The future...

Thursday, 29 December 2005

...not in the crystal ball sense, in the planning sense.

Up until now mo'time has been financially supported by our other blogging and instant messaging businesses and will continue to enjoy that funding. But in order to insure the future growth of mo'time, as we add new features and increase the disk space and bandwidth that we can give you for free, we have come to the point where we need to earn some money from the site. I want to emphasize that mo'time is not in danger of closing, but we do need a long term plan to grow, nay, flourish!

We are planning on implementing the 2 most obvious models: advertising and subscriptions. We would like to hear from you about what you think of these plans.

Advertising model

From the start all mo'time blogs have had a small bar on the top of the page with the mo'time logo, some links and a text ad space that we use to place self-promotional messages. After a short while we found that the space was too small to be of much advertising value, but we decided to keep the bar small and unobstrusive.

We would like to expand the bar to a height of about 70 pixels (roughly double the present height) to allow for classic advertising banners (468 x 60 pixels) to be displayed. Many big sites now use banners that are 728 x 90 pixels, but that seems over the top, at least at this stage.

Another idea we had was to provide an option for you to choose to place some Google ads on your blog's sidebars, or between posts, in exchange for more disk space and other extra features at no additional cost to you. This would be something that you would actively choose, and would not be placed on your blog by default.

If these ideas work, we can offer you even more free disk space for your photos, videos and other multimedia files. But if the ad space options really bug you, we'll offer a subsciption plan so that you can get rid of them. Either/or. You should be able to decide which way to go.

Subscription model

For a monthly price of $5.99 USD (OK, it's basically 6 bucks, but you can't blame a guy for trying), you can make the ad bar go away, you get 200MB of disk space, if you have your own domain your blog's address can be "www.my-domain.com", you get full RSS and Atom feeds and an elevated position for your blog in the "latest blogs" section of the new mo'time magazine, soon to be released.

Feedback, please!

So, that's what we're thinking. What's your opinion?

posted by: howard at 22:11 | link | comments (55) |
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Comments:

#1 29 December 2005 - 22:13

Everything you do is Superb Howard!
Keep up the good work in here. ^_^

CarpeDiem

#2 29 December 2005 - 22:22

I am surprised that you havent charged already Howard--I think the service is terrific. I would prob go with the subscription, but the advertising plan is ok too. Good luck...
Rog

JustMe63

#3 29 December 2005 - 22:37

Compliments are great (thanks), and feel free to keep then coming, but don't feel shy about voicing any opinion, ok?

howard

#4 29 December 2005 - 22:48

1 - Those who tend to have rather...um, personal blogs might feel a little uneasy with having a credit card #, name, address, etc..associated directly with said blog. How can you reassure us? I mean..."them".

Yeah...them.

2 - And the ads - would they be reasonably hand picked? I mean, like no porn or anything? When one googles americangirl.motime it shows up on a number of porn sites because I once posted a poem that had the unfortunate word "cock" in it. I would like to avoid that sort of downward spiral in the future.

3 - When can I expect my raise?

AmericanGirl

#5 29 December 2005 - 22:48

Heh, now that I've said the magic "c" word here, I suppose this blow will start showing up on the naughty sites too. Sorry!

AmericanGirl

#6 29 December 2005 - 22:54

HA! Blow? Fire my editor! I meant "Blog", of course.

AmericanGirl

#7 29 December 2005 - 23:03

Hehe. I'll have one of each.

Leigh

#8 29 December 2005 - 23:15

If there can be some more template options then I'd probably go for the advertisement motiff--my current template (podchef.motime.com) is a bit crammed at the moment to add anything else much.

ChefNeal

#9 29 December 2005 - 23:19

Man, AG, there goes the neighborhood. Ha!

I'd be willing to plop down six bucks to hang out with AG, Leigh, DJ, Jheka, and anybody else I forgot to mention. If six bucks will help Motime grow and prosper, I'm all for it.

:o)

Muskrat28

#10 29 December 2005 - 23:28

Subscription sounds great. For a few extra mbs i would be willing to shave motime.com on my big dogs side. He already spent one summer with a #2 shaved on him for Rusty Wallace and didnt seem to mind one bit. Need all the space I can get for my old maid cat photos. You guys are the only people who will still look at them. thanks

rustymadgal

#11 30 December 2005 - 00:26

Good stuff.

