In pursuit of a paid model for content, many businesses offer
newsletters for a fee or ebooks. These models offer pros and
cons. Some organizations send out two newsletters: fee and free.
The free version has the basic, watered-down contents found in
the fee version to entice readers into wanting more and paying
for it. But is it worth the time and energy to do this?
Ebooks are also a way for businesses to make money. But do they
sell when it's been proven that people prefer reading printed
copy to electronic text? Read on to hear from several experts in
the field about what people are willing to pay for and whether
or not offering fee-based content is right for your
organization.
Too much information!
Considering there are so many free newsletters and information
out there, why should readers shell out the dough for these
premium newsletters? Reading online is harder on the eyes
because of the light emitted from the monitor. People overcome
this by printing out the newsletter.
I can't hazard a guess on how many free newsletters are out
there. So why would a person pay for a fee-based newsletter?
Jenna Glatzer, editor-in-chief of AbsoluteWrite.com, says, "You
have to offer something different and better than what the free
newsletters are doing. Personally, I wouldn't pay for
newsletters that are just for entertainment, but I do have paid
subscriptions to a handful of newsletters that are specific to
my line of work and appropriate for my level (not beginner). A
paid newsletter that has all the same sorts of free-reprint
articles that all the other sites have won't work. You must find
a corner of the market that no one has claimed yet and be the
most reliable source of information on it."
Joan Stewart, publisher of The Publicity Hound, started her
subscription newsletter seven years ago, long before there was
as much information on the Internet as there is today. She says,
"Content must be king. If you can supply good content that can't
be found elsewhere, and it's well-written and easy to read, and
leads readers in other directions where they can find even more
info than they could possibly need, you will keep your customers
happy.
"If I had it to do over again, I would have never started my
subscription newsletter. It started as an 8-page print
newsletter, but the postage and printing costs were killing me,"
she says. "About two years ago, I reverted from a print
newsletter to a PDF document. It's in the same format, but it's
now emailed to customers. My free ezine, The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week, is still far more profitable, several
hundredfold, than the subscription newsletter."
Charging for ebooks
Considering there are no printing and paper costs to the
publisher for ebooks, how can they charge as much as they do for
them? Higher prices equal higher perceived value. However, I've
seen many ebooks cost more than a paperback, and the content
isn't always better quality than print. Yet, they sell.
What justifies the higher cost of ebooks when there are no
printing costs involved with them? Christopher Knight, publisher
of Ezine-Tips, says,
"What justifies the higher cost of ebooks when there are no
printing costs involved with them? Christopher Knight, publisher
of Ezine-Tips, says, 'That would be a fallacy in perception
logic because the printing cost is not relevant to the market
perception of a paperback versus an ebook. In fact, I'd be
willing to bet that some people even value an ebook as higher
value than a paperback because they can take their data with
them on a personal notebook computer, whereas it's hard to
travel with a pile of paperback books.'"
Glatzer points out that whether a piece is written in print or
ebook format, it is the same amount of work for the writer. "Of
course, ebooks have a smaller market, so the problem is that if
the ebook is priced very low, it won't be worth it for the
writer to spend the time writing and promoting the book."
If it is worth it, however, ebooks provide many benefits to
those who download them: The readers aren't taxed, don't incur
shipping costs and don't need gas money to go to the bookstore.
As soon as people buy your ebook, they instantly download it and
have it in their "e-hands."
Stewart says, "The biggest justification is that the information
is immediate. If a customer wants information NOW, they can get
it NOW, and they're often willing to pay the hefty price. My
ebook, How to Be a Kick-Butt Publicity Hound, sells for $97. The
most I could expect to get for the same book in hardcover is
about $25. Another justification for the higher priced ebooks is
that live links in the ebooks take visitors directly to Web
sites with related content."
E-format versus print format
Research on ebooks indicates people still prefer paper over
ebooks. What's the point of pursuing ebooks and fee-based
newsletters? Glatzer shares her experience.
"I've written two ebooks and 14 print books, so that shows you
where my bread and butter comes from. However, I had my
newsletter first. It was thriving, yet I had nothing to sell my
readers. I was barely breaking even with advertising costs and
often paying hosting fees out of pocket. I'd received so many
letters from readers asking for advice about how to do what I
had done -- make a living writing for magazines -- and finally
decided to write a book about it. I knew I had a built-in
audience among my subscribers. The ebook sold well, but my goal
was to take it to print. When a publisher made an offer on it, I
took it out of circulation as an e-book and expanded it for the
print publisher. That became Make a Real Living as a Freelance
Writer, and the print book has far outsold the ebook.
"The second was a niche book for greeting card writers and
artists. It contained market info for just that field, so it was
such a specialized book that I didn't go after conventional
publishers for it. Plus, the time factor was crucial: contact
info changes so often that I wanted to get the book out ASAP,
and I wanted to be able to update it when needed. I briefly had
it out as a print-on-demand book, but I took it off the market
as soon as it became dated and just continued selling it as an
ebook.
"Since then, I've stuck to conventional publishing and just a
few giveaway ebooks for publicity. But I think the market for
ebooks is decent if you have a specialized topic and a built-in
audience."
Based on Glatzer's experience, when you have a free newsletter,
you already have an audience ... unless you try to sell a book
on home makeovers to your audience that subscribes to your pets
newsletter!
Timely matters
Ebooks have an advantage over print in that their content is
up-to-date and piping hot. If something changes, it's quick and
easy to modify the ebook and put the new version up for sale.
The publishing process for printed books can be a lengthy
one.
