Making Money with Streaming Media

Sell Your Customer’s Content Online
This one is going to be a shocker for a lot of you and for years it has been almost too taboo to even say this. It was always so much more fun to just give streaming media away. Then DEN and iCast came along and suddenly losing millions a year producing and delivering streaming media files for free wasn’t cool. And for some reason no one could figure out who all those people were that came and watched these movies and music videos and concerts.

Right about this time Microsoft’s Digital Media division went to work manufacturing a template by which any Windows Media provider could protect and monetize their streaming media assets. For many years the technology has evolved overcoming some bad press, a security breach and a sluggish market in general to become what it is now, a robust, secure and scaleable conditional access platform that you can make money with.Using the lock and key methodology which is built into WMTRM SDK framework [A big military sounding acronym for Windows Media Technologies Rights Manager Software Development Kit] DRM service providers are able to provide an independent content creator, movie studio, record label or Fortune 500 marketing company the ability to actually monetize a streaming media file.

Step One: Make a Buy Page For Your Customer’s Content. This always gets the creative juices flowing with any customer and it helps to distill what pieces of the offering need to be completed. On this page your customer can decide how they want to sell their content whether it is PPV, Token or Subscription models. They can choose the sell their full-length movies each month for $19.99 for example or assign a value of $2.00 to each token and make each movie 2 tokens. If their content lends itself to being watched offline at the customer’s pace then your customer can make a $5 pay-per-view offering available to their users.

Step Two: Pick the appropriate License Rules for their Business Model. Modern DRM is sophisticated stuff and the license holds a lot more than yes or no these days. Your customer can decided on how many times they want their content viewed by the purchaser and for how long and on how many PC’s etc. Combining a variety of these License Usage rules makes a Business Rule which should most replicate the customer’s vision of how they want to do business on the web or matches their current business in motion.

Step Three: Lock Your Customer’s Content. There’s nothing more unattractive than an un-locked file on the road to profitability and let’s face it, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Typically, DRM providers can accept your customer’s content via ftp or sftp and can encrypt or package your content in bulk in an automated fashion. After packaging, your content can be ftp’d directly to your CDN account or hosting platform.

Step Four: Find A Processing Agent and Integrate. These come in a variety of forms including Credit Card, Check, Dialer or even PayPal. Your customer has to make the decision however there is a wealth of processing resources on the web. If your customer has a merchant account with a processor in place, setup a call with them to talk about how you would like to integrate your buy page success stories to your DRM licensing processes. Your DRM provider should be able to work this out for you at a low cost and look for a simple solution which is easily modified in the future and one that uses the same username and password list already in place on the customer site.

Step Five: Post It and Push It. DRM is more than a lock and key. It’s a switch and you’re holding it. Once your files are locked and your buy page is done and your processing is integrated it’s time to go to market. To be successful you will need to drive traffic to your buy page and be ready for feedback. Take notice of the traffic and how the users respond to your presentation. If you don’t get good click thru’s change it up. Add a free trailer and be willing to adapt your pricing based on customer feedback. If a partner site isn’t holding their weight and delivering you the eyeballs, don’t be afraid to strike deals with new traffic affiliates. Make sure your payouts for partners and affiliates are manageable and don’t ever payout more than you charge per month to each affiliate for a join.

Using the common statistics available your customer will be able to see all the usual data that they are used to for streaming media along with such things as the name and email address of their viewers, how often they watch media they consume and of course what they like. Using all of this data, your customer can make an educated guess as to how successful their offering is and how to make it better focusing on the pieces that are most popular while working towards gaining market share in their respective niche.

Next Page: Give Your Customer’s Content Away For Free