According to Jim Jansen: "People actually do pay for content", if you want to see for yourself take a look at: http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2011/Mar/Paying-for-Online-Content.aspx. People, and especially your faithful readers, can certainly understand that content creators have to make a living from their passion and that some quality content is worth paying a couple of cents. But never-the-less, I believe that providing your readers with a little bit of explanation about Cleeng (or any other monetization platform) does not hurt and could prevent alienating your audience.
Here are some good practices we wanted to share and that you could maybe consider when putting Cleeng in place:
- Turn it in a positive way, explaining your readers that you are offering premium content for a reasonable fee.
- Make sure that what you sell is more a "service" than simply buy content. People are ready to buy a cook-book with recipes because it helps them make better meals, not because it is a great piece of content.
- Highlight the benefits of using Cleeng for your readers (you may check the feature list for details):
- Pay as you go: instant access to content, no commitment
- Buy in 1-click: use Facebook, Google or Yahoo to create an account instantly
- Secure payment: buy content using secure and trusted payment methods
- User library: your content is stored automatically in your library on http://cleeng.com
- Access content from any of your devices: computer, smartphone, tablet...
- Share and earn: get rewarded when referring content to your network
- Access 100s of publications with a single account
- Do not hesitate to test it and ask your readers' feedback, just like this publisher did here: basically she got very positive feedback about the user experience but no one questioned the fact that she wants to charge for her premium content.
- Reassure your readers, describing the various steps or process to acquire content on your site like La Tribune did:
- You are interested in one piece of content which is protected ? How do you access it?
- Click on the button: "To view this article, sign in in 1-click"
- Create instantly your Cleeng's account using an existing Facebook, Google or Yahoo! account
- Buy using secure payment methods
- Access the piece of content instantly
- Your content is stored on your personal library on http://cleeng.com
- Be transparent: explain your pricing like this publisher
We will continue sharing some valuable examples, in the meantime do not hesitate to enrich our list with your own good practices!
