“Twitter and Facebook are great for organizing a revolution. Blogs are for explaining why we need one.”
– Brent Simmons, “Use Cases”
Life advice, in the guise of enterpreneurial advice
“Focus on what you’re good at, what matters, which people are most important to you and what you can do for them.”
– Tim Berry, “How Business Planning Leads to Better Management”
Next up, pay chain-link fences?
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Alan Mutter has an interesting look at how a few media outlets will institute varied approaches to pay-to-read in the coming year. I can’t argue with his conclusion that each will probably prove confusing, although I think the Boston Globe’s approach makes sense, if implemented carefully.
I agree, too, that what he calls Pay Speed Bumps — and I’d suggest are more like Pay Chain-Link Fences — are publisher-focused, rather than consumer-focused. But I see that as a positive.
After you put up the pay wall
Struggling with a faulty revenue model, Meetup.com bit the bullet and went from free to paid in 2005.
Scott Heiferman, the site’s founder, tells the story of this transition in an interview with Signal vs. Noise:
“[A]ll of a sudden, in a flash, you see 95% of your activity go away. I mean, that’s the backlash in its most visceral form. … We never really wavered seriously, but it’s a punch in the gut.”
But after the initial shock, he and his colleagues adapted:
“We said, ‘OK. If we get 10% or 5% to continue and pay that would be great.’ Because we were in this to make something great for people.”
Six years later, Heiferman says of Meetup, “We’re solidly profitable. We’re doing well.”
Heiferman also feels charging has simplified everything the company does. “There’s so much good potential that can come out of just charging people for your good product,” he says.