Tickling TV Membership?

[ZenTickling]

I'm curious? How many people who are members of Tickling TV would rather pay a $3.99 yearly membership fee than see all the ads that are displayed. I've gotten numerous complaints about the ads, and I'm looking into other ways to fund the site. Opinions?

 

[skelyrata]

I don't mind

I don't mind the ads, and don't mind a membership fee. But I am a producer, am not sure if a free viewer can afford paying, and I see a lot of potential in free viewing, but maybe you could offer two levels of membership, the free one with the ads, and the paying one with no ads and better benefits. Or even a studio level.

 

[randomguy85]

I don't mind the ads at all, I'm just incredibly grateful that you made that site, many many thanks.

J J

 

[tku]

Clean off all the ads and producer freeviews, and put up some of those great zentickling HD clips / photos and I'd pay $20 a month

 

[Bugman]

I'm curious? How many people who are members of Tickling TV would rather pay a $3.99 yearly membership fee than see all the ads that are displayed. I've gotten numerous complaints about the ads, and I'm looking into other ways to fund the site. Opinions?

$3.99 a year? Sounds like a deal to me.$3.99 a month would be a steal.😀

 

[Texas_Tickle]

Yeah, I'd happily pay for a place to share my vids.

 

[ZenTickling]

After some thought I've decided to make Tickling TV a membership site and get rid of all the pop up ads. It will be very cheap, something like 5 bucks a year or 6 months. I'm making the changes now, hopefully everything works out.

 

[cabalist]

While I understand that the site has to be paid for somehow, and the membership fee doesn't sound unreasonable or exorbitant by any means, to suddenly make it a paid.membership only site with so little advance notice to your members (I only just now received an email informing me of the decision to change to a membership-only site as soon as tomorrow), even those, such as myself and others, who have contributed material to the site, in some cases with "custom" material, seems like somewhat "bad karma" to me.

But it's obviously your decision to make. Personally, I'd be inclined to suggest, as someone else did above, two levels of service, with paying users not having to see ads and/or getting something "extra" for their payment, or at least a gesture of "good will" in offering a little extra free membership time, or something, to members who have contributed material to the site, and yet won't now be able to even watch their own contributions there without paying.

 

[ZenTickling]

While I understand that the site has to be paid for somehow, and the membership fee doesn't sound unreasonable or exorbitant by any means, to suddenly make it a paid.membership only site with so little advance notice to your members (I only just now received an email informing me of the decision to change to a membership-only site as soon as tomorrow), even those, such as myself and others, who have contributed material to the site, in some cases with "custom" material, seems like somewhat "bad karma" to me.

But it's obviously your decision to make. Personally, I'd be inclined to suggest, as someone else did above, two levels of service, with paying users not having to see ads and/or getting something "extra" for their payment, or at least a gesture of "good will" in offering a little extra free membership time, or something, to members who have contributed material to the site, and yet won't now be able to even watch their own contributions there without paying.

This post has been up for over a week, so everyone has had plenty of time to voice their opinion. I also sent out an email through Tickling TV when I made this thread and encouraged feedback. I'm getting tired of hearing complaints about all the ads, and the people who gave me feedback on the idea of a membership (in this thread and via email) were all in favor of the change.

I'm not sure how this change is going to work or how well it will integrate with the site, and I'm hoping everything goes smoothly. However, it's getting complicated enough without having to worry about providing two different levels of membership.

 

[cabalist]

This post has been up for over a week, so everyone has had plenty of time to voice their opinion.

Not everyone likely reads this forum every day. In fact, I'm not sure I take much more than a quick glance at it once or twice a week or so on average. But perhaps that makes me a "bad fetishist", if I may not be quite as obsessed with tickling as some. 🙂

I also sent out an email through Tickling TV when I made this thread and encouraged feedback.

Yeah, I got that, but some of us have busy lives and don't have the time to respond to every unexpected email immediately. Then again, I've emailed the site's addresses and haven't always gotten a response to my messages either. In any case it seemed like a pretty quick decision after that recent "unexpected" poll. While yours is hardly the first site to go from "free" to paid, I'm not sure how many site manager's make such a decision quite that quickly.
Of course, I hope it goes well, although it's possible you may lose a lot of members, not because of their unwillingness to pay, but possibly thanks to the inability of some to easily pay for things online. Perhaps everyone with enough interest will find a way to pay eventually, but I can imagine a possible "delay" before a number of them may be able to figure out the wherewithal, in the case of those who don't frequently purchase things online. But I guess you'll find out how it goes.

