Category Archive: 'R&D + New Site Launches'

ConsumerReports Launches New Health Subscription Site

Category: R&D + New Site Launches

Today I got word that ConsumerReports.org – which has 3.3 million online subscribers – is launching a new site ConsumerReportsHealth.org. This subscription offering is $9 per year with, I presume, recurring billing.

The timing made me laugh because I just got off a webinar where question #2 was “what niches do you think are best to launch new subscription sites in?” For some reason, when I was on the spot I didn’t say “health”, although actually it’s been a category that’s been bugging me for awhile.

Health advisory subscription content for consumers was a HUGE category in the offline subscription world in the 1980s and 1990s. But that boom hasn’t translated online yet, in part, I think, because pharma ad dollars are falling off trees. Frankly, though, most ad-based health sites are so focused on delivering pageviews and clicks to advertisers that the quality of health info sites has suffered greatly. Most, even the famous names, look and feel a bit spammy. Not useful. And, certainly not written in a language that people without medical degrees can appreciate.

So, yes. Along with a few other categories I named today, I would say branded health advisory products are well worth researching for possible launches. Name brand doctors and institutions tend to work the best (Dr Weil’s team was testing paid content back at the turn of this century you know.) Often you need an ancillary revenue stream to do the best with these… consumers may pay $9 month or $39-99 year for health advice. In the past, health advisory letters often supplemented revenues by selling their own branded lines of supplements and vitamins.
Posted on: 01/13/2010
By: Anne Holland
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New Data: Subscription & Membership Site Publishers Bullish on Launches & Acquisitions for 2010

Category: R&D + New Site Launches and Subscription Site M&As

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According to this new data from SubscriptionSiteInsider.com’s own annual survey of subscription and membership site executives, the industry is looking at expansion for 2010.   302 publishers and other executives responded to these questions — a record for industry studies.   They included b2b content sites as well as subscription sites selling content access to consumers. All of the executives were actively involved in a paid content subscription site (we surveyed other online and offline publishers separately.)

Some analysis:<ul>

<li> Although mobile publishing is hot in the media, these executives are apparently far more interested in expanding in the platform they know is proven to work for them — subscription sites.</li>

<li> Experienced site publishers are interested in developing sites based on offline brands… but not so much that they’ll go out and look for the deals aggressively.  This is an opportunity for offline brands, ranging from branded instruction books and TV shows, to celebrities worthy of membership-based online fan clubs, to reach out to publishers who already know what they’re doing in the space.  We’ll definitely be covering the hows of this type of deal in 2010.</li>

<li> Folks are also interested in acquisitions, but again mainly in a passive manner.  I actually suspect this is because there are very few information sources currently for subscription site acquisitions… we’ll be launching an M&A center fairly soon to fill that gap, so contact me if you want to be listed as  a buyer, seller or advisor!

<li> Although execs are not that interested in trying to turn free content into a paid site (a tactic that has worked well in the past and we’re building the Case Study Library to prove it), I suspect paid ebook properties will provoke a different answer.

<li> Launches, launches, launches.  Well, your first site is always the hardest.  Once you’ve got the tech, content, and marketing nuts cracked to your satisfaction, why not cookie cutter your systems and processes out over additional sites?  It’s a very normal business model for offline subscription newsletter publishers.   So I expect to see a lot more of that too, with typical site publishers owning multiple titles.

What’s your take?  Let me know below….
Posted on: 11/27/2009
By: Anne Holland
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34% of Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Reports Are Sold Outside the USA

Category: R&D + New Site Launches Tags: , .

Normally, I’d expect anywhere from 7-17% of sales for a paid content b2b product to be made to customers outside the US.  That’s based on a bazillion years of real-life experience.  (OK, not a bazillion, I’m still in my 40s, but you get the picture.)

However, so far 34% of the customers for our new Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark are international.  It’s a clean split between Canadians and Europeans.  What does that mean for the site launch horizon?  Murdoch’s just as famous (or possibly more) elsewhere than he is in the US, and he’s been bombasting a lot this year about subscriptions.  Plus the Guardian bought paidContent.org a couple of years back.   Not to mention the fact that SubHub.com – one of the do-it-yourself subscription site platforms — is based in the UK.  (Strangely, the programmers for SubHub’s most direct competitor, US-headquartered Membergate, are also UK nationals.)   And there’s – old but presumably somewhat good-  data showing that Europeans using online dating sites view 44% more pages (that’s 310 pages each per month) than their American counterparts do.  Lastly, Europeans are far more accustomed to using their phones for paid mobile apps (for example, in Belgrade you pay for city parking with your cell phone, not change in a meter), so the likelyhood paid content on phone will be profitable easier and faster in Europe is , well, very likely.

We’ll be tracking launches on the main part of the site when it’s launched in January 2010… so there’s something to look forward to.  I guess I’ll place a personal bet now that European and Canadian sites will be, oh, let’s say 34% just for the heck of it.
Posted on: 11/23/2009
By: Anne Holland
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