A creative pricing Idea

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Rochnarand
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Post by Rochnarand »

The idea that instantly came to my mind is to make a daily free comic and a weekly or biweekly, and more spiffy, pay comic.
Tragic Lad
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Post by Tragic Lad »

Forgive me if someone's already brought this idea up, but another option for those who are doing comic strips online, is to offer today's and the last week or two's worth of comics for free - but to charge for access to the archives.

I sat down one weekend and read the entirety of PVP. Over a couple hours worth of enjoyment for which I'd gladly have shelled out a couple bucks admission.

This solution also nicely solves the problem with MP that everyone seems to be kvetching about "who's going to want to pay to see something they've never seen" and for those with a reasonable sized library of material, could probably be worked into some of the existing pay methods available now.
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lylebclarke
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Post by lylebclarke »

Would you have shelled out your couple of bucks admission BEFORE you sat down and enjoyed PVP for a couple of hours?
Tragic Lad
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Post by Tragic Lad »

Most likely, I would have.
I'd been reading PVP daily for about a week or two before I finally took the time to dig through the archives.

Would I have shelled out to look at it completely sight unseen? Never.
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Post by Guest »

Sure, sure, but imagin that you just got to PVP for the first time in history, and you see a big sign that says: pay us $.25 cents, and you can read everything in here, even though you don't know what it is, and dont know if its funny or not. And hey, maybe theres only like 5 compics in here, and you read it all, and get ripped off.

-jeremy
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Greg Stephens
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Post by Greg Stephens »

True, if you paid to read an archive that you thought might be extensive and it turned out to be a mere 5 comics, then that might be a disproportianate cost for value. However, just as in the physical world, any digital market will require good creator/customer communication in order for it to function. It's no different from going to a bookstore and purchasing a book that's shrink-wrapped (or, in an example closer to home, going to a comic shop and finding that the latest issue of whatever it is you're looking for has arrived pre-bagged by the publisher and you won't be able to flip through it before deciding if you want to buy it). Creators and sellers of digital content will have to keep their potential customers informed as to what they can expect for their money, but that's not a flaw inherent to the system, just to humans in general.
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