Gather.com - Paying Members

I recently came across an SN site called Gather. Gather’s business model is very interesting. They pay members to be active and contribute content on the site. From their website:

“Gather will make money by displaying advertising to people who use Gather’s services. It just seems fair that we share our advertising revenue with you based on the quality and popularity of the content you contribute on Gather. We will also share some of our revenue with you if you choose to use the site actively, exploring content that others write, searching on Gather and on the web, and inviting your friends, family, and colleagues to use the site. We will pay occasional users in points that you will be able to use to purchase goods and services from Gather partners in a few months. We will pay frequent users, who write great content consistently, in cash if they choose.”

According to a few press releases the top members are earning around $1,000 per month. While money is a great motivator for people to contribute, its been known that social networking sites have enough trouble making substantial profits already. Throw ad revenue sharing into the mix and I feel it becomes even more of a problem.

[tags]Social Networking, Gather, Revenue Sharing, Brian Balfour[/tags]