AG: Your "c" word and typo combined will really make this blog popular on Google. Cool. Thanks for the trafffic... as for your excellent points:

1- Privacy issues associated with credit card information: we will be using Paypal.com as a service provider for payments so that all information is supplied to them not us. We receive a confirmation that contains a first name, last name, mo'time username, email and a bunch of tracking/confirmation numbers, but NO credit card information and NO location information. Our policy is to not release any of the information that we do have unless served with a legitimate court order to do so. We would always have our lawyer review all such matters before releasing anything. On the other hand, it would be possible for one of us to find a payment record and associate a blog with a name and email. I guarantee you that we will look at those records only to sort out technical or payment problems but, if that assurance is not enough, we could accept an anonymous form of payment (to be decided) and then activate the mo'pro account by hand. All of us who created mo'time did so because we want to put powerful communications tools in your hands and to let you choose how much of yourself you want to reveal. We take your privacy seriously as a sacred trust.

2- Ad content: the banner ads on top will all be reviewed and will not contain ads for porn, questionable sites such as "dialers", ad-ware, spy-ware or other nastiness. If you choose "inline" ads on your blog, those will be based on the content of your blog and would be filtered by Google's own system.

3- You will see your raise when you get back to work!

ChefNeal: There will be a whole bunch of new templates, too!! We're working on them now.

Muskrat28: Gotta love your attitude.

rusty: post a photo, or better yet a video, of the motime.com ad on your 4-legged billboard out in public and I'll throw some MB's your way.

howard

#12 30 December 2005 - 01:02

I've expressed support for the subscription plan in the past. I still do support it, but $6 is like a little over the minimum wage (around the city!) and I'm not even remotely employed...yet, so I'll go with the ads in the meantime.

When are you planning to implement?

giuli

#13 30 December 2005 - 13:22

I like that we get options. I probably won't subscribe because, like Guili (and many others, I suspect) I can't afford it! I can live with a banner at the top of my blog, but I won't be able to use Motime in my teaching if the banner is used for anything other than Motime ads.

I absolutely understand the need for this, Howard, and I think you're handling the transition very well. This is just the view from my side of the fencepost.

And when DO you plan to implement these changes?

InMyLife

#14 30 December 2005 - 14:20

When?

Well, the subscription service should be ready to go any day now. That will give the people who want immediate access to 200MB of storage space a ready option. Nothing will change for the rest of you.

The ads will take longer to implement and we have yet to decide on which ad network(s) to join. Without a dedicated ad sales staff, we need to take advantage of services that will represent the site in order to book the ad campaigns. This will take another month or so to implement, in steps, like we did for multimedia.

As far as the pricing is concerned, we did a survey of what we offer and what other paid services charge and came up with $5.99 as fair and competitive. We will be looking very carefully at this, of course, to see if we would gain in volume what we would lose in margins if we lower the price, But I wonder if a price of $3.99, for example, would really make a difference for those whose budgets are already pinched.

IML, as for academic blogs... is there no discretionary budget for such services at your school? If we packaged an academic product (the option to open 50+ blogs, moderation tools, admin tools, no ads), would your school and others have the option to buy the package? If so, in what price range?

howard

#15 30 December 2005 - 14:39

Discretionary budgets? In my department? Howard, right now they are hiring a select few in one-year contracts and filling the rest of the positions with adjunct profs. I make $2500 per course I teach. State university budgets have been slashed here to the point of no return.

Sorry for the rant. That's just my reality.

InMyLife

#16 30 December 2005 - 15:54

You should think about offering a program where you can give a gift subscription to a blogger that you want to support, either anonymously or as a friend. Spreading good cheer throughout the land and all that. I guess it's obvious that anyone could just do it, but maybe there could be a little button on the non-pro blogs that says "Buy me a pro account!" or something to make it happen. Wouldn't that be fun?

And, is there a discount if you sign up for six months, or a year? Or are we all too fickle for that sort of thing?

Completely O/T - It's SO annoying that when logging in, you put in your user name, hit "Tab" and it jumps to "Forgot it?" instead of "Password" like it used to. Who has the time for all this extra button pressing? Pretty please, can it be fixed?

AmericanGirl

#17 30 December 2005 - 17:30

Subscription, definitely. . . I have no problem supporting Motime, and it would be well worth it to keep my blog billboard free. I do like AmericanGirl's idea of a discount for signing up for 6 mo/year. . .

As always, great job with everything Howard - and thanks for the choices:)

spartanjen

#18 30 December 2005 - 18:17

AG: If I give you a raise will you stop commenting here? hehehe...

Yes, the gift thing is already in the works, that's an idea we have always really liked!

Discount for 6 months, yes certainly in the works, but at launch we just want to keep it simple as far as the store interface and records with a one-size-fits-all. Duly noted, however. Thanks spartanjen for your 2 cents as well...

