为可以免费获得的东西付款？ 最棒的营销模式或许就该这样

创业者会为已经可以免费获得的东西，来额外的付出一笔巨资吗？能做出这样决定的创业者恐怕少之又少。Seeking Alpha的老板就在做这样的事。为什么他敢这么做？这是他的读者群体决定的，这家网站是一家提供金融内容服务商。虽然内容免费，但做为一个热门领域针对的还是高收入人群的网站自然可以通过多种途径来获得收益。但前提是用户群要足够大。这就相当于变相的付出了宣传成本。如果以宣传的费用来衡量的话，这可不知道是多么合适的一笔买卖。首先，这种新模式会引起舆论关注，本身就是一种免费广告。其次，买用户浏览量是非常合算的。记住，他买的是用户浏览量，不是文章数量，这是直接产生效益的。如果广告充裕，千个用户浏览量的收入可不止10美元。第三，要求内容独家授权。独家内容能吸引更多的用户。而且，从第二条来看，独家内容其实是免费使用的，只是为用户浏览量付费的赠品。这么棒的营销模式，能否移植到中国来？希望能够引起创业者们的思考。(@Sally:帮助创业者脱离信息孤岛？）

热门财经新闻和评论网站 SeekingAlpha 现在的状况似乎不错，该网站已吸引了一个不小的读者群体（每月四千到四千五百万个页面访问），所有的文章也都是免费阅读的。因此当这家网站宣布将开始为作者支付报酬时，事情听起来就有些奇怪了：为什么要为你已经可以免费获得的一些东西来付款？

此举似乎尤其危险，因为 SeekingAlpha 的 Premium Partnership Program 将会为每一千浏览量支付10美元，这意味着他们一大部分的收入将会付给作者们。

那么为什么要改变已有的规矩呢？Jackson 说，这是因为这一薪酬模型使得 SeekingAlpha 可以找到更多新的作者。到目前为止大多数贡献的出资人都是财务顾问或其他专业人士，他们希望别人可以看见自己的文章，以此来建立自己的声誉和吸引新顾客。但还有很多作家在某个特定金融领域十分专业，但他们写文章并不是为了寻找新的客户（例如，他们已经退休了，或者他们是作为独立投资者出现的）。这些作者需要一个不同的激励方式，即金钱。

他们最终的目标，Jackson 说，是要成为“金融内容的易趣”。如果你的文章在 SeekingAlpha 上的平均浏览量在2500到20000之间，那么这意味你会得到20美元到200美元。（报酬每季度支付一次，且只有收入达到100元之后公司才会发给你。）对于一些作者来说，这笔钱可能只能算是一点点零花钱，但对于另外一些人来说，这就是一笔不错的收入了。

SeekingAlpha 现有的作家中，有一些人会切换到新的模式，而另一些则不会。Jackson 说，因为如果你想拿到报酬，就需要把你文章独家授权给这家网站。

按浏览量来付报酬模式的风险就是，这可能鼓励为追逐流量（和赚更多的钱）来人为制造轰动效应。显然，该网站要增长浏览量，但 Jackson 说，他将依托其编辑团队，将其打造成一个质量过滤器。

Seeking Alpha unveils a new business model for financial news

Popular financial news and commentary website Seeking Alpha seems to have a pretty sweet setup — the site has built up a large readership (40 to 45 million pageviews per month) with articles that are written for free. So the announcement that the site will start paying its contributors looks a bit odd — why start paying for something you were already getting for free?

The move seems especially risky since Seeking Alpha’s Premium Partnership Program will pay a rate of $10 per thousand pageviews. That means a big chunk of the money the site makes from each article will go to the writer. (On the other hand, Seeking Alpha founder and CEO David Jackson told me last week that the site charges its advertisers premium rates thanks to its high-quality audience.)

So why change things? Jackson said it’s because the pay model allows Seeking Alpha to reach a new set of writers. Until now, most contributors were financial advisors or other professionals who saw their articles as a way to build their reputation and attract new customers. But there’s a big pool of writers who have expertise in a specific financial subject but aren’t looking for customer leads (for example if they’re retired, or if they’ve built up knowledge as an individual investor). Those writers need a different incentive to contribute — namely, money.

The ultimate goal, Jackson said, is to become “the eBay of financial content, to put people in business who otherwise wouldn’t be in business.” Your average Seeking Alpha article receives between 2,500 and and 20,000 pageviews, he added — which means a payment of between $20 and $200. (The payments will be made quarterly, and to reduce the company’s overhead, you won’t get paid until you’re owed at least $100.) For some contributors, the payments will just represent an extra bit of spending money, but for others it could be a nice income.

Some of Seeking Alpha’s existing writers will switch to the new model, while others will not, Jackson said, because if you want to get paid, the site will require exclusive rights to the article.

One of the risks of the pay-per-pageview model is that it might encourage sensationalism for the sake of chasing traffic (and making more money). Obviously, the site wants to grow pageviews, but Jackson said he’ll be relying on its editorial team to act as a quality filter as the amount of submissions grows.

Seeking Alpha already has 4,000 registered contributors, Jackson said. The site’s investors include Benchmark Capital, Accel Partners, and DAG Ventures.