Other than our passion for web, this is probaly the most important discussion to have. Tara Hunt asks some logical questions, what is your business model? Something many Web 2.0 companies need to answer –unless they want to do Dotbomb 2.0. (I was Web 1.0 and DotBomb2.0 at Exodus) So I really know what that’s like. Life sucks when you’ve no more customers.

Brian Oberkirch responds with some key checkpoints for different ways to monetize your web programs.

1) Advertising

2) Make Users Pay

3) Other Services, Publishing

I would also add that some companies gather contact info and resell it to other companies, also don’t forget other types of partnerships to resyndicate or resell content, eyeballs, or products. Sometimes websites are not used to directly make money (marketing) or to improve or supplemenet existing products (support)

If you’re a web profesional, (most of us fall in category 3, in order to achieve 1 and 2) or starting a website for money, you ought to spend some time reading his thoughts on this.

See the post that started it all –interesting diagram