After Andrew Warner sold his start-up in his twenties for millions, he found that he enjoyed educating other budding entrepreneurs about how to succeed. After a failed attempt to start an events business, Warner turned to video interviews and e-courses, and quickly discovered that subscriptions were the best business model for his new site, Mixergy.com. In this Case Study, we get the inside scoop on how Warner creates compelling videos and pay-worthy e-Courses for entrepreneurs (who are bombarded with free advice online). Plus, discover how posting a transcript of videos can increase your search rankings and how creating a splash page can boost your email capture rate.
Company Profile
Founded: 2004
No. of Publications: 1
Employees: 9 part-time contractors and self
Business Model: Subscriptions + advertising
Paying Subscribers: More than 1,000
Location: San Francisco
Website: http://www.mixergy.com
Target Market
Mixergy’s target market consists of start-up entrepreneurs, mainly in the technology and software industries. Subscribers already have a company and most are making more than $60,000 a year; a third are making more than $100,000 a year.
The current audience is 46% female and 54% male, and most don’t have kids. 42% don’t have a college education.
Content
Mixergy.com is a freemium site that hosts video interviews with start-up founders and industry experts, articles and courses. Videos that are less than two weeks old are available free to watch, but after two weeks, the video is made available only to paying members (transcripts are always free to view — a best practice since it allows for more SEO keywords to be indexed).
Courses are exclusive to members, and are different from videos in that they record industry experts turning on their computer and walking Mixergy’s audience through a very detailed and tactical process of accomplishing something, such as optimizing press releases for search discovery, using WordPress plug-ins, etc.
Warner says the courses are pay-worthy because of the presenters he gets: “I don’t think a lot of sites can get them. People want specific how-to’s for business. They don’t want it to come from someone with a PR background, but from an entrepreneur like them who figured it out.”
Warner conducts the interviews himself, though his part-time staff mines each interviewee for up to an hour in order to get the best, most pragmatic material from them. In addition, Warner’s interview style probably also contributes to the pay-worthiness of his site; there’s no “get-rich-quick” vibe.
Mixergy adds three new interviews each week (which means three are added to the member area every week). Courses are added once a week.
Warner says he decided on topics by checking in with the audience to see what issues they’re having — and then finding experts who can speak to those issues. None of the interviewees or course instructors are paid, and because of Warner’s reputation in the software industry (he started and sold a company himself and has been covered by Forbes), some are even willing to pay him to be on Mixergy (he does not accept payment from instructors or interviewees).
All of the interviews are conducted via Skype and recorded with a Skype plug-in (see Vendors & Technology section for specifics). Courses may be recorded using Skype or GoToMeeting. Warner uses the camera built into his computer, but a rode podster mic . He says the lighting doesn’t have to be perfect, but he went to a site called Smartshoot and paid a photographer to show him how to fix the lighting in his office. He then spent about $1500 on lighting equipment.
Mixergy will prep interviewees and instructors on recording and get them “70%-80% of the way” to looking professional. This includes telling them to find a quiet room, use an Ethernet cable instead of wireless (which has a lot of latency) and to make sure they’re lit from the front not behind. He also advises them to check what’s in the background of the shot and advises them to use a mic if possible, but warns against using a headset since the mic can pick up noise from clothing on hair.
The videos are edited and uploaded by part-time staff.
Revenue Streams
Mixergy generates 90% of its revenue from subscriptions; the rest comes from advertising.
Warner endorses the subscription model whole heartedly, saying, “I have to keep trying to understand my audience to make a subscription that’s right for them. It ties me to them in a way that being all in on ads wouldn’t. If you look at news sites, ads are for scammy products, even though the site can’t possibly believe in it.”
The site has a monthly and annual plan:
- $25/month lets subscribers stream videos and courses online
- $199/year lets subscribers download videos and courses
Warner says the majority of subscribers choose a monthly plan. All plans are on auto-renewal.
Warner has conducted a number of tests on the site. He A/B tested placing testimonials on the plans and pricing page, but it didn’t lead to much of a lift in subscriptions. See Conversion Tactics for some of the most profitable tests.
Advertising is mainly limited to spoken ads before any interview. Warner will be the voice for these ads, and advertisers are linked to at the bottom of the video page.
Marketing Tactics
Mixergy uses a variety of marketing tactics to acquire new subscribers:
SEO
Mixergy uses a plug-in to optimize for search results, and Warner is conscientious to put any interviewee’s name and company in the headline when a new video is uploaded. He also pays for transcripts of the interviews, which allows people to discover them based on their search terms.The evergreen nature of his content lends particularly well to this tactic. For example, he did an early interview with the founder of Lynda.com and people still search for “how does Lynda.com make money?”
Obviously, making the transcripts available means people could glean the content of the interview without paying, but the scrolling through the transcript is neither fast nor convenient. (Editor’s Note: This is a prime example of how convenience is often a greater conversion factor for paying subscribers than content.)
