Posted by Intrinsic ** EDIT ** Some suggestions... 1) You have to enter your email twice, once when you create an account and again when you fill in the mandatory info about yourself (where you can describe your contact info, camera gear, etc.) 2) Change the "State" to "State/Province" for us Canadians.

Good eye intrinsic I will update the state/Province

I like the idea, but I must say that it would probably be in your best interest to hire or enlist a volunteer to proofread the site, in the interest of looking more polished and professional.

Thanks Aurelie! And you are right, spelling will be corrected asap!

Cheers!

Let me see if I understand this correctly. I kind of skimmed over the last few posts, but I think I get the gist of it:

Step 1: Make a website using free templates and overpay for hosting.

Step 2: Since you have no writing or spelling skills of your own, get other people to write the content and take the photos for you.

Step 3: Get the same people who produce all your content to PAY YOU for it.

Step 4: Make yourself look stupid while trying to defend the idea.

Step 4: ????

Step 5: PROFIT.


I know this business model works for the RIAA and music labels, but you might be hard pressed to find enough suckers here. Heck, I'm thinking of starting a site where everyone pays me to take the rights to their photos and sell them to other people, I bet I could get some sweet cash that way.

Posted by uemag Yes you are correct, I suck at spelling and I am trying to reply fast. But I dont write the magazine. you do.

i seriously doubt it - but sure. whatever you say.
as you can probably tell from the responses you have garnered to this point - we aren't "buying" it just yet.

That sounds about right to me.

Most of us have our own websites, and most of us have cameras and go exploring. The fact you have invested so much is not a show of your passion, but perhaps of making the wrong decisions. In any case, not many of us ever expect to see any returns for our sacrifice, and it's a bit odd seeing someone else do so.

As much as any of us would be happy to see you succeed in what you're attempting, it also seems like you're expecting to see returns in your investment based on making others do all the work for you. Just, don't be disappointed if you never see any of that money again, and don't take it as a criticism of your project.

Posted by Freak Heck, I'm thinking of starting a site where everyone pays me to take the rights to their photos and sell them to other people, I bet I could get some sweet cash that way.

Flickr beat you to it!

Hmmm. Seems there isn't much support here for uemag... how many people have you actually tricked into paying this $25 fee? Or $14.99 fee? "spellcheck and post reply" is at the bottom of the box. Hard to miss quick and easy to accomplish if you try.

I have some experience with web design/development and startups such as these. Here are some tips for your current and future endeavors:

- Shop around for hosting. There are thousands of hosting companies out there and some are very competitive. Personally, I have a hard time believing that you paid $1000 for your "shared" hosting (non-dedicated, non-colocated) server, even for a year-long period. If you're not just inflating this figure, then your decision to use this company was hasty considering the infancy of the project.

- Due to the initial misjudgment of your site's projected popularity, you've overextended yourself financially and now want the users to pick up the bill. 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. The idea is to give registered users incentive to create the content, and with that content, draw in more users which inevitably means more impressions/click-thrus to your advertisers. Look at the major players for user-generated content: YouTube, IMDb, Yelp, etc. While some of these sites may have a premium paid membership option, almost all of them have a basic free user registration. I think it's a bit ridiculous to assume people will pay you to join your site, and then create all of the content for you. Like others have said, anyone with a bit of time and determination can setup a CMS, but without content, it's just a hollow shell. It's a bit pre-emptive to be asking for payment, as you should have been aware of the risks going into this.

- Public perception and presentation is paramount to your success in the early stages of a new idea you're promoting. The way you've handled the situation thus far has been less than professional. Spelling and grammar mistakes included, you should probably do your best to proofread any and all public declarations with tact and respect for your readers in mind. Whether or not you realize it, there is a permanence that comes along with forum posts like these. Unless you go back and edit, anyone in the world can see your posts, and will instantly tie your professionalism to that of the site and its administration. Promote a friendly and clean image, ignore the nay-sayers (as they will always exist), and focus on the community that supports your idea.

- Playing the sympathy card is never a good idea in business (this is not charity). Whether or not that was your intent, if it doesn't have anything to do with the site, there's no need to bring it up. If your idea cannot stand on its own, then you're already destined to fail. There is no need to attach a sob-story in order to sway people to support you. While you might think it helps your cause, it only hurts your image.

