MySpace and PhotoBucket have buried the hatchet and are smoking a peace pipe, leading many to question: what really happened? Did any money change hands? Was some equity swapped? What? Either way – which ever way you look at it, this is the new business model: if you are going to play in MySpace’s backyard, and make dollars off their social network, then you will have to “show them the money.” If not, then you are pure out of luck.
Erick Schonfeld’s points to this pay-to-play future for Widget makers. :
I asked MySpace’s chief marketing officer
SeanShawn Gold about the tiff. Why not just cut a revenue-sharing deal and be done with it? His agreed that is the right approach and hinted that those types of deals would probably be worked out in the future (not just with Photobucket, but other widget-providers who provide content to MySpace). The issue with Photobucket, in his view, was that it was acting in bad faith. It was showing ads in hosted videos that were embedded in MySpace pages, and when asked to stop, it did not comply.
(Liz Gannes has some suggestions on how to deal with a MySpace ban.)
if myspace users want to embed a widget that contains ads, myspace should let them do that.
When you want to play in someone else’s house, you need to play by their house rules.
If that bothers you, go build your own house…where you can set your own rules.
Typo alert: It’s Shawn Gold, not Sean.
Thanks Brian. Appreciate the help there.
We should start thinking of widgets as ad networks – the creators will have to pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) just like Ad.com, Valueclick, and the rest.
Here’s how it might play out:
http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2007/04/widgets_ad_netw.html
I wonder if photobucket got a warning first. That’s how it would happen in the real world. I don’t think myspace lives in the real world though.
I’ve just reviewed a book that describes STEP by STEP on how to make money using sites like CraigList, MYSpace, FaceBook , YouTube and affiliate marketing.
I invite you to read my unbiased review here:
http://richbeaver.com/reviews/newagemillions-making-a-fortune-using-the-latest-and-most-secretive-money-making-methods/