Content Providers Monitization
by Bob Small
January 2011

Monetization!  Can I make some money from my content?

Content providers have been working hard to figure a way to charge for their knowledge or their content when presented in the form of an online course via webinar or in a conference call, using services like FreeConferenceCall.

Collecting an initial fee is not very difficult.  PayPal and other services make this effective and it is easy to setup up.   The problem is protecting this content at the presentation point, especially when using a free service.

Citrix and similar services have a pretty good way to manage the registration process and then to limit the access code to join in.  But this process is not married up with the collecting of the funds.  But this is getting better.

On the audio based content it is more difficult, yet this process far outweighs the number of listeners to the webinar process.  When using a free conferencing solution the issue is that a paying customer can provide the dial in number and access code to whomever they prefer and all of a sudden, the conference has non- paying, freeloaders listening.  And it gets worse from there.  Now the content can be posted on other sites and that is that.

Free Conference Call has a conferencing product that is available for free at freeconfercing.com that provides a Dashboard that allows the Organizer or Host to monitor who is on the call by caller id, which would enable the content provider to drop unwanted listeners from the call.  And after the host confirms that all the paying clients are on the call, he or she could lock the conference, so no others could join in.

Don’t get me wrong, this approach does have some holes in it, but for the money, it works.

Now for the big boys.  To truly track the access to any web based broadcast, be it streaming a live show or other presentation(s), RevXSystems (.com) has a SaaS based solution.  This service has the horsepower to track all the elements from a small group to millions of users.  The monetization process can be based on subscription, bandwidth usage, time online, programs accessed and so on.   TodoCast.tv has been utilizing this service since 2008.

This is a powerful solution and if this is what you are looking for, then I would start with them.  This is not for the light hearted, but if this is your business and life blood, then they are the ticket. ( more to come)
Bob Small