”

Guidelines and processes for responsible AI.

GenAI is a new and rapidly evolving technology, with implementation risks for organizations that do not understand it. But there are well-known ways to mitigate the risks, such as putting “humans in the loop,” using only factual data, and—critically—implementing responsible AI . Our research shows that leading companies are far more likely to have developed guardrails, guidelines, and policies to ensure that they follow the principles of responsible AI . In the findings, the share of scaling companies that are cautious about the potential misuse of GenAI and taking proactive measures to address these risks is 20 percentage points higher than the share of companies taking no action in this area.

As the head of data and analytics at a global media company said, “Sometimes we deal with highly sensitive personal identifiable information or content that is pre-release, so policies have to be very clear on what people can and cannot do with GenAI.”

Priorities for Lagging Companies to Close the Gap

It is imperative for companies that have been slow to embrace GenAI to take decisive action and ramp up their aspirations for the technology. Our research points to specific recommendations for both groups.

Priorities for “No Action” Companies

The 40% of companies that have yet to take action with GenAI should focus on leadership support, identify a small number of priority applications, work with outside partners, and tailor their approach to governance.

Turn leaders into informed advocates. More than half of the companies yet to take action on GenAI cite a lack of sufficient knowledge among leaders as a key barrier. Accordingly, leaders should educate themselves about the potential value from GenAI and push the organization to embrace the technology. As the GenAI product lead at a scaling company said, “Changing people’s working habits is tough. We use a top-down approach to drive adoption by setting targets for usage and measuring progress.”

Start with a small number of priority applications. Companies do not need to start from scratch—the highest value applications by sector are already well-known. Organizations can choose several that are most applicable to their needs and apply a minimum-viable-product approach to developing them. An agile team can determine the data required, the means to access that data, and the people needed to develop, implement, and run the solution—all within months. “Once we defined a set of projects that were technically feasible, we assessed them against each other in terms of their value and impact on the business,” said the head of technology strategy and transformation at a global financial services company. “And we used that assessment to make the hard choices needed to prioritize.”

Leverage outside partners early on. Over 40% of no-action companies cite the absence of modern tech infrastructure as a key barrier. But revamping IT infrastructure takes time. Instead of waiting, companies can work with outside partners and rely on turnkey GenAI platforms, enabling them to get solutions into place quickly. As the head of data and analytics at a scaling global media company said, “You don’t need advanced tech infrastructure to carry out a pilot. We have an ecosystem of partners that we’ve screened carefully, and we work with them to quickly run pilots.”

Tailor governance to the needs of GenAI projects. At many organizations, the governance for major technology projects is weak, and without sufficient attention, initial GenAI pilots can quickly go off-track. Rather than trying to solve this, companies should create bespoke governance specifically for GenAI projects. Some companies are creating GenAI centers of excellence to spur rapid action and lead to greater impact—with appropriate governance built in. The right approach should enable fast decisions and interventions to maintain progress, while ensuring that the necessary functions (including risk and compliance, procurement, IT, and business owners) are involved as required. Over time, as companies gain momentum with GenAI, they can continue to refine their governance model to address a broader set of applications.

Priorities for “Piloting” Companies

Compared to “no action” companies, the 50% of companies in the pilot stage reprioritize their portfolio of projects already underway, re-evaluate tech infrastructure and data requirements, and adjust their people strategy.

Reprioritize applications. As awareness of GenAI grows, companies at this stage are often inundated with requests to deploy GenAI solutions across the organization, leading to fragmented, isolated efforts. To improve, companies need to assess their portfolio of projects and reprioritize them based on potential value. “It’s easy for people to fall in love with an initiative and not pay attention to the actual value being delivered,” said the digital and innovation lead at an energy company. “We were ruthless in looking at business cases to determine which initiatives to scale. If a pilot fell short, we deprioritized it or killed it outright.”

Re-evaluate technology and data requirements. Modernizing technology and data infrastructure is a long and challenging quest. But companies can be smarter about the process based on the lessons from early pilots. After several initiatives are done, it’s essential to re-evaluate the core technology and data aspects needed to support broader adoption of GenAI. For example, about 50% of piloting companies say that siloed data represents a key barrier at this stage. This process can ensure that GenAI requirements dovetail with the broader technology needs of the organization, and it helps leaders make decisions about which capabilities to build internally versus which to outsource to partners. 

