Glad to see that everyone's posting what they think and feel about uemag.com.--thanks for being honest. Let's talk openly about this subject here, if you're all willing, and I'll try to address each question/concern to the best of my ability. There are so many replys here, that it could be an entire second full-time job just answering all of them (lol), but I'll try. A lot of people here are quick to assess and critize UE Mag without really understanding much about the site or the print magazine. Some have not even gone to the site to take a look around before leaping to false conclusions as to what our goals are, or how and why we are making the magazine in the first place. To those quick-to-condemn/slow-to-fact-check, I encurage you to do a bit more research into our site and magazine. To expedite this, I am going to clear up some info here that others have posted which is either completely untrue, or, at least misconstrewed... TO Steed: I'm sorry you feel so negitivly about UE Mag.-- I feel that you are mistaken about many of your points of contention. The site uemag.com is not out to replace other explorers' websites in any way. It is an urbex social network, an open format for members wishing to submit some of their photos (w/ or w/out description) for publication. Of their own vollition they may even choose to submit stories to go along with their images. We DO NOT solicit, steal, coerce, or force anyone to submit contecnt. Not only would that be illegal, it is unnecessary--lots of people aspire to seeing their stuff in explorer-circulated magazines. Even when free or Pro members submit content, we get writen consent from the member before publishing to our website or magazine. We are NOT swindling explorers photos or "hard work". We are giving them their own gallery showing. We aim to help our members share whatever they want to share with other explorers. My personal investment should not be open for discussion. What I do with my own hard-earned money is private, and irrelevant to any of the matters open to discussion here. I do thank you for your concern with my investments, but please, let's leave my personal finances out of this. I'm sorry you feel that my hard work will not yield anything in return for either you or other explorers. That's your opinion, and I respect your right to it, but I personally think diffrently about it. And, anyhow, time will tell. I'm glad that somewhere in your thoughts on the whole, you entertain that this could work, and I value your honest input. TO Modbox At first I set the PRO membership up as costing $24.99 for a one year membership. I admit that I over-estimated what I thought would be a resonable price. $24.99 breakes down to around $2.00 a month. Based on the general feedback, I have lowered the price to $12.00 for the one year plan. During the reassesment period there were several individuals who purchased Pro memberships at the initial $24.99 price. I refunded 100% of the money to the supporting members and informed them that this was due to the lowering of our price. We didn't want them to pay more than everyone else would, and they where happy with their refunds and our disclosure. In fact, all of them purchased a new Pro one year membership (at the thrifty, new, low, $1.00-a-month-which-equals-a-total price of $12.00). Moving on: I completely understand everyone's complaints about my spelling. I will try harder to have proper gramer, and to take the time to use Spell Check. It's important to reiterate that I am not a writer for this magazine as much as I am on its' team. There is the same implicit effort that all content will be checked and proofed before making it to print, as is expected for any magazine. This is not to make excuses, but I do want to point out that trying to build/run this website, make the magazine, market the magazine, help UE Mag members on the uemag.com, answer as many post on other forums as possible, as well as have any hope of a personal life, and still go exploring has been pretty daunting. That is a lot for one guy to do. I am trying my hardest. If even petty loose ends so displeases others, then I will try harder, in hope of getting this right in the near future. TO u-235 Thank you for all of your advice. A lot of this is completely new to me. I certainly value all of the direction I can get, most especialy from someone with website experience, such as yourself. Let me make one thing clear that you may have misinterpreted. I have never stated that I paid $1000 for a shared server. What I did claim was that I paid $1000 for use of a semi-dedicated server for one year. This was a big mistake on my part. I was relying on the purveyor for my host advice. Also, I had estimated a high traffic-count from the start. With no real urbex magazine off of which to base any stats, it was easy to be mistaken. I did do research into the potential population of circulating enthusiasts, but I was way off. Among those interested people, I never thought i would get so much negitive feedback on trying to print an exploring magazine. NinjaDelicious (one of the founding fathers) had a mag run for quite awhile before he passed away. RIP. His was really the only model that I had, that could serve as a reference, and that mag stopped printing in 2005. Let this be made very clear: I have now switched to a shared server, and no longer bear a $1000 yearly bill. I DO NOT WANT ANY MONEY from my members so that i can pay my bills. That was never my intention to convey- I just wanted to present a context. I will mention that, as of this update, I have managed to cut a lot of my budget. Naturally, I am not going to openly share my entire busines plan, as I feel that is inapropriate. Trade secrets. Also, I will share the circumstances prompting uemag to have both a $12 PRO account, as well as a FREE account. For contrast, UER (an amazing site) has a monthly