I believe this kind of problem is also concerned by many website operators or friends who are interested in website operation. Here, I will briefly introduce some profit-making methods I have learned, hoping to give you some inspiration and help.
The profit model of the website 1: the personal trading platform service (C2C) model of the website.
The representative website of this method is Yi Bei (Electronic Bay), and its transaction mode is mainly in the form of personal auction. Among the website companies listed on Nasdaq, (as far as I know) is the one with the highest market value (about 5 1 billion dollars), slightly higher than Google (about 50 billion dollars) and Yahoo (about 48 billion dollars), which is enough to prove the influence of this online personal transaction in developed countries such as the United States.
On the other hand, I heard that a friend went to the United States to study, and after he arrived, he bought many articles and books he needed from the website. When I left the United States, I bought these supplies and books through the website, which proves that this business model has been accepted by the public.
In China, there are about three large C2C websites, Yi Bei (now acquired by Yi Bei), Taobao (owned by Alibaba) and eBay (cooperated by Yahoo and Sina). This kind of website has a large audience, it is difficult to establish word of mouth, and the promotion and operation cost is very high. It is recommended to adopt this model, which requires caution, unless there are sufficient advantages and sufficient funds in a certain professional field.
The second profitable way of website: online advertising.
Online advertising is a common way for websites to make profits, with various forms, ranging from Banner and LOGO advertisements to Flash multimedia animations and online movies. From the perspective of charging methods, charging by click is more popular. Google, Baidu and other search engine websites mainly use this advertising method. Last year, Google earned $365,438+billion (the previous year was 65,438+).
Advertising revenue can also be realized on your website. As long as you have more browsing groups (preferably some kind of professional browsing groups), you have the conditions for charging website advertisements. Of course, you can also earn a certain profit as an advertising partner of a large website.
In addition, the concept of "narrow advertising" is popular now, which is aimed at more professional browsing groups rather than general traffic, so that its effective user ratio will be greatly improved.
Website profit model 3: mobile operation services such as SMS ringtones.
In recent years, Internet SMS ringtone download not only brings more thoughtful service and more wonderful ringtone MMS to mobile phone users, but also provides a very good profit model for major websites. Once, the business income of SMS ringtone accounted for about 40% of the total income of the three major domestic portals, which shows its importance. In recent years, the number of domestic SMS ringtone service providers (telecom value-added service SP) has reached about 5,000, and the professional SMS ringtone website "Pocket Smart" was listed on NASDAQ last year.
If your website traffic is good, you can also get some benefits by cooperating with SP website that provides professional SMS ringtones. Of course, if you have more investment and technical strength, you can also become a member of SP, but now SP generally has a downward trend in terms of market performance.
Website Profit Model 4: Online Retail (B2C Model)
When it comes to online retailing, you may think of Amazon at first sight. Yes, Amazon should be said to be the largest online retail store in the world, with sales exceeding $6.9 billion last year. There are also many B2C retail websites in China, such as Dangdang and Qiyou. And all major websites basically have their own online shopping malls.
There are probably two modes of B2C online retailing. One way is to sell your own products through the Internet. The other is to build an online retail platform, so that more businesses can sell their products through this platform.
In China, there are still some bottlenecks in the way of online retailing, such as the trust of capital flow and the underdeveloped factors of logistics. Therefore, many online retailing in China are in the information flow stage, and the specific realization is often "online matchmaking and offline trading".
In the specific situation of China, the flower website found a very feasible operation mode, that is, the Internet website cooperated with flower shops around the country to graft, which successfully solved the problem of logistics localization. Moreover, flower websites and flower shops all over the country have formed a relatively mature and standardized internal settlement mechanism, providing users with a better platform for sending flowers in different places, and even some websites have launched a global flower delivery service.
The profit model 5 of the website: special information charge
If you surf the Internet frequently, you will often encounter some websites that must be registered users to read, and some even must be paid users. This is the type of website special information charging service.
