Viewing 15 posts - 81 through 95 (of 95 total)
  • WMB is no more
  • tjagain
    Full Member

    I have never read a mountainbike a magazine either electronically or hardcopy and have no interest in ever doing so.

    From previous discussions it appears that the forum is the only part of singletrack that actually makes any money and thus supports the magazine. This is why so many and so obtrusive adds – they have to monetarise this forum somehow.

    Somewhere someone has to develop a format for making internet stuff not free but not to painful to buy. a lot of stuff on the internet really isn’t viable without cross subsidy

    I’d like a system of micropayments myself. So reading something you get a warning that if you continue to read you will be charged a small amount ( pennies) I think this would work better than paywalls / subscription but no one has developed a system yet.

    thepurist
    Full Member

    I’d like a system of micropayments myself.

    Like Flattr? Except that’s elective rather than being a micro-paywall.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    I’d like a system of micropayments myself. So reading something you get a warning that if you continue to read you will be charged a small amount ( pennies) I think this would work better than paywalls / subscription but no one has developed a system yet.

    This is something that’s been touted as a possible solution to the problem of making money from content – and I agree it has potential.

    Would you also be prepared to pay 1p per post on the forum?

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    soundninjauk
    Full Member

    Somewhere someone has to develop a format for making internet stuff not free but not to painful to buy. a lot of stuff on the internet really isn’t viable without cross subsidy

    I’d like a system of micropayments myself. So reading something you get a warning that if you continue to read you will be charged a small amount ( pennies) I think this would work better than paywalls / subscription but no one has developed a system yet.

    I feel like £1.49 a month is pretty micro, and hardly painful.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    what soundninjauk sed – it’s not more difficult than setting yourself up for pay-per-read, surely?

    And if you’re not someone who reads magazines *ever* what would tempt you to pay to read even a single article from a bike magazine/website?

    tjagain
    Full Member

    chapaking – possibly I would but I was thinking more in terms of 0.1p 🙂

    £1.49 a month payment to be a content provider is not IMO good value. We the posters provide the content on the forum that creates the advertising revenue.

    I was thinking more in terms of newspapers which I do read. For example the Herald allows you 3 free articles a month then wants you logged in to read any more ( easily worked around) YOu get to read the first paragraph free of all articles – what I would envisage is a pop up warning ” to read any more of this article click “continue” to pay 1P now to read the article”

    Putting the entire content behind a paywall reduces readership and in STWs case would lead to a drop in readers thus a drop in advertising revenue.

    Asking for subscriptions that don’t add any content ie the guardian does not seem to work

    The internet is far from a mature tech yet and somewhere somehow someone has got to come up with an answer that allows microcharging IMO

    Its a bit like spotify in a way.

    I used to pirate music downloads. I refused to pay iTunes full retail for the hire ( not ownership) of the music. spotify allows me to pay £5 a month for unlimited access to music so I no longer do illegal downloads

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    is not IMO good value.

    ah well, I won’t argue – we all have different views on what value £1.49 spent somewhere will provide 🙂

    tjagain
    Full Member

    wwas – I don’t read the magazine so the £1.49 a month would be purely to post on here – and follow my point that as regards the forum we are the content providers that create the advertising revenue so paying to use the forum does not sit well with me

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I think that was why I asked what would make you pay to read an article about cycling, really?

    Or maybe to turn it around why do you refuse to read articles about bicycles or cycling?

    DezB
    Free Member

    Who wants to subscribe to my new magazine? I think there’s a gaping hole in the market.. for WhatEbike… 😀

    tjagain
    Full Member

    wwaswas – simply not that interested in it I’m afraid. Not interested in product reviews or others stories of riding.

    If I could read the first para of an article for free then have a choice of paying a small amount to read the rest of it then maybe something would catch my eye and I might read that article for say 10p but I am not going to pay £1.49 a month to maybe read the odd article

    soundninjauk
    Full Member

    wwas – I don’t read the magazine so the £1.49 a month would be purely to post on here – and follow my point that as regards the forum we are the content providers that create the advertising revenue so paying to use the forum does not sit well with me

    I can kinda see where you’re coming from, but surely the advertising revenue only works if you’re seeing the advert in question. It’s not like they’re paying for the privilege of reading every opinion we have. And £1.49 hides the adverts. Which means they’re not getting revenue from them.

    So it’s not like they get paid twice for us if we subscribe, they either get paid once via sub or once via adverts.

    garagebikes
    Free Member

    @zilog6128

    Ed’s probably let this pass him by. But he buys it from us every issue without fail 🙂

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    TJ Raises some interesting points, I’m not sure I’d be too keen on a “micro-payment” structure, but other people might well be.
    Being able to dip into the articles online as well as ST back-issues (electronically) actually makes £1.49pcm quite good value (IMO). But before taking up the sub I viewed far less of the other content and mag articles and was mostly just a forum user.

    I’m not sure kits reviews in magazines matter as much now as they did back in the 90’s – if I want to find out about kit; google will yield several reviews from various sources (including ST) I’d rather read about places to go, things to do and people’s stories, all bike related of course which the mag does contain.

    I think pay-per-post on the Forum would utterly decimate it though, half it’s value is the number and variety of contributors, but many wouldn’t pay to use STW and there’s plenty of other free forums out there…
    Of course I do notice how much faster pages load without all the advertising.

    zilog6128
    Full Member

    Ed’s probably let this pass him by. But he buys it from us every issue without fail

    Good chap! Only a feeble attempt at a windup 😆

Viewing 15 posts - 81 through 95 (of 95 total)

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