Bob Iger, President and CEO Walt Disney on Digital Business Models

Bob Iger, of Walt Disney, in an interesting interview with Fortune's Richard Siklos.

"When we think about monetization we look at advertising, micropayments, paid-for-content and subscription"

"We believe that anything that serves consumers better is a good thing so consumers who have subscribed to multi-channel services, being able to watch those programs and those channels online, we think is a good thing. We do believe though that it is something that should be charged for."

"You have to have one hand in the future and one hand in the present, if you have two in one place then you fail. If you have two in the future then you are not managing your business day to day and that's a big problem operationally, and if you are just managing today, you will miss out opportunities or you will completely ignore significant threats and not prepare yourself for that, so this notion of protecting the present is something that I talk about a lot at the company"

"The most important thing is what is the consumer doing and where the consumer is going"

"The record industry was propped up by a business model selling a 15 song CD for $15, that wasn't sustainable because the price to value relationship was not there, and the other thing that was really interesting was that consumers knew that they could access music in much more convenient ways online and they ended up getting angry that the retailers or the record industry wasn't providing that experience"

Related videos:

• The Future of Content & Telecoms: Flat Rate Content Bundles and Social Media (Gerd Leonhard @ eComm 2009)
• David Heinemeier Hansson on Charging for Online Services
• Nick Bilton on new technology that will enable interesting business models for news

Twitter reveals details about its business model

In this very interesting conversation with Dick Costolo, COO at Twitter, at the Real-Time CrunchUp Nov 20th, the company's business model is discussed, confirming that the deals with Microsoft and Google are bringing Twitter money. Costolo also answers questions about the newly turned-on Geolocation API and its possibilities.

Relating posts:

• The business model of API’s
• Business models turning products into platforms
• Twitter - a de facto standard for real-time data?

Relating videos:

• Videos from Real-Time CrunchUp SF
• A Conversation with Evan Williams (Twitter, Inc.), John Battelle (Federated Media Publishing), at the Web 2.0 Summit 09 (Day1)
• Interview with Evan Williams, CEO Twitter

Nick Bilton on new technology that will enable interesting business models for news

Nick Bilton, design integration editor and user interface specialist at The New York Times and The Times Research & Development Lab, at eDay 2009, talking about exciting new technology, using sensors to filter content, content for different devices and experimental advertising.

Related videos:

• Eric Schmidt on news, newspapers and real time content
• Journalism and business models discussed by panel at the International Center for Journalists' annual Board Dinner
• Tim O'Reilly on Open Publishing
• Mad Avenue Blues - The year the media died

Related posts:

• Outlook for Newspaper publishing: Moving into multiple business models

USC Marshall Webinars on Business Models

These webinars are excerpted from USC and RUIs New Media Management certificate. Terrible sound quality but some interesting examples and Q&A sessions.

Media and Entertainment: Ad-Based Business Models

Media and Entertainment: Subscription-Based Business Models

Media and Entertainment: Purchase-Based Business Models

Media and Entertainment: Monetizing Social Media

See also:

More than 30 videos on Business Models

The Future of Content & Telecoms: Flat Rate Content Bundles and Social Media (Gerd Leonhard @ eComm 2009)

In this presentation from the eComm Conference in San Francisco Gerd Leonhard, a media futurist, author, and entrepreneur discuss the content industry and the use of user data as payment. "In exchange for value we surrender data. I get free music, free videos, free tv-shows, maybe even free software, because I give my data to be sold or given or leased to somebody else." This data Gerd argues creates pictures of people that create enormous value that will pay for the whole process. "One dollar a week, per user, of the internet in the US, will be enough to earn the music industry more money than they make with everything else. One dollar a week. And that is not even me paying the dollar, that is just me saying I'll be part of it, somebody else can pay the dollar"

"The filters for content might even make more money than the content itself"

"The fight for control was a fight for distribution"

"The fight for attention is a fight for trust"

The slides can be found here.

