"B-to-B guys - what our core competency is, is bringing buyers and sellers together in a very narrow vertical market," said Tom Kemp, chairman and CEO of Northstar Travel Media in Secaucus, N.J. "The Internet is the perfect environment. It plays to our strength."

Kemp said creating traffic is the first step to a successful online operation. And although these early steps don't always reveal big, immediate returns, they are an investment for the near future, when most experts say digital operations will become a primary source of revenue for most publishers.

"If you get enough traffic," he said, "sooner or later you're going to figure out how to make money over it."

Too often publishers adopting digital formats are discouraged by early losses. But the migration to digital media is one that requires faith and patience.

In 2008, Folio, a magazine publishers trade group in Norwalk, Conn., surveyed 30 publishing executives, about half of whom identified themselves as business-to-business publishers in whole or in part, about their online operations. Thirty-six percent said they had unrealistic timeframes and the same number said they were overly optimistic about their projects.

"What people are finding is it's print dollars for digital dimes," said Sean Callahan, media reporter for Crain's BtoB magazine. "But most companies are investing now because they know the change is coming."

Folio reported that about half of the surveyed executives did not see returns on their investments for at least a year, and of them, 17 percent said it took two years or more to generate a profit from their digital operations. Overall, a majority (42 percent) of publications said their online operations brings in about $100,000 or less each year.

But still, across industries, business professionals are increasingly turning to the Web for lead generation and information about industry best practices, so having a strong web presence is important, and being the go-to resource for an industry's needs is vital to an organization's longevity.

Business-to-business media ranked second among the digital business media that business decision makers rely on for making purchasing decisions in 2007, according to a report by and American Business Media and Forrester Research. Sixty-two percent of business-to-business marketers said industry-specific websites are effective at generating new leads.

Kate Patton, managing editor for ABM, said she believes that trend is growing and as business-to-business media's digital operations grow, so too do the their audiences' reliance on them.

Creating strong web traffic is not enough to sustain a brand, though, and publishers must work to convert those visitors into a professional community, where members can interact with each other, learn about current industry-wide events and discuss best practices.

Paul Gillin, writer and social media consultant in Framingham, Mass., said increasing a site's returning visitors and growth within a proprietary, digital network or forum suggest that a company's online operations are working and sustainable.

"You [have to] look at what is translating into action," he said. Gillin said readers who are willing to fill out lead generation forms or subscribe to online products or newsletters are more engaged and committed to the publication.

One of the most effective ways of nurturing those relationships is creating a digital social network.

Ellis Booker, editor of Crain's BtoB Media Business, said business-to-business publishers should be using social networks to build "sandboxes" in which professionals in a given industry can "play." Like trade shows, which can also now be done as online events, these networks connect buyers and sellers across the country from the convenience of their offices.

"These are domains, places, whatever - moderated or not - but certainly locations where these conversations can go on," said Booker. "Some of the most interesting work has been prequalifying who can be in the community - that's the publisher's job."

With the eruption of social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like, the infrastructure for such a community exists. Publishers need only to capitalize on what's already out there.

According to the Forrester report, 69 percent of business decision makers use, have tried or are considering trying social networking sites in their job and 75 percent attended three or more Web-based events from 2006 to 2007.

While no formal data exists to measure changes in the popularity of these products since the report was published, Patton said she is confident it's growing.

Patton said virtual trade shows, in particular, have really taken off in the last two years as businesses have been cutting back travel expenses during the recession. These events, she said, have been integrated into the trade industry event cycle and, in some cases, replaced face-to-face conferences.

But Booker said that while most trade publishers have embraced social media, too many are trying to create their own venues rather than working with the existing social media infrastructure.

"Two years ago I heard people talking about [how they] should be Facebook for [their] industry," said Booker. "Well, there already is a Facebook. How are you going to lure people off of that to something that you're going to spend literally tens of millions of dollars on for a much smaller audience? It just doesn't make sense."

Instead, publishers should focus on pairing up with these "already hunormous public sites to make closed communities for their audiences," then using those communities to garner a sense of trust, market products and interact with readers, he said.

