Cyclingnews website limited access….thanks future group

[Shebeen]

10 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

No, I really do understand that, but successful vs afloat..... The users likely kept the site afloat.

Afloat is not successful 

 

Semantics really, I'll just let the title of this interesting article on the first half of their story quote it.

https://cyclingtips.com/2011/08/cyclingnews-a-web-1-0-success-story/

[Jewbacca]

1 hour ago, Shebeen said:

Semantics really, I'll just let the title of this interesting article on the first half of their story quote it.

https://cyclingtips.com/2011/08/cyclingnews-a-web-1-0-success-story/

All I got from that was that to keep the site going after it became too much work for Bill to do alone, they needed to employ more and more people which comes at a massive cost which eventually needed to be taken over by a larger publishing group to stay afloat.

'Success' is not staying afloat. 

The difference between 'Successful' and 'Staying afloat' is not semantics, however you want to paint it.

 Anyway, I'm not butthurt by any of this. If there are emotions to be worked through before people can see that things cost money to run and grow then so be it.

One doesn't walk into Burger King and demand a free hamburger because they have advertising on the wall.

I'm out. Please, revert to complaining that your free stuff is being taken away from you due to it costing too much to remain free.

[Wayne pudding Mol]

Bring back newspapers and magazines

lets kill the internet

[The Ouzo]

8 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

One doesn't walk into Burger King and demand a free hamburger

actually BK will give you a free burger if you complete the survey on your receipt.

 

I know, its not what you meant.

 

I also use a similar analogy when people want discount on cars, there is an advertised price, you dont walk into BK, see the price of a whopper burger and ask for discount, so why do that on cars ?

[Jewbacca]

1 minute ago, ouzo said:

actually BK will give you a free burger if you complete the survey on your receipt.

 

I know, its not what you meant.

 

I also use a similar analogy when people want discount on cars, there is an advertised price, you dont walk into BK, see the price of a whopper burger and ask for discount, so why do that on cars ?

2 things....

1) I said I 'was out'... please don't bring me back in! 

2) Shuttup!

hahahahahaha

This is actually a really good example of 'successful' vs 'staying afloat'

IF the car salesperson only earned commission but kept selling cars too cheap to earn a living in order to sell cars and keep his job, he would be keeping the business afloat but not be a successful salesperson. The business model would need to shift.

It's not sustainable for the salesperson or the industry, as said salespeople would then all be looking for other jobs.

The store franchise managers/owners can't do all the work alone, so they would need to employ staff, but to avoid going the same way as the previous lot, change the business model!

Sjoe...... Makes sense to me, but I'm not seeing it through butthurtedness

[edgarblount]

[The Ouzo]

4 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

2 things....

1) I said I 'was out'... please don't bring me back in! 

2) Shuttup!

hahahahahaha

This is actually a really good example of 'successful' vs 'staying afloat'

IF the car salesperson only earned commission but kept selling cars too cheap to earn a living in order to sell cars and keep his job, he would be keeping the business afloat but not be a successful salesperson. The business model would need to shift.

It's not sustainable for the salesperson or the industry, as said salespeople would then all be looking for other jobs.

The store franchise managers/owners can't do all the work alone, so they would need to employ staff, but to avoid going the same way as the previous lot, change the business model!

Sjoe...... Makes sense to me, but I'm not seeing it through butthurtedness

Everything you say is true and is happening.

Sales people under pressure to move stock, so they sell with low to zero profit. Salesman leaves dealership for a new one as he is not earning money. Rinse and repeat. Why, because pressure is put on from above to move metal at all costs.

As recently as 2 years back a number of dealerships in gauteng for the brand I'm with closed their doors. Why? They were selling cars at a loss, undercutting the competition, but this is not sustainable.

Problem is, as long as there are dealerships willing to give the product away for free, customer will be unwilling to pay for the product. We see it everyday.

[splat]

So far, I don't think that I have seen an objection to paying for reasonable quality.
And I think that everyone understand that things cost money. Especially nice things.

If Burger King or the Hardware Store gave out their reasonably good (sponsored) products for years for us to use and enjoy at not charge, and then suddenly started charging for an inferior product, surely we would object by not paying and therefore not making use of it any more.

If there was a better product across the road at a similar price, we could then choose whether we still needed that product and if it was worth paying for.