More videos:
Making $1.6 Million in a week for music given away for free

Interview with Trent Reznor on business models in the music industry

Related posts:
50 Business Models Built on Free
The Freemium Business Model

Is the Advertising Model Dead?

Another interesting panel from The Revenue Bootcamp held on Microsoft campus in Mountain View, California. In this session Bill Reichert, managing director Garage Technology Ventures moderates the discussion about advertising.

Participants:

Samir Arora, Chairman and CEO, Glam Media

Neil Chase, VP Author Services, Federated Media

Tim Kendall, Direcotor Monetization, Facebook

David Kopp, Senior Director, North American Ads, Yahoo!

Xavier Zang, Publisher Partner Management, Microsoft

More videos:

• IMVU, Tripit, Photobucket, Commission Junction, and ShoeMoney Media in a very interesting panel about online Revenue Models
• Ning, Pandora, YouSendit, Pinger & Ngcomo in an extensive panel discussion about different Business Models
• Chris Anderson & Guy Kawasaki debate The Freemium Business Model

How Your Friend's Blog Can Benefit Your Business

Here's a tip you can implement today.

To get more exposure for your online store/selling venue, trade blog posts with a friend. (You do have a blog, right??) Ask a friend with a blog if she'll write a guest post for you and offer to write one for her. At the end of the post include a brief bio, including a link to your own blog and, perhaps, to one of your online stores. (Leave it to one or two links; don't make it look tacky.)

Simply share a great tip or selling experience, something that will appeal to the audience of your friend's blog. You post hers, she posts yours and, voilà, you both have new readers and, hopefully, new customers.

It's a win-win situation!

P.S. I love Darren Rowse's blogging tips. Here's a book full of them: ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income Read the reviews and consider buying the book if you want to learn how your blog can benefit your business.

EBay Plus Squidoo Equals . . .

. . some awesome lenses and a lot of traffic for some very smart eBay buyers and sellers.

In honor of eBay Live 2008, Squidoo and lensmaster Katiyana put together a challenge for those who "do" both eBay and Squidoo. The result? The 10 Day eBay Challenge 2008. Participants were to make 10 lenses in the days leading up to eBay Live, lenses that would highlight their eBay businesses or, not to leave out the buyers, special stories about items that they have bought on eBay. The result? Wow! A great bunch of new lenses, at least 104 at last count.

You can see the long list on the challenge lens. Pay special attention to the 14 finalists, in a separate list on the lens here. I haven't had a chance to check out all of the lenses yet, but one of my favorites so far is the Redneck Rings lens. Lensmaster titanium_knights involved a reality show on the lens, and we all know how popular reality shows are! Of course I enjoyed this lens by one of my favorite lensmasters, Chef Keem, whose lenses are always entertaining no matter what the subject.

If the challenge lenses don't convince you that all eBay sellers should have a Squidoo lens (or a few) to enhance and help advertise their businesses, then nothing will. I hope you'll check them out and then get started on Squidoo, too.

Fun Feedback Tool For Your Blog or Website

My friend Mary, The Tattered Hydrangea on eBay, sent this link to my favorite eBay group list this morning. It's a link to a site where you can get a cute little display of your current eBay feedback to put on your blog or website. Click on the link and it'll take you directly to your feedback page on eBay.

It's free, too. I like free.

Here's mine:

3 Ways to Snag Those Last-Minute Christmas Shoppers

Did you know eBay is having a fixed-price listing fee sale today? Just twenty cents will get you a fixed price listing on eBay today only, Thursday, December 13th. This is the perfect opportunity to promote those higher-priced items and save the higher listing fees at the same time. And, here are three quick ways to turn those reduced-price listings into holiday sales.

