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Blogs Turning to Newsletters for Revenue? Posted: 14 Jul 2008 04:29 PM CDT An interesting trend has started over the past couple days. This weekend Jason Calacanis announced the he was no longer blogging and was instead switching to a newsletter. Initially he suggested that he was limiting the number of subscribers to 750 but soon enough that number was surpassed and there is no sign that it’s stopping. Then today Caroline McCarthy published that Glam Media would be joining the newsletter market. Blogs clearly have there limits when it comes to revenue and as such most blogs extend into events, as I wrote about the over the weekend. The other model is newsletters and while the majority of people stuck in the social media bubble argue that this in a bad idea due to e-mail overload, my guess is that the average person doesn’t have the same problems that many of the readers of this blog do. Even if they do have e-mail overload, it’s clear that e-mail newsletters remain to be a viable business model. Just take a look at Daily Candy or Digital Media Wire. Both have developed substantial business models around newsletters and events. The best part of the newsletter business is that once you have subscribers they are much more locked in than a blog where you need to encourage readers to come back on a daily basis. In the world on new media, developing a sustainable revenue model continues to prove to be challenging. Even still, numerous companies are trying to take a shot at it as the business models for traditional media outlets become shaky. All of this is a race toward what appears to be inevitable acquisition of the best developed new media companies. Do you think newsletters will continue to be a legitimate business model or do you think the trend is toward blogs and other platforms?

MySpace Platform Catching Up to Facebook Posted: 14 Jul 2008 11:51 AM CDT It’s no secret that among social platform developers Facebook still reigns king. On MySpace though, while there may not be top applications like Top Friends which has close to 38 million installs on Facebook, the top application has over 6 million installs which would rank it among the top 30 applications on Facebook. As Ian Swanson said in my podcast with him last week, he has been seeing the MySpace platform gaining traction. Additionally there is buzz that MySpace will soon begin adding features that help applications grow virally. Initially there were a lot of restrictions in place but as the restrictions decrease, applications are experiencing more traction. This strategy contrasts Facebook’s in which the platform was completely viral and there were no restrictions on viral growth. Over the past year, Facebook has placed an increasing number of restrictions on developers. In my opinion this will help MySpace build more positive relationships with developers. While it took some time for the platform to gain traction, MySpace is increasingly become a platform that can compete with Facebook when it comes to reach. While the types of users differ across both platforms it is clear that the MySpace platform has become a viable competitor to the Facebook platform. The quality of applications are also increasing. Just last night I was playing a flash version of the extremely popular Guitar Hero game. The application has attracted over 160,000 users and the quality is pretty damn good. I spent a good 30 minutes trying to improve my skills. While it’s not as good as the real game it is definitely a fun time. As the MySpace platform matures I’d expect to see higher quality applications appear and a growth in the application install base. What has your experience been with the MySpace platform? Do you even use MySpace?

The iPhone Isn’t Really Wireless Posted: 14 Jul 2008 09:54 AM CDT Over the past weekend I have had the opportunity to play with my brand spanking new 3G iPhone. I’ve also had enough time to find out what’s good and what’s bad about this new “game changing” device. My first impression is a mixed one. As soon as I was able to get the iPhone activated on Friday I began downloading applications and browsing the web. Problems Ahead Within a matter of hours the phone was no longer charged and I had to plug it into the wall. This trend continued throughout the weekend and I slowly began to realize that the phone is not really the best wireless device because you need to be plugged into the wall half the day. The maximum amount of usage I’ve got out of a charge so far is 2 hours 45 minutes before plugging it into the wall. While the phone can sit on standby for longer, I didn’t get the phone to leave it sitting in my pocket. I want to use it! Unlike some other users, I also found that my GPS did not work effectively. After trying to change a number of settings I decided to put the phone on my dashboard while I drove to lunch. Soon enough the GPS was working but by the end of the weekend, I was having the same issues again: the GPS was telling me I was in Boston when I was actually in D.C. One other issue that I had was that occasionally applications were not loading completely and were instead crashing. If the application wasn’t crashing it was freezing occasionally while I was using it. Finally, some applications simply weren’t built well. So far I have found no more than six applications that I will use regularly: Facebook, Pandora, Twitteriffic, midomi, Monkey Ball and Loopt. So this is where my problems end. A Revolutionary Device In the face of all my problems, there is still hope for the device. This morning Alex Iskold gave the new iPhone rave reviews declaring it the “new personal computer.” In spite of all the iPhone’s downfalls, it definitely is a step toward total mobile computing. The best part about the iPhone? It’s browsing capabilities. I spent the entire weekend on FriendFeed and Twitter because it was a joy to browse the sites using the iPhone. While I was only able to browse for two hours at a time, I found myself spending more time browsing via my iPhone instead of my actual computer even though it was across the room. I also enjoyed downloading new applications. Those applications that did work were pretty amazing. The gaming potential on the iPhone is amazing. The new Monkey Ball application highlights how revolutionary this device really is. With 3D graphics and its ability to leverage the accelerometer, this game has proven to be a landmark. Pandora worked shockingly well. The songs stream flawlessly and my custom channels that I had pre-programmed were found instantly. The only downfall to the applications? You can’t “minimize” the applications and do something else. As soon as you exit an application it completely shuts down making it practically impossible to multi-task on the phone. I have spent more time using this phone than any other mobile device I have previously used simply because the interface continues to delight. If you are involved in the technology industry in some way, I think this device is a must have. Without using it, you can’t understand the potential that lies ahead for mobile. If you aren’t in the industry, this device is a great gadget to have but I don’t think it’s a necessity. Then again, the 1 million people that purchase the phone this weekend can’t be wrong, can they?