For example, a multinational financial services company considered cloud solutions for some GenAI applications but ultimately brought that capability in-house. “The significant costs associated with GenAI factored into our decision,” said the head of technology strategy and transformation. “We use our on-premise processors to train GenAI models so we don’t feel the pinch of training costs on the cloud.”

Improve the people strategy to accelerate adoption. As GenAI gets embedded and data becomes democratized across the organization, companies need to adjust their people strategy to ensure that workers have the skills they need to thrive with the technology. Yet piloting companies are 20% less likely than scalers to have upskilled their workforce on GenAI. And executives believe that 44% of their workforce will need to be reskilled in the next three years due to the impact of GenAI on their current roles. In some cases, the right approach is to work with employees in developing new tools, which can generate buy-in and support.

As the digital and innovation head at a European oil and gas company told us, “We needed to appropriately engage employees at the front line in helping to develop one of our GenAI tools, because they could strongly resist adoption if they misunderstand the purpose of the technology and assume it would replace them.”

GenAI is becoming an integral part of business ecosystems and is already a strong source of value and competitive advantage. But only 10% companies have mastered how to scale GenAI to create value. GenAI is still a new, evolving technology, but each new release offers more value to corporations. The GenAI leaders have forged a path to early success. The risk for their competitors is to be left behind as the best players increase their advantage further by shortening their times to at-scale deployment and focusing more on reshaping and invention. The time is now for other companies to put these learnings into practice and begin reaping the benefits of this transformative new technology .

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ABOUT BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

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Our next-generation model: Gemini 1.5

Feb 15, 2024

The model delivers dramatically enhanced performance, with a breakthrough in long-context understanding across modalities.

SundarPichai_2x.jpg

A note from Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai:

Last week, we rolled out our most capable model, Gemini 1.0 Ultra, and took a significant step forward in making Google products more helpful, starting with Gemini Advanced . Today, developers and Cloud customers can begin building with 1.0 Ultra too — with our Gemini API in AI Studio and in Vertex AI .

Our teams continue pushing the frontiers of our latest models with safety at the core. They are making rapid progress. In fact, we’re ready to introduce the next generation: Gemini 1.5. It shows dramatic improvements across a number of dimensions and 1.5 Pro achieves comparable quality to 1.0 Ultra, while using less compute.

This new generation also delivers a breakthrough in long-context understanding. We’ve been able to significantly increase the amount of information our models can process — running up to 1 million tokens consistently, achieving the longest context window of any large-scale foundation model yet.

Longer context windows show us the promise of what is possible. They will enable entirely new capabilities and help developers build much more useful models and applications. We’re excited to offer a limited preview of this experimental feature to developers and enterprise customers. Demis shares more on capabilities, safety and availability below.

Introducing Gemini 1.5

By Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, on behalf of the Gemini team

This is an exciting time for AI. New advances in the field have the potential to make AI more helpful for billions of people over the coming years. Since introducing Gemini 1.0 , we’ve been testing, refining and enhancing its capabilities.

Today, we’re announcing our next-generation model: Gemini 1.5.

Gemini 1.5 delivers dramatically enhanced performance. It represents a step change in our approach, building upon research and engineering innovations across nearly every part of our foundation model development and infrastructure. This includes making Gemini 1.5 more efficient to train and serve, with a new Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture.

The first Gemini 1.5 model we’re releasing for early testing is Gemini 1.5 Pro. It’s a mid-size multimodal model, optimized for scaling across a wide-range of tasks, and performs at a similar level to 1.0 Ultra , our largest model to date. It also introduces a breakthrough experimental feature in long-context understanding.

Gemini 1.5 Pro comes with a standard 128,000 token context window. But starting today, a limited group of developers and enterprise customers can try it with a context window of up to 1 million tokens via AI Studio and Vertex AI in private preview.

As we roll out the full 1 million token context window, we’re actively working on optimizations to improve latency, reduce computational requirements and enhance the user experience. We’re excited for people to try this breakthrough capability, and we share more details on future availability below.

These continued advances in our next-generation models will open up new possibilities for people, developers and enterprises to create, discover and build using AI.

Context lengths of leading foundation models

Highly efficient architecture

Gemini 1.5 is built upon our leading research on Transformer and MoE architecture. While a traditional Transformer functions as one large neural network, MoE models are divided into smaller "expert” neural networks.

