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E-Business Secrets
Brian Livingston
Content biz continues to grow despite economic slowdown

I wrote in E-Business Secrets two weeks ago that Salon.com, a well-known news and commentary site, was proceeding rapidly toward its goal of becoming profitable by selling paid subscriptions to tens of thousands of readers. (See http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/11/22/011122opsecrets.xml)

Other paid subscription sites, it turns out, are doing equally well or better. Anne Holland, the driving force behind ContentBiz.com, says several sites already have enrolled hundreds of thousands of subscribers and are in the black or will be by the end of this year, despite the overall economic slump that worsened after the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Holland, who analyzes the often privately held figures of subscription-based sites, says the top five sites (as of her latest estimates, mostly from September) and their typical fees are:

1. Classmates.com, 1.5 million subscribers ($29)

2. ConsumerReports.org, 625,000 ($24)

3. WSJ.com, 609,000 ($29 to $59)

4. Ancestry.com, 400,000 ($49 to $59)

5. Ediets.com, more than 250,000 ($65 to $75)

Despite the large subscription bases of these Internet leaders, Holland says many smaller, one-person sites (often coupled with an e-mail newsletter) are profitable with only a few thousand subscribers.

ContentBiz.com has put together a very useful resource book on the secrets of making Web sites pay. Entitled "Selling Subscriptions to Internet Content," this $99 guide is based on a conference held in Washington last spring and provides 250 pages of lessons from eight pioneers in the subscription marketing business. The product is available only in hard copy but ships within 24 hours, Holland says, and is one of her online store's best sellers.

"Selling Subscriptions to Internet Content"

http://sherpastore.com@836.as/?4e45

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E-BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: SEGWAY BALANCING SCOOTER

Inventor Dean Kamen unveiled this week his mysterious and widely hyped new device, previously known only by code names such as "Ginger" and "IT": a two-wheeled, motorized scooter with a gyroscope that keeps its rider from falling over while riding. Called the Segway, it's intended for people who need to travel short distances in dense city centers, college campuses, and other places where cars or motorcycles aren't ideal.

The device is said to propel its user at a speed of as much as 12 miles per hour. It re-energizes its batteries from an ordinary wall outlet in about six hours, with a range of about 15 miles when fully charged. The device can't be sold to consumers until 2002, but at $3,000 each your e-commerce site wouldn't have to sell very many to make some serious money.

Paul Nakada's best Web links to Segway Scooter stories:

http://segway.weblogs.com@54.vg/?61cd

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LIVINGSTON'S TOP 10 NEWS PICKS O' THE WEEK

1. E-commerce is up while overall retail sales are down

http://www.bizreport.com@a2.tc/?40d

2. Online music services starting at $9.95 per month

http://www.slashdot.org@th.gs/?7f5

3. Microsoft's Xbox is "customized" by curious users

http://www.theregister.co.uk@5a0.tc/?bdd

4. Orbitz will begin charging $5 fee on travel tickets

http://news.cnet.com@31.dk/?fc5

5. U.S. Supreme Court considers Web content law

http://www.washingtonpost.com@e.la/?13ad

6. Visa adds passwords to make credit cards more secure

http://www.nytimes.com@836.as/?1795

7. Corporate critics are losing their Web sites

http://www.chicagotribune.com@a6r.ms/?1b7d

8. Excite@Home deals will save some Net access for now

http://www.cw360.com@3n.be/?1f65

9. HTML tips: How to format sites and e-mail for AOL

http://www.webmasterbase.com@1c.to/?234d

10. Sick and twisted: "Spank 'em" game hits the Internet

http://www.theregister.co.uk@54.vg/?2735

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THIS WEEK'S "THEY CAN'T DO THAT ON THE WEB!" PAGE

I wrote in E-Business Secrets last week about a Flash animation featuring a mysterious stranger named Tourist Guy whose image showed up in digitally altered photos of news images.

Now the Guardian of London has solved the puzzle. The respected daily newspaper revealed on Nov. 30 that Tourist Guy is Peter Guzli, a citizen of Hungary. A 1997 photo of Guzli standing on the outdoor observation deck at the top of the World Trade Center had been edited to make it appear that a plane approaching from behind him was about to smash into the tower. The dramatic photo careened around the Internet, with an "official" Tourist Guy Web site receiving 60,000 visitors a week at the height of the craze. An interesting case study in how "news" travels around the Web.

THE GUARDIAN TRACKS DOWN THE REAL TOURIST GUY:

http://www.guardian.co.uk@n6.be/?9c65

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E-BUSINESS SECRETS: Our mission is to bring you such useful and thought-provoking information about the Web that you actually look forward to reading your e-mail.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: E-Business Secrets is written by InfoWorld contributing editor Brian Livingston. Research director is Ben Livingston (no relation). Brian has published 10 books, including:

Windows Me Secrets:

http://www.amazon.com@isbn.at/?0764534939

Windows 2000 Secrets:

http://www.amazon.com@isbn.at/?0764534130

Win a free gift certificate for any book, CD, or DVD of your choice if you're the first to send a tip Brian prints: mailto:Brian@SecretsPro.com


Brian Livingston , an InfoWorld contributing editor, has published 10 books, including Windows Me Secrets and Windows 2000 Secrets. Win a book free if you're the first to send a tip Brian prints. Send in your tips today, at tips@secretspro.com.



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