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www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/125451
By Don Sussis March 26, 1999 Another variation of this is the download of "archived material" -- content that ranges from 2 weeks to 6 months old.J Each company sets the limits. Charges are relatively high, currently around $3.00 to $5.00 per article. This is due to the high cost of processing payment by credit cards, which can seriously compromise profits. Another workaround is to pre-sell "packages" of archived articles or special reports. For example, $24.95 could give a customer the right to download 10 separate documents.J This follows the "magazine subscription model" which sells a years worth of issues at much cheaper rates than individual issues.J For the merchant, some of this "discounting" makes great sense because they can more efficiently sell andJ promote services and products to repeat customers. Such customers are more valuable to advertisers, too.
Still another variation on this is to provide such services free to customers who "qualify."J For a financial site or e-trader, this might mean discounts to those clients who execute more than 30 trades a month.J A charge of $19.95 per trade thus makes "qualified customers" those who spend at least $600 a month.JAgain, this a clever way to sell individual articles/reports by pricing them within a larger revenue stream and avoding the costs of processing each transaction. One day, perhaps micropayments and digital cash will become a reality. Then it will be possible to charge per article or report on a true pay per view basis.J It is a hard road to pave for single entrepreneurs or small companies, unless they have something that is desperately needed by a well capitalized customer base. Don Sussis is an eCommerce advisor and business consultant. He frequently writes about business over the internet. He can be reached at dons@interested.com. |
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