Depending on the type of input given, MoE models learn to selectively activate only the most relevant expert pathways in its neural network. This specialization massively enhances the model’s efficiency. Google has been an early adopter and pioneer of the MoE technique for deep learning through research such as Sparsely-Gated MoE , GShard-Transformer , Switch-Transformer, M4 and more.

Our latest innovations in model architecture allow Gemini 1.5 to learn complex tasks more quickly and maintain quality, while being more efficient to train and serve. These efficiencies are helping our teams iterate, train and deliver more advanced versions of Gemini faster than ever before, and we’re working on further optimizations.

Greater context, more helpful capabilities

An AI model’s “context window” is made up of tokens, which are the building blocks used for processing information. Tokens can be entire parts or subsections of words, images, videos, audio or code. The bigger a model’s context window, the more information it can take in and process in a given prompt — making its output more consistent, relevant and useful.

Through a series of machine learning innovations, we’ve increased 1.5 Pro’s context window capacity far beyond the original 32,000 tokens for Gemini 1.0. We can now run up to 1 million tokens in production.

This means 1.5 Pro can process vast amounts of information in one go — including 1 hour of video, 11 hours of audio, codebases with over 30,000 lines of code or over 700,000 words. In our research, we’ve also successfully tested up to 10 million tokens.

Complex reasoning about vast amounts of information

1.5 Pro can seamlessly analyze, classify and summarize large amounts of content within a given prompt. For example, when given the 402-page transcripts from Apollo 11’s mission to the moon, it can reason about conversations, events and details found across the document.

Reasoning across a 402-page transcript: Gemini 1.5 Pro Demo

Gemini 1.5 Pro can understand, reason about and identify curious details in the 402-page transcripts from Apollo 11’s mission to the moon.

Better understanding and reasoning across modalities

1.5 Pro can perform highly-sophisticated understanding and reasoning tasks for different modalities, including video. For instance, when given a 44-minute silent Buster Keaton movie , the model can accurately analyze various plot points and events, and even reason about small details in the movie that could easily be missed.

Multimodal prompting with a 44-minute movie: Gemini 1.5 Pro Demo

Gemini 1.5 Pro can identify a scene in a 44-minute silent Buster Keaton movie when given a simple line drawing as reference material for a real-life object.

Relevant problem-solving with longer blocks of code

1.5 Pro can perform more relevant problem-solving tasks across longer blocks of code. When given a prompt with more than 100,000 lines of code, it can better reason across examples, suggest helpful modifications and give explanations about how different parts of the code works.

Problem solving across 100,633 lines of code | Gemini 1.5 Pro Demo

Gemini 1.5 Pro can reason across 100,000 lines of code giving helpful solutions, modifications and explanations.

Enhanced performance

When tested on a comprehensive panel of text, code, image, audio and video evaluations, 1.5 Pro outperforms 1.0 Pro on 87% of the benchmarks used for developing our large language models (LLMs). And when compared to 1.0 Ultra on the same benchmarks, it performs at a broadly similar level.

Gemini 1.5 Pro maintains high levels of performance even as its context window increases. In the Needle In A Haystack (NIAH) evaluation, where a small piece of text containing a particular fact or statement is purposely placed within a long block of text, 1.5 Pro found the embedded text 99% of the time, in blocks of data as long as 1 million tokens.

Gemini 1.5 Pro also shows impressive “in-context learning” skills, meaning that it can learn a new skill from information given in a long prompt, without needing additional fine-tuning. We tested this skill on the Machine Translation from One Book (MTOB) benchmark, which shows how well the model learns from information it’s never seen before. When given a grammar manual for Kalamang , a language with fewer than 200 speakers worldwide, the model learns to translate English to Kalamang at a similar level to a person learning from the same content.

As 1.5 Pro’s long context window is the first of its kind among large-scale models, we’re continuously developing new evaluations and benchmarks for testing its novel capabilities.

For more details, see our Gemini 1.5 Pro technical report .

Extensive ethics and safety testing

In line with our AI Principles and robust safety policies, we’re ensuring our models undergo extensive ethics and safety tests. We then integrate these research learnings into our governance processes and model development and evaluations to continuously improve our AI systems.

Since introducing 1.0 Ultra in December, our teams have continued refining the model, making it safer for a wider release. We’ve also conducted novel research on safety risks and developed red-teaming techniques to test for a range of potential harms.

