Category: Paid Content

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Features Paid Content Technology

PWA v/s Apps

For those of you who tried Socionity.com would have noticed that we generate a new kind app called a Progressive Web App – just for you. This doesn’t live on the Play Store or App Store. Inspite of it’s shortcomings, we found it superior to the regular apps.

More importantly, we think this is the future. We’re making an early bet.

Vocabulary

When you say app, you usually refer to an app that can be downloaded from the app store. However there is this new kind of an app called Progressive Web App that is a new kind of an app that doesn’t sit in the app store.

An app is just a software that runs on your device. We’ve been accustomed to the notion of apps to be something to be found on the app stores alone. However, for years before the app stores became popular we’ve been installing and running apps on our PCs downloaded from websites or loaded from CDs. Just that we called them softwares, now we call them apps.

Monopoly

Both Google and Apple have a monopoly on the app store on their respective operating systems. It’s only a time before someone sues them for it.

There is no apparent reason why apps should be distributed only by Google or Apple.

PWAs break that monopoly. You get to stand on your own feet. You get to break away and distribute your app on your own. With PWAs, you don’t need to pay the gatekeeper charges to just get listed on the app stores.

With Socionity’s PWA, you can by pass all those payments.

In App Purchases

Particularly worrying about the monopoly of App Store and Play Store is that they levy a hefty 30% commission on any digital good (aka video, audio) bought on an app hosted on the app store.They aren’t even the developers of the app. They levy a hefty charge and disallow competition. That’s unfair.

Granted, Socionity levies a commission too. But we power the technology that actually makes your app run. Also, any new company can come about and charge a lower commission – and you are welcome to change platforms when you do find a cheaper and better alternative.

Devices

I’ll quit ranting about Apple and Google. There are some real good reasons why PWAs are more powerful.

They are powered largely by the same technology that powers the internet. So, that means the app can run on any device that can connect to the internet. Your laptop, mobile, smart TV, smart watch – all alike. You can run a PWA on any device.

Your app made with Socionity runs on laptops, mobiles and TVs. One app on every device.

Size

PWAs are super small. Usually amounting to a couple of MBs, they’re far smaller and quicker to load than any of their regular counterpart.

This encourages people to install the app. And, they don’t have to wait for the app to download and install.

Sample

There’s no way to give a sample of the app on the App Stores. You must download it, if you don’t like it … uninstall it.

With PWAs, they can check out your app without even downloading the app. It loads the app within the internet browser. It’s a great way to give a sneak peek of the app, without asking them to download it.

Purchase

Continuing from the previous section, you can ask users to make a purchase without having to ask them to install.

It is a well known secret, that the easier you make it for the customer to make a purchase, better the conversion you get.

Asking the user to download the app is an necessary delay.

Socionity’s app makes it possible to make a purchase within 5s.

Disadvantages

That said, not all is rosy. PWA is a nascent technology, and a work in progress as against regular apps that have been around for most of the last decade. By virtue of that there are some shortcomings

Notifications

The biggest shortcoming is notifications on iPhones. PWAs can’t send notifications on iPhones yet.

The way we overcome this, is that we send an email whenever we’re not able to send a notification.

Android notifications work great, though.

Performance

When compared head to head, there are places where the performance of the PWA is a little worse.

Things keep getting better, but for most of the cases, the difference in performance is unnoticeable.

Privacy

Some apps like Snapchat prevent you from taking a screen recording on Android phones.

This is something that is not possible on PWAs. The way we overcome this is by using dynamic watermarking so that we can catch the culprit found guilty of screen recording premium content.

Independence

If you really want to be independent in the modern day and age, without being screwed by the underlying platform, you should definitely consider launching a PWA. It might not be the right bet always, but it’s almost always a good question to explore.

We write a lot about technology and other tools you can use to build your own business online. We want to empower you to be a freewill entrepreneur. You should subscribe to our weekly newsletter. It’s good.

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Paid Content

What is Socionity, and why you should care

Socionity lets you launch your own app to start selling videos, courses and livestreams directly to your own customers.

