An unpaid "One Percenter" is someone that we thank everyday for the time that they spent contributing to websites such as Wikipedia. These people are among the one percent of the users that visit these sites who actually contribute to the highly sought after content. Everyone should try and add a little bit of data to the web in order to balance out all of the information that we, the users, have absorbed for free.
"One percenters" however, are not just the one rangers who contribute to the various non-profit online communities. They are also the people who maintain a social website of ther own, like blogs, forums, video blogs, and the other forms of social media on the web. Surprisingly a large number of these "One perceneters" have already began to generate an income by simply creating a blog and putting a few tasteful advertisements along side their "precious" information. I heard somewhere that 1% of the U.S. population controls nearly 90% of the money. If this is true then possibly it is the "One percenters" that control 90% of the content on the internet. In college these past few years I have been told many times that my generation will be the pioneers of the "Information Age" and that our knowledge will become one of our most coveted commodities.
Well newsflash people! We are here, in the information age, and yes there are tons of people that are simply making money online by getting paid for the information that they have contributed to their personal social medium. Name a topic and you will find a blog. And, right along side the article that the users have been searching for you will find a nicely placed advertisement for a product that is related to prevalent keywords in the article.
A large portion of these websites are simply profit seeking entrepreneurs that have meticulously created a platform for their users to interact with the other surfers. Oftentimes the profit generating methods of these companies are unseen to the untrained eye or simply overlooked by the general population of internet surfers. For example our class has decided to use blogger.com as our platform for creating our social media and PR blogs. Although It doesn't appear that blogger uses any type of advertisements or revenue generating methods, the fact is, that for every new blog that is created by a user, Google has just created another potential client for their "adsense" program. The more websites with "Adsense" means that more people will be able to click on the advertisements paid for by the Google "Adwords" advertisers. Blogger.com is part of the Google network, this is why it is so easy to ad the "adsense" page element into any blog at blogger.com.
So... spend some time contributing to wikipedia and the other free social information resources. But, when it comes down to it ask yourself one question. "Do you want to be paid for your knowledge? Or give it away?" Either way the user gets their information for free and a product suggestion, you get compensated for being a citizen marketer.
2 comments:
I think you make a very valid point here. The vast majority of people out there are just reading the information on the internet. They are not contributing to its vast amount of knowledge. We, as college students, who are asked to challenge ourselves daily in terms of gaining knowledge, are some of the most prime candidates for contributing to the internet. Daily, we are learning about new ideas, past events, and future capabilities. As people on the cutting edge of information, we should be part of the one percenters contributing to the internet.
I also think that this could be a great way to make a little extra money. As college students we are always complaining about not having enough money to pay for various things. This is a great solution. We contribute to societies knowledge base, and then we get paid for it.
Citizen marketers can add value and service to users by creating original content and marketing products they consider valuable to understanding or gaining expertize on a topic.
As a citizen marketer speaking on economics, one could refer readers to the economist magazine, economic interest books, and other products and services to enhance their understanding on the subject. Similarly, a citizen marketer can choose an agenda, like green living and refer readers to eco-friendly products, conscience stores and guides to promote their agenda.
In these two examples the monetary gain associated with marketing becomes a secondary benefit, yet still compensating contributors for their efforts and encouraging new content creation.
Post a Comment