Revenue model for Diaspora* and all decentralized social networks
smdm
Public
Seen by 149
Hello guys,
I want to show you a project I develop from a while.
It consists of a model how the social media decentralization could happen and generate revenue. The model is based on the experience of several industries to generate revenue using ethical means like trust and knowledge sharing.
In brief - what about if the revenue model for decentralized social media exists, but just needs to be assembled?
Here are some facts:
I. The P2P industry is a billion$ industry, which is using digital ratings, based on trust. It cannot grow, if it doesn't discover a decentralized profile, integrating portably all these ratings. One day this inevitably will happen.
This will reduce also the infrastructure costs and the ad-costs of any new P2P business.
The questions is - who will do it?
II. Pat Flynn broke the corrupted ad model, sharing affiliates only for things he uses and trusts. This brought him $1.4 revenue just in 6 years from his blog, where he earns trust sharing all his knowledge for free.
Leo Babautta even un-copyrighted his blog, where he shares also his knowledge for free, and this increased his revenue!
So, what about if the monetized decentralized profiles could be fueled with:
a) their P2P ratings
b) the knowledge they share
c) directories with the products/services they use, with honest ratings and affiliate links, bringing revenue
d) another optional directories for causes/problems/wishlists, which will be used for paid interactions with trusted brands and another P2P businesses. This will change the product development, as the clients will be asked first, before the products are created
My detailed model consists of 3 parts:
I. A decentralization roadmap: http://decentralizedmodel.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/the-decentralization-roadmap/ Please let me know what do you think about the milestones I propose. I tried to be concise.
II. Lean Canvas about some of the core modules I observe: http://decentralizedmodel.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/my-social-media-decentralization-core-via-lean-canvas/
III. Some predictions how Facebook will evolve, accepting the models of social media decentralization: http://decentralizedmodel.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/what-facebook-would-look-like-when-the-social-medias-decentralize/
I'll be happy to hear your feedback!
smdm Fri 16 Jan 2015 8:39PM
Isn't it for discussing potential models how Diaspora* could grow more?
Rich Sat 17 Jan 2015 8:43AM
Your post said nothing about growing Diaspora, all you talked about was how to make money.
Have I missed the point of your original post?
Dumitru Ursu Sat 17 Jan 2015 10:39AM
I think all that talk is rather flimsy - sorry if I'm being harsh, but people expect more practical advices, not some sort of a birds-eye view of the problem.
I fail to see the role of diaspora* in the P2P industry for the moment (which is a vague term to begin with - what are you talking about ? torrents? bitcoins? audio-video chats?)
All this talk about profiles, and ratings - sounds nice on paper - but we have more current problems, most of which require man power right now, not sometimes in the future, when that idea might or might not meet its expectations.
The way I see it at the moment, is that D* needs a legal structure that would allow it to receive money (aka donations), and has his own employees - at least several programmers. D* has enough exposure to get several thousands $ each month, I'm sure of it, and every wasted day is sad to me. I've heard there is an effort in that direction, but if we don't move fast, that exposure might fade away.
Camil Sat 17 Jan 2015 4:02PM
Let's not castrate every enthusiastic proposal, even there are good reasons to block it. It's better to be more opened to what others propose, there's always something to add or positively criticise. Otherwise nobody will give a s**t about coming up with new suggestions. Please keep a decent level of pessimism.
smdm Sun 18 Jan 2015 1:30PM
Hello guys,
Thanks for your(critical) opinions. I speak about Diaspora in the decentralization roadmap I linked above: http://decentralizedmodel.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/the-decentralization-roadmap/, I don't know how many of you read it.
I speak also only about using Free Software platforms and utilizing the knowledge sharing revenue models from the other industries for the purposes of the Free Software.
Diaspora cannot sustain on donations. It's good as an approach for the initial stages, but for the later stages of its development it needs stable revenue model and I think I know one.
Sorry for not being more explicit on my 'elevator pitch'.
Deleted account Sun 18 Jan 2015 7:01PM
Not sure to really understand how you would make money from diaspora*.
It's ok you developed it in a road map, but you definitely should make short. Not all of us have the tie to read a post that long nor are comfortable with english enough to get it.
smdm Sun 18 Jan 2015 9:45PM
In brief: You could make money with Diaspora integrating it with another Free Software, which is already making money.
For example like Wordpress, which is lacking a social layer and uses its own social features or integrates with Facebook/G+/Twitter.
Diaspora could provide the lacking social layer to all the Free Software CMS platforms and increase its community this way, and also supplement itself with CMS features some other platforms developed successfully under Free Software license.
Deleted account Mon 19 Jan 2015 1:16PM
For example like Wordpress, which is lacking a social layer and uses its own social features or integrates with Facebook/G+/Twitter.
IMHO, too heavy work for the mean we have :/
Diaspora could provide the lacking social layer to all the Free Software CMS platforms and increase its community this way, and also supplement itself with CMS features some other platforms developed successfully under Free Software license.
FSF already have it's own SN : GNU Social.
Camil Tue 20 Jan 2015 2:57PM
@smdm can you come up with a more concrete plan? How will you do it?
Rich · Fri 16 Jan 2015 8:25PM
I wish you luck, remember us when you're rich and famous :)
(not quite sure what this is doing on Loomio though)