It doesn't seem possible that there'd be money to be made from lending e-books. But at least one woman figured out how to do it, and more little lending conglomerates seem to be on the way.
When on Dec. 30, Kindle decided to allow its customers to lend copies of purchased e-books (but only for 14 days, and only to one person), a 40-year-old Canadian woman named Catherine MacDonald had an idea that literally popped up in her dreams. She started the Kindle Lending Club. It started out as a Facebook site, where she'd match up people who wanted to lend a book to people who wanted to borrow. It quickly grew out of hand, so she looked for angel seed money.
Finding someone who was willing to invest $12,500, she launched a slick Web site and created a place where people can come and look for specific e-books, or offer to lend them. So far, she has lent more than 1,000 e-books among total strangers and it's all worked without a hitch.
But where does the money come in? If the lender finishes the book within the 14-day limit, no fees are assessed and everything is free. But if the borrowers discover that they can't finish within Amazon's 14-day lending window (and things do come up in life--someone gets sick, or a business trip comes up) lendees can offer a link to buy the e-book and lenders share a portion of the resulting revenue through Amazon's Affiliate Program. For anyone familiar with Amazon's affiliate program, it takes a lot to actually make any money, but if the business person is dogged about going about it, he or she can make some bucks out of the program. So the lendee gets an e-book at a good price, and everyone's happy.
However MacDonald in Canada is hardly the first person to come up with the idea of the Kindle Lending Club. She was merely one of the first. Now there are many on the Web and not just for Kindles either. There are nook lending clubs popping up too. Kindles and nooks don't mix, thanks to incompatible software.
Continued on the next pageShazam Currently Boasts 30 Million Total iOS and Android Users
According to Mobile Entertainment, music discovery service Shazam now has 25 million iPhone and iPod Touch users and a total of 5 million users using its Android application, continuing to add more than one million users a week.
With so many users interacting with its service, Shazam’s app now tags 3 million tracks a day, facilitating between 250,000 and 300,000 track purchases, a conversion rate that fluctuates between 8-10%.
In December we noted that Shazam has surpassed the 100 million users mark, it has now become clear that this accounts for all of the people that have used the service in the ten years since the platform launched.
Mobile Entertainment estimates that Shazam earns between $10,000 and $15,000 a day from music referrals (using a track price of $0.99), equating to $300k – $450k a month, almost $6 million a year. Shazam offers a free smartphone application but also charges $5.99 for its premium iPhone and iPad app, so its revenues will be substantially higher from the figures quoted just for its affiliate sales.
The company also has sponsorship and advertising agreements in place, this week we brought you news of its partnership with Spotify to allow the playback of tracks using the service.
Whatever way you look at it, Shazam is dominating. The service provides perhaps the simplest of services and its users love it, it’s a money making machine.
rock tops granite horrible experience, rock tops granite, rock tops granite scam, rock tops granite horrible experience, rock tops granite horrible experience, rock tops granite rip off, rock tops granite scam, rock tops granite, rock tops granite rip off, rock tops granite horrible experience, rock tops granite rip off, rock tops granite rip off, rock tops granite horrible experience, rock tops granite horrible experience, rock tops granite rip off, rock tops granite scam
Exclusive: An Early Look At <b>News</b>.me, The New York Times' Answer To <b>...</b>
Tomorrow, all eyes will be on the launch of News Corp's iPad newspaper The Daily, but huddled away in a downtown loft in New York City's meatpacking district a team from betaworks and the New York Times are busy putting together their ...
Katie Couric Beach Photos -- Katie Couric Rocks a Swimsuit! | TMZ.com
Katie Couric is all business -- swimsuit business ... and when she slipped into a revealing one-piece it was just sexy enough to get one TMZ staffer WAY…
<b>News</b> Corp. launches 'The Daily' iPad newspaper | iLounge <b>News</b>
iLounge news discussing the News Corp. launches 'The Daily' iPad newspaper. Find more iPad news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
No comments:
Post a Comment