Along with the recent developments in AI allowing solopreneurs to bypass expensive freelancers and build an online income for pennies, another recent development, which I believe to be a game-changer, is the opportunity to ‘rent’ specific content and products for a shorter amount of time.

Just like Amazon allows you to ‘rent’ a film for a day or two, you too can ‘rent’ your content out to people.

I call this…

The Amazon Blockbuster Principle

Amazon and other companies are doing an online digital version of what Blockbuster and other video stores used to do 20 years ago, which was renting out movies and computer games.

Netflix revolutionised the industry when it started renting DVDs out and sending them to customers in the post instead of them having to go to the store to collect them.

That soon changed when digital technology advanced to the point that long movies – which would normally require a huge amount of storage and could take hours to download – could be easily stored and streamed online without the need for the customer to download anything.

Streaming film and TV is now part of everyday life.

It’s just normal.

Very few people think anything of it now.

We are so used to it.

We either:

1. Pay a monthly fee to access specific television shows and films, think Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.
   
   
2. Buy them outright to own and download them to our devices (like buying a DVD back in the day).
   
   
3. Rent them for a specific length of time, such as 48 hours.

Here’s the thing… back in the day, when you rented a DVD, you had to fetch it from the store and you would have something physical to hold.

I imagine the majority of people who rented DVDs were honest and took them back, but I imagine that there were a few people who would steal them.

Today, stealing movies is harder to do because they are streamed from someone else’s server, meaning that you are watching it via someone else’s platform that use a software that prevents people from recording or downloading them.

The movie is watched via someone else’s platform that allows them access when they have paid and then removes it when the specific time period is up.

Time’s Up… We’re Closing The Gates!

Think of it this way; imagine that you lived right next door to a football stadium and that you have a bedroom window that would have a perfect view of the field if it weren’t for a large pair of gates sitting in the way.

One day, when there is a big game on, you pay one of the grounds staff $10 to open the gates so that you can look in and watch the game. As soon as the game is over, they close the gates, and you can no longer see into the stadium.

That would be a nice little earner for the grounds staff if they did that every weekend.

Imagine that happening, but online and automated.

That’s cool, right?

What I like about this is that you have the option of either renting or buying, just as we did when films were released on DVD.

You would pay something like $20 to buy a film to own, or pay a few dollars to rent it.

We can do the same with our products… and I don’t mean just our video content.

And I am not talking about just entertainment either.

Pay-Per-View Content

Think about it this way: imagine you have created a series of videos that show people how to become a successful newsletter publisher.

The videos, along with a couple of written reports, could be completely consumed in 8 to 10 hours.

Now, you could sell the course for $297, which means that the person who purchases has lifetime access to the content, but you could also offer a 24-hour access to someone for $47, perhaps $97.

There is a win-win scenario here, and that is that the customer gets access to the content they want for less than the full $297 asking price, and you still get a customer… but they just don’t get lifetime access to your product.

I am not going to say that this will happen often, but if someone who pays for 24-hour access fails to take notes or struggles to remember what they had learned, they would need to re-purchase it for another 24 hours… or buy it outright.

Some people will pay to access the content and not get around to taking a look, which means that if they really want that information, they will need to buy it again.

Everyone’s Happy

Giving people the option to buy it for a shorter period of time is like giving them a discount, which doesn’t offend your other customers.

A perfect example of this is when a broadband company decides to offer new customers their first year at half price, while existing customers who have been paying top whack for several years are not rewarded for their loyalty.

I have heard people moan about this before.

As a marketer, you will do whatever it takes to get new customers, and if that means offering a discount or better deal, you should do it, but I totally understand how existing customers who have been paying top whack for a long time without any discount can become a little cheesed off.

Some people believe that they should be rewarded for their loyalty, and new customers shouldn’t because they have not earned it…and there is an understandable truth to that, it does seem that loyal existing customers who are ‘happy to pay full price’ are not rewarded and are even discriminated against.

And this is why I like the idea that you can offer a ‘discounted’ version of the same product… but for a reduced period of time.

Someone who pays $297 for lifetime access to a program would feel cheesed off if the very next day a friend paid only $97 for the same lifetime access.

That would mean that they have paid an extra $200 for the same content just the day before, and that would be gutting for some people.

But if the access was only for one week, they wouldn’t be so upset.

I mean, they get lifetime access for $297, whereas the person who paid just $97 only gets access for a week. It makes sense.

Putting that all aside for the moment, what I really like about this is the fact that YOU CAN DO THIS!

You can sell your products and programs as a whol,e where the person owns it outright or has lifetime access to them…

Or you can sell them for a short period of time, where people are locked out as soon as the time has elapsed.

It is a beautiful business model, and I hope you incorporate it into your online endeavours.

Final Note: If you are thinking “this all sounds great Nick but how do I set this up online…” then take a look at Product Dyno. It’s one of my favorite features of this product delivery SaaS soluton. You can effectively have your own “Netflix” style business all set up and ready to go in just a couple of days… and get started with a completely free trial account.

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