Hey fellas,
We're still probably a good month or so off at least. Some technical difficulties getting the paywall up... apparently the non-giant paywall companies that exist out there (TinyPass, Cleeng, etc.) have zero customer support. I talked to one of the big companies and was horrified at their pricing, but the representative said they were worth it because they had "customer support." I was like, "Pssh, EVERYONE has customer support! You can't get customers without customer support, especially in a business where you're managing other business's entire income streams! Businesses won't USE you if you don't!" Well... apparently that's why the smaller companies don't have any customers. Can't exactly say I understand the business strategy there... anyway, I'm having a custom solution built now, which is more hassle, and takes a bit longer, but at least we won't have to have an important part of the business reliant on a party that won't communicate at all with you (really, really dangerous in the event of anything weird or bad ever happening, ever).
@ Brent,
Brentwoodbam said:
Will there be any incentive for your long-time readers? I saw a figure of 20 bucks a month to read blogs, which for a college student who pays all of his own bills sounds a bit tough, especially when in the back of my mind I will tell myself that I have gotten enough from the site to move on with pick-up, even though I find myself referencing and going back over posts every single day.
With all that being said, are there any plans for a one-time offer of a discount to continue reading the blogs (maybe 10 or 15 bucks a month, i know this is pinching pennies)? Maybe through exclusive the exclusive e-mail list to really get through to the dedicated readers? All this is simply because I would hate to have this site limited to me because of financial issues.
Yeah, I understand... pretty tough when you're paying your own bills and you've really got to scrimp and save and cut expenses. I've put it down as something to explore building into the system later on some way of checking for .edu email addresses to offer a student discount of some kind, but right now the business just don't have the manpower or the funding to tackle the overhead of expanding the project in a whole lot of different directions from the get-go. For now, it's get things up and running, and see where the pieces fall.
It sounds like you might even be at a point where you don't
need the site all that much anymore, or that it isn't worth it for you at 20 bucks a month, which, yeah, plenty of people it won't be worth it, I'm sure. There are a lot of ways you can spend $20, and the articles on here might not be the best of those ways. If there were a way of instituting some kind of "pay what you like / pay what you can afford" system and have it realistically fund the business to reasonable levels, I'd do it, but those systems really don't work. I've tried things like that before... even tried out donations a while back. Brought in a grand total of zero dollars.
The one discount we may have (it's not certain though, so don't hold me to it) is for product owners who want to subscribe. So if you've bought the book or videos or package, you might have a discounted rate for a certain number of months, depending on the product purchased... but, nothing's promised there yet. I'm not sure if that's technically feasible for right away; have to talk to the developer.
@ Runner,
cccrunner said:
Another thing that I am wondering is if this forum will follow those same rules. I would still like to interact with all of you, but I never have been able to do the whole monthly subscription thing. (I understand completely and wish you the best of luck though). I will still visit the site regularly and recommend it to other people as well.
Nope, the forum has absolutely nothing to do with articles or metered access. I understand on the subscription preferences, and you have my appreciation for any recommendations!
Chase
