Jack Molisani, the Exec Dir of The LavaCon Conference on Content Strategy and User Experience, covers how to leverage being a valued member of the development team to reduce costs and generate revenue using content as a business asset.

1. Monetizing Your
Content
by
@JackMolisani

2. Welcome Local
and
Virtual Attendees

3. President
ProSpring Technical Staffing
Executive Director
The LavaCon Conference
Author
Be the Captain of Your Career

4. I’ll ask questions about
several slides in this session.
We’ll alternate getting answers
from the live studio audience
and the virtual audience.

5. Notice the title of this session is
“Monetizing Your Content”…
…not “Monetizing Your
Documentation”

6. Two Parts:
Organizational Positioning
Examples of Monetizing Content

7. What’s wrong with
this diagram?
http://www.meierit.com.au/approach/process

8. It shows documentation
at the end of the
product
development
lifecycle

9. Better, but—
http://riskianawulan.net/2011/09/system‐development‐life‐cycle/

10. Documentation is still
separate from
development

11. Plus Documentation is on the outside
looking in

12. http://www.pddnet.com/articles/2009/05/project‐plan‐bible
And this one, what’s right?

13. Tech Pubs is part of the Product
Development Team, Yay!

14. What’s wrong with this
diagram?
Development Strategy
Design
Information Architecture
Design
Develop
Develop
Test…
Content Strategy
Test…
Content Plan
Product Plan
3
4
1
2
5
4
5
1
2
6
6
3
System Architecture

15. Content development is being
done in parallel with product
development, that (with any
luck) will ship at the same
time the product
ships
Development Strategy
Design
Information Architecture
Design
Develop
Develop
Test…
Content Strategy
Test…
Content Plan
Product Plan
3
4
1
2
5
4
5
1
2
6
6
3
System Architecture

17. 3
4
1
2
5
4
5
1
2
6
6
3

18. This is how the content development
looks today.
How should it look?

19. CONTENT!
Reqmnts
Def’n
Design
Sales
Test
Build
Usability
Test
P’type
Deploy
Support
Product
Mgmt

20. • Total User Experience
• Total Info Experience
• User Interface Design
• Embedded Content
‐ Field Names
‐ Embedded UA
‐ Error Messages
• External Content
‐ Online Help
‐ User Manuals
‐ Training Materials
‐ Support Site
• Developer Docs
• Content Management
• Translation Management
• Controlled Language and
Vocabulary Management
• More
DESIGN
CONTENT!
Reqmnts
Def’n
Design
Sales
Test
Build
Usability
Test
P’type
Deploy
Support
Product
Mgmt

21. So if we can’t have a content‐centric
development process, at least
we can influence the product
development process,
every step of
the way
Dev Strategy
Design
Develop
Test…
Product Plan
System Architecture
Information Architecture
Design
Develop
Test…
Content Strategy
Content Plan

22. Especially if you are an embedded
member of a Agile team, working
side‐by‐side with the developers
http://tinyurl.com/k5znhlq

23. You're not just a tech writer. You're a
valuable part of a product development
team. Start acting like it.
@JackMolisani #STC14 #TechComm

24. So How Do You
Monetize Content?

25. Content:
n. Any material, such as writing,
pictures, or music, that appears on a
website or other electronic medium
Several start‐ups were bankrupted by
the high cost of producing original
content.
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/content

26. Monetize:
v. To earn money from something,
especially something on the Internet,
such as a website or piece of software
There’s a lot of discussion out there
about how online content should be
monetized.
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/monetize

27. Monetizing Content
• Save money / cost avoidance
• Charge for It
• Content marketing to new customers
• Leverage content to sell more
products to existing customers

28. Save Money / Cost Avoidance
One survey estimated that the annual
cost of searching for information and
creating, recreating, and publishing
information is over $30,000 per
worker per year.
How can you help your company save
money?
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090506005284/en/Hidd
en‐Costs‐Information‐Work‐Enterprise‐Exposed‐IDC#.U3T4GCiowyo

29. Charge for It
• Subscriptions
• Pay Per View
• Tiered (Free + Paywall)

30. http://blackboard.emediate.com/2013/08/are‐paywalls‐a‐success/

31. Content Marketing
n. A marketing technique of creating and
distributing valuable, relevant and
consistent content to attract and acquire a
clearly defined audience—with the
objective of driving profitable customer
action.

32. Content Marketing
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract
and retain customers by consistently
creating and curating relevant and valuable
content with the intention of changing or
enhancing consumer behavior. It is an
ongoing process that is best integrated into
your overall marketing strategy, and it
focuses on owning media, not renting it.
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what‐is‐content‐marketing/

33. Content Marketing

34. Leverage Content to Sell More
Products to Existing Customers
• There is no one answer
• HTC example
• QuickBooks example
• Bihler example

35. HTC
HTC uses MindTouch + SAP as their
tech support content platform
They linked the support site tool with
their automated marketing tool so
they can generate additional revenue
based on the customer’s support
needs.

36. HTC
For example, suppose a customer logs
into the website and searches for,
“How do I replace my phone battery?”

37. HTC
Notified, the marketing tool would
send the customer an email:
“I see you need to replace your
phone’s battery. Why not upgrade
to a new phone? Use coupon code….”

38. QuickBooks
QuickBooks has a section of their UI
that displays sales information:

39. QuickBooks

40. Bihler
Bihler makes programmable stamping
machines with very advanced software.

41. Bihler
The product’s interface is touch‐screen,
with little room for embedded help.

42. Bihler
Customers were so unhappy with
PDF‐based user documentation that
they were losing resales, so they
hired SQUIDDS to rearchitect their
publishing platform.

43. Bihler
From content authored in MS Word
and Adobe FrameMaker, they used
WebWorks Reverb to produce
HTML5, and then created a mobile
app customers could use to display
content for their product.

45. Bihler
Customers were thrilled with the
new platform.

46. Bihler
By improving the workflow and
documentation, they saw a 3%
increase in revenue last year from
customers they otherwise would
have lost.

47. Bihler
Georg Eck, SQUIDDS
Multi‐Device Publishing on Demand:
Case Study—Bihler
4:15pm, room 105A

48. Recap

49. Position yourself as a valuable member
of the product development team

50. Find ways to reduce costs and
generate revenue

51. Then ask for a raise
when you do!

52. Do you have an example of how you fiscally
helped your company? Let me know!

53. Jack@ProspringStaffing.com
@JackMolisani