Recently I have talked to many entrepreneurs who have experienced the same issue I have with starting a new company; having a couple great ideas, but lacking the right people to make them happen. For a startup to be successful it ideally needs a few different types of people. For example, an internet startup would ideally have the entrepreneur/business person, a tech superstar, and a creative designer. The problem is that professionals, especially young entrepreneurs, seem to have a personal network that is very vertical. For example, an entrepreneur will know a lot of other entrepreneurs,...

Yesterday there were reports that all flash applications would not function on MySpace. While MySpace is claiming it as a bug that they have fixed, a lot of others are claiming it was a test run to see if a flash block would be effective in eliminating third party widgets. This comes shortly after a great piece by Robert Young on why MySpace could erect a toll booth model. Is this within Myspace’s right? Absolutely. If other companies were making money off of your site’s traffic and users, you would want a piece of the action too. Is it a smart decision for MySpace? No. Which...

In a number of my posts I have talked about how there will eventually need to be a way to bring all of your social network memberships together in one place. This will definitely become more evident as niche social networks who offer more engaging features become more popular. “Profile Aggregators” such as ProfileLinker, Spokeo, Profilactic, Iceflake, and FindMeOn are already trying to solve this problem. I commend all of their efforts in trying to solve a growing issue. ProfileLinker is currently the best, however, all in their current state still aren’t...

I must admit, I jumped the gun a little on the new LinkedIn Answers feature. Sometimes I just get too excited when I see the potential of something. I previously posted on the usefulness of LinkedIN’s version of professional oriented Q and A, when I should have talked about the possible potential. The main issue of LinkedIN Answers is the quality of questions. These are actual questions I just pulled from the first two pages: “Who needs leads?” “Any Mark Cubans on LinkedIN?” “Do you anticipate failure?” “Who has tables and chairs for sale?” Do...

Shuzak.com is a new niche social network for geeks. They describe themselves as: Unlike MySpace and other social networks, that adhere to the traditional peer-to-peer models, Shuzak actively encourages community oriented interactions. To meet the demands placed by our members, Shuzak provides unique tools that let programmers, scientists and mathematicians communicate more efficiently. I find the geek vertical to be an interesting niche. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of thriving “geek” communities on the internet oriented around programming languages, computer platforms,...

One of the companies I mentioned in my Best of 2007 Predictions is off to a great start. Sermo.com, an exclusive online community for physicians has raised a second round of funding of $9 Million according to employees within the company. This comes shortly after a previous round of $3 million in November 2006. For more details, see my original post about Sermo and general strategies for super niche social networks. [tags]Social Network, Social Networking, Social Media, Niche Social Networking, Online community, Sermo, Brian Balfour[/tags]

There is a niche social network for almost every interest and/or demographic with numerous more on the way. While niche social networks usually have more revenue options then advertising only (if they’re smart), advertising will still be the dominant revenue source for many. This presents a problem. With a smaller target audience, how will social networks survive on advertising revenue? Ad networks such as TribalFusion, Google Adsense, FastClick, etc. take anywhere from 40% - 70% of advertising revenues in addition to having low CPM’s to begin with. To give you an example, TribalFusion...