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If MM turns into a pay site....
Will you stick around, and if you do stick around what do you think is a fair price for membership? Should there only be 1 membership level, or should there be scaled levels of membership? Jun 03 05 09:17 am Link none - stop putting out ideas!! Jun 03 05 09:17 am Link Depends on the cost and if I decide it's worth my money or not. If I can arrange 1 way to make money in a year from this site, it would be worth my money. Jun 03 05 09:19 am Link I'll rob someone blind to pay for my membership if I have to (I won't have to, but if I did). I love this site. It's my favorite. Jun 03 05 09:25 am Link I'm sure you don't expect the site to get any better for free with the number of people that continue to join it. I would hate to see an outrageous charge for membership but I will also stop visiting if I'm on a T3 connection and I'm navigating screen like I'm on a 14.4 connection. You feel me? If you wouldn't pay to be a member of the site, how much would you contribute per year on a donation only basis? Jun 03 05 10:07 am Link Posted by EMG STUDIOS: "My Space" is free.... it has thousands members as well... Jun 03 05 10:24 am Link What do you mean IF?!?!?!?... come on... think about everything you've heard from all your member friends... all the positive messages you've read... all the hundreds of 'this site is WAY COOL and it BLOWS AWAY OMP' comments. Dude, it's only a matter of time, and judging from the EXPLOSIVE growth of MM, I'd say it will probably be a SHORT time. A 'soon to be monsterous' site such as this will take LOTS of bandwidth to keep rollin... and what does large amounts of bandwidth consumption cost?... LOTS of money... money that judging from the abundant lack of advertizing here, isn't being made yet. We've all witnessed the somewhat slower functionality of this site lately, and the extra cash would most assuredly speed things up. So guess who's gonna be payin for all this additional maintainance?... PAID MEMBERS with largers portfolios and more 'site access' options. That would be my guess. Tyler and his web-buddies definitely have bigger paydays ahead... and rightfully so. U go Tyler... oh... and if you need some marketing assistance from a master, let me know. I'll show you how to 'rock and flippin roll' in the income department, while still keeping this site a BIGTIME happy site that everyone wants to stay on... NOT like that other 'pain in the ass' (improperly managed) model site so much of us have been bitching about. Jun 03 05 10:25 am Link It takes a lot of money to get a site like this going, let alone keep it going. I wouldn't have a problem paying for a membership, as long as it's not a really high price. If it were half the cost of OMP, I would pay the price. Jun 03 05 10:44 am Link I actually wanted to send a donation, but Tyler's not accepting them! So yes, I'd pay for a membership. Not vast sums, because I don't have vast sums, but I like the service and the vibe here, and I find I enjoy catching up the day's posts, so I'd be willing to pay for those privileges. Jun 03 05 11:48 am Link I was just wondering what people thought. I have never been to MySpace so I wouldn't know how they operate, they may be owned by a larger "hidden" entity or they have tons of ads running. I have no problem with either, but we must all face the music -- who can sing??? Jun 03 05 01:18 pm Link Posted by Select Models: I don't think that MM will grow THAT much larger. I don't know how many people are on OMP, but they are around for a very long time. Jun 03 05 01:32 pm Link $150,000 a year is only $12,500/mo. A modeling site with 15,000 members and Eris alone knows how many Looky-Loos could burn through that much just in bandwidth and hosting, no problemo, leaving the proprietors exactly zero gross. They'd have to take lots of ads just to have ANY profits. One of the websites I am involved with (it's not my website, I'm just involved with it) was once listed as a bad site of the day by some critic site or other, and it burned through almost a thousand dollars worth of bandwidth in TWELVE HOURS, and that's almost entirely pure text - it's not a picture-intensive site. Now admittedly that's a freak event, but if you have a site with thousands upon thousands of pics of pretty naked girls, you can get that sort of traffic on a more or less constant basis. Frankly, I'm amazed anybody can afford to have any sort of big website at all. M Jun 03 05 01:57 pm Link I'm not sure how a major commercial website operates but if you're going to venture into the big website business I would imagine you would want to purchase server(s) and maybe a T or two into your home. This would be much cheaper than paying someone $1000 for twelve hours of bandwidth. This of course if you have the knowledge to run your own small server farm. Jun 03 05 02:12 pm Link As much