10 years late

When the internet was nascent, circa 1993, there was no good way to accept payments online. Banks were reluctant to adapt to this new technology called the internet, the security systems were poor and things just kept breaking. It was practically impossible to accept payments online.

By virtue of not being able to able to have transactions on the web, the netizens had to find a different business model. A business model that didn’t require the end users to pay. They turned to oh-so-novel ads. As the communities started building up around ad driven content, especially the likes of blogger.com and youtube.com, we became accustomed to believing content online has to be free. We’ve been spoilt.

Over the next decade online payments started working. Credits card were a reliable way to transact and people have started using it to buy tickets, groceries and software. But the content industry lagged behind. It was too accustomed to ads and had a lot of inertia to adapt to the availability of a new business model around charging the users directly – albeit small amounts. They continued to run ads, until they realized people have developed a blind eye to ads.

Top media houses like The Guardian, WSJ and New York times have finally realized that ads aren’t going to be enough to sustain their business.

If the Wall Street Journal can’t get enough money through ads, how can you? WSJ should have asked users to pay for the journalism 10 years back. So should you have.

Netflix

Netflix came about and for the first time changed people’s notion of paying up for content online. Ever since, people have been paying for various online content services – big and small. Users now understand that good quality content is hard to make and deserves to be paid for.

This is a major change in user behavior. People are now accustomed to paying online for retail, and are now slowly getting accustomed to paying online for content. Now that the trend is shifting away from free content, is the time to capitalize.

It is now possible to ask users to pay for your videos, podcasts and livestreams. People need’t pay for some large subscription that gives them access to hundreds of different options. They can pay for exactly what they want. Your content.

App

Now that the technology is in place, content creation costs are plummeting and distribution channels like YouTube and Instagram are prospering, it is now possible to build an entire business around your content – all by yourself.

If it is to be your own business, one of the most important real estates in the modern world is the homescreen. You must enter the users’ homescreen with your own app.

The only missing piece till date has been that it was hard or expensive to get a good app made for distributing your content and charging for it. That’s the piece Socionity solves for. We make it super simple for you – just drag-and-drop, and in a few minutes you can have your app live!

Ragini Chandran is a partner of Socionity.com

Leverage

Once you have people coming repeatedly to your app, you can build a strong community. You don’t need a million subscribers anymore to earn a living. All you need is just a handful of people who pay you. It is not only easier to make content for a smaller, but more engaged, audience but it is also more fun.

People who pay are your biggest fans. If you give them great content they’ll stick with you for life. The more content you make, more they’ll pay.

Over time, the more you keep these people happy – more the word of mouth will spread and you’ll slowly start adding more and more users – and one day, very soon we hope, you’ll be a successful entrepreneur. It’s surely not easy. But, it sure is fun. That’s what makes it special to be a freewill entrepreneur.

If you want to start your own app and start charging for videos, courses, podcasts and livestreams – you should head over to our product socionity.com

We write a lot about how you can be successful in setting up your digital business and about freewill entrepreneurship. If you’d like to hear more, you should subscribe.

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Livestreaming Paid Content Youtube

Earn with YouTube – A common mistake

YouTubers rarely make enough money through YouTube, and most of them err by believing that they’ll magically start making money when they get to 1M subscribers or any such arbitrary number. Here, I’ll tell you how you can leverage YouTube’s strengths and actually make money.

Not on YouTube

YouTube has ads. You would have already turned it on and are probably making some money from it already. That’s great. The number one thing you must understand on YouTube is that since it is free for users to watch, there is only so much you can actually earn through ads. You must not try to earn with YouTube. You must look to build a wide audience with YouTube by posting free videos, but you’d really make your money on other channels. Socionity is one such channel which lets you leverage your audience and charge them directly.

YouTube is only to be used for discovery and audience building.

Paid Content

Netflix et al

Gone are the days when everyone expected all the content online to be free. With the advent of Netflix, Prime and other such apps that charge the users for the content, people are now finally ready to pay.

Wallets and mobile payments

Payment has become easy. There’s Google Pay, Apple Pay, Wallets and ofcourse your credit cards. Payments are now much simpler and secure. Payments work. People are now much more accustomed to paying online.

