Paid Content Online--Can it Work?

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Permalink Reply by Ken Anderberg on March 12, 2009 at 8:23am

Another paid model you will see gaining significant traction is password-protected sites, where original content is accessed only after registering. The race for impressions is ridiculous anyway. No one knows who their visitors are, whether they are the "right" visitors. Online advertisers are coming to realize that it's about quality, not quantity. By having people register to read one time, sites will know exactly who is visiting and will be able to show advertisers value as opposed to zillions of meaningless hits. And if all media sites were to do this, the blogosphere might just crumble for lack of information.

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Permalink Reply by DiAnne Walsh on March 13, 2009 at 12:39pm

When I worked at the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin we had a free 15 days trial and then a conversion to paid. Our coversion rate was 20%. Like all marketing if the information provided is targeted and they do not have access anywhere else you can charge and be successful.
I agree with Ken that registration is the key as well as being able to capture some demographic information for adverstising as well as messaging.

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Permalink Reply by Qing on March 14, 2009 at 11:53pm

I think we must try and educate people that high quality contents should get paid. The value of content is unique, not other source where peopel can get. If prints have the same content as the onlines'( for free), there is no value that people pay for prints.

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