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Our Revenue-Generating Business Model

Posted by Joe Solomon on 01/10/2007 at 02:13 PM

As excerpted from our application for the Global Young Social Entrepeneurs' Competition:

"Rayt creates revenue by providing customized services for nonprofits and other activist groups. Rayt gives these groups the ability to engage their constituency in a unique and powerful way by empowering their members to leave relevant and charged messages on the websites of controversial institutions.

Up until now, online activism has largely centered around online petition campaigns. Online petitions, however, are usually sent to just one inbox and are likely deleted or never read. Rayt comments, on the other hand, are read by all and stay up indefinitely – spreading the campaign message long after the campaign has ended. Rayt comments are also placed where they are most relevant – on top of the power-holder's website. For these reasons, we envision “Rayt campaigns” as being the future of online activism.

While the ability to leave comments on any website is free, large-scale Rayt campaigns would come with certain premium features and would therefore cost a fee."


This

Sent by Dossy Shiobara on 01/10/2007 at 05:36 PM

This revenue model treads dangerously on the ground of "power in the hands of the wealthy," which is exactly what Rayt--or at least, "democraticizing the Internet"--purports to undo.

Would Rayt prevent a third-party from organizing a Rayt-based PR campaign, where they ensure positive propaganda is the most highly rated messages that appear on their websites as Rayt comments? How can even a relatively wealthy non-profit compete with the commercial interests of a large corporate entity?

Perhaps you should re-think that business model. 


a little safer

Sent by on 03/10/2007 at 04:47 PM
Joe Solomon

Dossy - I agree, this business model definitely treads dangerous ground. Let's see if we can make it a bit "safer."

For starters, individuals can use Rayt for free as much as they want. We would only charge a fee for organizations - which would be quite affordable and would involve differently priced packages to serve different needs.

Rayt would also provide a free package for smaller organizations.

We may also want to consider just charging organizations to be "featured" on our site. This would mean that any organization could use Rayt and we could still generate revenue by rotating featured sites on our homepage.

Also, if we go the route of advertising, we could charge nonprofits for removing our ads from their campaign page. This is another premium feature that would still enable any organization to use Rayt. GoPetition.com uses this method and it seems to work quite well.

We might also want to charge for "support" but it's not like integrating Rayt would be proprietary - with a little patience and a couple point and click skills any group could set up their own Rayt campaign.

How does that sound?







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