2. A Keyhole to the Paywall
Model: Advantages and
Disadvantages
As we gravitate towards a free-for-all consumption ecosystem
across domains, entertainment is the most evident example of this
trend. Viewers today come with an expectation that entertainment
ought to be free. The trouble is, monetisation is becoming
increasingly challenging for content creators. While advertising is
one way to go if you have a large viewing universe, a sizeable
portion of this revenue is routed to the host platform that the
content is broadcast on. YouTube is a good example of this.
Content creators who are serious about turning into full-time
broadcasters may find it hard to sustain a livelihood on a third-party
streaming platform. With the dawn of turnkey technologies like
StreamTube and StreamNow, made for video sharing and live
streaming respectively, setting up your own streaming platform has
become easy, affordable and lucrative. Amongst the monetisation
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3. options available, the paywall has risen to prominence within tech
communities.
Today, we talk about how a paywall can help you earn big bucks and
how it is better than some of its counterparts.
An Insight Into Long-Form Video:
For a long time, there has been a strong internet movement
towards the democratisation of video entertainment. Content
creators of all sizes have entered a fray once considered exclusive
for media magnates. With the arrival of content hosting platforms
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4. like YouTube and Vimeo, there is a common perception that a level
playing field has been established for content marketers, big and
small. And while there has been a rise in video channels, content
volume and content quality, boutique content entrepreneurs aren’t
benefitting as much monetarily as one may think. Content platforms
stand to gain the most from small-time video creators, by taking the
lion’s share of earnings from video views. Unfortunately, third-party
platforms aren’t built for small-time players. Instead, they rely on
enormous economics, powering big content creators further while
keeping small ones where they are. Essentially, generic online video
has morphed from being an income engine to a marketing tool.
Types of Monetisation
There are two primary means of monetisation for video creators and
curators: advertising-led monetisation and paywall-led
monetisation. Here, have a closer look.
Monetisation Route 1. Advertising-Led
Monetisation
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5. Advertising comes in an assorted basket of formats as far as online
video is concerned. From pre-rolls, overlays and mid-rolls, a
content creator can decide where to place an advertisement over a
video. If the platform is owned by the creator, that is. Conversely, a
third-party platform may not afford you the luxury of choosing
where an advertisement airs within your video. Advertising is
heavily dependent on traffic and can be capitalised on if viewership
is significant. Online advertising is the most popular monetisation
route in the online video universe, especially because there is no
investment involved on the part of the content creator. The medium
is fuelled entirely by advertisers. There are various formats of video
advertisements, outlined below.
Linear Advertisements
As the name suggests, linear advertisements are rolled at some
point during a video, dividing the content into two halves. Linear
advertisements are bucketed into categories based on when in a
video stream they are aired. Pre-roll advertisements are displayed
before the commencement of a video whereas mid-roll
advertisements are featured in the middle of a video. In both cases,
a viewer has to watch the ad before moving onto the content. In-
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6. stream ads are ideal for on-demand video formats, but not so much
for live streams. Since the latter category operates in real-time,
chunks of the stream may be knocked off due to an ad, providing a
subpar experience to viewers.
Nonlinear Advertisements
Nonlinear advertisements are those that feature as overlays or
banners across the screen. Aside from ads that are rolled out end to
end, a content creator or platform may also choose to supplement
marketing properties with ad banners, tickers and text during a
video.
Monetisation Route 2. Video Paywalls
Video paywalls are versatile, powerful monetisation tools for both
live streaming and video on demand. They come with differential
pricing, channel packages, playlists and in-platform gateways. All in
all, they form a far superior proposition for long-form video content
producers. Paywalls are gated paths for video content consumption
that can only be unlocked with a payment or a promise of payment.
Usually, a credit card payment is taken in advance or credit card
details are stored as a foremost step. Paywalls can be implemented
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7. at various degrees. A hard paywall for instance, limits all content on
a site whereas a soft paywall is useful in a freemium model if a user
wishes to gain access to premium content. Paywalls are also useful
in monetising bite-sized pieces of content. Pay per download, pay
per stream, pay per view and subscriptions are some examples of
this. iTunes uses paywalls to metre its content on a per-item basis.
