E-zine and paying subsciption

[gorbat]

I run web site with free health information.

I hoped that some advertisers will catch my site, with no big success.

Now I am thinking of seting up membership site with acces to articles for a small annual fee.

What do you think is this a good idea for ezine, or to have half-half limited access to articles, some for free and some for subscription. Or is there some other cyber trend?
Thank you.

gorbat

[abbeyvet]

Two things occur to me. One is that there is such an incredibly huge amount of health related information available completely free on the web that unless your content is unique and unavailable elsewhere you are going to have an uphill struggle with subscriptions.

I am not sure what you mention the ezine, but if you do go down the route of charging for content I would make the ezine free - initially anyway - to use as a marketing tool to drive subscriptions.

[Jenstar]

Many websites and ezines die a painful death once they try and institute a subscription option, where the majority of the content is only available via subscription. Even those sites/ezines that pop to mind that are successful running a subscription option, also offer a freebie version as well.

My best advice is to tread carefully. I can think of numerous sites that tried going this route, and even after backstepping to offering all free content, they never recovered from the loss of those who were unwilling (or unable) to pay.

Did you make it easy for potential advertisers to learn about advertising options on your site? If you have nothing about it on your site, you won't attract any advertisers at all.

Have you tried running AdSense? That is another option, and some websites are doing quite well with it.

And I agree with abbeyvet - with the abundance of free health informatiom, you must be sure that your readers are loyal enough to be willing to pay for it.

[gorbat]

Well, if I can not go with subscriptions as a mean of earning from magazine, what is then revenue source for free online e-zines ( web magazines)? Only advertising? Selling e-zine related products? Affiliates- I never earn any revenue from affiliate’s banners? Or should I pay some marketing agency to bring advertisers to my site?

If I want to sell for example health related products from my site, what should I do?

Do I need to get in touch with some suppliers for products; are any UK based cheap and good; if I want European supplier, where should I look for?

Then packing and delivery questions... You probable need some print company for printing your labels on products. Any suggestions?

[abbeyvet]

what is then revenue source for free online e-zines

Ads within the ezines is one source of revenue, but I would guess that in the vast majority of cases ezines are not directly revenue producing, they are rather used to build loyalty and to drive traffic to parts of a site that are.

I don't know much about selling health related products from the UK but I have a feeling you may be very legally restricted here, as distinct from the situation in the US. In general you would not be concerned with packing, delivery and so on if you are selling as an affiliate, that would be a matter for the company you are affiliated with.

I don't know if you are already using Adsense, but I would second Jenstar, that would be the first thing to get on board with. Commission Junction also have quite a few UK based companies and you may find some that are relevant.

It's not easy to make money on sites like this.