Fred Wilson blogs about business models:
I think the action is in the advertising platforms and meta data and content distribution systems that are growing up around bloggings and RSS. That’s a mouthful, so some examples might be helpful:
Advertising platforms – Adsense, ContentMatch, Kanoodle, AudienceMatch
Meta Data – Technorati, Blogpulse, Findory
RSS/content distribution – Feedburner, Bloglines, Newsgator
These are just examples, not anything near a definitive list, and certainly not a “best of” list.
I believe that content creation via blogging is not a business in and of itself for almost everyone. It’s a labor of love, a hobby, an outlet, a networking exercise, or an extension of a brand.
I believe the software business, like all software businesses, eventually turns into a feature war and gets commoditized. The hosted software business, TypePad for example, may well avoid that fate due to the lock-in it has over its customers by virtue of URL, RSS feed, template, layout, etc. I think that it is in many ways a hybrid between a software business and a data business.
There’s money in blogs, for sure, and I think the big bucks will be made in scalable platforms that leverage all that is happening in the blog world.
