Question

Topic: Customer Behavior

Best Approach To Subscription Site

Posted by Markitek on 10/30/2008 at 3:21 PM ET 500 Points
My client is a business consultant and author, launching a subscription site, whose content will be based on years of gathered and created material from her own archives and the archives of her colleagues. This comprises roughly 10,000 pages of documents (html articles, PDF files, Word files, PPTs and others), many many hours of audio files (mp3, wav etc), video files, and so on.

Price point is under 50/month.

My question is on best practices regarding how much information to post in time for launch, and when moving forward.

Specifically, is it better practice to simply load all the material she has prior to launch or to upload a good amount at first and then have new material to load each month.

The case for full upload as best as I can reason it out is that it will be this huge repository of information, but we have concern that it may reach a point of overload which might turn off potential subscribers.

Monthly uploads will allow for new content each month (and give us something to announce each month) and might not be so overwhelming, but we have concern that we will diminsh the full value of the site by not giving everybody everything at once.

Anyone with experience or knowledge or resources on this?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 10/30/2008 at 5:02 PM Accepted
    If you purposefully hold back valuable content, it will devalue your overall product.
    You risk losing subscribers. Don't make them search for that same content on other sites.
    Make your site the destination for that niche.
    The value is in the amassed content.
    The added value is in featured content.
    If your content will have categories, rotate a feature from each category on your homepage.
    If your site will not be adding new, fresh content frequently, this can still work to your advantage.
    You can add an opt-in for your subscribers to be alerted when new content is posted, and have links on your homepage to the new content to make it easy to identify and find.
    Good luck
  • Posted by Markitek on 10/30/2008 at 5:15 PM Author
    Thanks Sharon . . . the content is the client's own and will likely be found nowhere unless as long as copyright rules are respected . . . I found the rest of your comments insightful and am appreciative of them
  • Posted on 10/30/2008 at 7:10 PM Accepted
    This may depend on the target audience and overall business strategy. What's the goal? How will people find your client's site? What does she want them to do when they get there? What does success look like? Who is the target audience anyway?

    For example, if the promise is that there will be fresh, new, valuable content 3 times a week, then you might NOT want to put everything out there right away. On the other hand, if the site is a funnel to attract large consulting clients then she might WANT to put as much out there as possible.

    The MarketingProfs site might be a decent model for you. There's a lot of content already there, and there are extra benefits for Premium and Premium Plus members. You can also look at the Guerrilla Marketing Association -- the premium membership version of Jay Levinson's site.
  • Posted by Mikee on 10/30/2008 at 7:21 PM Member
    If the purpose is to have monthly subscriptions then I feel you will need to keep adding content. Whether this this is done by holding back information at launch or by creating new content it is necessary to continually offer new content. I will not subscribe to anything that is static and doesn't keep offering new content.

    If you add all the content, why wouldn't I just join for one month and download everything I will need. I would see not reason to subcribe for more time.

    Be sure that if you just add part of the content you offer a wide selection of both type and content, with the ability to add all of they types and subjects later.

    Mike
  • Posted by Markitek on 10/31/2008 at 8:20 AM Author
    What's the goal?
    Long term subscriptions

    How will people find your client's site?
    Direct mail to her own optin and previous customer lists, and optin lists from affiliates and related partners

    What does she want them to do when they get there?
    Read, download, listen and continue the subscription

    What does success look like?
    1000 non cancelling subscribers

    Who is the target audience anyway?
    Audience is known customers and clients who have previously demonstrated an affinity/interest for the topic as well as poetntials from partner lists
  • Posted by Markitek on 10/31/2008 at 8:43 AM Author
    Marketingprofs as a model is perfect . . . for now I'm focused on getting the right content up for a launch. What you see today at mp is the result of years of evolution . . . we'd love to reach that point.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/31/2008 at 9:28 AM Accepted
    You could upload all your materials, then feature existing articles each month/week. People seldom have time to search libraries. Also, having articles that are non-relevant sometimes sparks ideas/connections.
  • Posted on 10/31/2008 at 12:50 PM Accepted
    Jay makes a good point. For all the great information already available on the MarketingProfs site, for example, it's obvious that most visitors -- even Premium members -- only access a small fraction of what's available. If you put everything online immediately, it would probably take months or years before your most devoted and loyal subscribers would find it all.

    The interesting thing is that paying subscribers want to think that they're getting current, relevant content ... so you need to have a continuous flow of new stuff -- even if it was created a year ago. If your client is prepared to keep that pipeline full, then there is little risk in putting everything online at launch.

    Then, as Jay suggests, you can feature an article from the archives each week along with the new content. The thing you don't want to do is pass off the old stuff as being new. Someone will have seen it before and expose the ruse to everyone else.

    As I suspect you know already, the success of this venture will depend on two things: (1) the legitimate value delivered in the content (i.e., the product); and (2) the copy, positioning and appeal of the offer to your target audience (i.e., marketing). (I'm assuming that your client knows the target audience in depth ... their needs, attitudes, beliefs, values, decision processes, purchase habits, etc. ... all those things good marketers typically research in advance.)

    Good luck.
  • Posted by Markitek on 10/31/2008 at 3:02 PM Author
    I agree that the more the better and then promote each month . . . but . . . one gating issue of course is the onerous labor of uploading all of this to the CMS in time for a mid November launch (date imposed on us by external circumstances and opportunities . . . and besides if I didn't nail my foot to a date certain I'd dance forever).

    You folks see any specific illogic or market offense to promoting the full value of the site being what's there at subscription time plus a constantly growing knowledge base.

    Right now we've got about 100 PDFs equaling close to 3/4K pages (including full books the client has written), 50 or so articles on a variety of topics, 40 or so hours of streaming and downloadable audio. I'm thinking that ought to be enough to kick the thing off (more than most sites put up in total as far as I can tell but I haven't done exhaustive research).

    I will of course be happy to give any of you who wants a peek at it (still full of loose wires and unpainted wallboard and Andy Gumps) if you want to email me at [Email address deleted by staff] and get a subscriber login . . . love to hear what you think.

    As always, many thanks to all for taking the time with this
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