O/T (off-topic for the English speakers out there): As for the tab thing, gee, I have no idea. I'll have to check on that one. I know what you mean.

howard

#19 30 December 2005 - 18:52

No raise required - all you had to do was ask!

:|

AmericanGirl

#20 30 December 2005 - 20:09

I don't know if a place to write my random thoughts is worth $72/year ($5.99/mo). It might be worth $48/year though ($3.99).

Personally, I'd much rather do without the multimedia and picture options and keep it cheap. Could there be a mid-range package for those of us who do not plan on using anywhere near 200MB of disk space? Maybe a "remove banner" and 100MB option? Just a thought.

Windhazel

#21 30 December 2005 - 21:13

I'm really glad this is turning into a free-wheeling conversation, as I had hoped. Windhazel, you bring up a good point for a middle-of-the-road option and we're studying some ideas that could answer your concerns. But is Mo'time really *only* a place to write your random thoughts? Really?

howard

#22 30 December 2005 - 21:50

I can't possibly afford $5.99/mo. right now, so I'd go with the Google ads and advertising banner. I'm also not sure what I'd do with so much disk space since I'm not big on the multimedia. Perhaps there can be different levels/prices of pro accounts that correspond to the disk space and features one needs?

That said, I'm surprised and grateful that this place has been ad-free for so long, howard. If and when I make the big bucks, motime will have my financial support!

merserene

#23 31 December 2005 - 00:26

I can live with ads... at least until there's a discount package for long-term memberships, anyway. I love that we can upload photos now, and I really love that you are actually asking for thoughts and opinions.

ButterflyLane

#24 31 December 2005 - 01:32

Dear Howard,
Happy New Year. I'm broke (both vow & fact of "poverty), can't afford even $6 -- so something more like the "Another idea we had was to provide an option for you to choose to place some Google ads on your blog's sidebars, or between posts, in exchange for more disk space and other extra features at no additional cost to you" would work better for me. I could live with a small banner ad atop things. I HATE the full page popups associated with some blogs out there. Mary Kathryn

MaryKathryn

#25 31 December 2005 - 01:41

If you go to banner ads, please be VERY SELECTIVE. I don't want a blog about prayer advertising "dating" services, or ladies in bikini's, or huckster cons like "secret shopper" ads that are, in reality, scams, collecting addresses. I think the companies that make money from scam company's advertising should be legally penalized as they help fleece the innocent. Mary Kathryn

MaryKathryn

#26 31 December 2005 - 12:10

Assuming I get a post when I qualify, I would love to subscribe. $5 is about £3.50, which isn't bad at all ^_^ Really don't like the idea of adverts (for all the reasons stated above)...and they look poop too! :)
Always loved Motime, and I'm hoping it all goes from strength to strength. Yay!

Sheol

#27 31 December 2005 - 18:53

Happy to subscribe.

Jackal

#28 01 January 2006 - 16:32

I don't mind the subsription fee at all. I'll be happy to pay it to not deal with ads as long as Mo'Time continues to be as personal and friendly as it is right now. Oh.. and as simple as possible for those of us that happen to be technically challenged.

Ladyinthemoon

#29 02 January 2006 - 06:20

what i really really like here (among other things/persons that i really really *really* like) is that motime is not that mainstream... perfect for some whimmish celebrities like us. them. (i agree with AG, it's THEM) who need our publics but very much value our privacy.

as a middle working class third worlder, i can't afford the subscription either. but the ads would be fine, i guess, as long as they're unobtrusive and tasteful.

summary: i love motime. i do. i do. (should i have put this on top?)

onesmallgirl

#30 02 January 2006 - 06:25

oh, what about no ads for those who don't need super big spaces to upload photos out of sheer paranoia? =)))))))

onesmallgirl

#31 02 January 2006 - 12:38

keep the comments coming... we're working some other plans to take care of some of your requests...

howard

#32 03 January 2006 - 18:10

hmmm .. It's alot to contemplate. I like the way it's set up now. Probably put me in the ad category as long as they somehow link up to content. heh heh heh ... considering the content of mine, I pity the poor search engine.
thanks Howard ... will anxiously await your update

Ceiladgh

#33 04 January 2006 - 11:16

PayPal is not available in the Philippines. Any alternative mode of payment?

giuli

#34 04 January 2006 - 18:07

giuli: even credit card payments through paypal (without the need to have a paypal account) are not available in the Philippines? there are 2 services... the account holder one and the general public one...

howard

#35 04 January 2006 - 20:17

nope, neither is available. At the checkout page, Philippines is not to be found at the drop-down list of approved countries.

giuli

#36 04 January 2006 - 20:25

ok, i'll look into alternative payment services. i think we have some alternatives that we may be able to use, but i'm not sure, so i can't promise anything until i find out more.

howard

#37 06 January 2006 - 17:26

I think I'll go for the subscription, though I already have a Photobucket account for my pictures, which works just fine. Keep up the good work!