People paid a whooping US$1,058,288 Million in 2019 alone – online.

Exclusivity

A lot of your loyal audience will want to get exclusive access to you. Content that they’ll be the first to catch.

Having a community of loyal audience is far more powerful than a huge following of people who kind-of-like-you. With a loyal community you can have a meaningful dialogue. You can charge for the content, because these people see value in it and will be willing to pay.

Over time more and more people will want to enter this exclusive club. And slowly your revenue will start growing really fast as more and more people refer their friends to your own app.

Don’t err by thinking you can earn with YouTube by just posting videos every week. You need to work hard and build a loyal audience and charge them directly.

You can give them exclusive access to livestreams, classes, videos and podcasts.

Direct

Keep it simple, keep it direct. Don’t play the guessing game of which video will go viral and how much money you can make from each of those videos.

When you start selling to an audience, you can actually just talk to them and see what they want and build exactly what they want & will be willing to pay for.

The number of people who’ll pay you will be far less than the number of subscribers on your channel. However, the amount of money you’ll make from these loyal fans will far outstrip the amount you make through ads.

No free lunch

As they rightly say, there is no free lunch. If you are creating value, you should be rewarded for it. Your content is watched and loved by people around the world, why shouldn’t they pay you?

A lot of YouTubers we talk to are very skeptical about whether their audience will pay for their content. It’s a good question to ask. If the answer is no, there’s a much bigger problem. If you think people will not pay for your content, you should re-evaluate the kind of content you are making. If people love you and your work, they’ll definitely follow you and pay you for your content.

Support

There will be trolls who will, like anywhere on the internet, come and rant about how selfish you are by charging for the content. These are the people you want to separate from your loyals. Your loyals will love the fact that you are taking a bold new step. They will be happy to help you. These are the people who realize that making content isn’t easy. It takes time and effort and you are being fair by asking them to pay up for it.

“When in doubt, double the price“

Never hesitate to charge for your work.

We write a lot about what we’ve learnt about making money through digital media. We write about what we learn and what we think. If you’re interested, you should subscribe. We don’t spam.

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Livestreaming Paid Content

Digital performance for artists

You are probably used to performing live at events, not digital performances. Many of your fans can’t make it to your events every time – sometimes because of location, sometimes because of timing and now because of the lock-down. Here’s your chance to continue to connect, and get paid.

Lockdown

The lockdown has affected all our businesses. Most people are stuck at home. There’s so little people can do to entertain themselves at home. They’ve watched through all of YouTube and are craving for a human touch. They miss you.

Ofcourse, you cannot do events in such situations. Even when the lockdown ends, the attendance is expected to be sparse. The world is changing and this is your opportunity to change with it.

This is the time when events move online. Yours should too.

Digital

Going digital is not about just performing the same thing on a live stream. People are there to have a different experience. They don’t want to just listen to your songs, just listen to your jokes, just watch you dance. They have the entirety of YouTube at their disposal. They crave a human connection from home. How does your performance adapt to that?

We’ve seen many performers on who use Socionity to livestream their performance keep it very interactive. You cannot always keep talking while at an event. But the audience can keep sending messages you can respond to. That’s a difference right there which people have started exploiting. But it’s nothing new. Livestreamers have been doing this for quite some time on YouTube, Bigo, Instagram, Facebook. But never have there been performances. People usually go to Instagram lives just to have a session of chit-chat.

We’re here talkking about taking your performance online. Your digital performance. How will your performance alter itself for the digital realm? How will you bring out your personality in your digital performance?

Reach

With your digital performances, if you keep it fun and engaging, you’ll be able to amass a lot of audience from around the world. If your events are really good, your users will be happy to invite their friends to it too. They’ll all have a gala time together!

Needless to say people from around the world can attend your digital performances. If you go online your fans can tune in from Russia, UK, Nigeria, USA, India – where ever they might be, all they need is a mobile device to join in.

With Socionity, we add one more tool to your arsenal. A small hack that gets you more reach. Read on.

Empty Room

No one wants to perform to an empty room. That’s why we present to you Minimum Audience Livestreams.

