Portals receive revenue from a number of different sources. The business model is
presently changing and adapting to declines in certain revenue streams, particularly
advertising revenues. Revenue sources can include:
• General advertising: Charging for impressions delivered
• Tenancy deals: Locking in long-term, multiple-year deals so a company is guaranteed
a number of impressions with premium placement on home pages and
through exclusive marketing deals
• Subscription fees: Charging for premium content
• Commissions on sales: Earning revenue based on sales at the site by independent
merchants.
The survival strategy for general-purpose portals is to develop deep, rich vertical
content in order to attract advertisers to various niche groups that they can target
with focused ads. The strategy for the small vertical market portals is to build a collection of vertical portals, thereby creating a network of deep, rich content sites
for the same reason.