20 Internet Marketing Mistakes To Avoid 20InternetMarketingMistakesToAvoid | Page 7

Mistake #3: The Pay Wall
What is a pay wall? Well it is when you can’t access content unless you
pay. An example of this is the Financial Times, they give you a short
preview of the article and if you want to continue reading it you will have to
pay an amount for access to the website. Now, a company like the financial
times can get away with that kind of marketing can but an average internet
start-up can’t. This kind of strategy will really slow down the adoption of
your product and technology and only really works with already established
and powerful brands.
A better strategy would be to allow limited access. Some companies like
Google’s Gmail and Facebook use add revenue and sell targeted
advertising. The gist of the message is that people are used to everything
on the internet being free or at least partly free and doing the whole pay
before you try will not work unless your brand is already established.
So take a look at your customer acquisition strategy, and how you are
currently positioned in the market. Take a look at your revenue streams
and see if you really do make a lot of money from subscriptions or what
not. The Pay Wall might be preventing you from getting more people to
adopt your product and because of this you are not able to take off and
attain the critical mass needed to succeed.