Weblogs. A Critical Analysis of a New E-business Model

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 2,0, University of Applied Sciences Essen, language: English, abstract: The primary function of this bachelor thesis is to connect the subject of E-Business models with the web 2.0 phenomenon of weblogs. Therefore it is necessary to ascertain whether blogs can commercially perform as a characteristic of E-Business models. Furthermore, this paper should reveal what specific factors need to be considered and which challenges can occur when professionally operating a blog. Thus the digital economics' research, for example, the literature of Kollmann, Reynolds or Wirtz, provide a broad base concerning the revenue models and the categorization of classical E-Businesses such as E-Commerce-Websites. However it does not scrutinize the particular requirements of weblogs. On the other hand, the relatively new body of literature about blogs focuses on the software and technological fundamentals, the specific characteristics as well as the different characteristics. Moreover in the year 2016, many professional bloggers exist that can make a living from their publishing occupation. This indicates that weblogs already represent a form of an E-Business model. However, the author does not know of published studies nor papers that have empirically investigated or described the business models of weblogs. In order to fill that void, the purpose of this bachelor thesis is to provide a systematical guideline from an economic perception in order to establish a weblog. It will include potential risk factors and particular requirements, as the following chapters will enumerate more clearly. Ultimately this paper's aim is to serve potential future bloggers in gaining knowledge about factors they need to pay attention to from the beginning of their work as well as marketers that need to regard unwritten rules when it comes to working with influencers such as bloggers.