Comments on: Julien Smith explains how to make money online.

By: John Wall

John Wall — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 03:38:41 +0000

Well, you could measure who had the most and best stuff, but that would be in the eye of the beholder. Basically a lot more people got screwed on transactions.

By: financialaidpodcast

financialaidpodcast — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 12:01:54 +0000

So, call me silly, but what tools did we use to manage the economics of a barter economy prior to the disintermediation of currency?

By: John Wall

John Wall — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:52:30 +0000

True, there is no accounting for new media, just as in any barter economy there will be no hard numbers because everything is based on the subjective value that the traders assign to the goods they have vs. what the trade for. From an economics standpoint it’s still easy to measure new media – it’s the reach you have and the mindshare that you get. The difference from old media is that all that could be measured previously were eyeballs (or earballs), with new media there’s also a degree of engagement – single visitors, vs. lurkers, vs. frequent commenters, vs. content creators, vs. A – Listers.

This is where the economics gets interesting – the value is a function of three variables – the reach of your audience, the degree of engagement, and your ability to introduce money into the equasion.

So, you have 1 million listeners, at worst you get an old school deal at $30 per thousand. This could be chump change if you have the right 200 listeners (i.e. Fortune 5000 CEOs) that are willing to pay $1000 each for some event you are running.

I think you are right on the mark, there’s no measuring anything until it crosses to dollars somewhere, and the results could be surprising – there could be money to be made that doesn’t even show up on the radar for 99.995% of the population, and there may be hugely popular media that is just a financial sinkhole.

By: I dream in colors » Social Currency 101

I dream in colors » Social Currency 101 — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:39:13 +0000

[...] post (and audio blog, be sure to check that out too) about social currency, and Chris Penn made the point even better. I want to say that the basic idea is give and you will recieve, but while there’s something [...]

By: financialaidpodcast

financialaidpodcast — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 04:42:38 +0000

You did – all I did was introduce economics to what you had to say. I’m a nerd like that.

By: julien

julien — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 04:38:59 +0000

damn right. i wish i could’ve written it this well!