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Selling Information on the Internet: eMail and eZinesHome > Profit > Other Revenue Streams > Selling Content It's hard to get anyone to pay for information on the internet. Time Warner - among many other well-established media giants - learned this the hard way when they introduced their Pathfinder web-site in 1994, and tried to charge for the information provided. They soon discovered that people would not pay online for the same information that would pay for in print. People have come expect information to be free on the internet - simply because there is so much free information out there. So, you are a lively, interesting writer with a unique perspective on life, the universe and everything. Or, you have some special knowledge or expertise which you know others would find very useful. And you want to sell your brilliant ideas and fine information on the internet you want to be *paid* for it. You may be wondering: Is it possible to make money by providing information on the internet? The answer is yes - by providing an information service that is really outstanding or unique. A while ago we looked at "e-books" and "epublishers" . This time, let's look at something rather different - email lists. Why email? Email - plain vanilla, text, text, and more text - does not have the glamour, the glitzy graphics, or the multimedia 'gee whiz' appeal that the web has. So whatever sells via email simply must sell on the quality of content alone. What better medium for writers who want to be judged on the quality of their writing, not their art or multimedia prowess?! Also, just because it is so humble and taken-for-granted, the power of email is often underestimated. For instance, Declan Fox, publishing manager for PC World, was pleasantly surprised at the results he got from publishing email newsletters : "Everybody thought that email was too simple.They wanted everything on the Web with the graphics and the banners. And there was the emergence of all these hyped push technologies, like PointCast and Marimba. .We underestimated the power of word of mouth and the ease of use of email..." Generally, those who profit from email lists do so by either: a. Attracting advertising sponsorship or 1. ATTRACTING ADVERTISING SPONSORSHIP Most of us are very familiar with the 'build a big web-site, with lots of free content, attract lots of traffic, and then rake in the money from advertisers' approach to making money on the internet - if only through our constant exposure to those ubiquitous banner ads. Large, targeted *email* lists can also been used to good effect to attract advertising sponsorship. ( In fact, recent research by Nikkei Multimedia, suggests that email can be a more effective medium for advertising, as it is better regarded among readers than web-based advertising.) An example of the successful use of mailing lists to attract sponsorship is Randy Cassington's "This is True" Ezine. In 1994, Randy Cassington created a free ezine, called "This is True", dedicated to strange and true stories - for instance, such weird topics as a goat who led the polls for mayor in Pillar, and murders who responded to the 'wanted' ad the police posted to catch them. Cassington found these stories by scanning newspapers and magazines daily. The fascinating material in this list proved very popular, and by 1998 he had built up to 150,000 subscribers. With these high circulation numbers in hand, he approached advertisers, who grabbed the opportunity. As a result, he now makes a decent living by selling advertising space on this list. Several additional spin-offs have also developed since. He now sells books based on this material in these ezines, and he has also attracted the interest of newspapers, who pay him to reproduce "This is True" in a regular column. (Randy Cassington's story has been taken from "The Hot New Medium is Email", Wired, April 1998) Randy Cassington and his ilk - listowners who go for the sponsorship dollars - attract large numbers of subscribers by offering interesting or useful information for free, and getting as many copies into circulation as possible. This means, of course, removing all barriers to joining (including fees), and encouraging subscribers to pass on the information to others. Apart from the obvious challenge of finding something sufficiently appealing to write about, there are a couple of big challenges that must be met to achieve success this way, though: 1. The list needs to be very large before it can attract advertisers - around 5,000 at the very least is sometimes given as the benchmark. 2. "Unknowns' can find it difficult to break in.(as with anything). Regardless of the size of your list, it can be difficult to attract advertising if you are unknown. Established well-known brand names have better success than 'small unknowns' - regardless of the size of the list. 3. As with any kind of publication that supports itself through sponsorship alone, the quality and objectivity of the content can be seen as questionable. Providing information for free is, of course, no guarantee
that people will want to read it. In a world brimming with information,
attention is a scarce resource. The information needs to be compelling
or targeted enough to gain 'mindshare'. However, if you can find a
unique, or outstandingly useful, topic to write about, and can write
about it is a consistently interesting way, you may stand a chance
here.
ATTRACTING PAYING SUBSCRIBERS Despite the near-universal expectation that information on the internet should be free, some listowners are actually charging for the *content* of their mailings - that is, they are charging fees for the *information* (and not just the advertising space). An example is Mark Anderson's "Strategic News Service" mailing list, which provides strategic advice to large corporates on high-tech trends, and is distributed to such heavyweights as Bill Gates, Adobe, and the Bank of America. For this weekly email newsletter, he charges a subscriber fee of US$195 annually. In this case, it is the consistently high quality of the predictions and advice which attracts paying subscribers. Anderson predicted many major developments before they occurred, including the crash in the Japanese stock market, and the return of Steve Jobs to Apple. (Mark Anderson's story has been taken from "The Hot New Medium is Email", Wired, April 1998) According to Mark Anderson, and others who have developed profitable mailing lists of this kind, in a world of information overload, people are happy to pay to have that information filtered, distilled, and made manageable. The *filtering* is the key - extracting the important bits from the masses of irrelevant information. The subscriber-based model also tends work better with a niche market - a small, focused group of subscribers, who will pay for an information service which closely targets their needs.
OPERATING YOUR MAILING LIST Mailing lists can be set up either manually or through the use of automated email list management tools. (Of course, if you are fortunate enough to own a list that numbers in the hundreds or thousands, then manual list management will probably not be an option!) Whether manual or automated, though, the only kind of list worth considering is an 'opt-in' one - one that gives the subscriber the choice of opting in or opting out whenever they choose. It you choose to automate your mailing list, there are many services available on the internet - available for free or for a fee. The free option means third-party advertising and possible limitations on the number of subscribers you can have on your list. It can no-cost way to 'test the waters' though. Here are a few free mailing list services currently available on the net: Listbot: www.lisbot.com If your mailing list is large (2,000 or more listings), and you want to attract paying advertisers of your own, a commercial mailing list will be a better option. Commercial mailing lists offer you more control, more reliable service, and they do not inflict third party advertising on your list. Here are a couple of commercial mailing list services currently available on the net: Mail-list: www.mail-list.com |
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