Anyway, despite these criticisms, I think you have a good idea on your hands, but the execution needs a little reworking. Hopefully my comments will be of some use to you, and I wish you luck with your project.

u-235

Nicolas,

I have no intention in replying to you personally, anyone can read my reply.
Listen, i did not like your tone and aggressive statement towards me, just because i asked you why i needed to pay for your website/forum/magazine.
You where very blunt in your language use towards me within the first 5 lines and i felt really offended by your way of thinking.

Normally i'm a very understanding an rational guy, but i'm a f*cking bitch when i feel attacked or offended without any reason.
I even respected your privacy by altering(XXXX) your private phone number.
I could easily done otherwise. You don't need to thank me for that, it's just common sense.

But don't come picking on me now.
Maybe your intentions are good, but i have not received any reason why they are so.
You just attacked me. No more, no less and it seems that i'm not the only one who thinks that way.

You site have nothing to offer besides a down-payment on your expenses you made.
I see you have no commercial experience.
You don't let ppl pay for something that 'might be published'.
So if you accept a kind of suggestion from me, i would try to attract members who are willing to provide you with there work and give them a profit-share for the cooperation. i'm talking about a %-deal for the published pictures in rate with the published magazines.
If you want to make this working, you need to be very transparent about profit win and make non-disclosure agreements with all members.

If you don't go that, you'll be facing a legal process within no time, because you are working with non personal material.

Good luck nevertheless, although i think all you best intentions have no influence here.

Gtrs
N.

You are going about this all wrong. I understand you need money for hosting or whatever but look at how successful communities pull it off. They offer the service for free and make it as easy as possible for the core members to donate. (view the very top of this website for a good example)

Obviously that's a big risk but that's the only way to pull it off. If your site/community is good enough to be worth paying for, people will pay you for it.

Because flickr charges for something is a horrible line of reasoning. If flickr launched today they wouldn't have a shot in hell. Flickr launched in 04 and lot has changed on the internet and peoples expectations since then.

Simply put, freemium is the new free in the web3.0 world.

I have been doing internet marketing for ages and I have both failed and succeeded many times. I can tell you from experience that UE is going to be a very ruff niche for making money.

I never bother with any niche that doesn't provide benefits to the customer in one of the following categories

Money - Sex - Health

Those are the big 3 that people are hungry to pay money for.

Idk, If I was forced to try and make money in the UE niche I would create a webstore and sell physical goods like grappling hooks, lock pick sets, cool UE t-shirts, shit like that. UE related items that you CAN'T buy at the local walmart. I would drop ship or back order only. As much as I hate dealing with physical goods I just don't see UE people buying up web services or information products in mass any time soon.

If you are not going to change the sales model or product here is some advice for better results:


1st Advice: People who don't know you could give a f-ck about you

What this means: They don't care about how much money you spent on the site or hosting and they don't care about your health or financial issues. Stop talking about them, it's not a selling point.

2nd Advice: People want Benefits NOT features

What this means: People care most about themselves. What's in it for them? How is your service going to BENEFIT them? Will this add value and make their lives better?

Take your list of features and ask yourself this question for each one:

This is useful because?

The answers to this question will make better sales copy. Also will get you more prepared for people like the OP. In the future when people ask about why they should pay for this, use the same answers. Tell them why these features are useful, explain the benefits of the service, explain how it will add value to their lives. DO not talk about your own personal issues, remember the 1st advice above.

I'm sorry that I have to jump on the bandwagon of the negatives for this venture. Here is why:

* I explored options to form a magazine this year based on Abandoned, my site. Break even would be 3,250 sales of a 50 page magazine with advertisements. That was with a commercial printer and a distributor with a national focus. Unless you can attract at least a few thousand sales with a national distributor, then you really can not break even on the project.

Some questions to ask: Who is your editor? If it is you - then you might need to seek another, because your writing skills are not that great. What about an advertising manager? How will you solicit advertisements? What is your business model? How will you ultimately market and sell this magazine? Nothing has been thought out it seems.