In advance of releasing 1.5 Pro, we've taken the same approach to responsible deployment as we did for our Gemini 1.0 models, conducting extensive evaluations across areas including content safety and representational harms, and will continue to expand this testing. Beyond this, we’re developing further tests that account for the novel long-context capabilities of 1.5 Pro.

Build and experiment with Gemini models

We’re committed to bringing each new generation of Gemini models to billions of people, developers and enterprises around the world responsibly.

Starting today, we’re offering a limited preview of 1.5 Pro to developers and enterprise customers via AI Studio and Vertex AI . Read more about this on our Google for Developers blog and Google Cloud blog .

We’ll introduce 1.5 Pro with a standard 128,000 token context window when the model is ready for a wider release. Coming soon, we plan to introduce pricing tiers that start at the standard 128,000 context window and scale up to 1 million tokens, as we improve the model.

Early testers can try the 1 million token context window at no cost during the testing period, though they should expect longer latency times with this experimental feature. Significant improvements in speed are also on the horizon.

Developers interested in testing 1.5 Pro can sign up now in AI Studio, while enterprise customers can reach out to their Vertex AI account team.

Learn more about Gemini’s capabilities and see how it works .

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What Is a Large Language Model (LLM)?

Mark Jackley | Content Strategist | February 16, 2024

content business model

In This Article

What Is a Large Language Model?

Large language model faqs.

A large language model (LLM) is an increasingly popular type of artificial intelligence designed to generate human-like written responses to queries. LLMs are trained on large amounts of text data and learn to predict the next word, or sequence of words, based on the context provided—they can even mimic the writing style of a particular author or genre.

LLMs emerged from labs and made the news in the early 2020s and have since turned into both standalone products and value-added capabilities embedded in many types of business software. Thanks to their impressive ability to interpret requests and produce helpful responses, LLMs are used in a wide range of applications, including natural language processing, machine translation, content generation, chatbots, and document summarization.

A large language model (LLM) is an artificial intelligence system that has been trained on a vast dataset, often consisting of billions of words taken from books, the web, and other sources, to generate human-like, contextually relevant responses to queries. Because LLMs are designed to understand questions—called “prompts” in LLM terminology—and generate natural language responses, they can perform tasks such as answering customer questions, summarizing information in a report, generating first drafts of emails, even writing poetry and computer code. LLMs typically have a deep understanding of the grammar and semantics of the language in which they are trained, and they can be refined using a company’s own data.

Because they can recognize and interpret human language—though not truly understand it the way humans do—LLMs represent a significant advance in natural language processing. The most well-known LLM is probably ChatGPT, the AI program from OpenAI trained on billions of words from books, articles, and websites. The company offers direct access to ChatGPT via a web browser or mobile app, or it can be linked to business software via programmable APIs. Other common LLMs include Cohere, GPT-4, and BARD.

The textual data used to train an LLM can be structured, as in a database, or unstructured. Most businesses have vast amounts of unstructured data, including text messages, emails, and documents.

Popular business uses of LLMs include customer service chatbots, digital assistants, and translation services that are more contextual, colloquial, and natural-sounding than traditional word-for-word translation tools. LLMs can also perform fairly advanced tasks, such as predicting protein structures and writing software code. Healthcare, pharmaceuticals, finance, and retail are among the industries putting LLMs to good use. For example, a healthcare provider might use an LLM to triage patients calling into a hotline, while an investment company might use one to sift through and summarize earnings reports, news stories, and social media posts to spot stock trends. LLMs can help organizations manage and analyze data, deriving insights that may create business value. And in both scenarios, the LLM is performing the task faster than human analysts possibly could.

That’s led to great interest in the technology, so much so that the global market for LLMs is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.4% to reach US$40.8 billion by 2029, according to 2023 research by Valuates Reports .

There are some key concepts to understand when thinking about LLMs. They include:

  • Natural language. Any language that humans use in ordinary situations, such as in conversations or written reports, not developed for a technical purpose, such as computer code.
  • Natural-language processing. A kind of data processing that can analyze the structure and meaning of written or spoken text.
  • Language model. A model of a natural language that can predict the next best word in a phrase or sentence within the desired context.

