Anne Holland, Author at Subscription Insider

Why Subscription Retention Rates Slip Over Time for Newer Paywalls

Leave a Comment / FInance, Subscriber Only, Subscriber Retention / Anne Holland

Dan Burkhart of Recurly just posted a great chart showing why it’s dangerous for paywalled publishers to forecast revenues based on their first year’s retention rates especially if your content was originally free. Your biggest fans and long-term readers of your free content are not only more likely to convert to paying than any other audience, they are also more likely to pay for a lot longer. Old-time fan paid membership accounts tend to have fabulous…

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As Many as 60% of Membership Sites & Subscription Sites Aren’t Tracking Mobile Usage… Yet

Leave a Comment / FInance, Subscriber Only, Subscription Apps / Anne Holland

According to Omniture data (click here for chart) MLB.com’s mobile viewer pageviews for just one sample evening in September rocketed far beyond PC-user pageviews. It’s just one more example of what many publishers we know are calling “hockey stick growth” on the mobile viewing front. Despite this industry-wide trend, roughly 30-60% of online subscription and membership site publishers are not yet actively tracking mobile users. The percent varies depending on which niche you’re in; for example,…

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Why Up to 84% of Membership Site Acquisition Deals May Fall Through

Leave a Comment / FInance, Subscriber Only / Anne Holland

According to data from a Harvard Business School publication, only 16% of signed letters of intent to buy a company in the US result in closed deals. The remaining 84% of M&A deals flounder. Why? DYP Advisors, a firm specializing in corporate and intellectual property law, says four due diligence mistakes are to blame: 1. Site sellers failing to do due diligence on the would-be buyer’s operations, cultural “fit” and finances. 2. Sellers who haven’t prepped their internal…

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Adult Content Membership Sites Booming

Leave a Comment / FInance, Subscriber Only / Anne Holland

In early 2010, we estimated US adult content sites were selling an estimated $4 billion per year in memberships and other recurring billing subscription plans. Given the amount of membership site launch and growth activity reported on by trade magazine XBiz.com just in the last month alone, we suspect that number is now considerably higher. For example, last Friday Private Media Group launched a new softcore membership website Glamazones.com; and, this week lesbian content specialists Girlfriends…

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44.7% of SiriusXM’s Promotionally-acquired Subscribers Keep Paying

Leave a Comment / FInance, Subscriber Only, Subscriber Retention / Anne Holland

According to data-crunching from Brad Alvarez of SeekingAlpha.com, 47.1% of new subscribers SiriusXM acquired through promotions last quarter, continued to pay for service after their promo term ended. That’s a moderately high stick rate for paid content subscriptions. The most surprising data in Brad’s report was that SiriusXM has a typical monthly churn rate of just 1.2-2%.That’s insanely low churn. In fact, we’re not sure how that’s possible unless 100% of “involuntary churn” is backed out of…

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How CreditRiskMonitor.com’s Internet Subscription Revenues Rose 9%

Leave a Comment / Business Services, Subscriber Only / Anne Holland

CreditRiskMonitor, an information service for corporate credit professionals, just reported a 9% year-over-year increase in online subscription revenues, when comparing 3rd quarter 2011 to 2010. Interestingly, this increase was *despite* a major shift in their marketplace which would normally lead to decreased revenues.It seems that during the depths of the recession in 2008-2009, the company’s information service was most often an “impulse buy” for credit pros who desperately needed to figure out credit-worthiness in a shifting…

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New Hulu Competitor Launches: Using Amazon.com as Paid Content Back-end

Leave a Comment / Entertainment and Streaming, Subscriber Only / Anne Holland

TumTiki, self-described as the “biggest collection of TV movies & more on the web” launched this morning. The site looks like a Hulu.com copycat, thumbnails of TV shows and movies you can click to play. Many are free, which the corporate owner, telecom giant Frontier Communications, hopes will drive traffic and ad revenue. Visitors can also pay to rent or buy recent movies such as 2011’s ‘The Adjustment Bureau’. The main difference vs Hulu is that…

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British Online Men’s Mag Blokely Launches Paywall; Oddly Offers Weekly Memberships

Leave a Comment / Industry Announcements, Subscriber Only / Anne Holland

Blokely, a UK-based “cracking good read” for men, has launched a paywall in front of about 90% of its content. (There’s still a regular free story for men who are “afraid of commitment”.) In an unusual spin on typical membership site offers, Blokely offers weekly auto-renew subscriptions as one of its options. We predict this will be a nightmare for the payments processing department. The offer is strongly positioned as £2.50 pounds per week vs £3.95…

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Google+ Launches Brand Pages: Yet Another Social Media Page for Your Subscription Marketing Team to Handle

Leave a Comment / Subscriber Only / Anne Holland

Today Google+, which initially had been for individuals only, launched brand page functionality. Much like your brand’s Facebook page and LinkedIn page, you can post logos, company news, videos, and links. Several media brands posted pages immediately, including Anderson Cooper 360, Special Report with Brett Baier, and The Muppets. Is creating and maintaining a branded Google+ page for your subscription site worth the extra work? Possibly. We strongly suspect you’ll get an SEO advantage (but so will…

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Data Content 2011 Show Notes: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile & also Patrick Spain

Leave a Comment / Business Services, Subscriber Only / Anne Holland

Dan Savage Managing Partner of Resolute Digital got laughs when he said, “It seems like the topics have been mobile all day long so far!” Seems like mobile has become so central to nearly every data publisher’s future, that no matter what the each Data Content 2011 speaker was officially presenting on, mobile snuck in somehow. Some show highlights: – Apps may have more impact than a mobile site currently (so if you only have time to…

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Insight to drive subscription growth

Anne Holland