In the on-line and off-line world, marketers create content (products and services) and then provide distribution to users or buyers.  For on-line content providers, the cost of distribution is very low compared with off-line.  It also goes without saying that marketing costs are lower in the on-line world.  McKinsey UK recently looked at the idea of surplus or balance of content creation versus payment for the content and compared on-line to off-line.  It was their conclusion that there is a lot of potential revenue left on the table.

This got me thinking about new or improved models of revenue generation in the on-line ecosystem.  Currently, on-line revenue generation models include fee for service and third party advertising on their site and of course payment for products and services. 

Third party advertising creates a dilemma for marketers.  How much is too much…this includes pop-ups, banners and third party content.  When will content users say it is too much noise, and is there an opportunity to create a “premium” level of content with limited or no intrusive marketing efforts?  In the premium area of delivery, the balance of revenue changes between advertising and content usage fees.  This is the heart of the McKinsey articles thrust.

Thus, in the future, we will all be looking at ways to jigger the balance of revenue to content.  Examples include:

•  Raise the fees for current content delivery.  A lot of thought needs to be given to price elasticity.

• More and more advertising on site.  Just how much will content users put up with?

• New “premium and super-premium” fee based content areas.

• New ways of content delivery.   Ideas include social media, mobile and third parties.

The answer is innovation in how we deliver content in a multi-channel world and how we charge for it.  I don’t think the current balance to change dramatically in 2011, but I do expect to see very creative new ways to deliver and charge for content.