Comercializing Skinning
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 by Will_Uknight | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Commercializing Skinning
I’ve been thinking about this for a few days now, and I thought I’d share my thoughts with you.
You can already see that Wincustomize sells commercial skins for $15US or whatever.
How about thinking of a system where ordinary skinners can earn a token amount for their work…
The basic gist of my idea is that:
A) to download a skin, any skin, would cost 1 credit.
(lets ignore variations for now, obviously a complete windows theme would be worth more then an icon)
People can convert dollars into credits in $5 lots, and
credits into dollars in $20 lots.
C) You can only 'sell' skins if you are a Wincustomize subscriber
1 Credit = 1 Download,
1 Credit = 1 Cent ($0.1)
There are 3 main reasons why people don't like to pay for things on the internet.
Problem
1) The hassle of transferring money, even small amounts
2) The price, who wants to spend money
3) The variety, why pay when you can probably get something similar for free.
Solution
1) Make it automatic, or a 1 click process,
you click "Download" and X credits will be automatically transferred to the skinners account.
2) Make it so cheap that no one would begrudge paying
3) It would be easier to pay the tiny amount, then trying to find an alternative
This system would be spread across different levels, much the same why it is now:
Visitor: Can download free skins
Registered Member: Can download credited skins, and upload free skins
Subscriber: Can download credited skins, and upload credited skins.
The reason for having to be a subscriber to upload credited skins would be so that Wincustomize benefited from the minor hassle that implementing this system would create. I would guarantee that they'd have 99% of skin designers becoming subscribers in order to enjoy the benefits of such a system.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share my ideas with you. I know that $0.1 per download is barely worth it, but it would mean that the skins were taken more seriously, it would mean that it would be something you could put down as job experience, it would mean that more people would be able to justify being subscribers and it would mean that more people would bring their creative talent to the skinning world.
I know that I've often wished I could quickly and easily
make a small donation to creators of skins and software. Alone its not much, but
it adds up 
Thankyou for reading.
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Reply #22 Friday, February 25, 2005 11:41 PM
1. It is possible if not evident that there are many people who arrive here daily who freeload just as I did.
2. If you have the skills, and you are a freeloader, you may eventually wise up to the fact that you are hurting the community by not committing in some financial way.
3. Free skins etc. do eventually encourage people who would otherwise remain freeloaders to join the ranks of those who show their belief in the system with the support of their dollars.
Why change a system that works? I am habitually cheap, and if I can be converted to a contributor, it is possible to convert the remaining "majority of users". Free is good, but not nearly as rewarding as contributing to a great system.
Peace
Reply #23 Saturday, February 26, 2005 12:12 AM
| btw, in the present sytem is it possible for a non-subscriber to earn a higher user level though skinning ? |
Yes...
Reply #24 Saturday, February 26, 2005 12:15 AM
Technically, right now WinCustomize operates at a loss. It almost breaks even on just the bandwidth (and even there it depends on the month). When you add in operating costs and salaries, it loses a considerable amount each month.
There are a lot of different options. But all of them involve the site (WinCustomize) receive most of the actual revenue involved since it's the one paying for most of the involved costs.
Let's use DesktopGadgets.com as an example. On DesktopGadgets.com, a user can submit a skin and will be able to propose a price. The minimum we'll allow them to charge would be $3.50. On that system, which would be automated, the site and the gadget provider would split the revenue 50/50. And that is on something where the gadget author had to pay $69.95 to begin with to create the gadgets. That's the best case scenario and is only possible because the purchases of DX Pro would be subisidzing that.
Another possible plan would be a subscription plan. The user would pay $3.99 per month. And in return the user would receive say a token. Skinners with MASTER access or higher would be able to submit content and set how many tokens they would want to charge. The skinner would receive $1 for every token spent on their skin.
In the real world, the one who does the publishing/distribution receives most of the income because they are the ones paying most of the real cost.
In our last game, The Political Machine, a game Stardock funded 100% on its own, came up with on its own, etc. Stardock received 20% of the revenue and Ubi Soft received the other 80%. That's the standard rate. Anytime the content creator receives more than 20% they're getting a good deal.
Reply #25 Monday, February 28, 2005 11:01 AM
Reply #26 Wednesday, March 2, 2005 1:43 AM
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Reply #21 Friday, February 25, 2005 11:41 PM
My proposal for a $0.10 cut for stardock was only a guess. I have no knowledge about stardock or what requirements would be needed to even think about implementing something like this. If Stardock needed a larger transaction fee to make such a proposal viable, then that could be worked in. From what you say, a cut of $0.50 per transaction would be necessary. That’s still pocket change, even if you were converting only $5, the customer would still get 450 credits!
I think the main reason people do subscribe to stardock would be to support the site, and to get access to the extra features for subscribers. People wanting unlimited downloading of skins could just register multiple accounts every time they needed to.
My idea is for the price to be so low that a person feels that it doesn’t even matter whether they they buy it of not !.
btw, in the present sytem is it possible for a non-subscriber to earn a higher user level though skinning ?