donation drive of $100, from what I understand. That's $1200 a year, and I'm pretty sure that money goes into covering the server fees. I think (correct me if I am wrong) that UER members who choose to donate unlock some site features which are only available for donaters...? Were this to be accurate,then the Pro memberships at uemag.com would serve in the same way. I have a lot more planned for the site, both in general, and for members-only. This is still a work in progress. More features will cost a bit of money here and there, but everyone will benefit. It remains an inaliable fact that making a magazine costs money. I wish I could make the mag for free, but I truly do not see a way in which that is possible. Not without me sinking all I have into it until there isn't any more, at which point the magazine would run itself-and me- into the ground. What I'm saying is, the notion that I am linning my pockets with money bled from this huge chance I'm taking is just plain NOT TRUE. (THIS IS A QUOTE BY u-235: "The problem with something like this idea is your business model is based around user-generated content. Most sites that use this model earn their revenue through targeted advertising.") You are 100% right in your above quote, but you are forgetting one key thing. Advertisers like sites/magazines with a steady flow of traffic and subscribers. With UE Mag being so new, we do not yet have the the traffic and subscription rates which would attract a compatible advertiser. However, once we have a strong user base, we may be able to make the site 100% free as far as memberships go, and rely on advertising revenue to cover production/publication fees. We just need a crutch, or jump start-if you will- to get thing moving. WE DO HAVE A FREE MEMBERSHIP. just wanted to state that so as to make it very clear. The entirity of our content is not from our members. Next: setting up a CMS is not super easy. Sure, maybe for a pro web desiger it's not too formidable, but I'm not a pro web designer. I'm an explorer-photographer who wants to print a magazine about my life's passion. I was (and still am) 100% aware of the risk of potential loss that is involed in seeking to make a UE-based magazine. (Trust me--lol) But I still feel strongly that this is something I can and will make work. Please understand that no busines plan is foolproof--they all involve risk. Some moreso than others, I know, yet I continue to feel this risk to be worth taking. I believe in an URBEX community that prints its' member's content within a professional magazine. I am attempting a magazine that documents urbex in the here and now(in a physical printed publication), so that when we are all dead and gone, other explorers can pick up an old issue--maybe on ebay, or perhaps in bulk on yahoo--and be holding a piece of history in their hand. I feel that once the point comes when we are gone, a lot of thses website will die out, too. (I hope not, but it is, most likely, part of the inevitble...everything dies) Printed magazines are collected, shaved, passed down, and cherished. Printing itself is a major part of photography that a lot of people nowdays just don't do. I enjoy seeing my work printed, and I really enjoy when it's printed in a publication where others with the same interests as mine can view it. I never intented to play the sympathy card at all. I am an open person, and I want people to understand who I am and why I am doing this magazine. Unfortunately for me, my backstory is marked with several major head traumas. They effectively changed how I live my life. The reasons I had for starting to shoot and explore are directly tied into my traumas. What do I do when people ask about me, or when I try to describe how I got involed in UE? I openly express how I am feeling, and that kind of dialog is why I am here writing this reply. I don't want to come across as being too corprate or too stiff. I want to convey my accessibility to members and other explorers, that they can contact me, or chat with me, and hopefully we'll all be able to find new friendships. I know busines is busines, but this is urbex- not Walmart. u-235 I cannot thank you enough for your time and your advice. You seem like an honest person, and you know what you are talking about, a few misconceptions notwithstanding. It's people like you that help make this magazine live. If you're interested in helping out, please contact me in the P.M. Thanks for your direct and relevant input. Cheers! TO NeQo I wish you would have had the consideration to spend time better understanding before making accusations, but I did act out of line with my replys, and for that I am sorry. I wish you well as a fellow explorer. TO 5alive "I never bother with any niche that doesn't provide benefits to the customer in one of the following categories Money - Sex - Health" that quote had me laughing hard. Thanks! I needed a joke to lighten this thread up. A lot of your advice is dead on, man, and I am working hard to make this work. All I can say is live and learn-and I am learning a lot. I'm just one human, not a mega-corprate, lushly-staffed company. Things are starting to shape up, thanks in part to all of the feedback I have gotten from explorers like yourself. Thank you.
Thank you all for your input/advice. I will try to make more replies to everyone I missed as soon as possible. There's so much more I want to share with you all, and I will in good time. In closing this out for me tonight, I would like to say the following: You can bash me as a person, you can nitpick my flaws,and you can dislike my concept for a ue magazine, but I am comitted to this endever. I will try harder to make a publication that mostly everyone will be proud of. Your positive feedback and support is awesome! Thank you. Explore well. Gerv- Ue Magazine
GERV- UE magazine founder http://uemag.com http://nicholasgervin.com |