This is how it works :

  1. You set a date of your digital performance
  2. You set a price
  3. You set the minimum number of people who should register for you to go online

For example, you say you’ll go live at 8th May at 4pm if there are 25 people who register.

If only 20 people register by 4pm on 8th, the show gets cancelled and everyone who’s paid gets their money back.

If 25 or more people do register, the party is on!

This is a great way to make sure your digital performance doesn’t happen in an empty room. What’s also great about this model is that your friends will invite their friends to make sure the performance actually goes ahead. That means more audience!

Paid

None of this is charity. It’s your business to perform, and should be treated as one. All these digital performances are to be paid. Charge your audience for your art.

If you want to make it paid, if you want to build your business online doing what you love, if you want to be a freewill entrepreneur – you must charge for your digital performances. Make it happen.

If you’re looking as to how to get started, you might like to logon to Socionity.com and launch your own app. Conduct all the events here – keep your audience involved. If you need any help, we’re right here for you!

We write a lot about great ways to move your business online and how to excel. If you want to hear our thoughts on these topics going forward, you should subscribe. We don’t spam.

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Features Livestreaming Paid Content

Paid live-streaming with a twist

How do you make money talking about things you love to talk about?
Livestream your ideas.

How do you make money with livestreams?
Make them paid.

How do I get people to pay?
Keep it authentic, original.

How do I get more people to pay?
Read on.

Engage

One thing that separates livestreaming from regular YouTube videos is the engagement – people can chat with you and you can respond in real time. That is what makes livestreams so interesting. It is in vouge today.

When you have paid livestreams, you give a sense of belonging to your users. They are here because they are your loyals. They want to support you. They will follow you where you go. They will pay you for exclusive access.

With exclusive access comes exclusive engagement. Once you get into the groove, you’ll know what your loyal fans want. And you can tailor your content to their specific tastes. On other free content platforms you are usually left guessing. The trolls far out number the loyals – that’s why YouTube comments are a source of constant depression for YouTubers.

A place for your most loyal community. A place of infinite positivity. On the Internet. Did you imagine that?

Growth

The immediate next question becomes how to grow your audience. You’re probably doing really well if you have a small number of people paying you something. It’s a big deal. If there exists one person who’s willing to pay you, there will be thousands of such people in the world. How do you reach them?

More like them

Ofcourse there are more like them. But how do you find them. Ask people who are your fans to find them for you. Afterall, they’d be friends with people like themselves.

Talk to them, ask them to suggest their friends to join in. If not, ask them why they wouldn’t recommend your livestreams to their friends – and make your content better.

Incentivize

Once you’ve done the basics, you’re probably ready to grow fast. Let’s add a viral loop to your livestreams.

If a user’s experience becomes better with more number of people joining in, it gives them an incentive to invite their friends.

Minimum Audience Livestream

Introducing Minimum Audience Livestreams on your own app using socionity.com

Here’s how it works.

  1. You set a date & time when you’ll go live
  2. You set the price
  3. You set a minimum number of people who should register for you to go live

Once you launch this, people can install your app and see the upcoming livestream.

If they like it they’ll pay for it and register.

Let’s say you are going to go live on 8th May at 4pm if there are a minimum of 25 people attending the stream. If on 8th May 4pm, only 20 people have paid – that’s less than 25 – the event gets canceled and all the 20 people get their money back.
However, if 25 or more people pay before 8th May – you’d go live and everyone gets to have a great time.

Why

We know no-one likes to talk in an empty room. So we want to help you safe-guard your self-esteem.

Also, people who really want to see you go live will push their friends to join in. And boom! You now have new people like your loyal fans. Hopefully they’ll love your content too and become your loyal. Rinse and Repeat!

Growth Hacking

This might get tagged under growth hacking, as much as we hate the term. But the truth is this is a small tool we add to your arsenal. The weaponry is still your content. Make that great, tweak it with the tools and build a successful online business on your own terms.

Building a business doing things you love is a privilege, we want to support you to make it possible. We want to enable you as a Freewill Entrepreneur.

Thanks for reading. We write a lot about what we think it takes to build a successful online business in the times of digital media. If you’d like to hear more, you should subscribe. We don’t spam – I promise.