This is meant to be a collaboration so please by all means post your reply below.

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Question of the Week:
Rupert’s News Corp Swings to $203 Million Loss

What does this make you think about? What can be done by people that know how to monetize online content? We know people won’t pay for what they can get for free. If major news sources are going to start charging where is the opportunity for free to make money? Is there an opportunity or are online newspaper readers astute enough to look past the ads? How long can newspapers sustain a free model before going bankrupt or changing century old techniques? How long can they sustain a paid model before losing readership?

Columbia Tribune has had Netflix ad pop ups for a long time now. I wonder how much they make? Where are all of the newspapers online aggregation spending going? Are they losing all of their money in the hard copy sales? Are journalists not a dime a dozen right now? The Missourian loses money year in and year out and the University is picking up the tab as a classroom expense.

“Murdoch said that the success of WSJ.com has proven to him that he can charge for content online, and thinks the pay model can be transferred across all of News Corp.’s Web properties”

Does the WSJ have the same news readership with the same disposable income to spend on other pay for news sites; especially if people are offering it for free?

Departing Questions:
Is there an opportunity in aggregating news and monetizing this content while still offering it for free to readers?

Is there an opportunity to learn how to monetize newspaper sites and offer a solution for these newspapers? Think CJ for newspapers?

Today I had a good conversation with a successful internet entrepreneur and Founder of Big Leads.com out of San Francisco named Sam Osborn. Interestingly enough, Sam started out managing projects at Military.com pre-Monster.com buyout. He was also on the ground floor of ehealth.com and esurance.com as they laid the foundation for these multi-million dollar a year companies. Its pretty crazy because I feel as though I am taking a similar path as Sam, albeit a decade late. This may put me a few steps behind but with all hope the hindsight I have will allow to me run even faster, or at least I hope.

What I really set out to learn was just how these historically paper and fax industries came to accept an automated online model of business from a group of internet marketing entrepreneurs with no real insight into the industry at hand. From what I gathered it was both a stroke of luck matched with hard work and a big pocketbook didn’t hurt things either.

Something interesting I took away is that he is completely agnostic as to what industry he pursues. All it takes is a good domain, a need, and a good search marketing campaign and you could understand how he comes up with an insurance site, a payday loan site, and a flower delivery site. Much like Sam I too feel the same way. However while these sites are built with lead generation and affiliate networking in mind I look for overall big business potential.

I didn’t learn as much as I had hoped about the insurance side of things but not all is lost. I feel that Sam can shed a lot of light on successful affiliate networking which I think is one of my weak spots and definitely one of his strong points. Affiliate networking is also something that I see as a crucial part to clearing revenue hurdles that we will undoubtedly face in the coming years.

With that said I am still unclear as to the path of SuretyBonds.com. Is it viable as a completely online model? If not, is there enough profit potential to work leads in house for a commission? If that doesn’t give, is the market big enough to sell online generated leads? How much are companies willing to pay?

All of this still remains unknown. I am expecting to chat with Jean-Bernard Duler next week.

In 1998 Duler founded Esurance, a direct automobile insurance company. Duler secured a reinsurance partnership with General Reinsurance with a 85% quota share treaty. Duler served as Chairman & CEO until he sold Esurance to a large insurance group, and remained a director until January 2002. In 2007 Esurance will achieve revenues of $1 Billion at a 75% loss ratio. Source: http://www.dulerusa.com/about/founder.php

I am excited about this as I think he could really shed a lot of light on the insurance side of things and exactly what it will take and who i should be talking to.