PR
Warner has been covered by a number of traditional and new media. He handles his own PR and is often approached by reporters because he knows what it’s like to interview others and therefore knows how to give a good interview. Because of his own personal success at starting and selling a company in his 20s, he’s quite the media darling who’s been featured in Forbes, Good Morning America and many, many blogs.
A lot of Warner’s guests also display the Mixergy logo on their own sites (“as seen on..”) because his own story is well-known in the start-up world. Warner is often willing to give them a video file of the interview to embed, even if it’s behind the paywall, since its such great referral marketing.
Social Media
While Mixergy has a presence on social media through Facebook, Twitter and free podcasts through iTunes, Warner says that social media has been a big driver of traffic mainly through the experts he interviews, almost all of whom have their own social media followings. Although Warner says he chooses interviewees based on substance not following (and agrees with us that the people who work hardest on their business often don’t have that much time for self-promotion).
Warner also uses his Facebook page to capture emails, much like the splash landing page described below in Conversion Tactics:
Trade Shows & Conferences
Warner says he’s tried to avoid trade shows and conferences, but lately he’s been accepting more opportunities, such as the World Domination Summit.
Conversion Tactics
Mixergy does not require an email registration to view free content, but it does have a one-time splash page that appears the first time a new visitor comes to the site:
Warner says they get a 20% completion rate on the splash page and it’s one of the best ways to introduce people to the site. It’s worked better than an opt-in email newsletter because prospects are not always interested in the latest topics — but with the splash page, prospects get a better idea of the breadth of content and experts available through the site. (Best Practice Alert! This is a great email capture tactic for sites with evergreen or encyclopedic content, especially if they’re concerned that their most recent content may or may not immediately address a prospect’s pain point.)
As we noted, this page is mimicked on one of the custom tabs on Mixergy’s Facebook page.
The site also has one of the cleanest plans and pricing pages we’ve seen:
Since the site has a freemium model, where visitors can view the latest interviews from the past two weeks, there’s no free trial (Best Practice Alert!).
Retention Tactics
Mixergy does not currently measure its average account lifetime, and overall is lacking in a solid retention strategy. While being on auto-renewal is one proven tactic, renewal reminders are sent out by Mixergy’s payment processor, not Mixergy itself.
About Andrew Warner
Andrew Warner started a Bradford & Reed with his brother, a multi-million dollar online greeting card company. After selling the company in 2003, he took a break and then started speaking at colleges to other aspiring entrepreneurs.
He tried turning those events into meet-ups and a profitable business model, but after sinking $100,000, the company still wasn’t going anywhere. He then pivoted and started interviewing other entrepreneurs online.
In February of 2010, he found that people who weren’t watching old interviews *would* watch if he charged for them; basically a perceived value made them more valuable in his audience’s eyes.. He then began selling archived interviews individually, but found it a headache, so he started a membership model. Thus, Mixergy was born.
He says his biggest lesson was to start charging. “I was too afraid to charge and I wish I wasn’t.”
My favorite organizational tactic Warner employs is Testing Tuesdays — every Tuesday, Mixergy tests selling something new. This is a great way for companies to systematize their innovation and “put it on the calendar,” whether it’s a weekly, monthly or quarterly event.
Vendors & Technology
Hosting — WP Engine, thewpvalet
http://wpengine.com/
http://thewpvalet.com/
Payment processing — Stripe
https://stripe.com/
Email management — Aweber
https://www.aweber.com
Web design & development — WPvalet
http://thewpvalet.com/
SEO plugin – Swifttype
https://swiftype.com/
Splash landing page plugin – Bob Hiler
CMS — WordPress
http://wordpress.com/
CRM — Wishlist Member & Gravity Forms
** Warner says he “loves” Wishlist; he uses Gravity Forms to add more data to user records and to auto-populate forms. If a visitor is already a member, s/he doesn’t have to re-enter their email to contact Warner or customer service through the site.
http://member.wishlistproducts.com/
http://www.gravityforms.com/
Analytics — Clicky.com
http://clicky.com/
Interview software — Skype & GoToMeeting
http://www.skype.com/en/
http://www.gotomeeting.com/online/
Call Recorder — eCamm
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/
Lighting Consultant found through Smartshoot
http://www.smartshoot.com/
Insider Analysis
We admire Mixergy’s business model for being innovative. While there are plenty of sites purporting expert interviews and video instruction, few have combined both ideas using relatively inexpensive software and then charged via a membership model. We also like Mixergy’s attitude toward testing and LOVE their splash landing page for email capture — it’s a definite tactic that other evergreen sites should copy. Mixergy also does a great job of marketing through SEO, social media and PR.
The obvious room for improvement is retention. Mixergy needs to start measuring account lifetimes, especially given that the entrepreneur audience tends to have high churn. Doing so may allow him to offer a lifetime membership before a critical drop-off stage, much like Sports Betting Professor, and thereby maximize revenues. The site may also want to explore running some PPC campaigns on their interviewee and expert names, as well as creating trailer videos for YouTube.
