Good advice there. One thing I would add, is when something *does* become commoditized, then treat it as such. In other words, if you have a great Webcast model, deliver superior leads, technical handholding, etc. people are more than willing (this month) to pay for it in most markets.

However, if you have a cost per click sponsored links section (I can’t think of anything more commoditized than that) cut your costs to the bone — either grab text and plop on site, provide basic reporting (if convenient and cheap) put in self-service, etc. Online directories would fall into that same minimal service area.

The key thing is that amorphous thing called “online” is so many different products that they’re all in different areas of this curve. Smart publishers need to know what is where in their markets and what should be treated special and what should be cost and overhead cut — and as you said, always be on the lookout for new products.

A few months ago I was on a call with a company who has been a six-figure client for years. They didn’t have the faintest idea what some of our eMedia offerings were. They kept saying, “Wow, we didn’t know you could do THAT for us too!” The call ended with them asking for a face-to-face meeting to review all these great opportunities.

So even if you’ve built an entire product suite, remember that you still might have more growth opportunities by getting your existing customers to buy more.