The Only Workable Revenue Model for the Web Is Trust

guest post by Chris Baskind

I'm going to be honest here. When Valeria asked me to write a Media guest column to cover her holiday vacation, I began tooling up a piece titled How the Web Is Old Media's Afghanistan. I ground out a decent lead, and shot it to my prospective editor on Skype.

"I never liked war as a marketing metaphor," came the deflating reply.

And therein lies the peril of metaphor: No matter how cleverly you compare two different things, they remain two different things.

She's right. Marketing may resemble warfare from time to time, but if you play by the rules of war -- dividing commerce into winners and losers -- you will eventually be defeated. The relationships which are the true foundation of marketing have always been consensual. Misunderstand this in this, the Age of Limitless Choices, and you're cooked.

Misreading the terrain

Happily, this is another way of looking at the basic errors being made by traditional players as the creep toward our web-based future. Take Rupert Murdoch. You got to have balls of steel to tell Google to take their search traffic elsewhere, which I'm convinced he's actually prepared to do.

In the twilight years of Old Media, the wily old tycoon is ready to bet his content is sufficiently compelling that people will seek it out and pay for it, rather than rely on the largesse of Brin and Page's brainchild to deliver readers and potential advertising revenue.

He's correct, people will pay. But he's also going to be disappointed if he thinks he can recreate the monolithic nature of Old Media on the web. The terrain is simply too vast -- its borders are porous, and profit isn't the only thing motivating the other actors in the field (you can now see where my abortive Afghanistan metaphor was headed).

For every big-dollar, high-overhead asset like FOX News, there's a thicket of Little Green Footballs. For every 20th Century FOX, there's some 16-year-old kid pulling down a couple million views on YouTube with a video produced on a camera phone. For every Wall Street Journal, there are thousands of financial bloggers plugging away for glory or whatever small fortune they may find.

In short, pretty much any content that can be sold on the web is being offered for free. Not everything, but enough that we're unlikely to see on the web the concentration of influence and wealth which dominates traditional media.

So what will people pay for?

This isn't to say content is worthless -- quite the opposite. But with so much quality material at hand, people will be looking for ways to make its selection as simple and painless as possible. They'll find this in brands (which is, incidentally, Murdoch's best play -- bundling content, rather than selling a la carte).

The brands they will choose will be the ones they trust, and trust is the end product of a consistent and transparent relationship between producer and consumer. As Valeria wrote recently:

Trust is earned. Trust is more valuable than gold. People will pay for it. And if you're working to earn it now, you're already creating equity in the next economy.

So back to basics we go, whether we're attempting to build empires or playing the role of market insurgent. The game is the same, and it's the quality of your name.

Whatever product or service you must say grace over, there's somebody out there with the same thing -- only cheaper. But they can't discount the trust you develop with your potential customers. In a real sense, trust is the currency of the next media economy.

***

Chris Baskind is the editor of More Minimal and Lighter Footstep. He also assists other publishers with site and audience development. Before turning to Interactive, Chris spent 30 years programming and marketing radio stations. In January, he'll debut a new site exploring the intersection of environmentalism, technology, and quality-of-life issues. Connect with Chris on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Comments

[Deni Kasrel]

Chris,

Yes, the old media model is, well, old and needs to be re-imagined. What specific model is best suited to today and the near future is not entirely obvious -- and whatever comes up a winner is temporary. Because the media landscape is ever-changing (always has been), and changes happen at the speed of new technology, which is accelerating. In any case, indeed, content is not the sole key to the kingdom here.

And yes, trust is imperative to maintain if your currency is news/information (as it is for many circumstances).

Trust, for whatever reason, seems to be the big buzzword when it comes to web 2.0 social/new media. I am not sure why this particular word is gaining so much traction over credibility, reliability, veracity or other synonyms (any and all word choices can work). It's the basis of relationships, period. Business and personal. As both you and Valeria note this is not new. I guess the question is, if this has been forgotten, why that happened in the first place.

[J. Paul Duplantis]

Trust is timeless. It is the catalyst for making the most out of a relationship between people, consumers or providers. How we establish trust is what is changing.

In the business realm in the days of old providers were able to take advantage of consumer's trust by controlling the perception of their offerings through a tightly controlled one way distribution network. (The provider controlled the consumer) I think it could be argued it was much easier to influence consumer behaviors under this model.