From 2007 to 2008, LinkedIn, the leading professional social network in North America, grew its unique audience by 146 percent, from less than 5,000 users to almost 12,000, according to a webinar produced by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

In June 2009, LinkedIn reported having a total of more than 42 million members on its site, which, according to LinkedIn, includes executives from every Fortune 500 company. It also organizes its communities into 17 broad business categories, listing more than 200 sub-industries, including everything from higher education and glass, ceramics and concrete manufacturing, to nonprofit think tanks.

Steve Roll, president of the American Society of Business Publication Editors and senior editor for State Tax Report, a publication of the Arlington, Va.-based media giant Bureau of National Affairs, said the interactive nature of digital media is a dream come true for trade publishers, whose goal is to create and enhance professional networks and facilitate industry dialogue.

"When we first started getting on the internet in 2000, it was all about coding and HTML and memorizing Internet language and stuff," he said. "But now the changes are playing right into my hands. I mean I couldn't have scripted it any better. It's all based on subject matter knowledge and social skills. ... The people who are becoming more important are the subject matter experts and the people who are good at connecting with other people."

Social networking is a great way to create and maintain ongoing interest in content, and it can be a powerful tool for promoting salable products because they garner trust between an organization and its readership.

Booker said his staff has found that using Twitter, which is a free service, to promote commercial Webinars and proprietary research works better than traditional advertising models.

"We do these Webinars about every week now," Booker said. "We started using Twitter to promote these things, and we all figured out really early on that unlike every other promo environment where we started like two weeks ahead ... with Twitter you do it like 15 minutes ahead."

That model has worked well for Media Business, whose end-user, online products now account for about half its total revenue.

But not every product is saleable, and understanding the distinction is vital to an organization's success.

"This notion that you can charge for a feature or charge for a Q and A or charge for a well written story - as much as I'd like to say that that's doable, I just don't see it. There's very little evidence that that exists," said Booker.

"So what can you charge for on the content side," he said. "Well, I think you charge for something that Crain has been doing for years, for example, and that is lists and research. ...That research piece, which has always been there, is, in this environment, given even more importance because it is a category of content that people will be willing to pay for. Particularly if it can be made more dynamic and more tailored."

Take Northstar Media's Hotel And Travel Index, for example. Five years ago, the Travel Index, a comprehensive listing of hotels and other attractions published in print each year and distributed to travel agents nationwide, was Northstar's primary source of print advertising revenue. Today, the print form of the Travel Index has been folded and the information is available online-only via a searchable database.

"It became an anachronistic model," said Kemp. "Everything went onto the Internet."

Advertisers immediately recognized the added value of an online, searchable database and retained their accounts. The online index remains a primary source of revenue for Northstar, even in its new, digital format.

Northstar has moved other products to a digital format as well, offering e-newsletters, virtual trade shows, and online social communities where travel professionals can mingle online and share trade best practices. While Northstar has not yet been able to profit from social networking, Kemp said he believes their investments will eventually produce a return.

Still, Northstar's digital operations have been mostly successful and today account for about 15 percent of the company's annual revenue. And most of that money comes in the form of online sponsorships and advertising.

"What you want to do," said Kemp, "is create a community and attract activity." As interest in a product grows, so, too, do the advertising dollars.

The novelty and fast-pace growth of digital technology represents growing consumer demand for instant access, immediate information and an increasingly personal Web experience. Publishers have a unique opportunity to supply each of these things in a way that best satisfies their readers. But no one organization can do everything.

Sulecki said the best way to adopt new technologies appropriately is to understand each application's specific functions, and pursue those that are doable and add value to the publication's content.

"The key thing is understanding what can and can't be done [with digital technology]," he said. "You have to know the [technology's] possibilities and limitations. It seems like the applications that are most successful... tend to have a basic human need - it fulfills a specific function."

For business-to-business professionals, that specific function is easy, convenient information, and a successful migration to the Web requires strong attention to and nurturing of an organization's most reader-satisfying content.

"You can't be all things to all people," said Goldstone. The best way to succeed in a digital market, he said, is to be open to new technologies, but discerning in applying them. "You have to find that balance. You can't chase every new lead."