The latest trend in online start ups is following the “funding and popularity now, profits later” model. Stumbleupon started this way and have now begun monetizing their site by offering advertising and sponsored membership.

Problems:

This model works for some ideas, especially those that gravitate users to a specific site or area. But monetization becomes more difficult when users are spread across multiple mediums.

Digg is dead! Long live digg!

Well that might not be entirely true, but it sure seems like the era of social sharing where digg was king, has evolved to something new.

The social media buzzword of the moment is micro-blogging and you get to choose from Jaiku, Pownce, twitter, Plurk, or even BrightKite to fulfill all your micro-blogging needs. But what does it all add up to? What can micro-blogging be used to do? Is it an effective Internet Marketing tool that will stick? Or is it just a fad?

Lumping all of the platforms into one, and making a generalization would be wrong, so I’ll consider the three I’m most familiar with; Twitter, Plurk, and BrightKite.

It’s already understood that branding is important; whether it be showing your logo, face, or name as much as you can to build recognition. But social media has created the possibility for a new type of branding, the idea of tying your site to your personality.

Recently, I’ve begun contacting bloggers in the hopes of being able to write a post on their blog. It’s called guest blogging, and I really like doing it.

The idea of writing for an entirely new audience, on a well developed blog challenges me to write a great post. It cultivates my reputation, helps me gain better feedback, and builds traffic back to my blog.…