Is it possible? The answer is a roaring YES!!!!!. With the right plan and strategy, this is how you can definitely achieve this level. The potential of the subscription website It's very simple when you actually go about doing this. Sign up 2500 subscribers with 100 annual subscription and by simple multiplication, you can see that you would have achieved the target easily. If you are able to achieve the target that you set forth, you are on your way of tasting success. But there must be certain elements in the subscription website for it to earn you this kind of money. The question is where to find 2500 customers. Those who have worked, or owned a publishing business whether it's a school newspaper or a big publishing house would know there are two things, which are very difficult. The first is the subscribers and the second is to bring in advertisements. Lets talk about the first. In the print business as well as the online business, the basic elements are the same. It's very difficult to find paying customers for the online business. Therefore the development and the marketing of the website should be excellent. The elements of a good subscription site are as defined below 1. Target the right customers - have knowledge of the target customer, who would be willing to buy the product and the information that you are selling. 2. The right kind of focus - the focus and the content should be geared to suit the preferences of the paying customers and should also be different form what other sites have to offer. Ideally the web sites should offer what they find missing in other websites 3. The pricing strategy - the pricing strategy should target the market at a price that they are comfortable to pay at. Recurring subscription plans can be utilized for those who can't or won't pay the annual subscription. 4. USP - the unique selling proposition. What is the uniqueness of your site? How do you differentiate your site from others? These will help you to create a niche market and paying customers as well 5. the marketing strategy - the various ways in which you can market the site both online and offline to get the desired results, customers and profits 6. Creation of the site and its daily maintenance - the site needs to be developed and various formats should be uploaded. The daily uploading will also consist of content for the website as well as responses and emails to various customers. There should be software which handles daily subscription, accounting etc. this will reduce the dependence on the outside customers as well. 7. Financial and budgeting plans - like in most businesses, take into consideration the profits and the expenses that you are likely to incur from day 1 and continue till about three years. This gives the promoters an idea as to when they can expect to break even and start earning profits. Have a survival strategy as well as a backup and an emergency plan, in case things don't go the way you expected them to go. Be willing to stick to the strategy but be flexible as and when situations demand you to be. Beginning 1. Define your product - you should or at least your writers should have the in depth knowledge about the product that you are offering to the customers. 2. Refine your choice - you can do this for doing a market survey and finding out what the customers want and what they are getting. Then bridge this gap and you can hit the jackpot. 3. Offer the niche product - the product should be different from what others are providing, in order to generate and sustain interest. Content creation and development 1. The written content - you are selling the newsletter. You must decide on the format, which is appealing. The content, relief and illustrations that you are going to be providing to the customers. The content should also be different from what other sites have to offer. 2. Other downloadable material - this can comprise of audio and .mpeg files, which may be of interest to the customers as well. They can be free software downloads and updates, short ebooks, tips and tricks, subscribers column, clipart and of course the videos and the audios. 3. Periodicity of the newsletter - this means that it should be updated daily, weekly, monthly etc. this must be pre-decided by the owner / developer of the site. Therefore all strategies come in to play, when content has to be added. A lot of pain staking research and writing of the articles is required to make your newsletters stand out. Therefore one can have a mix of full time and freelance writers who would be providing content for the websites. Getting started..... 1. Have the content ready - before the actual launch, have the website up and running before you announce the launching of the website. Therefore set right all the glitches that are likely to come up. 2. Have great content on the website - running and sustaining the attention span of the paying customers is extremely difficult. Therefore you must have great content on board. Sometimes websites have less than even 15 pages of which only five pages are actual content. Don't disappoint your subscribers. They are looking for great content and that is what you should provide them with. Right good meaty content for the subscribers coz' they are paying for the information. 3. At least 50 pages - populate your website with at least 50-100 pages, which will pique the interest of the customers. This way new subscribers will always have a lot of material of interest to them. 4. Layout and design - this layout and design should be as good. Monochrome colors are pass as are too many colors on the screen. Remember, if you add too many illustrations on the first page, then the page will take a long time to open and this can put off many subscribers. Take professional help in the layout and the design to attract the potential customers. Making the 250,000 from the website 1. Change the look and the content - on a continuous basis, conscious effort must be made to change the look and the content of the website. This will attract potential customers as well as keep the current subscribers happy. 2. minor changes can also work wonders - if you were to look at sites like Google, yahoo etc. you would see that they make minor changes to their logo for the festival days, special days like water day, AIDS day, women's day etc. this can make a world of difference to your subscription levels. You can sign on 1 a day or seven. Definitely seven a day is an achievable target and can make a difference to your revenue models. Therefore developing and managing a successful subscription website should be taken a lot more seriously than people think it is. |
