Selling Something Other than Ads

There are a lot of businesses that could very much benefit from this model. In fact, it's a bit surprising that more don't.

However, a few off the top of my head are Video Game Magazines - Nintendo Power, Official Xbox Magazine, and Playstation Official Magazine seem to all be in part or in whole sponsored or run by the console companies themselves and it makes total sense - you get your users to love the product all the more and promote your product along the way.

Most successful online businesses tend to have a fairly strong content component to them somehow either via user generated content or professionally generated content.

The real kicker is that most people don't want to pay for most content because most content is now a commodity - it is available everywhere for basically free. Worse, paying for content wrapped in ads seems extra pointless.

People WILL pay for content if it has real value in terms of scarcity or convenience or useful knowledge or a high level of entertainment.

Most interestingly is people don't seem to mind content generated around a brand or product if it makes sense to do so.