May 14 2008
I think Loren Feldmen Is On To Something
By Jeremy Schoemaker
43 comments 
Loren starts doing some Pay Per View posts. This is a interesting way to monetize the hardest thing to monetize… content (video in this case).
You can see his first PPV post here. Its pretty slick how Zong works.
If Loren was to ask my advice (and he hasn’t) I would advise him to charge more…. like $20.00 or so. I think the same people who will pay 1$ would pay 20$. I would definately play with the pricepoint.
I really like the company Loren is using. Mobile billing is about as least friction as it gets for the user….
- 43 Comments. What say you?
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This is a PPV Comment…If you view this comment you owe me 99 cents
I think if you are a good seller you can sell just about anything. This is a unique way to generate some more revenue with a blog.
~Terry
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Very cool idea. This could work for a lot of people.
TDM
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really? 99 cents per read? Not to sure about it but it does sound interesting but can definetly see where he’s going with this. I will def be checking out zong.
btw Shoe - was your layout messed up earlier…?
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not that i know of
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Shoe, am I missing something or does Zong not work for publishers in the US that would want to go PPV?
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I got it too when I first clicked through my feedreader, it had ” iWPhone Theme + Plugin.” in the footer
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Interesting concept…99 cents can convince a lot of people to pay for the view…Keen to watch the progress of this.
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Really Shoe? You would pay $20 to watch a drunk tell someone a joke?
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So the idea is to just charge 99cents for a video or a post that you have written and designated as premium content?
TDM
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It better be some amazingly premium content if he wants to charge for it. Think about how many listeners Howard Stern lost when he went to a paid service, even though the content promised to be better. I don’t think this is the trend, but it will be interesting to see.
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Great idea, certainly worth testing. I can see where a lot of sites could do something like this and not have it affect their base readership. The idea is that if it costs that much it must be really good, and small percentage will go for it. 99 cents is nothing to a lot of people. Same thing with $20. As long as the process of getting access to the post isn’t too much of a hassle it’ll make some money and it looks like Zong provides that.
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You have more experience testing price points than I do, but I think he’s getting more sales charging $1 than he would if he charged $20, but the question is really whether he would make more in the long run if he raised his price. He needs a way to get recurring sales from people.
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You know after thinking about this for a while, it should make him money in the short term. Everyone will pay to see what the paid content is like, and then it will drop off since there is no way he can sustain premium content at a price when even the major networks are offering high quality content for free on sites like Hulu. It will make a quick buck and die.
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By the way, Loren is wrong to think that at “some point, content must be paid for.” Not sure where he got that idea from. Popping them old Web 1.0 pills. Before people realized that the way to monetize content is to force the end user to interact with the ad by making it part of the content (and doing it in a way that benefits the end user, so that they don’t mind and in fact enjoy being sold to.) But I don’t think Loren’s core audience is into those kinds of things, so I guess this is the best he can do….
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Membership porn sites are still making money even with free porn. I am also thinking that Zongo will be a boon for the adult ppv sites.
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stupidest idea ive ever seen
shoe please dont copy him lol
i think a monthly fee would be better
a dollar per post is too much i think
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I could see this model working for some things like instructional videos, etc. Something where you had to put a lot of work into it and targeted viewers would get an immediate benefit. You are then essentially selling a virtual product for 99 cents.
This is not very different from paying to watch a movie online or though PPV TV. It is really all about the quality and uniqueness of the content.
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$20 to watch a video? I doubt it. $1 is good because he will get the masses, not even apple charges $20 for videos.
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The price is not bad at $1. Twenty would be a big price actually.
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pay per video is another great invention in the field of seo.
in my own opinion, a dollar per video might be a good charge though.
eric
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shoe, how about adding a video comment facility in follow up to this ppv?
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haha. I see a glitch in this plan. Unless theres a way to protect the videos not being copied once paid for, then someone (or a group) can easily pay a buck, then copy the video and have it up some where else for free, or maybe even charge less for it.
How does he protect against that?
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An interesting concept but how does he stop pirating of the content as others have said. If someone pays 99 cents for the world and gives his video away for free, whats to stop them from doing it? How will he monitor it.
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I belive that would be the idea of it…
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$20 buck is rather steep considering; I would not dole out that for anything sight unseen. I am more inclined to blow .99c and see if he has anything of value.
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He’s not doing porn (thank god, Loren Feldmen porn?). That’s why he has to offer content that can not be found anywhere else, and doing what he does on the show I just don’t see how it can be sustained.
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well in tht case I guess would have to charge high price.
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Better to do a subscription model - $20/year, recurring. Too many micro transactions will got old for the reader after awhile…
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Really?!? Did you get charged twice as well? Are you saying this could be just a one big scam?
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Yeah I definitely agree with charging more. If someone is willing to get their credit card out to pay $1 they’re just not “semi-interested,” so they’d definitely be willing to pay $5 at the very least.
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You know what, I ain’t got anything I can sell as far as premium content and zong, BUT, I’m liking this mobile thing more and more. I don’t think my industry is “sexy” enough for mobile tech, since I’ve got about caca as far as mobile traffic goes, but there I definetly thing that this model has a some future.
However, with video, c’mon, there’s always a hacker or ripper out there that can’t wait to grab any kind of media that’s protected and give it out. With the right kind of sources, you can find anything.
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I’m not sure it’s all that stupid. I always see on various programs they tell people to use their mobile phones to text to vote or whatever and that the cost is anywhere from 50 cents, 75 cents or 99 cents per text. People do it and they are not really getting anything from it. They just do it because it’s less than a buck or because they see it on the screen telling them to do it.
~Terry
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Great and cool idea.
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20 bucks to watch a Loren Feldman video? Yeah, right.
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Hi Terry
Its in the post.
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Mobile is definitely the way to go for shortcutting the payment issue. Excellent idea, Loren is onto a way of getting payment for content, just like you’d do for mobile phone ringtones, etc People are happy to pay for promotional sms’s for everything from competition entries to voting for reality show contestants, so why not for prime content, especially something that could go viral. Imagine that one!
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think he might collect the mobile numbers and use them for marketing later on?
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Well thinking about it, People do pay for basic sms content, so why not web content. It wold be interesting to see if it will work.
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1$ is not a fair price, 20$ would be much. But 10$ per a PPV will be perfect.
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Indeed, Loren should raise the price for his services because they are very qualitative.
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that sounds awesome! I can’t wait till I build up a reader base that is that into what I have to say
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I totally feel this guy is going to come through computer and shake me down for beer money.
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