I'm getting tired of hearing complaints about all the ads, and the people who gave me feedback on the idea of a membership (in this thread and via email) were all in favor of the change.

I'm not sure it was exactly a "scientific" poll, and in fact, I suspect the overwhelming majority of members may have not even had time to respond. Like I said, I know I was too busy to right away. We don't all have 24 hours a day to think about nothing but tickling. But I'm not sure I read all the posts here exactly the same way you apparently did either:

I don't mind the ads, and don't mind a membership fee. But I am a producer, am not sure if a free viewer can afford paying, and I see a lot of potential in free viewing, but maybe you could offer two levels of membership, the free one with the ads, and the paying one with no ads and better benefits. Or even a studio level.

I don't mind the ads at all, I'm just incredibly grateful that you made that site, many many thanks.

J J

Clean off all the ads and producer freeviews, and put up some of those great zentickling HD clips / photos and I'd pay $20 a month

I'm not sure how this change is going to work or how well it will integrate with the site, and I'm hoping everything goes smoothly. However, it's getting complicated enough without having to worry about providing two different levels of membership.

Nor am I sure how it'll work out, except that if only a small number of current members can arrange payment and you lose all your ad revenue, I hope you won't find it a losing proposition. In my experience, a lot of people complain about ads, but, e.g., continue using free email services full of them nonetheless rather than paying for email to get rid of the ads, which continues to cover expenses and in some cases turn a profit, despite some complaints. But I guess it'll either "work" or it won't.

 

[ZenTickling]

I'm tired of this bullshit. You want to give me opinions after I purchase the $200 membership integration software. People bitch about the ads, and expect me to pay the bill for keeping the site up. At the rate things are going now we'll be lucky if I don't shut the site down tonight.

 

[ZenTickling]

The site will no longer be changing to a membership site. Now I'm decided whether to keep it or not.

 

[cabalist]

I'm tired of this bullshit.

I'm not sure that strikes me as a very "zen-like" attitude. (Sorry, couldn't resist. 😉 )

You want to give me opinions after I purchase the $200 membership integration software.

Which was your decision, regardless of whether you may feel (correctly or incorrectly) that it was based on a member consensus. But like I just said above, it sounded like a fairly quick decision to me, everything considered.

People bitch about the ads, and expect me to pay the bill for keeping the site up.

People may have bitched, as I assume they nearly always will no matter what. But did it stop them from going to the site? I suspect not.

At the rate things are going now we'll be lucky if I don't shut the site down tonight.

Well, I hope that doesn't happen, and in the best interest of that, although no Buddhist, I'll try to be as "zen-like" as I'm able and offer my best wishes for the site in the way you've apparently committed yourself to going with it. And believe me, I don't intend to "bitch" about it either way, nor was that my intention here, I just honestly felt that you came to a decision on it rather quickly. But what's done is done and I sincerely hope it works out well regardless. Really.

 

[cabalist]

The site will no longer be changing to a membership site. Now I'm decided whether to keep it or not.

I posted before seeing your latest post. Please don't become disheartened. I honestly wasn't trying to be "negative", and I'm sorry if the "timing" made it seem that way, I just didn't get time to voice my opinion before you came to your decision.

But I honestly feel the site could be a "boon" to the "community" either way. It's up to you, of course but you could try going ahead with the "pay model" and hope you get enough to at least pay off the software (and any other expenses) as soon as possible, and later change back to an advertising-supported model if the pay version doesn't work as well as you hope? You don't necessarily have to make a "forever" decision either way, right? I think I may have mainly been reacting to the fact that, for me, and I thought possibly for some others, it just seemed like kind of short notice. But you have to do whatever you have to do (to coin a cliche 😉 )

 

[skelyrata]

Thats the nature of the beast!

I know how frustrating is to recieve millions of emails complaining about everything and it doesn't matter how much you try to deal with those issues people will then complain about the solutions to the problems, so I feel your frustration.

I guess thats the nature of the beast!

I think it is a good call to keep the site free for the public with the ads.

Look at it as a newspaper, people always complain about too many ads, but deep inside they know that thats how you sell a paper for 25 cents.

And the trend in the web-video community is that there are so many free that is not worth to pay for another one.

Now, I do belive that keeping a site of the nature of ticklingtv.com may be too much for one party to handle, therefore I suggest that maybe some of the studios (including mine) that use ticklingtv.com as a very important part of the business might offer their help to share this load. After all we all benefit from the existence of ticklingtv.com.

If we work together we could acomplish great things!