The New Media Lifecycle and Social Discovery Posted: 14 Jul 2008 08:30 AM CDT As each new technology pops up that promises to help me connect more efficiently with my friends, I have begun to wonder what I’m really seeking with each new product. Am I aiming to streamline my communication processes as much as possible so that I can increase the number of people I’m having it with? Am I’m simply an early adopter that wants to check out the newest shiny object? Most likely all of these things apply to me, but what I’ve begun to notice is that I am really using all of these tools for the purpose of social discovery. Social discovery is simply one method of finding content in this limitless sea of content we call “the internet”. It is increasingly my preferred discovery method as I have found a vast network of individuals that share similar interests. To understand social discovery I think it is more important to understand the activities that we are engaged in when using the internet. Ultimately, all internet usage is simply the transmission of media. Occasionally we transmit other information used for purchasing physical good but the discovery of those products and services involve the transmission of media. New Media Lifecycle Over the past few years I have become increasingly active in all phases of what I now define the “new media lifecycle”. All of these “tools” that new technology companies are creating are for the most part trying to make at least one phase of this cycle more efficient. I define the new media lifecycle as the stages through which new media typically flows. Not very complex! To expect new media to flow in any continuous direction is ludicrous but I have found there to be three stages that new media flows through. I think determining a starting point of new media is the same as determining what came first, the chicken or the egg. As such, you could enter the new media life cycle at any point during one of the following three phases: Content Creation - Audio, video, text and images are all types of content that is produced in new media. In contrast to days of old, media can now be produced by anybody, not just the large media companies. Content Discovery - Discovery is probably the most important phase of the lifecycle for technology companies as they are the ones developing the tools for discovery. Content Consumption - Content can be consumer in practically an infinite number of ways. The consumer is the one that chooses the medium they prefer. It can be mobile phones, computers, televisions, stereos or a number of other mediums. One other important thing to note is that there is no requirement to be part of the content creation phase as a consumer. Soon enough content creation will be an activity that practically every consumer engages in whether they like it or not. Their activities will automatically dictate the creation of content. For now though, it is still possible to simply watch what is going on. Social Discovery I think social discovery is one of the most fascinating parts of the new media lifecycle because we are so early in determining the most efficient way of social discovery. Search has now been dominated by Google and while new companies attempt to attack what is increasingly becoming a monopoly, most companies have realized that the space of social discovery has yet to declare a winner. What is social discovery exactly? Well social discovery is the usage of social tools to find relevant content. A social tool is a system which enables the sharing of content with other users. That content can be as simple as the activities users are engaged in such as “Nick just played MouseHunt on Facebook” to the modification of my social profile to the sharing of a video, image or song that I thought was good. Some have suggested that the current battle on the social web is over the most efficient newsfeed. I think it should be framed instead as the battle over making the most efficient social discovery tool. Feeds are simply one way of displaying content. It may very well be that feeds are the most effective way of displaying that content but I think this is still up for debate. Over the past few weeks as my digital social activity has become stretched across FriendFeed, Twitter, Plurk, Facebook and other places, I have begun to ask myself where the real value is in any of these things. The reality is that a valuable community that I feel connected to is most important. As we strive to build new technologies that help us connect more efficiently I think in the end all that matters is the community. Email continues to be an extremely basic form of communication but what makes it so powerful is that I can access anybody via email. Even though it helps, it doesn’t really matter if your technology is the most efficient. What matters more is that your technology has a community backing it. As the early adopters chase after the latest shiny social object trying to dissect the pros and cons of each feature, I’d wait to see where the real communities form. In my own opinion, while social discovery has yet to be monetized effectively, social discovery currently provides the greatest opportunity for breakthrough growth.

Jeff Bezos’ Fund Invests in Social Gaming Network Posted: 14 Jul 2008 06:59 AM CDT This morning, the Social Gaming Network is announcing that they have accepted an investment by Bezos Expeditions, the fund which manages Jeff Bezos’ personal venture capital investments. The most recent investment we covered by Bezos Expeditions was Animoto’s round. As usual we don’t know how much money has been invested but given that Bezos Expeditions has invested over $70 million in tech startups, my guess it is in the millions. Back in May SGN announced a $15 million Series A round lead by Greylock Partners and Founders Fund. These investments make it clear that many large players in Silicon Valley foresee a great future ahead for social gaming. The real challenge ahead for many of the social gaming companies will be competition from traditional competitors such as SEGA or Electronic Arts. EA has already launched applications on Facebook and SEGA has started focusing on the iPhone where a new wave of social games will begin to pop-up. While we are still at the early stage of social gaming, I believe there is a broader shift toward more engaging games and a heavier feature set. This is great news for the Social Gaming Network though and it will be interesting to see how this space continues to grow over the next 6 to 12 months.

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