Our clients always ask GREAT questions. Here are some more:
Hmm musical chairs eh? So we get a bill from Amazon.....will this be a oh shit I owe 500 bucks like the phone company? I still do not understand how the cost will be calculated. What is the minimum charge for crankstation?
I understand the 50/50 payment structure but what if you only have a few users? There has got to be a minimum cost for set up.
There is no "minimum charge" for CrankStation on a monthly basis! That's the best part. There will be a refundable setup fee of $199.00 for clerical work and database registration. This fee will be refunded upon that channel obtaining a renewing base of at least 400 monthly subscribers. For large sites, or real "go getters", this should be attainable in the first couple days or weeks.
Someone who wishes to start a new channel is making a proposition bet. The bet is that they can generate enough interest in their "niche" over a certain period of time that the net revenue from token use to subscribe to the channel, and token use for transactions within the channel, will exceed the cost of any Amazon S3 storage charges.
This is actually a fairly easy bet to calculate, and an easy one to win. Amazon has published pricing for S3. As one can see, S3 storage is VERY CHEAP relative to the cost that site creators are used to paying for hosted platform solutions.
Let's do an example:
Assume we had a medium size network that had 200 Members, 20Gb of Content Stored, that each member made 1000 Requests to GET content and 1000 Requests to PUT content in that month, and that the total content transfer out was 200Gb.
As one can see, the total Amazon S3 Bill comes to $41.20 total. Since we know we have 200 subscribers, each of these subscriptions would NET the channel creator approximately $.80 after splitting the revenue and deducting PayPal charges. That results in a Gross Income from the subscriptions alone of $160.00.
In Sum: $160.00 - $41.20 = $118.80 NET profit for merely getting 200 subscribers!!
The best part is that this does not even estimate the NET profit share that would come from any internal use of tokens within that channel by each subscriber. Furthermore, the cost of S3 gets incrimentally LESS expensive as you use it. In our estimate, a site with 200 continuous subscribers could be netting between $200 to $250 per month. As the site grows, the potential revenue grows as well, because the costs get smaller rather than larger.
I think an adult SocialGO site not charging for it service is a bad idea. Adult sites need a ton of bandwidth and storage and those owners will need to make some revenue to pay for it. I cant believe for $1 a month minus paypal fee per user will be enough to sustain the crankstation and a SocialGO network. I of course don't know what the pricing is for SocialGO but I do know hosting is not cheap.
CrankStation and SocialGO are two distinct things. WidgetLaboratory is an independent creative development company. We are under contract to consult SocialGO regarding sales, marketing and customer service, as well as to build widgets that will run on their platform and help site creators to monetize their niche social network ideas. CrankStation is an application which is INDEPENDENT of any platform, including SocialGO.
Having said that, we have stated that we believe CrankStation to be complimentary to your SocialGO network because the features and purpose are somewhat exclusive. We further believe that one's SocialGO network could be utilized as a home base for offering CrankStation as a premium for those subscribers looking to go the "next level" of dynamic interaction.
What increments are these tokens? I think limiting yourself to just $2 is short sided. If i'm Mr. hot cock USA and can get people to subscribe for $10 then can we charge more? Cheaper is not always better. Can users charge tokens to let people view their cams?
The tokens will be offered in numerical increments, but will be "detached" from a set conversion rate. The daily value of "token currency" will fluctuate along with National Currencies as published online.
For example: One day a token may have a value equal to $.25 cents USD. On that day, someone purchasing tokens might have to pay $2.00 USD to get eight tokens. On that same day, if the British Pound was at a published value of $1.50 USD, someone would only have to pay L 1.5 GBP to get eight tokens. Now, later that month, if the value of the US Dollar went "up" relative to other World currencies, then someone might be able to purchase more tokens for the same $2.00 USD or L 1.5 GBP.
As we've stated, the subcription to enter a channel is merely one avenue for subscribers to spend tokens. Since the tokens are "generic" to any particular channel, there is the possibility for each site to adjust the subscription fee (how many tokens required to subscribe). Yet that is only part of the equation.
I love the tokens concept. If you can let users charge people tokens to see them and you make a bit from that transaction then this is a great product but if its just $2 to access and see everything then no not such a good idea. You can make more off a SocialGO network via affiliates and membership charges.
Once inside a channel, that subscriber will have a wealth of opportunities to purchase their own accessories and features, many of which will allow this individual to setup their own personal monetization operation. All token use inside a channel generates a revenue share for the channel creator.
An obvious example is the person who has knowledge or experience that is valuable to other subscribers. This person will be provided with a means to sell their "time" to others for either helping, providing real or virtual services, or for simply being available to video chat.
Likewise, there may be opportunities for attractive people to offer their multimedia content to others in exchange for tokens. The person who is selling must purchase a premium feature to be able to offer their content to others (using tokens), but that feature allows them to generate a net profit (in tokens) because of their popularity with subscribers.
Once again, this is NOT directly associated with your SocialGO site, but is a complimentary application, which does not require your SocialGO site to operate. We believe that any charges you make on your SocialGO network with affiliates or membership charges are good sources of revenue, but are a completely different concept that CrankStation. You can find the right "balance" between the two once you've begun the process of building your niche.
There is a network now with 8,000 members and they charged $12 bucks to join... = $96,000
I'm thinking of the viral loop in this instance....you create a channel and then let users create there own channel inside. I see this as the FTW money making strategy. $2 to access channel and then tokens to view certain content that the users provide. You make money they make money = win win.
Your match is correct for SocialGO networks if you charge members a large fee to join. However, as we've stated many times... in our opinion you would be better if you charged nothing for your SocialGO membership, and instead used that as a platform to sell as many CrankStation subscriptions as possible. Why? Because the features you can use on the SocialGO site will enable the members to decide whether they want to become subscribers with ZERO FRICTION. Since the really desirable content and dynamic interaction will ONLY happen inside the private channel, the members can get a great feeling for whom and what to expect on the outside (for free), but will always wonder what is going on "inside". This is standard "velvet rope" behavior....
Other than that, we obviously agree that SocialGO plus a CrankStation channel equals a true win/win for everyone concerned.
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