So you bought some really cool content for your website. Traditional internet wisdom suggests that you buy exclusive or limited circulation content, slap it on your website, advertise the heck out of it, and make your profits. That’s fine and good if you are satisfied with stopping there, but if you plan things out a little better you can realize a much greater return on your investment.Think in terms of the marketing evident in the motion picture industry. A major picture release doesn’t see its full profit potential for a number of years. The box office takings we see glorified on the internet news spots are only a portion of the picture. Yes, it’s true that the first run is the biggest chuck of profits, but behind the scenes it is really just a piece of a puzzle as the title winds through a large array of marketing levels. You see this every time you select a pay-per-view movie on cable, run to the local video store for a tape or DVD rental, or catch a Sunday afternoon matinee on your local broadcast network. These tiered releases are designed to do one thing: extend profits all the way down through the residual sales levels.
Adult content shouldn’t really be considered any different. Ok, we’re not talking about millions of dollars in the first run, but the concept is the same. Depending on your primary business, you could consider you website as the first run medium for a title, and after a period of exposure it is time for it to move on to other profit areas. A second tier might be the “lease” or “license” market, a third tier perhaps a pay-per-view setting, a fourth may be bulk distribution or “blast from the past” style of content filler. The important thing to keep in mind is that every day there are new potential customers logging onto the internet for the first time. To them your content is first run, as they have never seen it before.
Even in the individual tiers there is a gradual depreciation. Take the pay-per-view model; a new title has a better click-through rate as a premium release before its exposure dictates that it drops in value to a “matinee” status of reduced sales value. A smart webmaster, who has developed a plan to leverage his or her investment in a title as it works its way to retirement, is going to have far more to show for it than the webmaster who is always pursuing those too few “golden releases.”
This writer has personal experience with galleries that are 10 years old that continue to turn a profit via residual sales, whether that medium is bulk, filler, or PPV grab bag status. Point is, it’s your investment; are you satisfied with only first run results? If not, it’s time to develop a plan to gracefully manage a title’s potential long-term value. This concept lends creditability to the old saying that if you take care of the pennies the dollars will take care of themselves.
