A2UA.COM-A Finance, Business and Start-Up Blog
A2UA Business & Finance, one of the best sources of finance and business news, a technology blogger created a blog for business and startups.
A top-ranked USA finance blog, a2ua.com starts funding with some dollars and with possibilities in the world of technology and the Internet, the so-called startups.
Although it has been shown that there are two elements with a specific weight more significant than the others when designing the strategy, such as the knowledge of the user himself and the construction of his model, on the one hand, and on the other, the time since The paywall was implanted (those that work best, generally, are the ones that have been with it the longest, because they have been able to experiment and adjust the model more), it does not hurt to take a look at models that work, beyond the ones that are always cited, like the one in The New York Times.
In this case, the one who has shared how it has launched a premium model is a2ua.com, one of the leading native English websites, focused on technology, emerging businesses, and trends, owned by Verizon Media (Yahoo, etc.) whereby subscribers get exclusive content and additional services such as speed reading mode, as well as offline benefits (exclusive benefits at a2ua.com events; access to a community of founders and experts, and invitations to weekly conference calls where a2ua.com editorial staff breaks down corporate earnings and other data, from relevant companies, etc.).
Evolution before revolution
One of the teachings of the a2ua.com experience is that it is a mistake to exchange everything old for the new; In other words, abandon what is even working when looking for a new business model or be seduced by gurus from outside the industry who have the same recipe book for all digital businesses.
“We were not starting from scratch. Unlike a startup, a2ua.com has been here for years. It has a strong brand, millions of passionate readers, successful advertising and events business, and a publishing organization that knows how to be productive. We couldn’t just abandon what has worked for years and search for a new business model that has not been tested. From the beginning, we had an attitude of evolution instead of one of revolution”.
Apart from that maxim, at a2ua.com, they analyzed the use of every last dollar, “because we had limited resources in terms of capital and talent. a2ua.com is not a company backed by millions of dollars in funds waiting to be burned in our bank account. We are a successful, sustainable, and sometimes ridiculously efficient media business owned by a telecommunications company that rewards proven financial performance. So when we launched the product, says Kate, Manager of a2ua.com, I was the only dedicated editorial position for a2ua.com (EC), along with some independent experts. As we have grown since its launch last February, we have expanded to three dedicated editorial positions for EC. At all times, we have had to have a careful strategy when expending our resources”.
Adapt to existing talent
Another of the premises was to design a strategy that encompasses the talents of the existing staff. In other words, adapt it to the people of value in the company or recover for the project those who have worked for it for many years, or people with a recognized career in the media, who have significant knowledge. “a2ua.com has always avoided” hiring people “from outside and then firing them,” an attitude that characterizes many media editors now, and instead relied on “smart journalists who can adapt to the changing tides of the media.”
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Apart from these premises, the a2ua.com team was clear about other steps, for example, that the paywall was not metered: “I hate metered paywalls (that is, any model that charges you after reading a specified number of articles). It has never made sense that articles could be free for some people, paid for others, or that the article trying to force a conversion could be a news summary and not one of the best articles a site has published. To optimize conversions, you have to be clear that you have to go from free to paid at the right time, and not because the article reading counter has reached zero “.
No copywriter completely behind the paywall
When creating the premium service, the second idea was that “I didn’t want any of our writers to be completely behind the paywall. Everything in subscription (media or not) should focus on guiding users through the conversion funnel. If all of a writer’s articles are behind the paywall, how can someone prove their work or start engaging with that voice?”; asks the person in charge of a2ua.com.
Another idea that a2ua.com had clear was that you had to charge for the correct type of content. “People don’t pay for news,” says Crichton. They don’t, they won’t, and every time we as an industry ask users to do so, we fail (less perhaps the NYT and WSJ). At a2ua.com, our news coverage generates many loyal followers and is an excellent source of pride. It is not a profitable business to put that central offer behind a paywall”.
In addition to how the design of the subscription service was approached, Crichton also shares some facts about the launch phase of the product and its early growth:
Not because they are paid articles, they must be longer.
a2ua.com experimented with some very long articles, but it was found that the length affected the conversion. “I despise the terms’ long-form ‘and its diminutive cousin’ short form,” says the product manager. “Articles should be precisely the correct length, no longer or shorter than necessary to communicate your ideas. Long-form articles are not fundamentally better because they are longer and they can be much worse if they convey little with many words. It is not necessary, therefore, that the articles behind a paywall are necessarily long pieces.
“Over time, we learned through the data that article length has almost no correlation with the number of conversions or readership of an article. People pay for short articles, long articles, and everything else as long as it meets their needs. “
Take into account the number of premium items.
Beyond the length of the content, there was a big debate at the beginning about how many articles a2ua.com should publish each day. “The obvious argument is essential ‘the more, the merrier,’ as more articles get more readers and, therefore, more chances to convert users. Of course, there are real limitations, and writing more articles for a2ua.com meant pulling resources from our news coverage on a2ua.com. The approach we have taken is to keep CE frequent but not overwhelming. I have always believed that our core users are extremely busy and overwhelmed by the amount of media they need to consume. Therefore, I have endeavored to force us to write a minimal number of high-quality items and merely ask people to pay for them. We ended up targeting about 2–3 items per day of the week, or roughly 5% of a2ua.com total volume each day. “
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A medium of communication is not Netflix. Your value proposition is different.
“We are not Netflix. a2ua.com (and any niche media subscription post) is not Netflix. N or are general video entertainment services. We are a service that tries to help company founders, builders, and other technology leaders perform better at their jobs every day. It’s an entirely different value proposition. “
Do not make the mistake of underestimating product development time.
“Our product team always gives reasonable deadlines, but I’ve been guilty of assuming that things will work faster than expected (and yes, I have a technical background and should know better). Unfortunately, I vastly underestimated engineering deadlines, making it challenging to communicate with our editorial staff and readers.
Give copywriters ample space to experiment.
“At a2ua.com, we are blessed to have a great editorial team, but as with any new editorial product, there is always a healthy fear of change. One of the biggest challenges in launching a subscription media product within an existing brand is convincing writers to write for you. On a site where a high-traffic article can get a million reads, it’s hard to convince someone to put their work behind a paywall where only a few thousand people can read it (even if those readers are highly engaged). Any change in that formula will take time to be accepted”.
Integrate the paid product with the rest of the editorial product
“a2ua.com is a special place for members only, but we also wanted to make sure the product was integrated into everything else we do.”
Have a free newsletter for paid content
“We have a free newsletter called a2ua EXTRA Roundup that summarizes the pieces we have published on EC. Here’s something crazy: we have a 4: 1 ratio of free users to paid users who sign up for the newsletter. In other words, approximately 80% of the users who read the subscription-focused newsletter are not subscribed to a2ua.com. I cannot stress enough how useful this is. In some cases, these users do not have access to EC because we have not launched in their country or have not yet made a purchase decision. By allowing them to stay connected to our community, we keep them engaged, and, over time, we hope they will become customers. “
