Monetizing my business WIFI

Callum Short

Callum Short

Founder @ Beambox.com
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Jan 1, 2015
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Hi bros,

I'm looking into monetizing a cafe's wifi. Approximately 800 people access the free wifi on a monthly basis. I'm not looking to make a lot, even £5 a week would be justified.

Some ideas I've had:
  1. PPV video monetisation on a 10 minute access cycle
  2. Pop-up PPC adverts (Doubtful it will work as it will be the same I.P clicking the ads every time?)
Any input would be awesome.
 
IMO this would be a great way to destroy your customer base but maybe it's just my country. Most people here go to the cafes to "eat there" and the free wifi lol

a 10minute cycle would seriously piss me off
 
builttodominate said:
IMO this would be a great way to destroy your customer base but maybe it's just my country. Most people here go to the cafes to "eat there" and the free wifi lol

a 10minute cycle would seriously piss me off
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The wifi is still free, there will just be subtle monetizing. Most larger organisations in the U.K have a registration for wifi access, which is worse than having advertisements every so often, so I don't think that would be an issue.
 
Callum Short said:
The wifi is still free, there will just be subtle monetizing. Most larger organisations in the U.K have a registration for wifi access, which is worse than having advertisements every so often, so I don't think that would be an issue.
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I understand that, but when you mentioned the PPV cycle. Does that mean that every 10minutes they would be required to watch an ad?
 
You want to annoy 200 people a week while they enjoy their lunch, to earn less than £1 a day from it? Why not promote menu items or specials? Or they only get free WiFi once they've ordered something and are a paying customer?
 
builttodominate said:
I understand that, but when you mentioned the PPV cycle. Does that mean that every 10minutes they would be required to watch an ad?
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Yes, 10 minutes was just an example though. That would certainly be annoying, but I guess it all depends on how frequently people use wifi in cafe's. Any time I have, it's always been briefly to look something up for a minute or two.
 
MetaData said:
You want to annoy 200 people a week while they enjoy their lunch, to earn less than £1 a day from it? Why not promote menu items or specials?
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More than anything I'm trying to find a way I can monetize without annoying them. Though, promoting menu items wouldn't work as the menu is right in front of them.

One idea I had was to set up a network locally so that businesses can buy advertising. For example, a local amusement park might buy an advert at a cafe, though this is too much effort to get started.
 
Even though the menu is right in front of people at any restaurant, servers will still mention the specials of the day, or "Which dessert can I interest you in?" or "Have you tried our new....?"

Does the menu that's right in front of them adapt to promote different items on different days depending on inventory and what needs to be cleared out that day? Can the menu that's right in front of them send them an ad about your delicious new chocolate biscuits 9 minutes after they've sat down and are just about done their coffee? Does it have really nice photos to get their mouths watering? Does it offer your WiFi users 25% off their next coffee for sending out a geo-tagged social media post?

There's a lot you can do with this without having to setup an ad network for local businesses that's only going to get 800 unique visitors a month and is going to annoy people with unrelated ads, and I'd venture to guess you'd earn a lot more in-house because where are you going to find more targeted traffic for a cafe than people who are sitting in that cafe?
 
MetaData said:
Even though the menu is right in front of people at any restaurant, servers will still mention the specials of the day, or "Which dessert can I interest you in?" or "Have you tried our new....?"

Does the menu that's right in front of them adapt to promote different items on different days depending on inventory and what needs to be cleared out that day? Can the menu that's right in front of them send them an ad about your delicious new chocolate biscuits 9 minutes after they've sat down and are just about done their coffee? Does it have really nice photos to get their mouths watering? Does it offer your WiFi users 25% off their next coffee for sending out a geo-tagged social media post?

There's a lot you can do with this without having to setup an ad network for local businesses that's only going to get 800 unique visitors a month and is going to annoy people with unrelated ads, and I'd venture to guess you'd earn a lot more in-house because where are you going to find more targeted traffic for a cafe than people who are sitting in that cafe?
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Good point with the server.
It was just something to explore really, if I could launch a local advertising network then 800 unique visitors would be very valuable because they are geographically relevant and likely to be highly converting.

I know that facebook have just launched a wifi system as well, where small businesses can create a hotspot that must be registered to via facebook, which then converts into company page likes.
 
Depends on your ethics (and whether you even class this as unethical), but you could simply replace existing adverts in web pages with your own ads.
 
Jake232 said:
Depends on your ethics (and whether you even class this as unethical), but you could simply replace existing adverts in web pages with your own ads.
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Something tells me that's not legal haha, I've had that thought before.
 
Like MetaData is suggesting, build your business, don't destroy it and ostracize your customer base.
 
You might be overlooking the fact that the free wifi is also driving sales. I dare you to off the wifi for a month and see if those same customers keep coming back, if not wifi was driving sales, cause in their mind it's an added convenience to come to the cafe get a drink, snack, and browse aimlessly.

This honestly is a horrible idea for Extremely small gains cause cafes are a dime a dozen. No one is going to put up with annoying nonsense- unless you're putting gold bar in their expressos.
 
CCarter said:
You might be overlooking the fact that the free wifi is also driving sales. I dare you to off the wifi for a month and see if those same customers keep coming back, if not wifi was driving sales, cause in their mind it's an added convenience to come to the cafe get a drink, snack, and browse aimlessly.

This honestly is a horrible idea for Extremely small gains cause cafes are a dime a dozen. No one is going to put up with annoying nonsense- unless you're putting gold bar in their expressos.
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In essence, the internet is still free so I'm not sure where you are getting that from. The video advertisements could be considered a time expense but that was a rather extreme example of monetization. Something subtle that doesn't tarnish the experience could very easily be implemented, it's just a matter of finding the right network/opportunity.

In regards to the low-profits, it's a different story when the subtle monetization tied together with a multi-site or franchise organisation/network creates a significant channel of income through high traffic wifi 'real estate'.

Thanks for your feedback, it was just food for thought really and it's fun to explore these opportunities :smile:
 
Look into what Panera Bread is doing for wifi access.
 
A botulism outbreak wouldn't be as harmful as implementing interruption marketing on your wifi.

Outside of maybe a few ads on a log in screen, I think monetizing it is a mistake. If anything, use it to drive sales. There are systems that will allow you to print a unique WiFi access code on a customers receipt.
 
@CCarter is absolutely right. Free WiFi is still a selling point. I frequently see stickers on the doors of cafes and bars that advertise their free WiFi.

That said, I think the only way this could work out is if you're advertising the cafes menu or daily specials (in a non-super-obtrusive way) when a user logs on for the first time. Then sell the service to the cafe, and move to the next store. Any sort of advertising for anything other than the store itself would be too obtrusive and is a great way to lose customers. If you did that shit to me I'd never go back, but if the cafe did it I wouldn't care. @MetaData gave you a great outline of how it could work and if you build out on his advice I think you would really have something of value.
 
This idea reminds me those e-shops that place adsense on their pages...
 
I agree with most of the advice on here. Ads on your 'free' wifi would be an excellent reason for me to never return to any of your cafes'.
 
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