Time can impact content depending on the topic. Some industries
such as sports and history have experienced little or no change
in over a decade, while others like technology are moving at
megahertz speed.
By the time an author of a book related to software writes it,
and the publisher prints it, a new version of the software is
available, rendering the brand-new book outdated. However, many
users don't upgrade every version, as this stings the cash flow.
Often, tips and steps given in books covering earlier versions
of software are applicable to the newer version.
Knight suggests selling in both formats (print and ebook); that
way all your bases are covered and you reach more channels for
the same product.
eContent = lower quality?
M.J. Rose, Wired columnist and author of both print and
electronic books, has commented that people thought she wasn't a
real author when she published her ebook. For some, ebooks are
"bottom-feeders" in the world of publishing. They see such
content as lower quality and without prestige.
I have a folder of all the books I've collected through reviewer
duties and as free downloads. I haven't read 10 percent of them.
However, it could be a different story when you pay for an
ebook. Knowing that you bought the book might force you to read
it. But then again, I have shelves of printed books that I have
yet to read.
Why would I want to buy ebooks and let them rot on my hard drive
where I naturally save them after downloading them? Same reason
for printed books? I don't think so, because you can see and
touch them. It's easier to scan printed pages than to scroll
electronic books.
Fee-based newsletters
Most of the fee-based newsletters I've seen have a free
newsletter distributed by the same people. Organizations use the
free newsletter to entice readers into subscribing to the
fee-based newsletter. Like Glatzer says, you're establishing
credibility with your audience through the free newsletter, and
when they see another offering from you, they might jump at it.
Glatzer publishes Absolute Write, free Absolute Markets and
Absolute Markets Premium Edition newsletters. Free Absolute
Markets comes out every other week and the premium edition comes
out in between those issues.
Glatzer explains the difference between the free and premium
editions. The free markets contains a small sampling, about 10
markets covering mainly magazine-related work plus contest
listings or an article in alternating issues. The premium
edition has many jobs and lists markets for various types of
writing including international markets. It also includes
interviews with magazine editors and an in-depth look at a high
profile magazine on a monthly basis. She also lists calls for
writers from editors who know her and those calls won't be found
anywhere else online.
Glatzer decided to offer the fee-based newsletter because there
wasn't anything like the Absolute Markets Premium Edition with
its 50 pages of markets. She believed that a $15 fee for a
yearly subscription more than pays itself if writers land one
assignment from the newsletter's resources. Furthermore, it
saves the writers' time spent searching for job listings. In
determining what to charge, Glatzer and her colleagues
researched what publishers charged for similar newsletters in
other fields such as casting calls for actors.
In determining how much to charge for her fee-based newsletter,
Stewart asked herself, "How much would I be willing to pay?" The
Publicity Hound, her eight-paged, bi-monthly, fee-based
subscription newsletter costs $9 per issue or $49.95 for a
one-year subscription (six issues) and has more single-copy
buyers than subscribers.
Selling ebooks and fee-based newsletters
If you decide to sell ebooks and newsletters for a fee, Glatzer
recommends getting lots of reviews and interviews for ebooks.
For newsletters, she says, "I think you need to establish
credibility by offering free samples first. Make it easy for
people to subscribe by offering multiple payment options."
Joan Stewart promotes articles in the fee-based newsletter in
almost every issue of the free ezine. She also uses auto
responder messages for people who buy single copies. About a
week after the purchase, they receive a message thanking them
for their order and asking if they would like to subscribe.
Stewart shares her list of what works and what doesn't work when
selling ebooks and fee-based newsletters:
What works: * The product must be content-rich.
* It must include lots of links to other resources.
* Even if it includes hotlinks to other products, it must cover
topics that readers would be interested in.
* The product must be top-quality, which means free of typos,
and it must be easy to read. (16-point type for ebooks.)
What doesn't work:
* Information that's outdated. Special reports and ebooks must
be updated at least once a year. I have a special report called
"Fly High with Publicity in In-flight Magazines." It includes
contact info for 30 in-flight magazines. It's a real pain to
update this annually, but readers will jump down my throat if I
don't.
* Products that are little more than sales pitches for other
things the author sells (consulting services, etc.).
* Products that don't promise what they deliver.
* Lousy customer service. Buyers expect a human being to reply
to their email messages or answer the phone if they have
problems downloading the product, or other concerns. I have
bought ebooks from some well-known Internet marketers who refuse
to return my phone calls when I call them for help. I no longer
buy from those people.
Steer clear of joining discussion groups solely for spamming the
list about your ebook or newsletters. "It irritates the heck out
of people," Glatzer says.
She promotes her fee-based newsletter through advertising in
other writing-related ezines and some paid Google ads; she also
advertises it in her own free newsletters, and she sponsors
writing contests and conferences in exchange for newsletter
mentions. Glatzer says, "We do a lot of promotion for the site
and all newsletters in general; people subscribe to our free
newsletters for a while, so they can determine we're worth the
bucks!"
Fee-based newsletters are out there and won't go away soon.
Authors churn out ebooks every day in spite of data supporting
that people heavily prefer print over electronic versions.
Ebooks prices continue to equal or surpass printed books.
Knight ends the discussion. "The best will survive and rise to
the top as they always naturally do, while those who don't step
up to the plate and innovate like mad will get left in the
digital dust." Amen.
About the author:
Meryl K. Evans (www.meryl.net), Content Maven,
is the editor of eNewsletter Journal and Shavlik's The
Remediator Security Digest. She writes columns for PC Today,
InformIT, and MarketingProfs. Contact her to get content that
inspires action or check out her blog (www.meryl.net/blog/.
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