What IS Premium Content?
July 25th, 2007Starting 1 August, we will provide everyone the opportunity to purchase Premium Content for $15 a month. We believe that’s an incredible value proposition, but that’s because we know what Premium Content IS.
For every weekly cast and members only cast, Premium Content will be:
- PDF Slides covering all the key points of the show.
- Shownotes (in some cases transcripts) of the show.
When you come to the site, you’ll see links to the shownotes and the slides for that show. (You can see an orange “Premium” Icon in our left column right now). If you’re a premium subscriber, the links to content will be live, and you will be able to download the shownotes and slides the moment the cast is up. (If you’re not a subscriber, you’ll be able to see the content, but not access it.)
If you’re wondering what shownotes “are”, and how the slides will look, we’ve made this blog post a sample of show blog posts, and the content for How To Run A SWOT Exercise Supporting Strategy are below. The orange icons indicate that the shownotes and slides are Premium Content.
For example (from the show on How To Run a SWOT Exercise Supporting Strategy):
How To Run a SWOT Excercise Slides (PDF) 
How To Run a SWOT Excercise Shownotes (RTF)
What about the archives?
The entire archives are included, no extra charge. If you’re a Premium Content subscriber, you get access to shownotes and slides for all of the archives as well. As long as you’re a subscriber, you have access to everything. Download it all, for your personal use (it’s still copyrighted).
We want you to have it all, and we’re not going to charge you for individual shows.
We do have a couple of minor caveats. Not every show’s Premium Content will be ready on 1 August, and we apologize for that. We decided that if we weren’t going to charge you for archived content, you would give us 30-60 days to fill out the archive catalog, so to speak (and we knew you had waited long enough). But, the key shows, the ones we suspect most of you really want…they’ll all be done.
At launch, roughly 70% of all shows will be available. (We’ll give you weekly updates on what shows have been added).
The reason that some shows have transcripts as opposed to shownotes is that we’ve gradually developed better and better shownotes. Early shownotes are just not as effective, we think, as transcripts.
We are aware that opening up the archives could be seen as incenting some selfishness, either in the form of “I can subscribe for one month, get everything, and then unsubscribe”, or, simply waiting longer to subscribe, because it will all still be there.
But we believe in the Manager Tools community, and would rather serve many than worry about a few.
[Tomorrow: Our incredible Introductory Offer. You’re not going to believe it!]
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July 25th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
LOL I think my printer just had a coronary!
July 26th, 2007 at 12:30 am
You guys are making it hard to control my wallet!
One minor suggestion - the RTF format or maybe just this RTF file seems to be hard for MS Word 2004 for OSX to open (opens in text edit just fine). Any chance you will standardize on PDF for each document? (will also make it great for use with PDF organizers!)
July 26th, 2007 at 1:42 am
This is great news. We’ve been waiting a long time for an option to give back for all you’ve given us, and you can only take the DiSC so many times. Looking forward to the new content!
July 26th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Wow! This deal keeps getting better! Mark and Mike, you are being very generous giving the back catalog.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:59 am
you guys are really more than fair and I think it is fair of us to give you something back as well. Look forward to subscribing.
July 26th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Guys, I think some thanks are in order. Firstly for doing this, secondly for showing trust in the community and believing in us. Yes I think some may do as you say, but most of us will not.
Again you demonstrate your ethos of “giving” not “in it for the money”, thank you
July 26th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Outstanding value!! You can count me in as one of what I am sure will evetually be thousands of subscribers.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:56 am
You guys provide a fabulous service! I recommend you to everyone.
One question - Have you thought about offering an enterprise service or pricing plan. I have recommended your blog to our Training team. I would like them to be able to license your premium content for all the managers going through our leadership program.
Why don’t you think about having an annual Enterprise payment option. In so many big organizations it is easier to pay one invoice than submitting expense payments every month.
July 26th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Ekivemark-
We are working on that very thing, and have negotiated some deals with corporate clients. We’re trying to balance IP with distribution….and we keep trying!
Mark
July 26th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
please tell me you’ve outsourced the transcription work. Ouch!
Can’t wait to pay up.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
What puzzles me about your sales strategy is that you announce all these details about your premium offer as blog posts *including comments*. Quite a bold move to invite potential critics to nag about and publish any fault they find with it. This only shows that you in fact have every right to be confident in the attractiveness of your offer. (Quite subtle for a compliment, wasn’t that?)
July 26th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Yep, nags are okay.
We’re not confident…we’re certain. Two guys with conviction is a majority!
Mark
July 29th, 2007 at 1:50 am
This is great guys! Now any word on Mark’s book?
July 29th, 2007 at 3:16 am
Jim-
Ha! You remind me of the kid who cant’ even walkt into the living romm Christmas morning for all the presents and says, ‘is this ALL?”
We’ll keep you posted when we know more.
Mark
July 30th, 2007 at 10:32 am
I think, like me, JimCat wants to buy your book and get you into the top 10 ten of BusinessBooks aswell.
Kaspar