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How Much To Charge For Your Web Series
I recently started uploading episodes of my follow-my-life/ reality Web series called The It's Jason! Reality Show (http://TheItsJasonRealityShow.info) to a new pay-per-view video sharing Web site called Vuier.com.
I used to post my show to YouTube.
Now I've set the price per episode at $1.00; but it was suggested to me (by a Vuier.com Webmaster) to charge less per episode at $.25 (which I think is too low).
What do you guy's think? What's a decent price to charge per episode of my show? Each episode of my show (which airs daily) runs around five minutes or less.
I feel like $1.00 per episode is too much to charge daily.
Tags: Actor, Comedy, PPV, Reality, Series, Show, Vuier.com, YouTube
Views: 187
Comments
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Permalink Reply by Rich Mbariket on -
There's a zillion free content to watch online Jason. What's unique about yours that would make people pay to view? You mentioned your show used to be available for free on YouTube and even then how many views were you getting per episode? These are valid points you should address before erecting a pay wall.
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Permalink Reply by tbonepearson on -
I agree with Rich, there would have to be a LOT of demand for the show (ie. Big Star, Huge Production Value) to make a pay wall work but if you could build up a huge audience it could work, if I were to put Spellfury behind a pay wall I think I'd charge .99 cents an episode.
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Permalink Reply by Rich Mbariket on
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Not aware of any web series that has successfully gone from free to pay. Are you aware of any?
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Permalink Reply by Jason Roberts on -
No I'm not aware of any, but I remember thinking Sanctuary used a pay-per-view model when it first debuted online in 2007, but a search I did just now on Wiki says Sanctuary (when it debuted online) was viewable for free. So, maybe I'm mistaken.
But I do believe that it depends on the show. For example, I think starting out with a show with zero fans might generate interest from people willing to pay for it -- if it's packaged the right way. Like, for example, a soap opera show that no one has ever heard about and has never been free before. But I agree with most people here that going from having a free show on YouTube say, to a pay model on a new Web site where existing fans are suddenly charged to watch content might piss them off enough to force them to abandon your series.
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Permalink Reply by Rich Mbariket on
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Agree. Unless you have valuable information that your audience can't get elsewhere I'd suggest keeping content free and focus on building the audience. I watch episodic web series for pure entertainment, not value. As mentioned, there are a zillion web shows around so having to pay to watch just doesn't make sense to me. I know you're charging a quarter per episode, but it takes too much effort to pull out my credit card and enter my information just to access a quarter dollar episode. And if I'm so entertainment and want more episodes, I gotta keep punching in credit card digits?
Just something to consider. Keep your intended customers (audience) first. Convenience is key if you're charging.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Roberts on
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OK, but what if you have your pay-per-view Web site up and running, no real fan following attached to your show, BUT you DO have a blog on your site that is related to your show content. Potetial customers read more to get to know you and what your show is about versus just an about page -- i.e. using you blog as a way of promoting your content.
Overall I still think a PPV model works; depending on the type of show you're offering people. Yes, there are a ton of free entertaining Web shows online, but much of it's all the same and rarely is any of it worth paying for because the quality or the writing sucks.
But if you were to find a PPV show online that you'd never heard of before that really imresses you, sure, I believe you'd would pay to watch.
Plus, like I said before, having a blog up on your PPV site is even more incentive for some random visitor to pay, because you're essentially pitching them through the blog.
A great way to think about a PPV Web site is to think about your site as though it were porn site in terms of the way the porn sites set up and market their videos. I just found this article online related to this worth reading: http://guerillashowrunner.com/2011/02/why-a-good-porn-site-makes-ou...
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Permalink Reply by Rich Mbariket on
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PPV model only works with people with a name. Glenn Beck had huge success with his subscriber-based web network The Blaze (formerly GBTV). I've been in this business a long time an haven't found a single indie creator with a successful pay series.
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