On a side note, I’ve recently discovered 52Clix.com (by yet another friend – I have lots of photography friends) which is more of a casual social network/photo competition site for photographers. It targets non-professionals in a more engaging and fun environment.

What holds true for photo sites holds true for all sites. Provide something people need, whether it be entertainment or education or both, and people will go to your site.

The point about delivering an audience that matches an advertising category and that catches people in a buying mood is well taken. Generations ago major television networks and magazines like Life could mint money based on the sheer size of their audience but nowadays the audience must be properly targeted. The one exception on the magazine side is People — the world’s most profitable magazine still does fine on a large, female general interest audience. A lot of the profits come fron supermarket checkout lines and not advertisers, however.