as I love the site, the answer is no. There should still be a free option available, albiet maybe limited. Jun 03 05 02:21 pm Link for all you people who think the forums are dead now. turn this into a pay site and see what happens. I was at Models.com when it went from free to pay and eventually all the serious professional people disappeared because while they were paying money for what was once free, the service remained the same. If you're going to take a free site and turn it into pay, you also have to bring along some fun new stuff to make it worthwhile. Jun 03 05 03:38 pm Link As much as I enjoy the interaction here, I would not pay for the current level of services. Nice spot to chat and look at pretty pictures, but for those of us outside the US it is functionally useless as a search/reference site. Canadian models and photographers are all clumped together in one vast section, with no regional deliniation. OMP may blow on many levels, but there is regional search support for the rest of the planet. Jun 03 05 04:15 pm Link There is a site called MuseCube.com that was free. It lasted for a while before the inevitable happened and it had to pay for itself and went to paid subscriptions. For this site, I'd speculate maybe nine to eighteen months. Sooner or later, it'll have to pay for this bandwidth and server space. When that happens, it just depends on how much is charged and what will be provided. But I'm not dependent on photography for a living, so I'd probably move on. None of us are entitled to a free anything, unless we do it ourselves. Enjoy it while it lasts. Jun 03 05 05:29 pm Link If it goes the way of pay sites it best get the #s up high like OMP. OMP was smart they had 100s of thousands of members before they went to upgraded accounts offering extras for pay. Then they started slowly weening out freebie accounts and now all new photographers have to pay. Look at Musecube their recent decision to go strictly pay caused a lot of folks to give them the big FU farewell. They did not have the numbers and instead of offering upgrades for pay they went straight to weening out freebies cutting back then cutting them out. I suspect in a year they will pretty much be dead. I had been with them since the start and might have even upgraded if they had done it right, but way they did it soon as I got the email about the latest change I deleted my photos and had them cancel my account. As it is MM has a good shot of taking over OMP's spot as the top dog, but if they rush into paid accounts too quickly they will alienate a lot of current and prospective members and will be stuck as just another site following in OMP's footsteps. Personally if they decide to start charging for upgraded memberships I recomend keep current members status as is, keep upgrade costs low enough for beginners to afford with higher levels for those professional enough to afford it. Keep new memberships either free with less benefits currently offered or a low start up cost to cut back on the folks just here to look around grab pics then poof which will cut back on expenses. Jun 03 05 06:30 pm Link Actually it does not truly cost that much - he can get a dedicated server for about 190 a month with a tone of bandwidth..... If marketed right - he can get 190 a month in advertsing easy.. Posted by Select Models: Jun 03 05 07:15 pm Link Anyone ever heard of SoloModels? Best-run attempt to compete with OMP that I'd seen in a long time. I actually spent quite some time giving them competitive advice for free (well, they gave me a free full-service account, but so what?), but they couldn't crack that nut. The network effect will keep OMP on top for quite some time, unless someone invests serious money into eating their lunch. Jun 03 05 07:20 pm Link If it were pay only then I wouldn't stay and I am sure that others will feel the same way. I like this site and think it has potential but as of now it isn't close to being on the level of OMP, in terms of memberships. I don't like OMP much but I will keep my basic membership there because it is more recognized and it isn't expensive broken down over a year. If Model Mayhem chooses to start collecting money soon they won't last in my opinion because it hasn't been around long enough and new models/photographers will just see an additional site you have to pay for up front. People like free stuff, plain and simple  Jun 03 05 07:21 pm Link Posted by EMG STUDIOS: Well MySpace owner, Tom is a little older than Tyler, thus has had more time to grow money trees. In time, Tyler will be able to harvest from his too. LOL Jun 03 05 07:33 pm Link I definately think it's really cool that we all can use this site for free right now. I do know that bandwidth costs a LOT of money to control. Also meaning, you need a bigger server...meaning, you spend more money. So I'd definately pay a membership fee for this site. I don't on