Like human beings, LLMs aren’t perfect. The quality of their output depends on the quality of their input—that is, the information used to train them. Outdated data can result in mistakes, such as a chatbot giving a wrong answer about a company’s products. A lack of sufficient data can cause LLMs to make up answers, or “hallucinate.” While LLMs are great at prediction, for now anyway, they’re less good at explaining how they came to a given conclusion. And many LLMs are trained with books, newspaper articles, and even Wikipedia pages, leading to concerns about copyright infringement. When not rigorously managed, LLMs may present security challenges by, for example, using sensitive or private information in a response.

An AI technique called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) can help with some of these issues by improving the accuracy and relevance of an LLM’s output. RAG provides a way to add targeted information without changing the underlying model. RAG models create knowledge repositories—typically based on an organization’s own data—that can be continually updated to supply timely, contextual answers. For example, chatbots and other conversational systems might use RAG to make sure their answers to customers’ questions are based on current information about inventory, the buyer’s preferences, and previous purchases, and to exclude information that is out-of-date or irrelevant to the LLM’s intended operational context.

content business model

Establishing an AI center of excellence before organization-specific training commences makes for a higher likelihood of success. Our ebook explains why and offers tips on building an effective CoE.

What are the top five large language models?

Experts disagree on the top LLMs, but five that many tout are GPT-4 from OpenAI, Claude 2 from Anthropic, Llama 2 from Meta, Orca 2 from Microsoft Research, and Command from Cohere. ChatGPT is also from OpenAI.

What is the difference between LLMs and AI?

Artificial intelligence is a broad term that encompasses many technologies that can mimic human-like behavior or capabilities. Large language models are a type of generative AI , the umbrella term for AI models that generate content including text, images, video, spoken language, and music.

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VIDEO

  1. Types Of Business Model Discussion in this Video // Business Model Discussion

  2. CHOOSE THE RIGHT BUSINESS MODEL #shorts #business

  3. Types Of Business Model Discussion in this Video // Business Model Discussion

COMMENTS

  1. What is a Content Business?

    by Ann Gynn | Jun 10, 2021 | Audience Building, Revenue The crazy thing about starting a content business is that it's not like launching a more traditional business. You don't make a plan and a few months later open a storefront, stock it with products, and market it to bring in customers.

  2. 4 Business Models for Content Marketing

    How do you install the function of content as a business model? Integrate a combination of changes. Here are four models - Content Marketing Institute

  3. 7 Examples of Successful Content Creator Business Models (2023)

    Here's what a content creator's business model could look like, with a few successful examples. What is a content creator? Content creators are individuals, typically independent of any media company, who create videos, podcasts, social media posts, or other digital content for public consumption.

  4. 11 Profitable Content Business Models Publishers Are Using to ...

    The essential attributes of each of these content business models are: Top-Level Function: Each of these business models has a core function they are designed to serve - building an audience, which we refer to as creating Affinity or directly monetizing content which we refer to as Premium.

  5. Think Strategically About Your Content Model

    Which strategic content operating model or combination is right for your business' content? - The Content Marketing Institute

  6. How to Start a Writing Business Successfully

    Part 1. How to Start a Content Writing Business: Do Your Homework Before You Start That (Content Writing) Business! Part 2. Identify Your Priorities & Goals for Your Content Writing Business Part 3.

  7. Business Models for Content and Technology Plays

    Most people are familiar with Business to Consumer models (also referred to as BTC or B2C). In a Business-to-Consumer model, the business primarily provides services to consumers. Many of the common media content plays are considered B2C. Newspapers, television shows, films, and video games are primarily B2C companies.

  8. The New Content Business Model Awaits

    1. Notable news and upcoming trends: Anatomy of a content-by-committee failure (12:25): The Boston Globe gives an agonizing, blow-by-blow account of a Pepsi ad that was released (and pulled) last week.

  9. Content Modeling: What It is and How to Get Started

    A content model documents all content types associated with a brand, and defines the relationship between those content types. With a content model, strategists can visualize the...

  10. The Unified Content Business Model

    The Unified Content Business Model Tuesday, May 2, 2023

  11. What is content modeling?

    Emily Nielsen , Nov 16, 2020 What is a content model? Every piece of digital content is at its core a piece of a content model. A content model breaks down the different elements of the content and can be an essential part of organizing an efficient workflow around creating new content.

  12. Business Models: Types, Examples and How to Design One

    What kind of expenses the company will face. How the company expects to turn a profit. Types of business models and examples Because there are many different businesses, the list of business...

