07 October 2010 ~ 17 Comments

Going Pro: Charging For Your Content – FA017

Audio

If you’re someone who already has a website with content, and you’re looking to make money with it now, this show should give you some ideas. Tim and I explore several options for the money-making transition.

Learn how to go from hobbyist to pro with several strategies:

  • Moving the free line
  • Izzy’s 3 product approach
  • Various ways to organize your content for sale
  • Evergreen content vs time-sensitive or news-based content

Enjoy the show…

You can also right-click here to save the audio file.

Lastly we have a Facebook page that we could all hang out at to discuss Internet business topics.  We’ll be building this up over the next month or two.

Go “like” us at our page.  :-)

  • http://www.MathDad.com Adrian

    Even though I would rather have a monthly subscription model, I don’t think it’s the right fit for selling math videos. I think parents and teachers would either want just a few videos or the an entire year’s worth because it would do them no good if they are covering a certain subject in September but I don’t release it until May. Looks like I will have to create the option to buy them individually, in small bundles or all the videos for a certain grade. What do you guys think?

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    I wouldn’t do individual video sales. A series of videos is okay, but individual videos will be very difficult to sell and harder to make a living from. Another difficulty you might face is the lack of uniformity in math textbooks. A 5th grade course in California may not cover the same topics as a 5th grade class in Virginia.

    Another concept you may want to consider is using the videos as marketing material to attract online tutoring clients and have a stable of math tutors available to do the actual tutoring.

  • Laura-jane

    Great show, guys. Every episode gets better and better. These days I have a 1 hr commute each way. I tend to listen to your podcasts on the way home, and I use the last ten minutes or so in silence to think about the juices in my brain that are flowing as a result of your conversations. I found what Izzy shared at the beginning re: what he went through with Adsense and then moving everything behind a wall was very illuminating. I like the combo of you two, with Izzy’s specific experiences and then Tim’s big picture stuff. Keep up the good work. Glad to see you’ve got a product out so soon, taking action I see!

  • http://www.MathDad.com Adrian

    Very impressed Tim. Not many people outside the educational field are aware of the different standards per state. Kudos.
    I think what I might do is make all the basic videos available to view for free. Charge a small fee for downloading them but have my main product be algebra, geometry and other more uniform classes. Thanks for the help. I am enjoying this Foolish Adventure.

  • http://r32media.com Eric

    I teach English in Japan as my “day job” and I have had this idea for a while that might give you some ideas. My problem was that teaching students doesn’t scale very well so I thought that if I could get people to tune into a stream then it would scale a little better. So, either on your own or with some of the video streaming sites you make a private stream. This can be live and recorded for later use. All you really need is a video camera with a wide angle lens, a white board, and a mic. Lots of options out there for webinar stuff too, but I prefer hacking my own stuff together ;-)

  • http://r32media.com Eric

    Agreed Izzy and Tim have a good balance.

  • Anonymous

    So I’m not ready to go Pro yet, but I’m slowly developing some content at the moment. I’ve been maintaining a blog and cross posting it over at a couple of other services (eg, Windows Live Spaces, Livejournal etc) but now spaces have converted to wordpress I thought I’d get the hang of using it. SInce you guys recommend WordPress.

    I also hear that it’s bad to cross post as the search engines see it as spam. Is that true?!? Should I just delete my extra accounts Sorry if this is the wrong place for this question.

    Love your show, and I’m taking tiny steps (I’m more Izzy’s style than jump in Tim style!)

    PS to Foolish ppl! I also posted a review over at iTunes – other Foolish ppl out there should review too! Come and help the show grow!!

  • http://www.avartisanproductions.com Greg

    Thanks Izzy & Tim for your feedback earlier and on this show about email lists vs facebook.

    I guess what I’m continuing to burn a hole in my brain about is this (and you referred to it in this episode): I offer a ‘seasonal’ one time service. Wedding videography. Once a couple is married how much value is there for me to keep sending them emails?

    My main objective is to get people’s attention so they view a sample video. It speaks for itself! That’s my sales pitch! It’s great quality! (that’s why I’m focusing more on SEO & online presence) I suppose running a one-time service is never-ending work.

    (Hey, I bought the WordPress bundle just in time! That’ll be my winter project, to start a dedicated wedding film site. Currently it’s part of my main overall production site. http://www.avartisanproductions.com)

  • http://www.bootcoachbob.nl Meindert Giessen

    Hi Tim, shouldn’t you disable the ‘posted on …’ above your posts ?

    Just dissin’ ;) .

    Keep up the good work !
    I like the free content + complementing (payed) content model !

    Kind regards,
    Meindert
    http://www.bootcoachbob.nl

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    That is actually one of the items on my site design list. I may have them at the bottom of the posts like Tim Ferriss does on his blog. Izzy and I will be starting on a new design in the next couple of days.

  • http://www.bootcoachbob.nl Meindert Giessen

    Great ! Lots of success with it.

    Hey (I already mentioned this to Izzy, but he was busy with an Izzy product launch at the time): I’m looking to exchange experiences with European FA-followers, to see how your insights work in the European market (smaller niches due to language differences, smaller geographical spread, …).

    I would love it if you could bring this under attention. The forum on facebook is already a great place to start discussing. I’ll start a topic. By the way, good idea to have a forum (however I wouldn’t move the commenting section there, I would like to have more control over my commenting section)

    fair winds ! Meindert, http://www.bootcoachbob.nl

  • http://www.interactivedata.be/ Didier Daglinckx

    Try to keep the history of your posts and keep the links from your old posts.

    ie if on the old site you add a post named : http://foolishadventure.com/2010/10/going-pro-charging-for-your-content-fa017

    You need to recreate this same link on the new blogging tool or at least redirect it to the new one.
    ie http://foolishadventure.com/audio/going-pro-charging-for-your-content-fa017

    It will help the people that have bookmarked your content to find it back and thus preserve their relation with you.

  • http://www.interactivedata.be/ Didier Daglinckx

    What about building WP websites for the weddings and help the friends and families to connect before and after the event ?

    Teach them how to take good pictures, make their own videos, use tools like VUVOX to insert interactivity, …

    They (friends and families) will make the sales for you after !

  • http://www.interactivedata.be/ Didier Daglinckx

    @Meindert : you are right, trying to evolve in environments in other languages can be more difficult.

    I’ve been looking for emailing tools like Mailchimp, ContactPro, Feedblitz, Blueskyfactory, aweber in french and I must say that it’s not that obvious and also that it cost way more for the same service.

  • http://www.bootcoachbob.nl Meindert Giessen

    Hi Tim,

    A bit dumb of me, but because I added my website address to the previous posts, google now ranks this page as one of the highest if you search for my site (under the header ‘Going pro, charging for your content’). Since I’d like my site to remain free, and I don’t want to put off my viewers right away, would it be possible to delete the web-address in these posts ?

    You can also delete this message after you’ve read it.

    Thanks & sorry for the hassle !
    Meindert

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    I can do this, but what I suggest is you add more content to your site and it will push the ranking down and to get other links coming into your site.

    Let me know if you still want me to delete your comments.

  • Meindert Giessen

    Good idea. I’ll do that.

    Thanks !
    Meindert