Possible monetization strategies for Secret

blog.namomedia.com

13 points·sftueni··5 comments

They missed out on 'how much would you pay to know who just posted this post?' followed by 'would you pay more than $x to keep your anonymity?' :-) (I'm joking of course)

I suppose if they wanted to, they could pivot to 'secret' deals, which is they get advertised to folks using the app only. But I really don't know how compelling that hook would be.

1. Create Trust 2. Break Trust 3. ??? 4. IPO

So you're kidding about the "ransoming" bit.. but why not have an auction or pledge for 'how much would you pay to know who just posted this post?' and then allow the author to click accept/reveal or no/keep hidden. Could also have an option upfront for disabling the feature (maybe only disabling on the author's end, to ever reveal, but let user's think they can bid it up).

Got me intrigued at least.

"Advertising" isn't that big of a secret. It seems like the default monetization strategy. If that is the strategy, it's all just in the tactics and targeting.

Ads aren't the most innovative way to make money, but it's not easy, either. Reddit, for example, still hasn't remotely figured it out despite huge potential and an enormous user base. FB and Twitter are getting there, but it's not been an easy road and investors are still expecting more.

Everyone on Reddit uses adblock. Besides, any major change to the Reddit advertising model would have a chance of making everyone leave, like when everyone on Digg left for Reddit.

Reddit Gold and similar features are working much better at monetization than ads ever did. They're getting closer to breaking even these days, according to their blog.

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