Online Business Models
and Building a Personal Brand
Cindy Royal, Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Texas State University
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
croyal@txstate.edu
www.cindyroyal.com
www.onthatnote.com
tech.cindyroyal.net
twitter.com/cindyroyal
facebook.com/cindyroyal
The Long Tail
• Chris Anderson, editor of Wired
• Written first as an article - 2004, started a
blog, then a book
• Online recommendations and delivery can
facilitate a market of niches
• The market of “misses” can add up to more than the
market for “hits”
• Depends on how efficiently you can reach those niche
markets
• 80/20 Rule – Pareto Principle
• No longer driven by economics of scarcity
• “the cultural benefit of all of this is much more
diversity, reversing the blanding effects of a century of
distribution scarcity and ending the tyranny of the hit.”
The Long Tail
The Long Tail Rules
• Make everything available
• Cut the price
• Help me find it
Free
• Also by Chris Anderson, 2008
• Used same method, article, blog,
then book
• Idea that you can make money by
giving away something
• Gillette – disposable blades; give away
razors, sell blades.
• Marginal cost of digital approaches $0.
• Also based on the economics of abundance,
not scarcity
• Reputation economy and attention economy
• Free shifts solely from $$$ to other types of
value
Free
• Freemium – basic services are free; premium is
paid. Can survive with a small % of premium
subscribers (1%)
ex. Flickr
• Cross-subsidies – pay for one thing, get another for
free; give away music, people will come to shows
• Zero marginal cost – anything that is given away,
without expectation of return; give away music as a
form of creative expression
• Labor exchange – do something in return for
something else; barter; ex. Facebook – everyone's
contributions create value
• Gift economy – altruism; ex. Wikipedia
Crush It!
• Gary Vaynerchuk, 2009
• Family wine business; started
WineLibraryTV
• Video blog – wine for the common man
• Became expert on personal branding
Crush It!
• Personal brand – authentic you, thing that differentiates
you from everyone else
• Convey your passion
• You and your brand are one and the same; everyone has
one – depends on how you communicate it
• Social media gives everyone a shot at extending their
brand
“Embrace your DNA, be yourself, put out awesome
content.”
• Word of mouth on steroids
• Living and breathing your resume every second; Twitter
and Facebook – that's your resume
• Hiring decisions made by personal connections
• Buy a piece of real estate on someone's brain )not Crush
It, but it still relates)
Ways to “monetize”
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Advertising
Speaking engagements
Affiliate programs
Retail
Articles
Seminars/teaching
Books and TV
Consulting
Requires authenticity, hustle, patience
Crush It!
• Blog – communicates essence of brand; integrate with
website as digital hub
• Utilize sharing mechanisms
• Facebook page that supports blog
• Twitter - “perhaps the most powerful brand-building tool
in your toolbox”
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Retweets are endorsements
Press release opportunity; close relationship with customers
Research tool; crowdsource questions, ideas
Questions are opportunities for conversations
Vehicle for spreading commercial intentions
Use to lure people to your blog
• Flickr or other photo sharing site
• YouTube and video streaming
• Use Analytics