King and Kingmaker

Content is king. That is a mantra of the entertainment business.

In Web2.0, content is still king, but users are the king maker.

There are at least two types of users we need for how2why4.com, contributors and consumers. If the stories told around the web2.0 campfire can be believed, the bulk of wikipedia.org was built by about 1000 users. That's out of what I estimate to be 100's of millions of users or about 1/1000% of the total community.

In spite of these wild differences in the size of the two groups, contributors are essential to the success of the site, for without them, no content. And no content, means no consumers, at least after the first visit.

How do you get contributors? I'm going to explore that option in real life, and I have a few theories about motivation.

Some people, like me, need only the adoration of others. We like to show off how smart we are and get others to take notice. It's ok if you disagree about the smart part, too, because if you don't that just shows you're not as smart as you think *grins*.

Others of us are motivated by contests. Maybe if I gave away an ipod in a random drawing to one of the first 100 contributors, or maybe the highest ranking contribution. I don't like this option because I have to get an ipod from somewhere and I don't want to use my money.

Still others are enticed by the idea of money. I think that's a pretty powerful motivator. Going back to the previous paragraph, I don't like it when it's my money, so how do I get others money to give away? I would like to explore this option more. Especially if I get to keep a little on every transaction. Any ideas?

For now, I'm going to appeal to the vanity of all potential contributors, and set up a site where they can get praised to their hearts' content.