"Networking" - The new business model

Yesterday my sister-in-law sent me an email wanting me to join her network at IconBuffet.com. I therefore joined the network to see what it is all about. It is a network where people get and trade icons like baseball cards. Sounds ludicrous? It might be so but it is a good place to need icons for your website. I have to say that websites like IconBuffet seem to sell their product, Icons (aka Clip art in the 1990s) via the "networking" model. I don't think that this model will fly in the long run because if many people don't buy their "Icons" from IconBuffet then IconBuffet might remove this functionality from their website and then try to sell their "Icons" in CDs at your nearest Best Buy or any other tech store. The networking model is a good business model to sell any product since the customers know other customers and potential customers and the existing customers will do the informal sales pitch to the potential customer. It is called viral marketing. This works with products like Avon cosmetics, Pampered Chef, Stamping, Herbal Life, Quixtar, etc., and etc. As you can see that the products I mentioned are "hard" products and not pieces of virtual images which can be posted on a website. Unless IconBuffet changes their business model, their company will be a dotcom bust!

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