Who Gets “It”?
Posted on November 12th, 2008, in Business, Consulting | 9 Comments »
There are going to be many interesting things happening in the blogging world over the next eight to sixteen months, as the economy shifts, and certain things change.
I assumed that as smaller businesses decided to hold back on advertising related spending that the bigger companies would pour their money into the web in hopes of getting a higher return on investment when compared to “old” media like television, radio and newspapers. The reality is that no one is filling the void, and so advertising rates are dropping quickly.
This had changed many people, like myself, that were avid fans of pay walls on sites coming down and freeing information and expertise by using the ad-supported model to realizing that a new business model needs to quickly replace general display advertising.
Unfortunately, this means that instead of charging companies, we have to charge those that would normally be our biggest fans and supporters. While many of us are trying to keep the fees as reasonable as possible, it is far from free, no matter what the dollar amount ends up being.
Many “experts” are going to be building out membership areas on their sites, or for their companies and brands because they need to replace that lost advertising revenue, while still being able to do the things they have expertise in doing.
As a consumer, you have to figure out “who is telling it to me straight, and who do I trust?” Once you figure out who to trust online, then you can choose who you want to support.
I have a feeling that this choice is going to get difficult as more and more people bring out membership areas on their sites, but as a consumer, research them, understand their motivations, and if able to, give them a month, and see what they have to offer. If you don’t enjoy it, cancel and move on.
Hone in on who gets “it” for you, and you’ll do fine.
I can see this shift, I just don’t think there are many people out there willing to pay many “experts” for their “service.” If it’s consulting directly maybe be but “Membership” in sites that halve been normal blogs I just can’t see working on a large scale. You may get enough to satisfy your needs, but I want a real service, like GMail or something if I have to pay.
Bill Deys´s last blog post..Scared Customers
- Bill DeysI agree. There won’t be many people willing to pay, and what that means is that people that want to make their income online are going to have to be really smart in how they do things.
Again, to understand why this is happening, you’d have to look at advertising rates, and how quickly they are dropping. I think it was something like 10+% per quarter. If that carries on much longer, you’ll see people close up shop.
But as always, it depends on the goals of both the authors and the readers and what they want from blogs and whatnot.
Look at your favourite blog. Would you pay $5/m to have it continue or would you let it die?
- David PeraltyWell, since none of my favorite blogs have ad’s or is the primary source of income, I don’t care. They would NEVER ask me to pay, and they wouldn’t get taken down because of decrees in ad dollars.
Bill Deys´s last blog post..Scared Customers
- Bill DeysWell, that makes you one very lucky individual. Most of the blogs I read are heavily ad-supported, and while I’d like to think they’d carry on if ad rates dropped through the floor, I am sure at least a few would leave if their hosting and domains weren’t covered somehow.
- David PeraltyIf my favorite blogs were in a situation where it was pay or die I’d let them die. Especially if were all doom and gloom about the economy, people will be less giving.
- John LeschinskiGood point John, I think it’ll help to stop talking about it and get on with life. The more a recession is hyped the worse it gets! and Dude do you really read the “meta” sites, that’s like meta meta! There teaching you how to make money buy building traffic, one of these days the whole “meta” blog thing is going to crumble. It’ll just take people realizing that it’s only each other reading!
Bill Deys´s last blog post..Scared Customers
- Bill DeysPeople on the internet are too used to getting their content for free. “Premium” content is a possibility but only when it enhances the main content.
- JinnsI concur – since the recent downturn, I’ve been curbing my online expenses as much as possible.
While I do like the idea of private online groups, I feel they may be a hard sell to people like me. Someone launched a $47/mth group today – and I can’t imagine what info he’s giving away for $550 a year.
David’s plan at $10/mth is more reasonable – and I’ll be watching carefully to see how that works out – I hope it goes very well.
I do wonder why the limit of 50 people – I think I would aim for 150 – the so-called “Dunbar number” would make the site quite sustainable, and ensure that the community that springs up won’t get so large that people find it unusable.
WTL´s last blog post..A recreational badminton team goes to a tournament.
- WTLNot everything in the online space is all about the economy. This shift had to come whether we hit a stumbling block in that respect or not.
As for premium content, I think people are thinking of this wrong. For this site, and Jim Kukral’s launch, think of it more as paying monthly to have consulting access. In that respect, it helps show where this is going in my industry.
If Jim Kukral makes you feel like you received 3 hours of personal consulting from him over the course of a year, then I think it could be worth it to spend that $550 per year.
Blogs would have to stop being so sensational, what I like to call the “candy and dessert” posts and start giving people the meat and potatoes of what they want. And as long as the fee was relatively small, say $20/year for all of Gawker Media, I’d probably pay it. Though in that equation, I am paying for content only, unlike my membership system on BrandingDavid.
As for the limitation. I am a member in a few forums, and the paid ones seem to do best with a tight community. I picked the 50 person number based on making sure I would have the time to give personal time and attention to each person. If everyone came and bought a year membership on day one, I would owe 50 hours of consulting, and that is no small feat with my current daily scheduling.
As for expanding it further, while I think the “Dunbar number” would be a cool metric, I also want to take into consideration and each person I add might be in a niche that competes with someone else, and knowing that the information I am giving out will be used to grow online businesses, I don’t want to allow too many people from any one niche into the system, and so a low cap on members is another great way to achieve that. I doubt out of 50 people there will be more than 5 people in any one niche on the forum, meaning that my knowledge can still have huge value and power if enacted.
If I had 150 people, or 1500 people, the power of that information, either in a search engine or advertising sense could be greatly diminished for each member.
I think I have set myself up with a great value proposition, but I want to make sure that each member feels the same way, and so while I’d love to say that I’ll sell 150 membership accounts and too bad for anyone that feels like they are having their toes stepped on in a business or idea sense, I want to do right by each member.
I have a good example of this issue in another paid membership only forum I am in, where one person announced an idea, and not even a month later, another member had done the same thing. It creates a sense of competition that I just don’t like.
The community now posts a lot less than they used to, especially about projects before they are released, meaning that they don’t get feedback before hand, and some, I am sure, have had weaker product and service launches because of it.
- David Peralty