Online Content Business Model

What's the right online content business model for your company? A metered paywall like the Wall Street Journal? A 30-day paid trial like the Financial Times? A freemium model? Or something in between?

Here are some of the most common online content business models:

• Free trial - Obviously this won't work as a long-term strategy, but to attract readers and build buzz, this can work.
• Freemium - Offer limited access to your content for free, but make readers pay for full access. Similar to free trial, this can be a good way to attract readers and, if you can provide enough value, converting readers into paying customers.
• Paywalls - Like freemium, paywalls provide limited access to content. Some paywalls are metered, in that they are triggered after readers have accessed a certain amount of content - and then they are shut out to additional content until they pay for more.
• Pay-per-view - Also referred to as "microtransactions," this is an online content business model in which customers can pay piece meal for the content they want to access.
• Affiliate - Content is provided for free, alongside affiliate links for related purchases (think a free article that then links to Amazon to purchase a book with more in-depth information on this topic).
• Licensing - Some content services my license content from individuals or publishers.

Online content businesses need pricing and packaging flexibility and the ability to broadly test subscription pricing schemes to find the best pricing strategy. Zuora is a relationship business management solution that powers the online content business model so that businesses can develop and monetize customer relationships. Zuora supports bundling of multiple items on a single subscription and can consolidate billing across all content formats. It can also add or remove content items without disrupting subscriptions.

Download the top 4 imperatives for successful direct-to-consumer subscription businesses.