• Offer “Get It Fast” in your listings. Include both Priority and Express mail shipping rates as options. Mention prominently, at the top of your item description, that you ship fast and offer Express shipping for those who need the item next day. Be prepared to uphold your end of the deal, even if it means an extra trip to the post office in order to get the product to the customer on time. Last-minute shoppers are often very willing to pay a premium on shipping to be sure they get your item, the perfect gift they’ve been looking for, on time.



• Use one, three, or five-day listings for your hot items, those things you know people are shopping for. Items listed today will close Friday, Sunday, or Tuesday with those shorter listing intervals. I had a number of sales last Friday afternoon, not typically a great time for my products, but people seemed to be trying to find their gifts online before having to fight Saturday shopping crowds last week – and I predict the same thing for tomorrow.



• To draw attention to your items, consider springing for the extra 50 cents for a subtitle. You’ll barely notice the extra today, anyway, since you’re already getting a deal from eBay on the listing fee. Remember that subtitles are not searchable unless the shopper is searching on title and description, so keep the important keywords in the title but use some great extra sales copy in that subtitle to excite your customers and make them want to shop with you.

So, take advantage of eBay’s special sale, apply these tips to your listings, and have a very productive last week of pre-Christmas sales. And, if you’d like more great ideas for selling on eBay during the holiday season or any time of the year, check out these great business building tips.

Make This One Change to Grab Your Customers’ Attention

Do you use email marketing to promote your eBay store? I hope you do. And if you do, I hope you make those newsletters interesting for your potential buyers. The most important place to start is by writing a killer, attention-grabbing subject line.

It’s easy to put together a store newsletter using the marketing tools section from your “My eBay” page. The first thing the process requires you to do is select the type of email that you want to send. The drop-down menu includes several choices (newly listed, etc.). After you have made that selection, on the next screen you will have several options. One of those is “subject.”

The subject line is what your customer will see first, right in their inbox. What they read there will make them decide to open the email or to simply delete it. Why leave the subject line, like so many people do, with the default “Check out my Newly Listed Items” (how boring is that?) when you have 55 characters to work with, 55 characters just waiting to make or break your entire marketing effort.

Here are some examples of subject lines that have enticed me to open and read an eBay store newsletter.

“Newly Listed Items – Hair Accessories, Jewelry, Lenox”
“100 sales, auctions, pet tips ANNIE STAR PET SUPPLIES”
“New Auctions and Tons of Sales!”
“Limited Time Special for our Newsletter Subscribers” (Who could ignore that!)
“Sale! Shop Dragonfly for Big Savings”
“March Inventory Sale! All Items Reduced!"

Aren’t those better than the default? It’s easy and doesn’t take but a minute or two to create an interesting subject line for your store marketing emails. Get creative, grab your customers’ attention, then see if your “opened” rate – and your eBay sales – increase. It’s worth 55 characters of your time to find out.

Get Tons of Fresh, New Traffic to your Blog

It's new, it's easy, and (the best part) it's f r e e.

See it on my blog? Over there, on the right. Scroll down a bit, below my labels. See the BlogRush widget? I know many of my blog readers are bloggers as well, so I wanted to share this with you.

BlogRush can help you drive tons of traffic to your blog on an ongoing basis, but you need to HURRY as there is a definite advantage to being an early adopter of this amazing service! I could tell you more, but the BlogRush intro video is excellent and explains the viral syndication process much better than I can.

So, go read the BlogRush intro page and watch the video. Then sign up for BlogRush and start generating lots of fresh traffic right away.

Make Money With eBay Items on Squidoo

I blogged a little about Squidoo a few months ago, but I think it's time to mention it again.

Squidoo consists of individual pages, called lenses, each created by regular people called Lensmasters. Cool thing is that Lensmasters make money when people click on links in their lenses and, especially, if said people buy the things they click on. A good lens contains a lot of good information as well as some great products or items to click on.

So, how does this affect you as an eBay seller? Let's say you have a niche on eBay. That makes you an expert in that niche, right? Sure it does! You research it, you describe it, you list it, you sell it. You should know as much about that niche or that type of item as anyone, and more than most. So, take that expertise and turn it into a Squidoo lens.

