Discussion
Chaps,
I recently launched a on-line business making video tutorials for complex aircraft used by flight simulation hobbyists. We've had quite a hit with it and I'm pleased with the commercial performance so far. With this sort of thing you get a big chunk of revenue in the first couple of weeks around the launch hype and then it quickly dies off.
Now, a month in, sales have slowed considerably, as you would expect from a rather limited market such as this. The other issue we have is torrents. You can't protect video content as you can with programs that require activation and codes etc so you're at the mercy of your customers kindly uploading your work to the world for free. This has happened, but thankfully the product is very large (12 GB) and the seeders thus far limited in number so it's not yet a big concern as a practical way of getting hold of the product.
This product has already paid for itself in terms of revenue and we're already working on the next one. The issue is how to proceed with the pricing of this one to pick up the stragglers who are still hanging back, before the torrenting gets more widepsread (torrent sites are like cancer, as fast as you DMCA google to take the link down, another one pops up having picked up the original seeder) and essentially renders the product worthless as you can just download it for free, if you are so minded. One of my resellers did a 20% promotion last week that was very successful and I'm planning to have a big 25% off push this weekend. The risk of this is that we pee off people who paid full price for it only a month ago, but this of course has be read against the backdrop of the very limited lifespan of the product (75% of the revenue in the first 10 days) and the fact that we are racing the torrenting tide which is gathering pace. A tricky one.
Any advice, PHers?
I recently launched a on-line business making video tutorials for complex aircraft used by flight simulation hobbyists. We've had quite a hit with it and I'm pleased with the commercial performance so far. With this sort of thing you get a big chunk of revenue in the first couple of weeks around the launch hype and then it quickly dies off.
Now, a month in, sales have slowed considerably, as you would expect from a rather limited market such as this. The other issue we have is torrents. You can't protect video content as you can with programs that require activation and codes etc so you're at the mercy of your customers kindly uploading your work to the world for free. This has happened, but thankfully the product is very large (12 GB) and the seeders thus far limited in number so it's not yet a big concern as a practical way of getting hold of the product.
This product has already paid for itself in terms of revenue and we're already working on the next one. The issue is how to proceed with the pricing of this one to pick up the stragglers who are still hanging back, before the torrenting gets more widepsread (torrent sites are like cancer, as fast as you DMCA google to take the link down, another one pops up having picked up the original seeder) and essentially renders the product worthless as you can just download it for free, if you are so minded. One of my resellers did a 20% promotion last week that was very successful and I'm planning to have a big 25% off push this weekend. The risk of this is that we pee off people who paid full price for it only a month ago, but this of course has be read against the backdrop of the very limited lifespan of the product (75% of the revenue in the first 10 days) and the fact that we are racing the torrenting tide which is gathering pace. A tricky one.
Any advice, PHers?
To combat torrents, flood the torrent sites with your own files, named the same as existing torrents, but with broken files or extremely poor quality versions. My strategy would be to create two versions - both poor quality, but one at about half the file size, and one full file size. Nothing more demotivating then spending numerous hours downloading files only to find they're next to worthless.
My other advice would be to offer a low monthly subscription and drip feed the videos. Give customers a reason to keep coming back, and more importantly, to keep paying the subscription.
My other advice would be to offer a low monthly subscription and drip feed the videos. Give customers a reason to keep coming back, and more importantly, to keep paying the subscription.
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