

Ask HN: How would you monetize HN? - aravindc

If you were hired to monetize HN, how would you go about it? Innovatively or traditionally.
======
staunch
By selling 8 small ad units along the top/side of the site, for $5k-$10k/each
per month. They would sell out easily. Maybe give away one to a lucky startup
each month.

I've often thought that it'd be awesome if HN had ads like this, and all the
money was donated to the EFF or something. No one would mind and it would give
them a huge new source of funding.

\--

Incidentally, it's occurred to me that this could be a successful startup
idea. A startup could facilitate other companies "donating" ad space to worthy
causes. The startup takes a small cut for selling/serving the ads. The donor
just picks an ad unit style and drops in Javascript.

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zck
If I remember one of pg's posts (that I can't easily find right now), it was
intended that YC is the way that HN is monetized. HN encourages smart people
to start startups and apply to YC.

~~~
Mz
You are correct. IIRC (and assuming nothing has changed in the months I was on
hiatus):

If you have ever looked at an application for YC, it requires every member of
the applying team to have a membership here and asks for your HN handles. If
any team members do not have handles, they are required to get one in order to
complete the application as that cannot be left blank. If you were an active
member here for any time prior to submitting your application, your remarks
here are, in some sense, part of the application. Participating here is an
opportunity to showcase your skills, knowledge and general intelligence and
also prove whether or not you pass the YC "don't be an asshole" rule of thumb.

That, no doubt, does quite a lot to help keep the place relatively polite and
respectful since, for some people here, being an asshole can cost them a shot
at potentially millions of dollars (assuming they get in and their startup is
successful). Getting back at some jerk, carrying a grudge, etc just isn't
worth so much if in the back of your mind you realize it could close doors to
your big break. Even if you do not wish to apply to YC, enough members here
are successful, influential business people that, for most members, it just
does not make sense to run around pissing people off and burning bridges for
shits and giggles.

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acesubido
There's a huge opportunity in monetizing the library. (the link on the lower
right)

HN is a pool of knowledge ranging from true-to-life successes to know-it-alls
who just hang around and keep re-quoting philosophies which they never really
live out.

Emphasizing on 'HN is a pool': the place is a firehose of information that
drowns most minds. This like-minded community, new or old members, in turn
affects each other to become passionate. That's the thing, passionate about
what? How do they start spending this passion? How do they go about in
creating a cable company?

There must be a way to organize this pool of thoughts and posts into
digestible streams of water in which, I believe, some people or corporations
would actually pay to drink from.

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georgeorwell
The traditional answer is that I would use it to promote and capture mindshare
for a startup accelerator. An innovative improvement to the traditional answer
is that I would pay people 1 cent for every upvote they receive. The first
hypothesis is that this would increase mindshare and quality of discussion,
the second is that this would in turn have a positive effect on the quality of
startups in the accelerator. (I'm defining "monetize" to mean "make money
using".)

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ypg
This site is pretty similar to Reddit, so I'm guessing that they would have
very similar monetization strategies:

[http://profy.com/2009/01/03/reddit-figured-out-how-to-
moneti...](http://profy.com/2009/01/03/reddit-figured-out-how-to-monetize-
social-news-will-digg-listen/)

Incidentally, Reddit isn't as profitable as you might imagine, given its
immense traffic and highly specific demographics.

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bdfh42
I thought it was moneterised - in a discreet and subtle manner.

I am also sure it brings pleasure to its creator - which is not to be
undervalued.

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rachelbythebay
Charge to add features. With a relatively simple baseline experience, there
are always people looking to customize what they see on the site. Just look at
the number of add-ons for browsers and alternatives/aggregators which exist.

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benologist
Let sites bid on 1hr blocks of time, they can make one submission that starts
with 5 points.

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krapp
Require karma to post, upvote and downvote. Then sell karma.

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kellros
Would this be to monetize HN or a HN like website?

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pmtarantino
1 dllr monthly to access, after a free month.

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logn
Paid hell-banning rights

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Mz
It has a business purpose and the business it serves makes good money. As
someone else said, is this thought experiment about monetizing some other
forum "similar"* to HN or a thought experiment about monetizing this forum?
Because monetizing this forum would likely be counterproductive to
Y-Combinator's business goals, which HN currently serves.

* "Similar" is in quotes because I believe the life blood of HN is that it serves Y-Combinator's business goals and is not merely a forum. I think that is why no one can seem to replicate it or seriously "compete" with it.

~~~
brudgers
_"It has a business purpose and the business it serves makes good money."_

I've come to the conclusion that the best way to understand how to behave on
HN is to treat HN as a place of business.

~~~
Mz
I have been thinking on your remark and trying to figure out how best to frame
what I think you mean.

My first thought was viewing it basically like I am the customer of a place of
business, and I realized that doesn't fit with what I think you mean. I wonder
if that is where some people have trouble -- feeling like "hn member = hn
customer" and then what follows is "the customer is always right" and seeing
this like a personal playground, like a restaurant they visit or a movie
theater they bought tickets to (which would fit with the demands for features,
etc). So perhaps "a place where I do business" is a phrasing that more clearly
conveys the attitude I think you mean. And I really like that.

Thank you for sharing that thought.

~~~
brudgers
Should one communicate with snarky one-liners in the workplace?

Or be mean?

Or bait arguments?

The YC partners use HN as a business tool. Founders and investors do as well.
When a person shows HN their side project, it's not always just for fun.

I think treating HN like a workplace is the best way to understand the
cultural expectations. HN is about helping people be productive (but not of
course exclusively).

~~~
Mz
I was a homemaker for many years, then I worked at a Fortune 500 company for
five years. Unfortunately, my firsthand experience of a "workplace" was a
somewhat Dilbert-esque experience where I was often surrounded by people whose
antics appalled me. I would not wish to replicate that here. Thank you for
your remarks. They are very helpful to me.

~~~
brudgers
I wasn't promoting poor workplace behavior or corporate culture. Fortunately,
HN doesn't have enough layers to simulate a cubicle farm.

Rather something analogous to an ideal workplace in a slightly Platonic sense.
Thus, treating others decently carries more weight because it facilitates
their productivity.

~~~
Mz
I did not mean to imply you were suggesting something negative. Quite the
contrary. I meant your positive view was a helpful antidote to my personal
experiences.