Your lens doesn't have to be about eBay, but it can contain a module, or section, that features your eBay items, those same items that you have written about and shared your expertise about, in the Squidoo lens. For instance, I sell Arkansas Razorbacks fan items (among other teams) on eBay. To get those on Squidoo, I made a SquidWho lens (SquidWho is the new people lenses part of Squidoo) all about Darren McFadden. (If you're a college football fan, then you've probably heard of Darren McFadden, last year's Heisman Trophy runner-up.) When people find that lens on Squidoo, they'll see my eBay listings. What great free advertising!

Keep in mind that Squidoo pays the lensmaster a commission on other people's eBay or amazon listings, too, so feel free to promote those items on your lenses as well, as I do on, for instance, my Shirley Temple lens.

So, choose a person, a niche, or an eBay item you would like to promote, go make a lens and make some money.

Summer Sales Slow on eBay? Consider These Suggestions

We see it every year about this time, on forums and on group posts: “My eBay sales are so slow this summer. I’m really discouraged. What can I do?” Here are a few suggestions.

Remodel. Look at your listings and your store, if you have one, with a fresh eye. Think back to all of the advice you’ve heard but not taken and consider applying it. Try something different for a change. It couldn’t hurt and might just help. I’m talking about advice such as taking better pictures with better backgrounds or using more pictures; using excellent keywords and all 55 characters of every title; not centering the text in your descriptions; using a properly-sized font, not too big and not too little; using a font color that is easy to read; including well-written, non-threatening, professional-sounding shipping, payment, and return policies in your listings; or working on building your brand by standardizing colors and templates so people will recognize your listings in a crowd.

Reassess. If your products aren’t selling right now, why might that be? Are they just one item in a gazillion with nothing that makes them stand out or rise above the crowded marketplace? Find a high-volume seller who sells similar items. Examine those listings and try to identify what makes their items sell when yours don’t. Search for items similar to yours on completed listings and take a look at the ones that sold. What’s so special about them? Could listing/closing time have anything to do with it? Did they have a Buy It Now option whereas your items do not? What does that seller do that you don’t do? Does he or she offer a newsletter? Do you? Don’t ever copy another seller’s listings, but take notes about what appeals to you as a buyer and incorporate some of those ideas into your own listing and marketing practices. Determine what you can do to make your store and your items irresistible to your shoppers.

Restock. Sell something else. If your listings are perfect and need no improvement at all but the items are still not selling, consider the fact that not everything listed on eBay sells. If it hasn’t sold within a reasonable period of time, consider donating it or having a yard sale. Perhaps your products are out of season right now and should be put on the shelf for awhile and re-listed later. Think a month or two ahead to the next holiday or, during the summer, to back-to-school time and find items that should sell well then and get those listings ready. Or, think in a totally opposite season; have a Christmas in July sale or list items with a gift-giving theme.

If you’re not busy this summer shipping out sold items, you probably have some time on your hands. Use the time wisely by studying both the market and marketing principles. Start with our remodel, reassess, and restock tips, apply them, and perhaps you’ll see your summer sales begin to take off again.


Do you have some great advice for avoiding the summer sales slump? Leave us a comment!

The Complete eBay Marketing System will teach you the professional techniques you need to become an eBay power seller.

Marketing Your eBay Store - How to Help Buyers Find Your Listings

You're a seller on eBay and you've decided to open an eBay store. That's simple enough to accomplish. Then, suddenly, you realize that your store items don't show up in eBay searches. At this point the $64,000 question seems to be, "What do I do so that people will find my eBay store items?"

The first piece of advice it seems everyone gives when that question comes up is to be sure to run eBay auctions regularly and mention in your auction listings that you have an eBay store so people will go there to see what else you have. That's good advice, but the problem is that too many times people just stop there. Next thing you know they've closed their store because so few people seem to be finding it. That's too bad because there are numerous methods they could have used to market their store more effectively. Here are a few.