KnutAlbert

#38 06 January 2006 - 19:52

Howard, I have had friends try to poach my blog to another service, saying that I'll be able to upload photos and maybe I'll even get my ass published, but I like motime. Y'all have been good to me, exceptionally so. I'll stick with you.

I'd subscribe. No ads please. I would pay a year in advance, probably, as I travel too much and am often away from computers when I am not on the Ice or at home. A discount for those who pay 6mos-1yr up front would be great.

Perhaps you could have differing subscription prices for different amounts of space, or even ad/subscribe combos for different prices?

coldwish

#39 06 January 2006 - 22:35

coldwish: yes there'll be a few plans for those not wanting to spend as much and who have less need for space.

As far as other services go, I am of the opinion that whatever feels right, probably is right. I take no offense if someone chooses another service over Mo'time.

But your ass, or any other part of you, will not be more or less likely to be published (I'm not sure if that just means "widely read") on the world stage on one platform or another. Getting read and followed and discovered can be done just as easily from Mo'time as anywhere else. Over and above having compelling writing or other content, it is a matter of knowing how to insert your blog into the various aggregators, participating in the blogosphere through your comments and other stuff that you can read about by doing a little research online.

Having said all that, thanks for your loyalty, though. It's music to my ears...

howard

#40 07 January 2006 - 00:43

Howard,

I'm not looking to be published so much. I chose to lay quite low my first season here, as I did not want the community I was writing about necessarily reading what I wrote. Now, I have plenty of Ice readers enjoying my blog, and it's quite funny to see how they react to what I post.

With photos, I think I'll get more people coming by. A lot of people aren't so much into words. =)

I like motime because it is a more casual atmosphere, does not have ads, and is not cult-like among itself as other blog. It feels more personal and accessible to me.

So good on ya, Howard.

coldwish

#41 09 January 2006 - 05:03

Yes, operating without ads did seem too good to be true, esp. for so long.

I'm with the people who'd like to get a discount and would be willing to subscribe (what with my mostly lack of blogging about other people) for a year. (Especially since I can afford it this year, but I don't know about next.) I definitely do not think that my one-post-a-month ability should cost me $72.00 a year, especially when a service like livejournal can cost you 15 for a lifetime. (Though livejournals are so very lame.) I couldn't really care about the additional server space, as services like photobucket and flickr do that well enough on their own.

So I'd be paying to support Motime and to keep those ads off my blog. Since all the google hits on my blog are for 'sonic the hedgehog p0rn.' No. Seriously.

Yoshick

#42 09 January 2006 - 10:06

excellent info, everybody... this really helps.

keep it coming if you want to ad your comment, even if just to "vote" for what somebody else already said.

howard

#43 09 January 2006 - 10:29

honestly, most of the blogs i have or read are all fairly simple and small, so, even including the background image(even in .tiff) my page would never pass 10mb, little alone 200. so i think Yoshick has a point, because other web sites do offer the drive space for free.
i would so be for the advertising, and if the subscription price never got above $4, it would definatly be considered.
also something you might want to keep in mind is a ticker along the top, one that scrols from one side to the other, that way you can have maximum advertisement with minimum anoyence.

jce_superbeast

#44 09 January 2006 - 10:42

yah, after reading all of the people's ideas, i would suggest radio buttons to decide the subscription price, one set for how far in advance 1 month 6 months or a year, one set for how big of space, 20mb, 50mb, 100mb, 200mb, and maybe a check box for ads disabled or enabled, then you can have a program figure out a cost, therefore people (including me) can define what they want and then see how much it would cost(but not make it part of the subscription process, just somewhere else for a while so we can all get the jist of the price range). i dont think a program like this would take very long, i could probably do it in about an hour in vb (or in like 10 days in assembly)

jce_superbeast

#45 10 January 2006 - 18:17

I don't have time to read all the previous comments; sorry if I repeat. I'd subscribe but yeah, $72/yr is a lot. Another blog I had was, like $48 or so; seems more reasonable. I like the pay as you go vs. pay upfront w/ discount sort of thing. Also, if I subscribe, I want to be able to more easily change my template, add in lists of stuff I think interesting (i.e. withOUT knowing HTML, dummy-proof, for this dummy) all that sort of fun stuff. Thanks for all you do, Howard. I love motime.

eliana

#46 11 January 2006 - 02:22

I would feel really uncomfortable with having advertising in my blog. I don't like the idea at all but understand that you want to be sustainable.