For example, chemical websites have a lot of information that non-users can't see, which is related to the characteristics of the chemical industry. Its rich products, frequent price changes and strong financial strength of enterprises have laid the foundation for many chemical enterprises to pay for reading some market-related information or historical materials.
There are also some talent websites, e-books, dating websites, online movies and many other key information just to charge users.
The profit model of the website 6: B2B trading platform
This is also a common way of website service. As the name implies, B2B(Business to Business) is a business-to-business transaction, and the representative website of this model is Alibaba. Because its group is locked among merchants, although the group scope is not large, merchants will have better payment ability and greater trading ability. Perhaps for merchants, the income of a transaction will far exceed the membership fee paid.
In recent years, many domestic industries have also launched many B2B vertical websites with high professionalism and relatively low fees, and the prospects should be optimistic.
The profit model of the website 7: software download
Software download can be said to be a part of online retail, but the products it sells are software, which can be downloaded directly on the internet without logistics and transportation.
At present, domestic software downloads are mostly free, and many software companies provide online upgrade services by taking advantage of the Internet, which is also a good way to promote interaction with users.
Due to the different consumption ability and habits, a large part of the software downloaded from English websites is paid software, even if it is * * *, it has a service period, which provides a good sales platform for many practical small software. Among the people I have contacted, there are some who specialize in designing English application software and selling it through the Internet. It is said that business is not bad.
The profit model of the website 8: Internet access service.
The development of the Internet is inseparable from Internet services, such as enterprise website construction, domain name registration, server virtual host rental service, website promotion service (search engine optimization), website operation consulting service, etc. As the Internet has become an important part of the economic system and life, a large number of Internet service providers will be needed.
The profit model of the website 9: online games
When it comes to online games, you will immediately think of grand legends, and of course Netease's westward journey and so on. I don't like playing games very much, but I still value the market brought by games. Shanda established the online game kingdom and became the company with the highest market value of domestic websites listed overseas, which shows the huge online game market.
There are many ways to make a profit: as long as you can think of it, users need it.
There are many ways to provide services on the Internet. As long as you can think of anything users need, it may become a part of valuable services and a source of profit for the website.
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In the experience of most netizens, Baidu is closely related to free. Free is the basis for Baidu to attract and retain netizens. As a search engine, whether it's Google, Yahoo, sogou or Elvin, it's a consistent strategic choice for individual users to be free.
However, looking back on 2005, aside from Baidu's listing and copyright lawsuit, from the perspective of profit model and strategic expansion, it can be clearly seen that Baidu's charging strategy for individual users has taken shape in early 2006.
On May 18, 2005, Baidu launched a monthly video search service, which was the first paid service for individual users launched by Baidu in 2005.
On August 10, 2005, Baidu launched a paid product for netizens to deliver their blessings before Tanabata. Netizens need to use Baidu's personal online payment system and pay in Baidu currency before they can use the service.
If we only rely on these two fee-based services, it is difficult to explain that Baidu wants to try the fee-based profit model, then the next move will make us look at Baidu, which has become a search engine industry with a single profit model.
In 2005, Baidu has reached e-commerce cooperation relations with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and Agricultural Bank. This year, news of Baidu's cooperation with Shanda, Netease, UnionPay, Alipay and other companies continued to spread. Statistics show that in the past six months, Baidu has signed cooperation agreements with 23 companies with payment functions. Ren Xuyang, director of Baidu's strategic cooperation, said that these 23 companies are divided into four categories, namely websites with developed virtual currency such as Shanda and Netease, online banks represented by China Merchants Bank and ICBC, online payment companies represented by UnionPay, online banking, PayPal and Alipay, and telecom operators represented by China Telecom and Netcom.
It is not difficult to see that through the selection and layout of partners in e-commerce, Baidu has woven a large network of the most popular and commonly used payment methods such as online banking, online payment, virtual currency and mobile phone payment for its charging strategy for individual users. The core of this network was also unveiled in 2005, that is, the realization of Baidu currency.
