SixApart Decides to Make Money

An interesting thing has been going on around Silicon Valley recently: the creation and funding of businesses with no business model. It’s a great model for those that are fortunate enough to get funding. Just ask Max Levchin how it feels to close funding at a $500 million valuation. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the same track record and the best way to make money is actually through offering a product or service that you charge for.

So the title of this post may be misleading because Six Apart was already making money. What the acquisition of Apperceptive highlights is that helping corporations navigate the social media and social technology space is extremely valuable. It’s also a straight-forward way to generating revenue. Back in March I said, “Don’t Make Your Product Free. Charge for it!“.

This morning I was watching a video on how to make money online by Vinicius Manhaes Teles. I find it healthy that there are people discussing how to make money. Frequently we discuss this as “monetization” and while monetization on the web typically requires ad networks, quick eyeballs aren’t as valuable as new clients. I’m going off tangent here because the real story is about how Six Apart has acquired a new company. You can read more about that via Anil Dash. I definitely recommend checking out the following video though: