WEBONOMICS
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James Joyner | Thursday, May 29, 2003 |
Jane Weaver is high. She takes at face value a rather dubious poll and then extrapolates into absurdity:
In 2001, 52 percent of consumers said they were not willing to pay for Web content, Gartner found. By the end of last year, that number dropped to 45 percent of wired folks still not willing to pay up.âPeople are becoming less resistant to paying for content online,â said Denise Garcia, the analyst who worked on the Gartner study.
For one thing, the seven percent change may well be inside the margin of error. For another, saying you’d be willing to pay and actually paying are another.
And, she obviously didn’t read OTB this afternoon:
Major online newspapers have already begun adding premium services. On Wednesday, The New York Times converted its free e-mail news alerts into a $19.95-a-year subscription service for new sign-ups. The 500,000 readers who already receive the News Tracker e-mail service will be charged starting June 13.
Ummm. . . . no. I have no idea how many of the current 500,000 readers will agree to pay $19.95 for the subscription, but I’m guessing it is several orders of magnitude less than the number that signed up for the free service. (Hell, I stopped my free subscription ages ago because it was annoying me.)
I’m wondering if Weaver isn’t one of the tax analysts employed by the Democrats that think people’s behavior remains static regardless of associated costs?
Hmm. Let’s try an experiment. OTB averages roughly 500 unique visits a day. Starting at midnight, everyone who visits must donate $100 via one of my tip jars. I should be able to do this full time soon!
(Hat tip: InstaPundit)
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Ok, love ya, but not for $100 a visit.
On the topic of trying to make money off of your website, check out what Howard had to say.
Hmm. Let's try an experiment. OTB averages roughly 500 unique visits a day. Starting at midnight, everyone who visits must donate $100 via one of my tip jars. I should be able to do this full time soon!
Sorry dude you are on your own. lol
In all seriousness, rcuniverse.com had like (I dunno) 18,000 members or something like that. They wanted to charge something small like a buck a month and it cratered.
I don't remember the exact figured but you get the idea. You are right. SAYING you would pay and PAYING are to different colors of horse.
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