Web Design Articles - Content Marketing: Challenges in the Free for All Trend on the Net!

We shall discuss here few tips that shall earn you money even if you sell your products online. It shall make your subscription website profitable.

Whether you run an online magazine, a money-making web site, a private community with memberships, or just a web site with unique, in-demand content, you can earn money selling subscriptions to your web site.

1. Marketing wins over Selling:

We've all visited those web sites where, every few lines, we're reminded that we must pay for access to the site. Phrases like "Sign up Today!", "Only $9.99 per month!", and "Purchase a subscription!" are thrown around the web page as the webmaster's hope of making a sale is made devastatingly clear to the visitor.

In doing this, the webmaster changes the perceived mission or focus of the web site from the subject of the content (such as cars or business) to him/her making money. If you want to sell content online, you're going to need to show that you have a solid grasp on your content's subject matter, and confidence in your web site. It's more effective to create good content and present it in a clean, clear web site than to confuse visitors by bombarding them with subscription links. In this way, you'll be seen as an expert and not someone who's just trying to make a quick buck. Don’t create an impression that you are just another sales person trying to induce the visitors to buy from you!

2. Niche Marketing:

Niche marketing is the key to success for many businesses over the years, and it is holds good as far as the web is concerned. A niche subject for your web site is one with a relatively small scope. For example, instead of creating a web site that explains "how to make money", you might create a web site that focuses on the topic of "how to make money with open source software."

This narrows the scope of your site, increases search engine traffic, and gives you a chance to gain a much bigger percentage of the total market sales. If you write on too vague or too broad a topic, people won't be confident that you will continue to write about things that interest them. Don't cast a big net in the hope that you will catch a few fish; but create the netsize that would catch enough number of the desired fish you would like to catch. Make sure that you understand the exact needs of your target market.

3. Worth of your Content:

Every day, we come across such sites that are trying to sell a product -- usually ebooks on how to make money fast (or some other extremely broad topic). The site consists of one page filled with reason after reason why the visitor should buy the product, presented in multi-colored fonts with bullet lists galore. Yet we rarely see a single example or excerpt from the product that we are being sold so fiercely. With all of the competition on the Web, it's just not realistic to expect to reason someone into buying your product.

You must give some of your content away for free. Using any one of today's subscription content management systems, it's easy to make some content available to members only, while leaving other content open to the public. This allows your visitors to explore your web site as if they were members, while gently being reminded at certain points of the benefits of membership. If you give away some content for free, your content can sell itself. Its like free smapling of shampoo sachets or might be an exclusive coffee. You might get some customers switching to your brand after they try the free samples!

4. Search Engine Optimization:

An added benefit of the business model described in point #3 is that search engines will love your web site. This is important: if your web site can rank high in the search results for your site's keywords, you'll receive loads of highly targeted, free traffic. Google and other major search engines have technology built into their page ranking system that can sniff out "empty" web sites, or web sites that only attempt to sell content, yet provide none themselves.

You can gain a higher rank in the search engine results by making some content freely available, and using a clearly formatted web site. By making some content freely available, you give Google the chance to find your site's keywords while increasing the likelihood that other web sites will link to you (something Google loves). Also, a clearly formatted web site is quickly understood by search engine spiders, which can "read" your content properly.

There are certain techniques that you can use to increase your search engine rankings, and these form the basis of the area of search engine optimization. However, instead of worrying too much about this stuff, advise you to build your web site using a content management system that uses SEO-friendly defaults. These defaults, combined with your quality content, will result in a web site that's naturally search engine friendly.

5. Presentation is key.

It is true that a web site's content will sell subscriptions all by itself, but we can't ignore the fact that a well-designed, user-friendly web site will sell more subscriptions that an ugly web site with the same content. This fact seems to have been forgotten, especially in the subscription web site market. We don’t say that a web design needs to be flashy or filled with images, but if you expect to sell subscription memberships to your web site, you're going to need to present a professional image.

A professional web site means: a nice logo, clear navigation, and a simple layout with proper content flow. A good subscription content management system should include a default web site design that offers these features. This means that, to get started, all you have to do is add content, change the logo, and change the colour scheme.

You Can Make Money with Subscription-based Content

Many people felt that the open source movement in software would kill the software industry, but as we've seen, the software industry has adapted to the open source movement and created the "software as a service" model. In doing so, the software industry, especially online, is bigger than ever.

Now, in the paid content arena, people are again saying that it's impossible to sell content in a world where everything is free. Yes, it's true that some subscription web sites haven't transitioned well into the era of free content.

However, if you understand your site's visitors and stay in touch with the free content model as these five tips suggest, you could earn loads of money per month with nothing more than a computer and some passion.