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Minal Bopaiah

The Genius of On-Site Reminders for Getting Updated Credit Card Numbers

News, Payment Processing, Subscriber Retention, Technology /

So here’s my favorite retention tactic of all time, as executed by Aweber (but which every subscription site should be using if they can). When a subscriber’s credit card is due to expire in 30 days or less, Aweber creates an on-site reminder that asks subscribers to update their credit card number. This is great because people are already on the site — there’s no need to click links or log on or call anyone. Click to…

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Subscription Revenues Grow in Q2 for The Street, HBR Has 14K Digital Subscribers

FInance, News, Subscriber Retention /

The Street, a subscription website covering Wall Street and the financial sector, generated $13.5 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2013. That’s an 8% increase over Q2 of 2012. But what’s most impressive was its growth in subscription revenue, which increased 23.4% year over year. The Street reported it had 77,711 subscribers at the end of Q2, an increase of 2.5% from the prior year. In addition, The Street’s monthly churn rate is improving, dropping…

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Thumbnails Outperform Hero Images in Email Marketing for Registration

News, Subscriber Acquisition /

For most subscription content sites, getting an initial email registration is the first step in the sales funnel. But even that can proove challenging. That’s why we were excited to hear about this interesting email test from BrightTalk during WhichTestWon’s email testing awards Webinar last Friday. BrightTalk tested whether having a large, hero image highlighting one particular content piece in an email increased registration to view content, or if having equally-sized thumbnails would work. (A visual mock-up…

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Tablet and Mobile Engagement Increasing for News and Magazines, But Discoverability Problems Persist

News, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscription Apps, Technology /

Audiences are spending more time on their mobile devices to consume short news briefs, according to Web apps analytics company Localytics. But tablets are where the action’s really at with audiences spending 50 times more time accessing news apps on tablets than mobile devices. However, discoverability remains a problem for both platforms. Consumers don’t really browse app stores like Newsstand like they do physical newsstands; instead they’re far more likely to simply search for the digital…

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How Unlimited User Registration Can Increase Site License Retention and Revenues

Business Services, News, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Retention /

Many digital publishers and subscription sites sell group subscriptions and site licenses based on the number of seats or users, which makes sense. But TV Sports Markets found a great retention and upsell tactic by choosing not to limit user registration based on the number of seats sold. Confusing? Let’s walk you through their sales methodology. First, TV Sports Markets is a PDF publication covering the broadcast rights market for worldwide sporting events — and it’s available…

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Is Google’s New “In-Depth Articles” Feature Good for Subscription Sites?

News, Subscriber Acquisition, Technology /

On Tuesday, Google quietly announced on their blog (or rather, quiet among the din of Bezos-Post news) a new feature in search results — in-depth article results. The new feature would list three longer articles that give background and historical context for a search term — everything from happiness and legos to censorship and capital punishment — and is already being rolled out. Of course, Google’s spokespeople wouldn’t reveal how the algorithms work. Their Webmaster Tools section…

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SOLD: Washington Post and Boston Globe Acquired by Individual Investors

FInance, News /

Perhaps you’ve heard the news. The Washington Post was sold to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos yesterday for $250 million. The deal includes the Express commuter newspaper, The Gazette Newspapers, Southern Maryland Newspapers, Fairfax County Times, El Tiempo Latino and Greater Washington Publishing. Slate.com and Foreign Policy, along with some other holdings by The Washington Post Company, are not part of the deal. Of note is the fact that Amazon is not involved in the deal at…

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Subscription Prices Increase for Metered News Sites as NYT Posts Q2 Gains and The Sun Launches Paywall

FInance, Industry Announcements, News /

Subscription prices for metered sites have risen 36% in the past two years, according to Press+, which made data on its 450 clients available last week. That 36% increase only resulted in a $0.26 difference, since price points for consumer news are historically the lowest among all subscriptions sites (see the chart below, as well as our 2013 Online Subscription Benchmark Report). The data also showed that the average limit on free access had decreased to eight…

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Google Apps Has Worst Renewal Notice EVER

News, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Retention /

So here’s the perfect example of why you should never blindly follow “industry leaders.” Google recently sent a renewal notice to someone on our staff for one of their subscription apps, and it’s riddled with worst practices. For example, it has a sensible link (“subscription management page”) and then a nonsensical button (“Manage domain” – what does that even mean?). Granted the design is nice and clean, but that’s not going to do anything to improve renewal…

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3 Types of Recommendation Engines to Increase Audience Engagement and Drive Traffic

News, Subscriber Acquisition, Technology /

For years, Amazon and Netflix have used internal recommendation engines to keep audiences engaged and buying more. Now, online publishers can use the same technology to drive site traffic and increase page views. There are three main types of recommendation engines that online publishers should know about: Internal recommendation engines: When a site visitor lands on a page on your site, these recommendation engines suggest content from your site in order to keep the visitor engaged by…

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