I just discovered a great site, Baseball-Reference.com. It’s got more baseball stats than any other site I’ve seen, but the killer app on this site is its revenue model. Instead of having traditional banner ads like most web sites, baseball-reference.com sells a “sponsorship” for each page. A page can be for a player (Sean Casey), a team (Cincinnati Reds), a particular year’s team (1975 Cincinnati Reds), etc. Some pages are sponsored by companies (baseball memorabilia, collectibles, and equipment companies are common sponsors), while other pages are sponsored by individuals (like the 1975 Reds page sponsored by someone in memory of his dad). 17,500 of the 18,000 pages are priced at $10 or less for an annual sponsorship.

I don’t know if baseball-reference.com is making much profit, but I think they’ve got a killer revenue concept. A sports site makes great sense for this revenue model, but can it be applied to other sites? What about a movie site where you can have pages for movies, actors, directors, etc.? A music site where you can have pages for artists, albums, songwriters, producers, etc.?

Other possibilities?

Just for kicks, here are the major league baseball players/managers that I have some connection to:
Dyar Miller - Uncle of 2 friends growing up near Columbus, IN.
Brian Dorsett - Graduated from the high school I did my student teaching at, and friends with one of my campus ministers in college. Talked with him at a Promise Keepers breakfast while I was in college - seemed like a good guy.
Jack McKeon - Elon alum and neighbor; Jack lives about a mile down the road from me.
Greg Booker - Another Elon alum and Jack’s son-in-law; Greg also lives about a mile away, and I coached against Greg in a summer baseball league a few years ago when his son Zach was in high school.