To tell you the truth I also probably wouldn't subscribe because well, I'm poor and I could really just go back to my old blogspot blog. I obviously changed to motime for a reason but advertising is ugly and intrusive for something that really is a personal space.

I don't like the either/or of the current options. What about having the free simple blog option as is but also offering people more advanced features and space for a fee and putting ads on www.motime.com instead of people's blogs.

I would have to see what the banner ads looked like and I certainly wouldn't choose to have google ads in my sidebars but I think I would consider leaving motime if they were too over the top.

allAkimbo

#47 11 January 2006 - 02:47

I'd like to subscribe but I want to ensure that motime will continue its service at least for few years...

shiangkwei

#48 15 January 2006 - 20:24

There goes the neighborhood.

Howard, I'm sure you're aware of my cash problems. But even if I had not a one, I still would not feel comfortable using a credit card online. (Also, I do not have one. When I was younger, more foolish, I received one just for enrolling in school, maxed the thing out in four months, and have never since made payments. I see now that I could have. Nevertheless, I didn't, and so have very bad credit, in addition to the cash flow problems.)

I don't know about the ads. I for one don't think motime.com needs any more advanced options, such as the one that showed up today as I was blogging on "Onion". It gave me a choice between 'save to draft' and 'save to publish'. I opted for the latter, somewhat unsure as to what the difference entailed, but wanting (I lament the gerundisation of the English language--'Im loving' for 'I love', one barfsome example-but 'wanting' seems to be the first choice for me here) to publish and hungry for feedback, the 'p' word just leapt out at me.

If you could possibly limit the ads between my blog entries to those of charities and not-for-profits, then I'd be game. Anything else--and I have a raft of 'elses'--just might tick me off.

Sad it's come to this. Technology is not always a good thing. Why not try to go backwards, as I imagine the 'improvements' you mention will be three to six months in coming, and by then will be obsolete!

G'day

CrazyHoss

#49 15 January 2006 - 20:28

Yes, and this: having to write out one more money order a month for something or other thing--figuratively speaking; not that I'm actually able to do this right now--every thirty one days is a PAAIN in the ASS!

Now I'm on porno too, if I've not been there for awhile. (Pornographically-flavored adverts are one thing I'd have to rail heavily against--consider yerself warned.)

bad days in the boonies

CrazyHoss

#50 18 January 2006 - 03:28

I am grateful for the service you offer and am happy to pay a monthly fee to support motime. Since I use the blogs for classes, I do want to avoid ads.

I do not like paypal, so if you have other options for payment, let me know.

Best,
Dr. Dene Grigar

grigar

#51 18 January 2006 - 15:43

If I change my name to Motime.com for a year can I still use this for free?

I’ve become so fond of our community I wouldn’t go anywhere else.
I’m just so happy you ask us for our opinions.
My first preference might be ads to save on cash flow if I could choose the ad.
For instance, I’d be more than happy to have an ad for Hapi Wasabi Peas on my blog.
There. Now people Google’ing for peas will come here too.

And now you can just call me Mo.

#52 18 January 2006 - 20:14

i'd prefer to change nothing. keep everything free, don't add any new features. maybe i'm just resisting the inevitable future. $6/month sounds rather steep, considering there are other free services out there.

do the others resort to a need for advertising to subsidize free blogging?

i do wish that the blogs weren't indexed on google and technorati, so that random people wouldn't bump into my blog because I used some recently popular term. for all i know, that's already an option at motime.

indigo4963

#53 19 January 2006 - 00:55

indigo, there are ad supported blog sites, and subscription supported blog sites ... and then there's Blogger which is free and supported entirely by the pocketbook of big daddy Google. All the other ones that I know of use ads or subscriptions.

Unfortunately, changing nothing is not an option. Running Mo'time, over and above the people that keep it running, costs a good deal of money in hardware and bandwidth.

You are something of a contrarian, I see! Most people love the fact that their blogs are visible in the greater world of search, indices and aggregators. If you don't want random people to access your blog, you can change the privacy settings to allow only Mo'time members to see it, or restrict commenting to Mo'time members only (from your blog's editor: Blogs -> Settings -> Access).

howard

#54 19 January 2006 - 17:40

yes, I am a bit of a contrarian.

indigo4963

#55 31 January 2006 - 14:11

Howard...I DO plan on subscribing as I've always expressed interest in it...I just have to get my lazy arse movin' on it!

When I get back from some fun in the sun, I'll get right on it!!