PPTExchange - what it is, and how it works
PPTExchange - which is currently in Beta release - positions itself primarily as a community-based exchange through which members can make their PowerPoint decks available to other users. Built on top of this premise is the option to monetize this sharing process, by setting a price for your presentations. Interested parties can pay over the Internet, and duly download the files you have put up for sale.
PPTExchange manages that process, so that all you have to do is upload your presentations using a simple form, choose a category and tags, and then select whether:
- Your presentation will be free for all to download
- Your presentation will be free to download for those that agree to sign up for an email subscription
- Your presentation can be downloaded if the end-user pays a dollar amount decided by you
- Your presentation can only be viewed online and not downloaded as PowerPoint file
By adding a description and catchy title, and selecting which slides from your deck can be viewed as a preview, you give your potential audience a chance to thumb through all or part of your presentation in a scaled down format before deciding whether or not to download it.
The business model
PPTExchange doesn't cost anything to join, so the only expenses you are likely to incur are those related to any pay-per-download presentations that you might decide to purchase. It is perfectly possible to use the service to both upload and download free presentations without ever spending a cent.
As a publisher, the ball is in your court - if you decide that you want to give your work away, from the kindness of your own heart, that is perfectly possible. On the other hand, if you decide that you would like to assign your presentation a monetary value, you are also free to do so, and can sell your presentations from the minimum price of $1.50, right up to anything you think might be marketable.
The money paid to you from any sales is paid through PayPal, and from the total figure, PPTExchange deduct their 30% commission, leaving you with a 70% slice of the pie.
There is no guarantee, however, that the service will remain free to use, as the PPTExchange FAQ states only that this is the case throughout the beta period. I would strongly suggest that at least the option of a free account (with extra storage capactiy and features for pro users) would be wise to maintain, given that PPTExchange will rely on the value brought to the service by its content providers.
At the time of writing, users are given 100 MB of storage space for their presentations. Given that PowerPoint files can sometimes become quite bloated, this seems a little on the small side, and users will probably find themselves compressing their presentations to make the most of the space given to them.
Execution and interface
Using the service
Uploading content is a straightforward process that involves filling out an online form giving details about your presentation, and will be familiar territory to anyone that has ever uploaded video to share online. Equally, locating content is relatively easy, and you can find appropriate presentation decks in a number of ways:
- By browsing the featured presentations, most popular presentations and latest presentations uploaded to the service
- By searching tags or clicking on a tag cloud to reveal all presentations featuring a given tag
- By searching categories or selecting from a list of the most popular categories
Tag search and tag cloud content navigation
Once you have found a presentation that interests you, it is possible to view it in part or in full using an online preview. This means that you can step through any preview slides the author has published to preview, to get a good idea as to whether you are interested in a presentation before committing to downloading or purchasing it.
Further to these search capabilities you can choose particular presentations to add to your favorites, so that you can quickly access them again in the future. In addition to this useful feature, it is also possible to quickly revisit all content you have previously downloaded from PPTExchange by visiting the 'My Library' tab. Should you need to quickly locate a presentation you have previously used, this is the easiest way of going about it.
As a seller, you also have access to a 'My Shop' tab, in which all of your uploaded content is instantly accessible, alongside any mailing list subscribers you might have gathered through the email subscription 'payment' method. It also makes sense to spend a little time creating a profile for yourself, describing your areas of expertise, perhaps supplying a photograph of yourself to further personalize your presence in the PPTExchange community.
Interface design
If PPTExchange is to be a true success in what is a primarily visual field, I would recommend that some changes be made in the interface design of the service. As it stands there are some serious drawbacks that really prevent PPTExchange living up to its promising potential. The issues I found jumped out at me were:
- Profoundly unappealing website design - minimal is one thing, but at the moment PPTExchange unfortunately lets itself down with amateurish design. Layout is very haphazard, and the use of some truly hideous gradients in the side boxes create a sense that no thought has been given to the selection of a colour scheme.
