educational

Pay-Per-View Made Easy

In a recent article series in XBiz, Randall Crockett from DRM Networks outlined some of the reasons for — and techniques of implementing — pay-per-view content systems. While Crockett focused on delivering video-based content protected by a digital rights management (DRM) system, this isn't the only – or necessarily the "easiest" – method of building a pay-per-view website. Let's take a closer look:

Why Pay-Per-View?
To reinforce what you might have already heard (or seen for yourself while pouring over your sales stats), surfers are becoming less and less interested in purchasing traditional paysite memberships. There are several reasons for this, including the monthly cost, a fear that it will be difficult (or impossible) to cancel the membership, dissatisfaction with previous paysite memberships and an uncertainty that the content they seek will actually be available within the members area.

While the issues of cost and cancellation are easily addressed by offering lower-priced "discount" websites and featuring prominent "cancel" or "customer service" links, the glut of low-quality, "cookie cutter" paysites that do not deliver what they promise has left many wary consumers in its wake – consumers who may not be easily convinced to join another paysite. You might, however, be able to overcome some of their reluctance by presenting a very professional tour with high-quality samples and extensive support documentation like FAQs and a "help" area that will give the impression that your site is what it promises, and thereby make a new sale. Likewise, a prospective member's uncertainty that the content they seek will actually be available within the members area can be addressed through your tour by providing a comprehensive, thumbnailed list of the galleries, feeds and videos that you offer members.

There is a simple reason why this is necessary and it has to do with some of the industry's traditional marketing practices: for years, webmasters have been told that using unique, high-quality content – rather than the overused sponsor-provided offerings – to build free sites and galleries was the way to not only get favorable listings on link sites and TGPs, but to encourage click-throughs to the sponsor.

While link list and TGP owners benefited from this practice by being able to offer their site's visitors more diverse materials and content providers profited by enjoying a market well beyond the traditional paysite arena, the unintended consequence was that a surfer, hoping to see more of the model he enjoyed on that free site or gallery – and logically assuming that "more" would be contained within the website being promoted on that free site or gallery (especially given the common use of catch phrases like "click here to see more of me") – would be invariably disappointed when that model (or the complete set) was not found within the sponsoring paysite's members area...

It's doubtless that a customer's feeling of being victimized by "false advertising" in this regard has led to more than a few chargebacks.

A Simple Solution
An easy way to overcome all of these issues can be found through the use of a click-based micro-payment system such as the one offered by PayAsYouClick.com. Using the example above of a tour page that features a thumbnailed list of all of the galleries and videos that you offer members, all that would be required to transform the traditional paysite into a pay-per-view site would be the replacement of the links on these thumbnails that would typically point to your join page with PayAsYouClick links directly to the featured content.

Now, rather than clicking through to a membership offer (with all of the aforementioned drawbacks), the customer can pick and choose the exact content that he or she wishes to view, such as individual videos, photo galleries (or even individual images), stories and more.

Through the offering of exclusive, quality content and the careful setting of price points, this ala carte method of content monetization may indeed yield a higher amount of revenue per surfer than does traditional membership sales. Of course, savvy webmasters could offer both options (individual content offerings as well as full memberships) as a way of maximizing sales while satisfying the preferences of most of their customers.

Creativity and giving the customer what he or she wants is the key to success in this market and the effective use of pay-per-view systems is an increasingly integral part of this process. Try it on your own site and see for yourself!

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

profile

WIA Profile: Reba Rocket

As chief operating officer and chief marketing officer of Takedown Piracy, long at the forefront of intellectual property protection in adult entertainment, Rocket is dedicated to safeguarding the livelihoods of content creators and producers while fostering a more ethical and sustainable industry.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

Protecting Content Ownership Rights When Using AI

In today’s digital age, content producers have more tools at their disposal than ever before. Among these tools, artificial intelligence (AI) content generation has emerged as a game changer, enabling creators to produce high-quality content quickly and efficiently.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
opinion

How Payment Orchestration Can Help Your Business

An emerging payment solution is making waves in the merchant world: the payment orchestration platform (POP). It’s quickly gaining traction as a powerful tool for managing online payments — but questions abound.

Cathy Beardsley ·
opinion

Fine-Tuning Refund and Cancellation Policies

For adult websites, managing refunds and cancellations isn’t just about customer service. It’s a crucial factor in maintaining compliance with the regulations of payment processors and payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard.

Jonathan Corona ·
profile

WIA Profile: Laurel Bencomo

Born in Cambridge, England but raised in Spain, Laurel Bencomo initially chose to study business at the University of Barcelona simply because it felt familiar — both of her parents are entrepreneurs. She went on to earn a master’s degree in sales and marketing management at the EADA Business School, while working in events for a group of restaurants in Barcelona.

Women In Adult ·
profile

Gregory Dorcel on Building Upon His Brand's Signature Legacy

“Whether reflected in the storyline or the cast or even the locations, the entertainment we deliver is based on fantasy,” he elaborates. “Our business is not, and never has been, reality. People who are buying our content aren’t expecting reality, or direct contact with stars like you can have with OnlyFans,” he says.

Jeff Dana ·
opinion

How to Turn Card Brand Compliance Into Effective Marketing

In the adult sector, compliance is often treated as a gauntlet of mandatory checkboxes. While it’s true that those boxes need to be ticked and regulations must be followed, sites that view compliance strictly as a chore risk missing out on a bigger opportunity.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

A Look at the Latest AI Tools for Online Safety

One of the defining challenges for adult businesses is helping to combat the proliferation of illegal or nonconsensual content, as well as preventing minors from accessing inappropriate or harmful material — all the more so because companies or sites unable or unwilling to do so may expose themselves to significant penalties and put their users at risk.

Gavin Worrall ·
opinion

Know When to Drop Domains You Don't Need

Do you own too many domains? If so, you’re not alone. Like other things we accumulate, every registered domain means something to us. Sometimes a domain represents a dream project we have always wanted to do but have never quite gotten around to.

Juicy Jay ·
opinion

Understanding 'Indemnification' in Business Contracts

Clients frequently tell me that they didn’t understand — or sometimes, even read — certain portions of a contract because those sections appeared to be just “standard legalese.” They are referring, of course, to the specialized language used in legal documents, including contracts.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
Show More