Now that we are in the throws of Web 2.0, the consumer has been empowered with choice and knowledge more than ever experienced in the history of commerce. (The consumer now controls the provider)

I personally think we are in the very early stages of this radical transformation and where we end up is anybody's guess.

The new model encourages transparency, requires feedback and demands providers to share more about what they do and why they do it. Moving forward I think it is less about the trust established by the provider (they establish the experience) but the trust established by others who recommend offerings that relate to a personal need or desire.

Think about it. Are you going to relate better to a Nike shoe or to someone you trust who raves about the Nike shoe.

Will you enjoy the playlist of a corporate radio station or the playlist of a trusted friend with similar interests.

Are you more likely to discover a great book by browsing through Amazon or a review shared by a trusted associate.

And yes Rupert I might be able to bypass your legions of high paid journalists for news feeds tied closer to the source. (I will admit this one is tricky)

The power of commerce will be taken out of the hands of the providers and placed into the care of those we trust the most.

If we can only figure out a way to reward quality instead of popularity in how we search or discover we might find we get what we ultimately want.

(A better experience!)

[Chris Baskind]

@Deni Yeah, I agree "Trust" is a buzzword with roots in the synonyms you list. Chris Brogan is one of the reasons the term is popular (I haven't read his book, but it has certainly guided 2009's social media vocabulary).

I write primarily as a content producer, not a marketer. But we're all facing the same challenge: standing out in a landscape cluttered by all manner of competitors, including the opportunists. The people who are consistent, focused, and above-board are the ones who are most likely to be left standing.

@Paul You're certainly correct that what happens next is uncertain. I do think, however, that the choices are up to us.

[Jose Anajero]

"Trust is earned. Trust is more valuable than gold. People will pay for it. And if you're working to earn it now, you're already creating equity in the next economy."

I too liked that quote from Valeria.

Am just starting in home business and am "working to earn (trust) now". Am confident too that am "already creating equity in the next economy".

Thanks Chris for this interesting and encouraging post.

Jose

[CASUDI]

I really enjoyed you post, Chris ~ Trust ~ YES ~ and do you think the Roman empire expanded on trust? The Romans built roads and increased trade out from Rome to the far reaches of the empire. The roads which facilitated commerce also facilitated bandits and barbarians, which eventually brought about the fall of Rome. Will the trust we are building as our equity on the internet also facilitate bandits? ...... don't open comments often facilitate spammers? In understanding trust shouldn't we be aware of ALL the implications ?

[Chris Baskind]

I've already failed once on metaphor with this post, so I'm going to be careful attaching the evolution of media to that of the Roman Empire. ;-)

But let's talk about comments for a moment. On my sites, at least, I don't pretend comments are *completely* open. If I did -- and then removed something for whatever reason -- it would be a violation of trust.

While I can't guarantee my site comments are monitored 24/7, I'm fairly attentive. None of my properties are the sort of anything-goes forums you'd expect from a smoldering political blog. I'll delete or not approve anything which smells of link spam, hate speech, or something which might be actionable. I think my readers expect this, so it's a trust-building exercise.

You're right: The same roads built by the Romans brought barbarians to the gate. But Rome wasn't lost to paving stones, it was lost to the inability and lack of resolve to police them. We'll be fighting online bandits forever. But there are tools for this battle, if we'll take time to use them.

I don't publicly discuss my own site security, but I'm happy to share ideas with publishers looking for help. Hit ChrisBaskind.com or one of the social media connectors in the byline of this post.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@J. Paul - quality is not a universal concept, though. Like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? And so we know that common sense is not that common, that everyone hates spammers but there are plenty to go around, etc. Up to us to choose to reward what we consider worthy - the data may favor that approach in the long run.

@Jose - thank you for stopping by and best to you for your new business. Any new venture is filled with excitement... and uncertainty. We can control what we do, and that is already a very good start.

@CASUDI - Caroline, we used to leave our doors open, too at home. We can't do that anymore. It's a pity that would be the case and I'm not sure there is much we can do about it but stay vigilant and not tolerate that kind of behavior. Like Chris, I do get my fair share of spam, which I promptly tag as such.

[CASUDI]

Chris ~ Yes ~ too many roads to police ~ could happen on the information highway also?

But I do agree, that with the available information many more people are aware of the threats to their equity called Trust; and therefore keeping the bandits at bay is a technology game rather then a bandit game?