- A poor choice of front page. If I go to YouTube, the first thing I see are videos. Lots of videos. That's because YouTube is all about sharing videos.
The PPTExchange Splash screen
If I go to PPTExchange I see a very poorly executed splash page, explaining what the service is in jumbled, badly laid out text. If I were someone visiting the site for the first time with a mind to buying a presentation or two, I would feel somewhat at a loss upon arriving at this front page.
This is a service ostensibly about sharing presentations. Show me the presentations!
- Navigation issues. When I finally find the presentations, things don't improve unfortunately. On the left hand side we see thumbnails of featured presentation decks - so far, so good.
But to the right of these featured items we have links to popular decks and new decks. These would be useful were it not for one serious problem - they are comprised of text based descriptions that are cut off midway through the description. The only real way I have of knowing what a presentation actually is, is by clicking each individual link and finding out the hard way.
With shorter presentation titles this works fine. But slightly longer presentation titles become all but meaningless. Examples include 'Roadmap to starting a suc...' and 'Online communications and...', which ultimately leave the user guessing: ‘Roadmap to starting a successful kebab shop?’ ‘Online communications and sheep rearing?’ Who knows?
PPTExchange crowded layout leaves no room for all important presentation titles
What is needed here is either the option to roll-over the text and reveal the full title, or more thought as to how the text might be laid out. If the large 'sign up now' button and oversized links to the FAQ and company presentation were removed (there is no need for any of this to be here when I am already signed in), there would be considerably more space to showcase the presentations.
Content currently available
It is the presentations themselves that will ultimately make or break PPTExchange as a pioneering way of allowing PowerPoint users to socially network and monetize their presentation design skills. Ultimately, if the presentations featured are of a high enough quality, PPTExchange will see a brisk trade in traffic, especially if the cost of these presentations is kept low.
PPTExchange is currently in the early days of its beta release, and as such could benefit from some high quality presentations. The material currently available could be useful, but isn't going to wow anyone. Designs, layouts and colour schemes are largely uninspired and the use of gaudy clip art elements in some of the slides are unlikely to impress your audience.
Sample content by 'JorgeP'
On the bright side, this means that there is a lot of potential to have your work jump to the top of the pile in terms of popularity, and rapidly start earning you a new source of income. The more well designed presentations you upload to PPTExchange, the better chance you will have in seeing a quick return. There is nothing like bad competition to make your work shine, after all.
Conclusions
PPTExchange has a lot of potential to be a very useful service for those looking to sell or purchase PowerPoint presentations at a fair price. By creating a free marketplace where anyone can publish their PowerPoint decks, and decide their own price, PPTExchange brings the opportunity for everyday people to put their presentations to work for them.
What lets the service down at the time of writing is poor visual design and navigation. The site is far from a pleasure to navigate, and feels not only crowded, but ill conceived from a design perspective. The outlay that a design overhaul might entail would, I believe, be more than offset by the increase in both quality content and paying customers.
As it stands, PPTExchange feels the slightest bit thrown together, and this is a shame, as I think that the concept has a lot of mileage. To attract great looking presentations that are going to sell well, the PPTExchange team are going to need to put some thought into making their destination an attractive one for its potential clientele.
Design issues aside this is a fresh idea that has the potential to do for PowerPoint decks what the new breed of budget stock photo agencies have done for the purchasing of quality images. By opening up content creation to its user base, and creating a marketplace for cheap but high-quality presentations, PPTExchange could well prove to be a very useful resource for visual communicators and presentation professionals from any number of backgrounds.
In that sense, it is worth keeping an eye on. Furthermore, with no sign-up charges, there really is nothing to lose by posting some of the PowerPoint decks festering on your hard drive. They may very well bring in a secondary source of income for you.
Additional resources
If you would like to learn more about PPTExchange, you might want to visit the following links:
