Subscription goodies preview
Tuesday, April 23, 2002 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
We're going to be starting subscriptions pretty soon and those subscriptions will come with some extra goodies for those users.
As some of you are no doubt aware, running this site is becoming increasingly expensive as skinning increases in popularity. WinCustomize is now ranked in the top 7,000 most popular websites in the world by Alexa after only 1 year of being around. That translates into several TERRABYTES of bandwidth used per month.
I realize some people think that WC subscriptions should be part of their Object Desktop subscription but that just isn't possible as long as ODNT is only $50. We may look at providing some sort of Stardock.net subscription in the future for $99.95 per year that includes ODNT, WC, and Drengin but for now we'll have to have it seperate.
One of the benefits of the upcoming WC subscription will be the skin browser:
https://www.stardock.com/products/skinbrowser/sb-apr02.jpg
The Skin Browser will act as a front end to this site making it much faster to navigate and much easier to do things like chat with people on the message board, make comments, rate skins, download skins, search for skins, use suites, create suites, etc. It'll be an ongoing development product (SB 1.0, 2.0, etc.).
Other goodies of a WC subscription will include exclusive skin packs, unlimited download rights, no banner ads, etc.
We'll be working on providing additional benefits as well. We still have to figure out how much it'll cost per year to subscribe.
One thing we are not going to do regardless if have pop up banner ads on the site. We just hate them too much and with most of the Stardock staff willing to sell blood to the blood bank to keep us from having them, we're not going to have pop up ads anytime soon even for non-subscribers. So we'll have to find other ways to encourage heavy users of the site to help defray the costs of the site.
We hope to have a beta of the skin browser ready in a week or two.
As some of you are no doubt aware, running this site is becoming increasingly expensive as skinning increases in popularity. WinCustomize is now ranked in the top 7,000 most popular websites in the world by Alexa after only 1 year of being around. That translates into several TERRABYTES of bandwidth used per month.
I realize some people think that WC subscriptions should be part of their Object Desktop subscription but that just isn't possible as long as ODNT is only $50. We may look at providing some sort of Stardock.net subscription in the future for $99.95 per year that includes ODNT, WC, and Drengin but for now we'll have to have it seperate.
One of the benefits of the upcoming WC subscription will be the skin browser:
https://www.stardock.com/products/skinbrowser/sb-apr02.jpg
The Skin Browser will act as a front end to this site making it much faster to navigate and much easier to do things like chat with people on the message board, make comments, rate skins, download skins, search for skins, use suites, create suites, etc. It'll be an ongoing development product (SB 1.0, 2.0, etc.).
Other goodies of a WC subscription will include exclusive skin packs, unlimited download rights, no banner ads, etc.
We'll be working on providing additional benefits as well. We still have to figure out how much it'll cost per year to subscribe.
One thing we are not going to do regardless if have pop up banner ads on the site. We just hate them too much and with most of the Stardock staff willing to sell blood to the blood bank to keep us from having them, we're not going to have pop up ads anytime soon even for non-subscribers. So we'll have to find other ways to encourage heavy users of the site to help defray the costs of the site.
We hope to have a beta of the skin browser ready in a week or two.
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Frogboy
Reply #22 Thursday, April 25, 2002 11:20 PM
Reply #22 Thursday, April 25, 2002 11:20 PM
I think we'll start it at $20. We'll ahve to do more calculations. We can always raise it later. Heck, that way, those that sign up early get a discount.
Hard to believe how popular skinning has become. We'll be able to afford to get a new machine too with subscriptions which will help speed more.
Hard to believe how popular skinning has become. We'll be able to afford to get a new machine too with subscriptions which will help speed more.
feline
Reply #23 Friday, April 26, 2002 8:47 AM
Reply #23 Friday, April 26, 2002 8:47 AM
i suppose $20 isnt to bad (no postage helps 
)
interesting how so many of the people who post seem to have a lot of disposable income *shrug*
on a more practical side, Frogboy you said that you have found that anything over $20 realy hinders takeup. are you keeping an eye on that problem?
)interesting how so many of the people who post seem to have a lot of disposable income *shrug*
on a more practical side, Frogboy you said that you have found that anything over $20 realy hinders takeup. are you keeping an eye on that problem?
Frogboy
Reply #24 Friday, April 26, 2002 10:49 AM
Reply #24 Friday, April 26, 2002 10:49 AM
It's the oldest problem in shareare:
After $20 people tend to balk unless the value is overwhelming. But $20 requires a LOT of units to generate enough revenue. I.e. if Stardock lived off WindowBlinds sales from individuals we'd be out of business. 1000 people per month buying a $20 widget is $20k which is a lot for an individual but not much for a company.
But in the case of WinCustomize, 500 X $20 would be $10k which would let the site pay for its daily expenses.
After $20 people tend to balk unless the value is overwhelming. But $20 requires a LOT of units to generate enough revenue. I.e. if Stardock lived off WindowBlinds sales from individuals we'd be out of business. 1000 people per month buying a $20 widget is $20k which is a lot for an individual but not much for a company.
But in the case of WinCustomize, 500 X $20 would be $10k which would let the site pay for its daily expenses.
paxx
Reply #25 Friday, April 26, 2002 11:34 AM
Reply #25 Friday, April 26, 2002 11:34 AM
Wait... We're talking about 20$ per year, right? Not per month I hope.
10k a year would actually let the site pay for its bandwidth costs and other expenses?
10k a year would actually let the site pay for its bandwidth costs and other expenses?
paxx
Reply #26 Friday, April 26, 2002 11:35 AM
Reply #26 Friday, April 26, 2002 11:35 AM
Oh, unless you are expecting 500 new users every month to buy a new yearly subscription to Wincusto?
If that's the case, I think you are being a little over-optimistic. But I could be wrong...
If that's the case, I think you are being a little over-optimistic. But I could be wrong...
aafuss
Reply #27 Friday, April 26, 2002 5:28 PM
Reply #27 Friday, April 26, 2002 5:28 PM
So what would Australioan visitor woul;d havw toi pay to suscribe ($40- I confirmed when I read an article about WindowBlinds in the Sydney Morning Herald's Icon lift-out).
Jafo
Reply #28 Friday, April 26, 2002 6:33 PM
Reply #28 Friday, April 26, 2002 6:33 PM
'So what would an Australian visitor have to pay to subscribe'....
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Reply #21 Thursday, April 25, 2002 10:54 PM