Pay Per View Model
Pay per view is a prime example of how paywalls can be leveraged
effectively. In this model, a viewer makes a payment for a specific
piece of content and is sent a link to download a copy of the video.
Pay per view is exceptionally advantageous to those who own
multiple devices. The model enables fluid content transfers across
phones, tablets and desktops and also allows offline consumption. If
a user buys a piece of content, they become the rightful owner
upon making the payment. This makes it easy for content creators
to reconcile sales and review analytics. Pay per view could give rise
to piracy, however and this is something that should be monitored.
The model presents many merits: it is affordable, instant and
supports adaptive bit rate technology.
Subscription Model
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8. A subscription model could prove effective if you have a vast library
of content you’d like to share with viewers. This format could draw
greater interest from viewers and make it easier for both parties to
regulate payments. Subscriptions offer unlimited viewing across
available offerings at a staple cost. For you, as a content creator, a
subscription model could promise a consistent revenue stream,
allowing you the liberty to plan out your business investments in
advance. Subscriptions are used by many well-placed entertainment
platforms. Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Hulu occupy the top 3
spots amongst these. Such a model is more likely to promote
customer loyalty, repeated subscription and cross-category sales.
Deciding Between Advertising and
Paywalls
If you’ve been struggling to decide which form of monetisation to
pursue, you should know a few basic facts before making a decision.
For starters, the views per video are usually lower on a paywall
model than on an advertising-led model. And understandably so.
However, even if your viewership is lower, you could make far more
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9. money on a paywall than you could otherwise if you play your cards
right. By maintaining an optimal price point that sits well with your
viewer universe, you can draw in genuine users and still run a
profitable platform. It’s important to read into market sentiments
by conducting research to know what price point users favour.
Implementing the Paywall
Here are a few tips that will sail you through the paywall
implementation experience.
Tip 1. Offer Previews
Yes, your content is payable, but that doesn’t mean you can’t offer
your users previews on social platforms. In fact, previews act as
excellent bait for unsuspecting social media users. Create sponsored
campaigns with snippets of your video content or even live videos.
Even if you host your stream on your own platform via StreamNow
or StreamTube, you can always create your own channel on YouTube
as a marketing tool. Place your short-form content there, and
reserve your longer, more elaborate content for your own website.
Tip 2. Go Niche for Live Events
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10. Live events have caught on in a big way across the internet. If you
do decide to host a live event of your own, make sure you go all out
with promotions. Create a marketing roster well in advance and
attempt to build a niche audience by targeting your users via
sponsored ads. You could do this on Google, Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram. By generating excitement early, you can bring a host of
new users on board.
Tip 3. Implement Even Pricing
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11. Instead of jumping into the deep end of the pricing pool, think
about what would entice users to come back to your platform. It’s
important to understand what users think is fair and attune your
pricing to customer sentiments. Remember that word of mouth can
work in magical, mysterious ways so it’s important to be on top of
your game.
Tip 4. Implement Auto-Renew
An effective way to have users subscribe repeatedly is by
implementing the auto-renew function. Many users don’t have the
time or energy to manually re-subscribe and this is a clever way to
bring your entire base back on board. Plus, this way, your revenue
stream stays in tact.
Tip 5. Innovate Your Content
There are a gazillion entertainment platforms that are constantly
trying to put out the best content so it is imperative that you
consistently augment your value proposition. You can do this by
seeking new content partnerships, introducing newer formats of
content and creating exclusive in-house shows. By not ramping up
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12. your content quiver, you could lose out to rivals who have been
experimental and edgy with their content proposition.
If you aspire to carve out a career rooted in long-form video
content, you should consider introducing a paywall model in your
business. Online advertising is not yet an adequate model to sustain
content creators. Income streams are slow and dry in advertising-
led content formats and content producers are left with little or no
income by the end of a video cycle. It isn’t difficult to make the
switch to a paywall. Frameworks like StreamNow come with an
inbuilt paywall feature that you simply have to feed details into
upon purchase. Your business can become an overnight phenomenon
with a paywall model. Go on; start writing your success story today.
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