UKNM: Communities: Fact or Fiction!

[Charles Linn]

Last week I was speaking to an industry friend of mine (who has been

making websites for blue chip clients for 4�5 years), and I was talking

to him about 'communities'.    


My original definition of a 'community' was a group of like minded

people who have an interest in common rather than a geographical

location.  My contention was that if you can create a place on the

internet to facilitate people talking about and exploring their shared

interest, then providing the design is good (technical, graphical and

informational), and the marketing is strong, then this can be used for

the basis of an internet only business, with great opportunities for

advertising, sponsorship and commerce.    


His response which was that there are no good examples of community

sites which make money and that as far as he was concerned, building

website for corporate clients was where its at and where it will be at

for the foreseeable future.  


This was a bit of a surprise to me.  I had always assumed that aiming to

create online communities was a sensible aim for building traffic, and

that therefore it would be a sensible part of any business model.  This

is fine for me working at Friends of the Earth as I don't actually need

the site to make money (although it would be nice) and repeat viewing

and building aloyal audience is an end in it's own right, as we want as

many people as possible to hear about our campaigns and then get

involved in them.  


My questions for the list are:  

1. Can people think of any commercially viable community based sites? 

2. Do they agree that a community site which is not just an online

version of an existing brand can form a viable basis for a commercially

successful site? 

3. Are there any commercially viable sites in their own right at all? 

4. The million dollar question � Is there any published info on how

websites make money with real�life�example income streams?  


I have some good ideas but I am having great difficulty filling in the

gaps and therefore difficulty in 'going for it'. 


All responses most welcome


Cheers


Chas Linn

Web Producer

Friends of the Earth 

www.foe.co.uk (Yell Awards - Runner Up 1999)

0171 566 1701 

********************

UKNM is sponsored by Excite UK, visit us at http://www.excite.co.uk.

Email Khalil Ibrahimi

khalilexcitecorp [dot] com (mailto:khalilexcitecorp [dot] com)

 to advertise on Excite.

********************

Change your UKNM subscription use http://www.chinwag.com/uknm.html