 |
   |
Visit min's sister site:  |
|
|
|
|
BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
MediaPass: Everyone Should Have Paid Content “Our premise is that everyone should have some sort of subscription content on a site,” says Matthew Mitchell. His company works with publishers and bloggers to identify the sections of their sites that are of highest value to the right segments of their audience—the content so good some people will pay to access it. “There should always be a mix,” he says. “For some it may be 5% of their content and for some 95%.” Mitchell argues that the economics bear him out. Getting just a small percentage of people on a site to pay for a sliver of valued content can render much higher effective CPMs than advertising. “They all convert at different rates,” he says. “Some with business sections are converting very high, which is 2% to 3% of impressions.” But even sites that convert only .5% of impression to paid areas will realize more from subscriptions than from ads, he claims. “Our message is really that subscription outperforms advertising, yet does not need to replace advertising.” MediaPass offers a simple solution that lets any blogger or publisher put a subscription model onto all or any of their content with a small bit of code that redirects them to MediaPass. Portland-based African-American newspaper and site TheSkanner.com, for instance, is testing subscription access models that allow a user to see the first pieces of an article before reaching an embedded MediaPass overlay that prompts them to pay a $8 a month fee ($2 a month annual rate). “Our goal is to make it as easy as Google AdSense,” Mitchell says. Publishers can log into a console that lets them define which URLs will carry an overlay from MediaPass that requires a 10-field form to complete. The publisher can monitor the effective CPMs they are realizing on those pages from the console. Mitchell says that there are paying audiences for just about any kind of content, even media that many deem “commoditized.” “They may just like the voice of the site. Even if you can get the content in other places, there are people who will pay for it.” He says MediaPass clients are successfully segmenting reviews, educational content and financial analysis for subscribers only. But Mitchell argues that the secret is not to drop a simple pay wall. Traffic needs to continue at a relatively steady pace in order to maintain an ad income and find the users who will pay. “It requires not charging for all content,” he says. If a fair level of traffic continues at a site and some percentage of visitors can be made to pay, the publisher almost always comes out ahead with a paid/free hybrid mix rather than simply relying only on advertising, Mitchell says. Mitchell does not embrace the metered model for paywalls, which requires subscription access to all content after the user consumes a certain number of free articles. “Would you really want to give someone who wants to be on your site zero reasons to be there simply because they don’t want to pay right now?” he argues. “Doing so can be bad for traffic and is definitely bad for subscription lead generation. Each person that is on your site has the potential to eventually subscribe. Telling them it has to be that day ‘or else’ is generally not the most effective conversation to have with your users.” The start-up has several dozen sites like TheSkanner already launched under the model and about 200 contracted for launch in coming months, Mitchell says. Payment is via credit card or PayPal. The revenue split with MediaPass is 65% of the subscription fee for the publisher and 35% for the service. Mitchell says that financial information is converting at the highest rate but local news providers are also finding that their content is of special cash value to subscribers. “There is an optimal mix for everyone,” he says. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com COMMENTS
|
App Central min's App Central (for min subscribers only): Stay on top of mobile app developments with exclusive app reviews, analysis and data. 
Please enter the following information to have a link to The Skinny emailed to your iPhone:
White Papers
min Contests
EventsBest of the Web, April 3, 2012 min's Sales Executive of the Year Awards min Press
 Events Calendar
min's Best of the Web Awards |
.jpg)
Internet Sales Guidebook| Copyright © 2012 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Access Intelligence, LLC is prohibited. For more details please see Terms and Conditions. |
