You beat me to the punch! Yes, I was talking about crowdsourcing.
But not all undertakings can be done without capital. Crowdsourcing is a great way for an artist - who has gained a following and an online presence through their own hard work and dedication, surviving and creating on a tipping economy’s salary - to leverage their audience for the ability to gain independence and self-produce.
This is the second part in a path that starts out gaining reputation and the trust of the audience. It relies on a connection that can’t be bought, a connection that cannot be forced upon the individuals providing the monetary support. It’s a statement by the audience that says “We trust you to continue to create content that entertains/inspires/informs/encourages us. We want what you have to give, and you have proved in the past that you can, and constantly do produce what we want.”
However, we’re stuck with another chicken-and-egg problem. How does a content creator inform the general populace that they exist? How do they get the word out?
Coming as no surprise to anyone, the most trusted advertisement model is word-of-mouth. (1) (2) In a p2p system, this effect is compounded, because of the lack of centralized recommendations.
However that’s not to say that endorsements won’t play a big role in the increase on content popularity. However, those recommendations will no longer be coming from companies intent on pushing their own products, but from the content creators themselves - along with all of the ideals and passions that they stand for.
Authors discussing issues with their favorite contemporaries, artists featuring their colleagues alongside of their own work in galleries, musicians touring with similar acts. These are all ways that content creators bring in a new market of faces by leveraging their own competition.
But it may be the wrong way to view them as competition. If their goals are to evoke the same feelings, the same questions - they are no longer competing. They do not care about a single payment like a customer would only go into the music store once and only have enough money for one CD. Rather they are inviting the consumer to join them on their own individual journey through life. To experience their combined point of view.
So where is the sponsorship coming from? Where is the endorsement? Well, from the content creators - whom the people trust to keep providing them with quality content. By those whom they have chosen to be influenced by. Not from the platform that their content is being accessed on.
We however cannot rule out greed and corruption. To do so would be naive.
Keeping in mind that the content creators become the advertising outlet - you now have a reliable unbiased representation of the audience that you can reach.
If you’re company sells guitar strings, get an endorsement from a band. If you’re a company that sells graphics cards, get an endorsement from a pro gamer. Offer them sponsorship - reimbursement for them representing what they already use. They will be more vocal and more trustworthy than any other ad-space that you could buy. Along with the obvious fact that they will reach more people who are guaranteed to be interested (in one way or another) than any market polling could accomplish.
This model is a double-edged sword however. If the person who is repping your product starts to have a negative experience with the product, they will stop representing it. If your company can’t keep up with the times, and falls behind in technology or comes under fire for poor business practice, your advertising outlet walks away to no detriment other than your company’s.
This is the reason why apps should never feel the need to include advertisement in their business model. They have no personal investment in the ads that they push. Only what money is given to them.
That’s not to say that devs cannot push their favorite computer system or company to work with, but when they are doing so, they do as a content creator creating the app - not as the app providing a service in the moment.
This may be hard to differentiate, but bear with me. If you’re looking to target game developers, would you display the ad in the game, or in the developer’s blogs - in the interviews with the devs themselves?
The entities who endorse products must have a visceral attachment to that product. Otherwise you have ever-expanding greed that does not self-regulate, and the advertisers fail to ensure that they reach the maximum amount of interested consumers with the least amount of expenditures.
So you now have a way to ensure that Ads stay relevant, and reach a wide, open market for products - at the same time that the content creators earn income. But can’t these content creators receive income from Apps also? So besides earning income from Apps, aren’t these all valid ways for content creators to receive income from other users on the Network?