I've been writing a series of articles for Avault (www.avault.com) about how do websites make money in the post dot-com world. I was curious as to what you guys think websites can or should do.
Here's what I've found so far:
Ways websites can make money:
1) Advertising. The tried and true way just doesn't pay enough anymore. Even if you put a bunch of annoying pop-up ads, they'll not likely pay for your site unless your bandwidth use is miniscule and it's run by volunteers.
2) Donations. This can work but at a price - your users will basically expect to own your soul as Kuro5hin.org discovered. And

had to go non-profit to do it.
3) Selling "stuff". This can help but is often (in my limited experience) more trouble than it's worth.
The article I juts finished is about website subscriptions. I actually think this could be the wave of the future but only when done correctly.
Rules that subscription sites need to follow:
a) Target core users (Which requires identifying what core users do on your site) not casual users.

Similar to (a), don't limit your site in any way that annoys casual users. The basic site should do what it does very well.
c) Don't sell the site's content (even if you make it). The subscription should be about making it more convenient or faster to access that content.
d) Don't get greedy, charge just what you need to pay for the site plus a reasonable profit. This means you will want to seriously know how much the
site really costs. Too many early subscriptions cost ridiculous amounts.
I think when put together some sites will be able to pay their bills. But I think the jury is out whether these methods will provide a generally viable business model.
What do you think?