Wireless Content Subscriptions / Advertising

From: David Hauslaib <dave_at_bmedia.org>
Date: Thu 06 Dec 2001 08:17:42 -0500

I am interested in starting a service for wireless subscribers that would
engage them in a story broadcast to their wireless devices (including
mobile phones, PDAs, and pagers). Because of the nature of the
publication, each "edition" of the story would be roughly 100 characters of
plain text. Right now there are several plots proposed (ranging from
science fiction to mystery to erotica) and I am entertaining the idea of
offering multiple stories to subscribers.

I am looking for advice in two areas of this development.

The first is where to build my subscriber base. Because of the nature of
the content, it would only be delivered to wireless devices rather than
users' regular email boxes. This means that instead of being able to
target just any regular user with an email account, I need to go after only
those who have wireless devices capable of receiving text messages. (I am
not in the market to convince those who do not have these devices to go out
and get one simply to be able to subscribe to one of these stories.) I
have considered targeting users on wireless-themed sites, where it would be
expected that anyone visiting that site has an interest in the subject
because she has a wireless device with an email address that enables it to
receive messages. I was wondering if anyone on this list had experience
with this genre of advertising and has any tips or horror/success
stories. Also, are there any companies that offer wireless email address
lists?

The second area I am looking for assistance with is with pricing models. I
have considered two options: fee- or advertising-based.

The first option would require users to pay a small fee for each story they
would like to subscribe to. Upon paying, they would begin to receive each
update on their wireless device when each edition is released (at this
point it is planned on being several times a week). If the user wanted to
subscribe to another story, they would pay an additional fee. What would
be an appropriate fee for this type of content? Because the actual
creation and deployment of such stories is relatively small, and because I
am not looking to make a fortune off of this, the fee could be relatively
nominal.

The advertising-based model would require users to agree to receive
advertisements sent to their mobile devices periodically in order to
receive the stories for free. The enticement to users would be that they
would receive free entertainment on their mobile devices for the cost of an
extra text message every now and then from an advertiser. The enticement
for advertisers would that nearly everybody that receives a text message
reads it, if not because she is expecting it then out of pure
curiosity. This almost guarantees advertisers a 100% exposure rate, though
a response rate would be hard to gauge because it is received on a mobile
device.

One thing to keep in mind is that unlike with regular email, every time a
user receives a text message, she often has to pay for it as a feature from
her service provider. Fees range for each wireless service provider, but I
think that many individuals might be interested in at least seeing what the
stories have to offer and sign up.

Based on your past experiences, which method do you think would be more
likely to succeed? I'd love to hear what anyone else has to think.

Thanks!
Dave


_____________________________________________

David Hauslaib

President & Founder
BMEdia.org / Black Market Enterprises
Information Capitalist / Web Guru
http://www.bmedia.org / dave@bmedia.org
Mobile 860.655.7495 / Fax 360.397.2906





Received on Thu Dec 06 2001 - 07:17:42 CST