OMP anymore, but I'm getting enough exposure on this site that it would be worth paying. Jun 03 05 07:44 pm Link I'd pay to stay. I like a lot of things about this site, the design, the attitude, the people. I don't even think of it in terms of competing with any other site. MM stands on it's own and it'll only get better and better as Tyler continues to develop it. Jun 03 05 08:07 pm Link stop it....why do we need to pay if there are freebies in life...friendship is priceless and we do not buy friends,ok Jun 03 05 08:30 pm Link Because...nothing is free anymore !!! And you have to HELP friends. Jun 03 05 09:05 pm Link What if Tyler did a payment scheme similar to LiveJournal.com where the initial basic account is free but if you want extra features, the cost is $25 a year. Or maybe if the monthly charge was based on the number of photos uploaded to your portfolio. Something like 50 cents per photo per month if the full size was hosted on Tyler's server and 25 cents a month if only a large thumbnail was on Tyler's server and there was a link to the original which you would host yourself. Kind of a pay by the database link. Then after that, the forums are free to registered users who have five or more photos hosted. Jun 03 05 11:15 pm Link Posted by EMG STUDIOS: Honestly? No. It'll make me focus more on snazzing up my own website. Others might too. So, Tyler, don't charge. Lol. Jun 03 05 11:39 pm Link Posted by Venus: Oh great. The guilt trip. Okay. Since you put it that way, I'll do it if they throw in a free Model Mayhem T-shirt. Jun 03 05 11:43 pm Link I find this site more valuable and user-friendly than others, so I'm sure I'd be fine with paying whenever it comes to that. Jun 04 05 12:05 am Link Ultimately what matters is how much revenue and profit a site can make, not how many members it has or how many hits it gets. One can make money from ads but the revenue from ads is very limited. There are benefits to being a pay site, for one thing, the many bogus memberships will be all be eliminated. Jun 04 05 08:36 am Link I know of places that offer dedicated top of the line servers for around $199 a month... 1000 megs of transfer per month, etc The costs of running sites like omp, myspace, and MM is not as high as everyone thinks Jun 04 05 08:44 am Link Posted by Lady Atropos: Not when they perform as bad a OMP. A snappy, feature rich site requires a lot of work, bandwidth and equipment. Jun 04 05 08:56 am Link Posted by Lady Atropos: A gig of bandwidth is *nothing* for graphics intensive sites. My hobby site often approaches that in a month and it has almost no pictures on it. (Of course, it is #1 on Google in its category.) This interweb thingy is big and getting bigger. Jun 04 05 09:34 am Link Posted by StMarc: Posted by Lady Atropos: A gig of bandwidth is *nothing* for graphics intensive sites. My hobby site often approaches that in a month and it has almost no pictures on it. (Of course, it is #1 on Google in its category.) This interweb thingy is big and getting bigger. I understand the bit about graphic intensive site - that why he can simply reduce the file sizes allowed and top the accounts off at 20 images (almost 2-4 times more than any other site) - if he has his own personal dedicated server that he owns....its' near unlimited - it all stems on the speed of the line running to the server, and the quality hardware/programming of the server Jun 04 05 09:44 am Link I don't think the site would be as successful if it was a pay site....look what happened to one model place? Jun 04 05 10:43 am Link I know musecube lost a certain amout of people when it went to a pay site. There are good and bad points to everything, if it would go to a pay site, there should still be a limited free service option. Jun 04 05 11:02 am Link Posted by greenlightprint: I don't think being a pay site is what ruined OMP. It's all about money and as long as people sign up and pay OMP management is happy. No questions asked. Jun 04 05 11:24 am Link I go back and forth with this site. I would like it to be great and one stop shopping where I would even pay good money for different pages. But maybe that is not possible. I kind of like the idea of MM lite or MM serious for I am outlawing the word Professional for now on. I would quickly pay a small fee. I also think a small fee keeps the fake pages away which is often a problem for many sites. If you cannot come up with $5 then you should not be on the site. Come on $5 for the smallest account. Save your lunch money. I think it should be the same for models, photographers, and the loony fake pages. Maybe one site that fits all and pleases all is just not possible. == I am off down the yellow brick tunnel that is overbudget to the next topic. Come Hana for we can chase the flying copycat monkeys. Jun 04 05 12:46 pm Link If they started charging, alot of people will leave. Jun 04 05 02:33 pm Link |