1. EBay Express, assuming you and your listings qualify. EBay provides this check list to help you grow your business on eBay Express. Read it to learn about seller and listing criteria for this eBay venue. If you qualify as an eBay Express seller and want your listings to show there, make sure you follow the specific guidelines.

2. Make sure your items show on Google search and other search engines. Always enable your store listing feed (read how here) and export your store items regularly to Google base. Your items will show up when people search and look at the results on Google Products (formerly called Froogle). You don't have to understand the technical aspect of how this works, but know that it does work and it is an important marketing method that should not be overlooked. Make sure that you are optimizing your items for search engines by using excellent keywords in your store description and in your listing titles.

3. Blogs or other web posts. If you have a blog, or if you ever leave a comment on a blog or if you post on an online forum, put your store link in your signature line if that's allowed. People really do click through on those. The nice thing about having a store is that you have a specific web address, http://stores.ebay.com/yourstorename. I also recommend that you consider purchasing a domain name that you can use to forward to your store link, something easy for people to remember. In my case, my52cents.com is much easier to remember than http://stores.ebay.com/my52cents. Make yours an appropriate and memorable name. Include it with every blog comment or forum post. Post often, but don't spam post; that's just tacky.

Those are just a few examples. Marketing your eBay store is an important part of having an eBay store. You can depend on the store being found via your auctions, of course, but why not take a few minutes and notch it up a level? All of the methods I mentioned, aside from purchasing the domain name ($10 or less at godaddy.com) are free and easy to accomplish.

By the way, you can track how people find your store by looking at your traffic reports on your "manage my store" page. If you haven't looked at that, you may be very surprised to see where your store traffic is coming from.

These are just a few suggestions and you can find more on eBay, who actually wants your store to succeed, so don't overlook the eBay help section when you're seeking good eBay store marketing advice.

The eBay - Squidoo Connection

I didn't mean to, but it seems I've been holding out on you by not blogging here about Squidoo. When I discovered Squidoo several weeks ago, little did I know that I was going to fall in love. Well, you could call it love or you could call it an addiction, but either way I'm crazy about Squidoo and how it has worked to improve my online business, and especially my eBay business.

Quoting from the Squidoo home page, "Squidoo is the world's most popular site for people who want to build a page about their passions." Squidoo also has its own interesting vocabulary. For instance, each page on squidoo is called a lens and each person who builds a page is called a lensmaster. Squids have big eyes and long tentacles and they make an awfully cute logo, thus the name Squidoo. It isn't a blog site, though you could create a lens about your blog. You could create a lens about anything you love or want to promote. Thus, I have created a lens about eBay. (I've created a bunch of other lenses, too, but I will try not to digress.)

The best way to see what Squidoo is all about is to visit there and explore the lenses. A great way to understand why Squidoo is what it is is to explore the mind of Seth Godin, its creator. A superb way to do that, and especially in relation to how Squidoo can benefit your eBay business, is to listen to this interview that Ina Steiner of AuctionBytes recently conducted with Seth Godin. Ina and Seth talk about Seth's latest book (did I mention that he's also a prolific writer and highly sought-after speaker?) and how the concept Seth writes about relates to eBay sellers.

So, if you're curious about Squidoo or about how Seth Godin and Squidoo can help you become an exceptional business person, do take 11 minutes and 20 seconds to listen to the interview. Then visit Squidoo and do some exploring to decide if becoming a lensmaster might be something you should do. You may start, if you wish, with my eBay Squidoo lens (and I thank you very much).

(To build your own Squidoo lens, click on the cute squid below.)

eBay To Go

My new friend Tom wrote in his blog about something new on ebay that I hadn't heard about yet, something called ebaytogo.com, or eBay To Go. Just go to togo.ebay.com and you can quickly and easily complete a widget for an ebay item that looks something like this one:



Fun! Use the code on your blog or on your website to feature an item or items that you are selling or would like to promote. Gadgets and widgets are so much fun! What are you waiting for. Go try it.

Big Guy Business Practices for Your Little Guy Business

Have you ever ordered an item from a catalog or online and when you opened the package found a new catalog or a special offer inside? Big companies have been including advertising materials in their packages for years, so it must be a business practice that works. If it does work, why not adopt their practice for your business?

Do you have business cards for your ebay business? If you do, include one of those in each package you send to a customer. Carry a few with you and if ebay happens to come up in a conversation with the postal clerk or the lady behind you in the checkout line, hand him or her a card or two. If you don't have business cards, consider ordering some. Would a brochure suit your business better? You can design very professional-looking, very nice quality business cards, brochures, and other advertising materials and get them at very reasonable prices online at VistaPrint. Just register with VistaPrint and you'll begin receiving weekly e-mails with specials, often for FREE items; you just pay the postage.

Consider some of the other products you can utilize in your business, such as calendar magnets (perfect to send to your customers this time of year), note pads, or postcards. Look for the products that are best suited for your business and make a small investment. Including a reminder in each package to help your customers think of you next time they're in a shopping mood just might get you some repeat business. Remember, too, that advertising supplies are a tax deductible business expense, so print and save those receipts.

When it comes to marketing and advertising practices, take a lesson from the big guys. If we little guys work hard at promoting our own businesses, maybe someday we'll be one of the big guys, too!

P.S. Click through my VistaPrint link here and receive 25% off on your first order.

Ebay Ads - Putting Two and Two Together

I get ebay ads in my email, how about you? I got one this morning, in fact. The subject line starts out, "Free Shipping on PlayStation 3, TMX Elmo . . ." and continues by listing and showing some other items and categories that offer free shipping.

Remember the listing special that ebay offered on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week? Yep, free upgrades when you offer free shipping. Did you take advantage of that offer and list some items with free subtitles, free border, and free shipping? If you did, good for you. If you did and your items are in any of the categories shown on ebay's ad this morning, double good for you!

I wonder how many ebay shoppers received this ad in their email boxes this morning? I wonder how many are going to click on the "shoes" category link and find the boots that I listed this week with free shipping? I wonder how many will click on the action figures, video games, cocktail dresses, or cell phones graphics and find your items? I wonder if next time ebay offers a listing special I'll put two and two together and list, list, list!

Have a happy selling weekend!

My World on ebay

Have you personalized your ebay "My World" page? If not, why not take just a few minutes to do so. "My World" is a relatively new part of ebay. Any time anyone clicks on your user id from one of your listing pages, your feedback page, your "me" page, or just about anywhere your user id appears, ebay shows them your "My World" page.

The "My World" page offers you the opportunity to share your world with, well, the rest of the world, and as widespread and well known as ebay is, that's no exaggeration. So, what do you want the world to know about your world? The page is limited to a handful of components, or modules, but you have the freedom to include or exclude most of those modules (your profile and feedback are always included, though you can specify how many feedback comments to display). You may display and personalize modules including your bio, your ebay blog, your listings, information about your store, your favorite searches, sellers, and stores, and your ebay reviews and guides. In the profile section you can also include an image, perhaps a picture of yourself so that people can see what that otherwise anonymous person they're transacting business with looks like.

The bio section has the most possibilities for customization, from a list of languages you speak to your hobbies and interests, as well as a couple of sections that you can title as you choose and include anything that you want to share that doesn't fit in any other category. This is a good place to include such information as your payment or return policies, perhaps in more detail than you would in an auction listing.

Whether you are a buyer or a seller on ebay, it's a good idea to update and personalize your "My World" page. Providing unique information about yourself gives you the opportunity to add personality to the otherwise very impersonal process of buying and selling online.

To personalize your own “My World” page, go to “My ebay” and click on your user id. Ebay will walk you through it from there. To view my “My World” page, look here.