In this way, with the network of collecting money, our own currency and several charging services to ask for directions, in 2005, Baidu, which charges for end users, was no longer the only one in Baidu.
In 2006, the ambition of charging will explode completely.
In 2006, perhaps Baidu's charging ambition broke out one by one with greater handwriting. Through the online payment system with Baidu currency as the core and various fashionable payment methods as the full assistance, Baidu may have to do more than just collect a little money from individual users.
According to relevant media reports, users can use Shanda and Netease's virtual cards to buy Baidu's content, but the cards should be converted into Baidu coins according to the market value ratio. In this regard, Ren Xuyang, the director of Baidu's strategic cooperation, explained that "all the barriers of payment tools should be broken, and basically all the payment methods that can be converted into Baidu coins are gathered under the banner of Baidu". In the view of Internet expert Lv Weigang, "If Baidu's idea is successful, Baidu currency may become a' hard currency' that can be freely converted into other virtual currencies when users use the Internet." What does this mean? We dare not imagine.
It can be predicted that in 2006, Baidu will make full use of the payment system network and huge user resources, and earn profits other than advertising profits through in-depth excavation of content. According to media reports, Baidu will provide users with three aspects around search engines in the future: one is to pay for accurate search, that is, to specify database search, music, e-books and software; Second, establish a Baidu virtual community and develop value-added services in the virtual community, such as the virtual avatar and props of the post bar, which Baidu knows can be charged; Third, unite with some content providers to explore some innovative charging content.
In 2005, from the launch of Baidu film and television to the launch of Baidu through train, from financial payment allies such as Guangjie Bank and payment company to the implementation of Baidu currency, users accustomed to free Baidu are being subtly changed by the promotion of Baidu's charging strategy and the acceleration of business pace. Fortunately, all new services or initiatives related to fees, including Baidu movies, Baidu love stories and Baidu coins, have very limited impact on users compared with Baidu's main search business.
It is hard for us to imagine that if one day in 2006, user-oriented fees really become the focus of Baidu's profit, then, is Baidu still the Baidu dedicated to providing free Chinese search service, boarding Nasdaq and creating the myth of China search market?
Charge, enhance or break up competitiveness?
The starting point of Baidu's charging strategy may be based on how to use its search technology, through in-depth and systematic retrieval and sorting of various data on the Internet, to independently develop or jointly launch appropriate products and services to meet some users with corresponding needs in Baidu's huge user base. However, compared with Baidu's free search service, this is only available if the user pays.
The single profit model of search companies has always been a concern of the industry. Then, can Baidu increase its profitability and competitiveness by charging individual users? You can't have your cake and eat it. The development of an enterprise is divided into short-term profit demand and long-term interest. Baidu boldly tried to charge individual users in addition to advertising profits. Will it break up your existing user loyalty? When Google and Yahoo increase their market expansion efforts in China, they will push users to rivals who don't charge for the time being because of fees?
Look at Baidu's rivals. Google took many actions in 2005, but the only thing it didn't invest in was the single problem of profit model. Advertising is still Google's only profit model. In this year, this single profit model was not outdated, but was imitated by Microsoft. Microsoft wants to make a breakthrough in the search market. Microsoft has made a lot of innovations and efforts in the profitability of online advertising.
In fact, almost all mainstream search engines, including Yahoo, are still providing search and various derivative services for free. A single profit model may be the key to its further development in Baidu's view, but it may not be a problem at all in Google's eyes.
Baidu runs counter to the international search giant in its profit model, which may be a wise move for local Baidu to have a deeper understanding of the Internet market in China. But both Google and Yahoo have their international thinking and forward-looking vision in technology and strategy. So, are they ignoring and ignoring the profit opportunities other than advertising for individual users, or is Baidu's bold and innovative charging profit model in need of further review? Whose model is sunshine avenue? Whose is this wooden bridge? In 2006, we will wait and see.