Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Thanks in advance for any help you may suggest.

My business, Moontown Media, LLC, has been open since 2000. A friend and I started a website, www.moontowncafe.com to try to help aspiring poets and writers succeed in their field. Over time, our site has become quite popular with poets and writers. We currently get between 500,000 and 1,000,000 pageviews per month. Our traffic comes solely from high search engine standings. We`ve never paid a dime to search engines or in advertising. 

Poets can go to our site, register and start posting their work. Other users can then read, comment and rank the postings. We have many unique features not offered on other sites. There`s way too many to list here. I would consider our site to be one of the most technically advanced sites on the web.

Over the next 2 months we will be updating the layout to make the site more visually appealing, easier to navigate, and adding blog capabilities for our users.

We`ve been able to sustain our existance through advertising revenue, pay memberships (for premier members), and through a contest form that another company pays us when people enter. We have never turned a profit on the site. Every dollar we`ve made, we`ve given away as prizes in writing contests. I would like to turn it into a profitable business over the next year. 

I think, actually I know, we need a better business model in order to get ahead. Do you have any suggestions that may help us to develop a business model for a company like ours? Any other creative ideas?

Thank you in advance,

Kyle Olechnowicz

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Visit our poetry website today at:

www.moontowncafe.com

kyle,

first of all, very cool site. in fact, look for it at our blog as an upcoming "Cool Company of the day".

first a couple of questions: are you a non-profit or a for-profit company? reason i ask is because you solicit donations on your "premier membership" page.

secondly, what are the things that poets and writers need most? are you providing those things? or might there be linkages that could provide click-through revenue (as in "affinity programs")? these would be in conjunction with complementary, natural "next step" websites/businesses that could provide some revenue to you as you drive some portion of your fairly substantial monthly traffic their way. in this vein, what about google adsense?

and can you charge for a newsletter/email that`s filled with poetry that`s receiving highest reviews?

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

Rich,

Thanks for all the valuable feedback. I will consider every word of it.

We are a for-profit business. I will get rid of the donation area on the membership page. It`s not providing much money to the site and may be misleading.

What writers really want the most is to become published by an actual publisher (not a self publishing company). Our service allows writers an area to improve their work and build their writing network. Our goal when we first started was to link writers up to publishers. I think we should re-examine how to accomplish this.

The pay newsletter is something that we will take a close look at.

We`ll keep an eye on the "Cool Company of the day" section. Thank you again,

Kyle  

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Visit our poetry website today at:

www.moontowncafe.com

Hey Kyle--

I second it. It`s a great site.

I`m excited to see a re-design. I think that might unlock some hidden revenue potential.

Have you explored becoming an affiliate for a bookseller(s)? 

For additional revenue, I would look into an affiliate program or programs, like Amazon or Barnes and Noble, Booksamillion, etc. Poets who visit your site would be interested in learning how to be a better poet, finding opportunities and markets for poets, as well as... reading poetry.

So

If you need more info

Let me know.

But it`s getting late. I gotta go

(Sorry... Couldn`t resist.)

Matt S.

Kyle-

Have you thought about publishing books of poetry yourself?  Partnering with publishing companies to link up writers and publisher is good, but why not become the publisher?  I know you said the writers don`t like the idea of self-publishing, but perhaps you could pool many writers together and underwrite the deal.  Rather than publish books of one author start with coffee table type books with a compilation of authors, partner with an art site and see if you can`t get original works by photographers and painters to use for very low or no royalties.  You can easily sell these through your site and hopefully find a couple sites to partner with so that you have a bigger tent to sell under.

A newsletter is a great idea.  You must have quite the database of e-mails with that kind of traffic going through your site.  But rather than charging the readers you might be better off selling ad space in the newsletter.  I don`t often pay for newsletters but I am good at getting them for free.  Look at the model that magazines and newspapers use.  Not to mention a newsletter would also give you a chance to advertise for your own books.

Also please be careful with the legal aspects of publishing and posting other people’s work.  Make sure you lock up rights and negotiate terms that everyone is happy with.

Hope this is helpful.  Good Luck.

Robert

You`re reading my mind, Robert.

I was just thinking that you could start your own publishing company by using an online publishing company like cafepress.com or lulu.com.

There`s very little overhead--besides getting the ISBN number and the book listed. You set a royalty rate and sell the books.

You wouldn`t have to charge your poets, so it`s not exactly self-publishing or vanity press.

Matt S.

Robert and Matt,

Thanks for the great ideas. I think we`ll plan on publishing a book in the very near future. I think 100 poems by 100 different poets would be a good start. This shouldn`t be too difficult for us to do since the system is already in place.

I`m going to stay away from a pay newsletter. I will look for sponsors for it, however.     

Affiliate programs have never really worked out for us. Our main demographic is college students who have to search under their couch seats to support their pizza and beer habits. It`s real tough getting these people to buy anything. We`ll keep trying though.

Again, thanks for the help,

Kyle

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Visit our poetry website today at:

www.moontowncafe.com

Kyle-

You`re half way to a solution if you know your demographic.  You`re right about college students and their lack of funds, but people find money for the stuff they love or worse really need.  Writing workshops, used textbooks, technology that makes life and college easier.  I did sports photography for a poor community and trust me, if something is important to people THEY FIND MONEY.  Personally I think writing workshops are a good bet for you.  You can either find someone who already organizes and teaches them and hit them up for advertising or get your own writers education program going.  Just make sure you`re selling a quality product for a good price and not swindling people out like people who sell No Money Down educational courses.  Perhaps find a local book store that sells used textbooks and try to get a deal going that either they pay for advertising on your site or allow you to sell their books on your site for a commission.

Just a couple of thoughts I had.
Success is around the corner.

Robert

As another stream of revenue, what about offering teleclasses to teach poets how to get published and/or gain exposure for themselves? There are many publishing experts who often agree to being interviewed for free. You could survey your members to get a few ideas for teleclasses, and then line up experts for each topic.

You could charge a nominal fee for the poets to attend the call, and if you use a free teleconferencing service you would have virtually no expenses (other than your long distance phone call). You could also record the call and charge a fee for the download. Premier members could get the calls at a reduced price, and that could be another benefit to becoming a premier member.

 

Karen,

Those are some great ideas that I never would have thought about. Thanks for your time!

Kyle

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Visit our poetry website today at:

www.moontowncafe.com