  13. The Unified Content Model

    The Unified Content Model has the following components: Interface to one or more data repositories - Repositories include structured and unstructured data, including text, image, audio, video, QR code assets and atomic componentized content. Measure/Analyze - A library of services to measure the usage and effectiveness of content.

  14. The Business Model for Content Startups

    Business models provide a rationale for how a business creates, delivers, and captures value, [1] and examine how the business operates, its underlying foundations, and the exchange activities and financial flows upon which it can be successful. [2] A business model canvas is a tool to map out and plan the different components to a business model.

  15. How to Start a Content Writing Business in 4 Simple Steps

    Step 1: Make a Plan. Before you even think about launching your business, there are a few things you'll need to plan out. This includes creating a business plan, deciding on a niche, and choosing your business model. Starting any business can be overwhelming, and this is especially true for content writing.

  16. 9 Online Business Models for 2023 (Types of Online Businesses)

    1. Content-Based Websites Business Model. A content-based website provides visitors with written information on a specific topic, usually articles or blog posts. Whether you want to call them blogs, authority sites, niche sites, or something else, they all follow a similar business model.

  17. How to Create an Expert Business Model: A Detailed Guide

    Dec 02, 2022 If you're looking to create your own business, there are two things you need: a business plan and a business model. Your business plan helps you explore your overall business idea; your business model determines how your business will make money.

  18. What is a Business Model with Types and Examples

    A business model is a company's core strategy for profitably doing business. Models generally include information like products or services the business plans to sell, target markets, and...

  19. Business Model Canvas: Explained with Examples

    The answer is simple. The business model canvas offers several benefits for businesses and entrepreneurs. It is a valuable tool and provides a visual and structured approach to designing, analyzing, optimizing, and communicating your business model. The business model canvas provides a comprehensive overview of a business model's essential aspects.

  20. Business models for streaming platforms: Content acquisition

    The business model (advertising-, subscription-based or mixed) of media platforms has been studied by many scholars both in economics and marketing. In particular, Ferrando et al. (2008), Godes et al. (2009), Kind et al. (2009), and Reisinger (2012) studied advertising and pricing in media markets.

  21. User-Generated Content Business Model

    As the term suggests, the User-generated content model is a business model that involves creating content by the users. These users are not employees, partners, affiliates, or have links with the organization. User-generated content is information about a brand that originates from the customers rather than the company behind it.

  22. The Future Model for Content Marketing and Media Are Identical

    The content business model. Cosmo is completely focused on the audience. There isn't one word about what it sells to make a profit. Exxon, on the other hand, has a clear mission around what it sells. Oil … and lots of it. Good for them..@Cosmopolitan's mission is focused on its audience - that's the #content business model, says ...

  23. OTT Business Model Explained: From Basics to Growth

    The OTT business model is the pinnacle of content monetization as a creator. Why? To start, people are moving to streaming services by the masses. Some 82% of US consumers have a video streaming service subscription, with the average person paying for 4 at a time. An OTT app is an excellent selling point if you want to reach today's consumers.

  24. 2024 Digital Marketing Strategy Guide

    Content marketing is a common strategy for many business owners. Its focus is to create and distribute valuable, relevant and consistent content to a target audience.

  25. What GenAI's Top Performers Do Differently

    AI can deliver significant business impact, but companies can maximize value with an end-to-end approach. ... with GenAI's strengths in right-brain activities like content creation. (See Exhibit 3.) ... We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping ...

  26. Introducing Gemini 1.5, Google's next-generation AI model

    A note from Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai: Last week, we rolled out our most capable model, Gemini 1.0 Ultra, and took a significant step forward in making Google products more helpful, starting with Gemini Advanced.Today, developers and Cloud customers can begin building with 1.0 Ultra too — with our Gemini API in AI Studio and in Vertex AI.

  27. OpenAI's new tool lets you create realistic video by typing a ...

    OpenAI announced Thursday it has expanded beyond text and images to offer video-generation AI for the first time.

  28. What Is a Large Language Model (LLM)?

    A large language model (LLM) is an increasingly popular type of artificial intelligence designed to generate human-like written responses to queries. ... early 2020s and have since turned into both standalone products and value-added capabilities embedded in many types of business software. ... Large language models are a type of generative AI ...