This is a bit of a quick hit, and perhaps a bit dated as well, but I think it's too fascinating to pass up.  About a month ago Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail) wrote a post exploring media revenue models, which is to say, revenue models for businesses which produce a lot of content, and hope to somehow make some money off the whole enterprise.  The post touched off a bit of a mad dash by commenters and other bloggers to name as many revenue models as possible.

There are a few revenue models which come to mind immediately - subscriptions and advertisements, mainly.  But there are also some fairly obscure models which are nonetheless potentially very lucrative.  Those models include selling access to an API, having the audience create something of value and monetizing it, live events, customized content feeds, and consulting, which essentially amounts to using your blog as a big advertisement for your business.

Naturally, all of this has got me thinking of my posts from last summer about sustainable blogging, in particular with regards to cost per action advertising on the blogosphere and blog profitability.  After all, a blog is a classic case of a media outlet which gives away a lot of content and needs a good monetization strategy.  Follow me across the jump for more.

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Cross-posted from the Rock the Vote Blog

The media has been touting the phenomenal growth of Stephen Colbert's Facebook group, which was created by high school student Raj Vachhani after Colbert announced his plan to run for president in South Carolina. In a mere eight days the group boasted a million members, and is currently shooting above 1.2 million.

Aside from an amazing membership count, this pop culture phenomenon has made a real political impact: more than 4,300 members have registered to vote via the group since Vachhani added a link to Rock the Vote on Thursday night (Oct. 24). That's about one registration per minute.

In fact, Rock the Vote's online registration capability is open to everyone. Sign up for a free account to track voter registrations through your own blog or website. We'll generate an embeddable registration form (aka "widget") that you can customize with a logo, and you'll even have access to the list of people you register so you can remind them to vote on Election Day.

Sound cool? Try it out. We would love to hear your feedback, too. Of course, you can always post a simple link to our online registration page if you prefer.

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