How well can a local business survive in the post Web 2.0 World?
Front Porch Forum is a local business in Vermont hoping to turn a profit, using content provided by a small subscriber base (See ‘Hyper-Local Lifeline‘).
The business is, as the name suggests, a forum where residents sign up, then join their own community and post content that relates to their neighborhood. It’s free to join.
Would you donate to keep a local forum alive? With major newspapers suffering, it makes me wonder how a for-profit local news business can survive, especially by asking for donations. Some of the reasons I question the FPF strategy is because:
- For-Profit Business and Donations Don’t Seem to Mix
- The Content is ‘Locked’ (Must be a subscriber to view ad supported pages)
- Content is Already ‘Donated’ — Why Should I Donate Money?
Just to clarify, FPF is not staffed by a newsroom, it relies on local community members to post content. In other words, FPF is the content aggregator, not creator.
Unlock Your Distribution Network
Feel free to call B.S. on this post if you feel the donation strategy used by a for-profit business is the way to go. Readers of this blog want to know your perspective, so leave a comment below.
What if FPF unlocked their content?
What I mean is, why not actively promote the service on social media networks instead of locking it behind a free subscription wall? See, FPF is supported by display advertisers, so it makes sense to me that more links on the social net will lead to more views and thus more ad dollars.
But that might not make up for the gab in cost to maintain the site as a business. After all, people across the U.S. and New England aren’t visiting, just Vermonters.
Other ideas for driving revenue:
Local Contests: Actively seek financial support from local advertisers in exchange for sponsoring contests that promote word of mouth marketing and viral PR.
Curated Advertising: Allow advertisers to ‘take over’ the pages for topics relating to their business and consider the inclusion of simple Web Video promoting sponsors.
Change the Business Model: What if instead of selling ads for a local forum, FPF started a revenue model based on teaching local governments and businesses how to run a compelling forum of their own? This would be a distribution/syndication business.
These are just some quick brainstorm ideas. What ideas can you share to help a local business like FPF survive in the competitive hyperlocal market?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I've been thinking about this issue and asked a friend who enjoys FPF emails about her take.
My buddy said that she rarely visits the actual site because all of the content she enjoys is delivered in a simple text email — but that the ads, which presumably drive most of the revenue for the business, are very unnoticeable and located at the bottom of each email.
Step 1 could be to deliver display ads in each email that are located along the top/side of the email message, thus driving more eyeballs to the sponsor pages (which they could track using tracking URL's).
This may affect 'open rate' since it would require including images in the emails. However providing curated ad content around specific sections and trackable, noticeable ads should help boost revenues to this for-profit local enterprise.
I agree with you about unlocking the 'hoods and advertising. Keeping the subscribers confined to little neighborhood islands limits the scope and reach advertisers would want to step up their spending. Also, if the site were more attractive and inviting – and unlocked to other regions, I might be more apt to log in more often. I too, gloss over the text emails and might click on a topic that interests me, but that's it.
Would I “donate” to receive text emails. No. There's plenty of advertising revenue opps on the site, and with by unlocking the content for all, advertisers might be more apt to spend more to reach a wider audience. Problem solved.
Joe –
You make some good points. The “hyperlocal” quality of FPF is very appealing to many people including myself but I agree with the general principles you have outlined and the points Lara brought up.
As Lara mentioned…”Would I donate to receive text emails?”… I would have to answer “no” as well.
FPF should evolve toward a FPF Web 2.* infrastructure where you could choose to receive text, HTML, tweets or whatever-comes-next? General ads along with locale-specific ad content (My kids will mow your lawn) could be offered as Joe and Lara said.
I think you hit the nail on the head with “change the business model”. Or maybe it's “enhance the business model”. They have over 150 sponsors listed in their sponsors list:
http://bit.ly/FPFsponsors
There are some pretty big names on that list, and that's a fairly large list, by Vermont standards. So if that list isn't cutting it, then enhancing your revenue stream with something OTHER THAN ADVERTISING has to be the next option.
How about looking at using other forms of on-line marketing (twitter, FB, or just spruce up the emails from straightup text to something a little more appealing)? Or capitalizing on what they've learned and venturing out to other locations outside VT? Or as you said, consulting local governments on how to bring communities together on-line. Or even becoming a non-profit and then asking for donations?
I love FPF and we use it in our town for everything from “I have some extra veggies from our garden” to “here is the latest news from our town planning meeting”. It's viewed as the only source of news for many people in our town.
I hope hyperlocal IS sustainable. I hope they figure this one out.
Good point — makes me think about Google's “Magic Triangle” with respect to design:
http://www.socialmediacommando.com/blog-tips/go...
What I get from this is that the content is great, but the revenue side must rely on advertisers, not the content generating members. Very well written points as always.
Non-profit would work for donations, but it would also require more transparency in terms of disclosure (finances, etc).
Great point about the diverse list of advertisers currently ponying up cash — there must be a way to drive revenue by providing clear, data driven value (given some changes to distribution).
Thanks for helping think through this thing Jen, it's not an easy fix, that's for sure.
This post seems a sure sign that FPF has arrived. Another conversation happening here…
http://frontporchforum.com/blog/2009/11/01/fpf-...
Local business can profit with a good marketing strategy and utilizing resources that will benefit driving revenue. nuAlerts is connecting local residents who want to be the first to know directly with important community leaders who are “in the know” via social networks and more! Several Mayors and leading organizations are already using nuAlerts and anyone can start posting their important information at http://www.nualerts.com
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