I co-wrote this whitepaper back in 2000 with my last company, Participate.com (yes I like the name) — and I think it still has merit and relevancy today as publisher try to “crack the code” on driving viral customer acquisition behavior.

I putting it up today in light of Fred’s post on MyBlogLog and my comment:

These guys have cracked the code on how to deliver Return On Community — people join and participate in communities to be seen and to be recognized (I will make my 2000 whitepaper available on my blog later today) — what MyBlogLog did was allow people to be seen and recognized faster than anybody in the business as well as make it super easy (lower the “cost”) to participate — you don’t have to comment, or think of something clever to say, you just have to register!

Genius. I also think we’re moving to a world where without these kind of value added services publishers will be very reluctant to cede valuable valuable real estate. So I think these type of services will be the new cost of entry for any kind of ad network.

Congratulations Eric!

Have a read — keep in mind it was written almost 7 years ago — and let me know what you think!

Click here to download Return On Participation