* Asking for money upfront for no content is a huge no. I request donations but that is because my site has 6,000 photos that I've taken, with dozens upon dozens of pages and blog entries. And it works. But UE Magazine has nil for articles and photos, and nothing to draw upon repeat visitors.

You can only do so much with social media. That's the new bandwagon: if I only had a Twitter and Facebook account, then I don't need to do anything else. Well, as someone who manages 30,000 folks for a university, it's only one part of a rather complex engagement equation. Without paying folks who will repeatedly visit your site for varied and unique content, then they will simply go elsewhere.

* Your hosting plan sucks. And so do your upfront costs. I pay $5.99/month for virtually unlimited space and a very large bandwidth limit. The site has been Fark'ed, thrown to some large sites and all that, and not once has the site crashed due to a lack of bandwidth. And with 6,000 photos up and a ton of content, with over 4,000 other photos on 4 other sites, I'm nowhere near any of my limits.

I don't know why you needed to go out and buy such an expensive and useless plan.

Good luck but... uh, you should have thought this out a bit more. Start small and go from there.

Just wanted to plug Sigma's site that's been running for the past five years without any complications. It essentially already offers what you're looking to provide:

http://wwww.indecay.com

^You mean http://beautifuldecay.com/ ? Your link didn't work.

All bashing aside, I give UEMag props for taking this on. Compelling user-submitted content seems like a cool idea, but there is a catch 22 with that in UE.

The most interesting aspect of UE to me is the stories: How did you do your research, what's the location's history, what were the obstacles, What aspect of the location struck you most and why. Unfortunately, stories like that tend to give away too much detailed information so explorers typically post photo sets accompanied by short, coded snippets of info.

I just think one of your problems will be generating good reads without the author getting backlash from the secretive UE culture.

I find that catch 22 is the same across all the UE boards and forums. The really interesting stuff (by necessity) usually gets edited out of the commentary.

Posted by uemag ..... Also, If you have a flickr account you payed around $25 for it and flickr don't print your images in a magazine. ..... Nick-

so you want me to pay to have you use my photos?
nah.. I might let you use something of mine, but not if it costs me...

I'd rather get my personal website setup and print my work myself.

thanks for the effort, I guess??

I went ahead and made a comic out of this. I spent about 5 minutes on it, so everyone who posted in this thread owes me $20 for giving me the idea

Posted by Freak I went ahead and made a comic out of this. I spent about 5 minutes on it, so everyone who posted in this thread owes me $20 for giving me the idea http://abandonedbu...com/2011/09/43.jpg

lolololololololol

Not to sound too Alec Baldwin but 1000 bucks is piss in the wind when it comes to starting something like this. It's nothing compared to what you'd really need.

This thread is like a 101 of how not to start a business/publication. Sites with member fees are usually hard pressed to make money. Getting money from advertising is going to be really hard too unless you're getting a lot of traffic every day. That's just not going to happen overnight, or even a year or two from now. Once you get that traffic you need people to manage it, and people to build ads for clients that don't have their own creative teams.

Ltvsquad.com has been online 10 years now. A lot of the content is mine, but friends get accounts to post material if and when they want to. Saves them the hassle of building or maintaining a site - which is work. So yeah, there's definitely a nitch for providing that - though you'd be hard pressed to get anyone to actually pay for it when there's flickr and facebook and the rest...

The only way to make a site like this viable in a money sense is if you're like me and programming for a living. Having a big old site to play with is a good testing ground for concepts and coding. My clients pay me a whole lot of fucking money for what I do for them. Whatever time I waste modifying/testing/adding content to the site every day, I more than make up for in the long run.

Or you could go the artist route, try to sell you're work and all that... but if you're not exploring/photographing/something... then... all you've got is an idea - and as you can tell from this thread - not one that's been well thought out in the long term. (I ain't trying to hate, I'm just callin' it like I see it - hoping you take some insight from all the posts on here and use it to your benefit).

Posted by Chris-Kicker so you want me to pay to have you use my photos? nah.. I might let you use something of mine, but not if it costs me... I'd rather get my personal website setup and print my work myself. thanks for the effort, I guess??

+1. Yeah, no thanks.