Customer Coolness: Selling Ebooks by the Chapter, Download & Web Subscription All at Once

Sometimes a customer uses our software so well all we can do is gape and point. (Actually, it's been happening quite a lot lately.) Example: The way Columbia University Press has neatly exploited Tizra features to turn simple PDF files into a whole range of ebook products, including...

Web-only subscriptions of various durations.
Full book download/web combos.
Single chapter download/web combos.

A reader who just wants to answer quick questions about, say, how the concept of Strategic Innovation applies to Bill Gates, could just buy a chapter and browse it immediately online. Someone with a deep interest in the topic could buy the right to download the whole book, load it into their ereader and take it with them on the road.

Tizra's supported these kinds of options—and a lot of others—for some time, but it takes design and copywriting flare to present them in ways users can quickly make sense of. We think the paywall page below does it really nicely.

Typical CUPOLA paywall page automatically displays all relevant purchase options.

Tizra's dynamic offer management enables CUP to automatically put just the right promotions in the right places. For example, if you want to read Flash Versus Blink: An Introduction to Strategic Intuition, which they offer as a free sample, you'll go straight through to the the content, and can either view it online or download the whole chapter. But if you want read "Warrior Buddha: The Path to Beginner’s Mind," you'll hit a paywall page like the above.

Even better, CUP can now quickly test variations on pricing, terms, copy and design to optimize results.

It's still early in the project, but it looks to me like CUP's been reading some of their own books!

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Optimizing eContent Sales: 5 Strategies for Monetizing Content

Targeted promotions and content bundle upsells are two ideas to test in optimizing sales. This is the third in a series of blog posts based on our webcast, "10 Factors to Consider when Developing your Digital Publishing Strategy." You can still watch it in its entirety here: So far we have talked about the importance of understanding your audience and whether or not to sell direct . Today, we investigate the various monetization strategies publishers utilize. The entire publishing industry has been experimenting with pricing and delivery models, from the Netflix-like subscription services offered by Oyster and Scribd, to bundling of ebooks with print editions, to chapter-at-a-time sales and more. Yet no single pricing model has emerged. What does that tell publishers? It means that you need the flexibility to experiment with your pricing strategy and adapt quickly to market fluctuations and demands. You will need a commerce and delivery...

Slater Invests in Tizra

This is a big one for us. Rhode Island's Slater Technology Fund is betting $500,000 that Tizra will "really open the floodgates for book-based content from thousands of publishers." Their investment caps a year in which we've gone from four people , two dogs and an idea to a company that someone besides us and our friends and families believe will set online publishing on its ear. We even have our very own Forbes article . Thanks to the folks at Slater for being great advisors as well as investors, and to the many friends and family members who preceded them!

Association of Research Libraries Goes Live with Tizra

After extensive internal testing, the Association of Research Libraries has begun offering recent issues of its flagship publication on a public test site hosted by Tizra. The organization announced recently that Research Library Issues is now available in full-text searchable form at… http://publications.arl.org We're thrilled about this, not only because because it's a vote of confidence from a high profile organization, but also because ARL's membership includes some of the most prestigious research institutions in the world (including the libraries of MIT and Indiana University, whose presses are already using Tizra). In addition to greater production efficiency and flexibility, ARL's use of Tizra stems from a desire to provide members with capabilities including… Better full-text search. More targeted references via social software and other links. Better compatibility with web enabled mobile devices like the iPhone. We are proud to count ARL—and RLI reade...

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