One problem with sites that support themselves and their content providers solely with advertising is that they tend to run search engine bait to attract traffic and you “End up with nothing but articles on Britany Spears,” says publisher and serial entrepreneur Bob Butler. Butler’s new site, BestThinking.com, live only 90 days, has already made it to the top five sites nominated for Mashable’s Open Web Access Awards in the “Best Site for Publisher’s” category. Bringing unique technology to the table, Best Thinking creates a new model for combining open access with quality content. ...
Butler’s executive summary for Best Thinking notes, “Websites like Wikipedia.org, AssociatedContent.com and Google’s Knol have proven that open access content communities can generate huge amounts of low cost content, collectively generating over 5 million pieces of knowledge-based content and over 100 million monthly unique visitors.”
But the advertising only business model, technology of those sites, and the use of anonymous content providers by sites such as Wikipedia, do not product quality good enough for features or journal articles on a par with traditional publishing.
The idea behind Best Thinking, Butler explains, is to use unique technology to marry the two ...
Butler says he’s looking at two primary markets. Journal quality content targets the $44 billion scientific, technical and medical journal publishing business, while feature article content targets the estimated $155 billion general interest and news publication market, plus specialized blogging sites that need feature content. ...
Rather than looking solely to advertising for revenue, the site will also make money from content syndication, affiliate programs, subscriptions in which authors pay to keep their topics and pages free of ads, credentials verifications, additional bandwidth with storage, speaker bureau fees, and commissions on author content sales. ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 12/04/2009 05:09:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