Isn't that how it worked back in the days of magazines and newspapers? There were lots to choose from at different price points.
One took a free copy of "The Metro' on the tube in London, but you still bought a 'proper' newspaper of your choice to get the actual news.

[SwissVan]

16 hours ago, Shebeen said:

What you're saying makes sense, until you realise we're talking about an online news website.

 

The people who have been freeloading on it for 28 years are the ones who collectively made it successful till now. Without them the thing closes down in 2024

Fixed

My line of thinking as well

 

[Sid the Sloth]

1 hour ago, Wayne pudding Mol said:

Bring back newspapers and magazines

lets kill the internet

What are those??

[Shebeen]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

All I got from that was that to keep the site going after it became too much work for Bill to do alone, they needed to employ more and more people which comes at a massive cost which eventually needed to be taken over by a larger publishing group to stay afloat.

'Success' is not staying afloat. 

He took over a one man operation a prof was running on the side, sold it 8 years later for 2.2m pounds.

You're making an assumption that it wasn't making money, but I think this clears that up. 

I proved that the model worked and created something that didn’t make any money into a profitable business without selling out.

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

One doesn't walk into Burger King and demand a free hamburger because they have advertising on the wall.

That's a terrible comparison.

[Frosty]

12 minutes ago, Sid the Sloth said:

What are those??

The first one can be used to start a fire, soak up moisture in shoes after a wet ride, protect the chest on a chilly ride, then discarded once used.

[Frosty]

This thread got me thinking of all my subscriptions I have:

SIM card x2 - 1 contract, 1 pre-paid;
Apple music (family) + cloud storage;
GCN+;
Fibre;
VPN;
Netflix;
Fast Talk Labs (coach edition);
Intervals.icu;
Rouvy (I’m on a friend’s family group, so paying 1/3 of the cost;
Veloviewer (until July)

 

Discontinued subscriptions:
Strava
Amazon Prime
Hulu
DStv
TrainingPeaks
Zwift
Apple TV+
 

Both lists might exclude one or two others.

[Headshot]

Interesting insights from the BikeHub crew, thanks. I suspect these trends are cyclic and at some point there will be too many subscription services catering to the same people and then someone will have a brilliant idea and create some free to view ad sponsored content to steal their customers...

I had a what i suspect is a common experience last year. My 8 year old managed to spend around R2k on my Google account thanks to a pay setting on google I didn't even know existed. My bank was very helpful and blocked my account on Google very swiftly. This led to my Strava premium membership and one other subscription being terminated. I decided not to reinstate it (and my account is still blocked on Google) and  that I'd recover the lost funds by simply not subscribing for as long as it takes to recover the funds. I doubt I ever will go back to Strava premium however. 

I think Google bank on a percentage of users spending accidentally as I did and that the new drive to create subscriber content relies to some extent on the same concept -  people simply clicking subscribe without checking that they're now on 25 different subscriptions at $1500.00 per month. 

[Nick]

16 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

He took over a one man operation a prof was running on the side, sold it 8 years later for 2.2m pounds.

You're making an assumption that it wasn't making money, but I think this clears that up. 

I proved that the model worked and created something that didn’t make any money into a profitable business without selling out.

Sorry if I missed a step but how is this relevant for the website today? Or are we specifically discussing its value in the 2007 market? That's the same year the first iPhone came out and Blackberry was probably still considered a good investment too.

[The Ouzo]

7 minutes ago, Headshot said:

Interesting insights from the BikeHub crew, thanks. I suspect these trends are cyclic and at some point there will be too many subscription services catering to the same people and then someone will have a brilliant idea and create some free to view ad sponsored content to steal their customers...

I had a what i suspect is a common experience last year. My 8 year old managed to spend around R2k on my Google account thanks to a pay setting on google I didn't even know existed. My bank was very helpful and blocked my account on Google very swiftly. This led to my Strava premium membership and one other subscription being terminated. I decided not to reinstate it (and my account is still blocked on Google) and  that I'd recover the lost funds by simply not subscribing for as long as it takes to recover the funds. I doubt I ever will go back to Strava premium however. 

I think Google bank on a percentage of users spending accidentally as I did and that the new drive to create subscriber content relies to some extent on the same concept -  people simply clicking subscribe without checking that they're now on 25 different subscriptions at $1500.00 per month. 

That plus the x amount of time free trial that automatically debits your account when the free trial is up.