We Need Your Help -- Video

A_Ron_Hubbard

As promised, this is the financial breakdown / call to action on how you can help us out with the recent financial disruption to the Empire.  Previous thread on the Amazon issue is here.

This thread is for questions and comments about the video / fundraising we're doing in response.  No right or wrong answers here.  All feedback, positive or negative is welcome. 

Garthgou81

Man, that was a hard video to watch, guys. What a sucky position. Quick question...is there one method that is more helpful to you than others? Like would the $5/month be more helpful? Or would a year $48 be better for you in the long run?

Also, I just cancelled my membership because I couldn't find the "switch membership" button, (I may just have missed it). But I will be joining up immediately once I find out if monthly or yearly would be better. 

I intend to help in any way I can and I hope many of my fellow-listeners will do the same. I've been listening way too long for things to go downhill now. 

OldGriswold

Guys.

I can see the pain in your faces and hear it in your beautiful voices.  What a hard thing to do.

That being said, I'm glad you did it.

$48 is high for me (and I live in New York City).  The good news is because of Brexit I get to spend slightly less on gifts for my family back in blighty (or I could have got them nicer things) - so I'll be investing in Bald Move.

When my subscription is up, I'll be renewing at the new rate.  In the meantime, if you don't object, I'd rather sponsor someone else's club membership who can't afford it than just donate through the tip jar some time this week.  I'm not exactly sure how to do that.  I feel its both going to be useful to keep some of those paid members, as well as spread the word a little more for the same monetary benefit for you guys.

At $12 a year, and having only stumbled across you guys halfway through this year's GoT, I felt it was fair, given the high quality.  I'd never paid for a podcast before.  Then, I made sure all the stuff I bought I used Amazon and your link - because why not?  Thing is, the only reason I really saw this post is because I came back onto the forums after remembering you guys mention the Westworld Podcast plans in (I think) the GoT season 1 rewatch.  Point is, for me I am not too interested in the rest of the podcasts for now, and haven't even mined some of the, probably gold-standard archive materials or other shows (though you almost convinced me to seek out  Mr. Bad Robot.  I didn't even know how to access and use the ad-free feeds until this week.

Maybe I'm not your typical audience member.  If I am close to it, though, I think it may be tough to keep people's money coming your way at 48 bucks.  That's not because your product is bad, but because the focus is so wide and the quality does... not... drop.

I'd suggest hitting the current podcasts hard with this call to action.  Maybe you've got more GoTers listening to your active casts right now, or maybe they'll binge watch Westworld at the end of the season and listen to each of the podcasts and your messages and find a way to get some moolah your way.

It's coming up to Thanksgiving, and we've got Bezos to thank in part of this situation.  Let's hope that by the time the Holidays roll around you're in a much stronger position.

Garthgou81

Another question...how difficult would it be to put a bumper of some sort on older podcast material about your current predicament. Like, could you, somehow edit older podcasts to hit people who are just discovering old content and let them know about this call to action? 

That may be more trouble than it is worth over-all. Just wondering. 

A_Ron_Hubbard

Hmm, that's a good question.  And I'm honestly touched that you'd think at that kind of level. 

Monthly would give us more money in the long run, where as yearly gives us more money now.  I guess if it were up to me, I'd prefer everyone to go yearly, as a) it will save you money, and b) be more useful to us in the short term, and c) allow us to go ahead with some of these projects, assuming that enough people decide to support us. If everyone went $5/month, we'd get 20% more money overall, but it would accrue much later in the year.  Time value of money and all that.  I mean, it would be fucking sweet if advertising takes off, we get some YouTube money coming in, the new app becomes a hit, and we could actually lower the Club price in 2018. 

OldGriswold

Dang, I wish I knew objective C or responsive design and could whore myself out to you for free for the app/mobile buildout.  Any possibility of outsourcing that stuff to someone for cheaper than 25k?  Internship project, perhaps?

MichaelG

I haven't even watched the video yet, but please know I'll gladly pay $50 for my next re-up. I don't have a lot of money, but it's a no brainer.

Keep working hard and doing your thing.

joepinetree

I understand you don't want to paywall your free content. But how about the Dan Carlin model of selling old content? All Dan Carlin's current podcasts are free and available to everyone. But if, say, after listening to his current show you want to go back and listen to his series on the eastern front in WW2, you can buy that. Since your main concern with paywall seems to be that it would prevent growth, keeping current content free while charging for archives could achieve both things. Perhaps it could even be sort of a bonus for subscribers.

So if you want to listen to the current season of game of thrones or walking dead or whatever, it is free and available at your favorite podcast aggregator. If you then enjoyed it enough that you want to go and listen what the guys had to say about Breaking Bad's season 4 5 years ago, you could then either subscribe or buy the very special season 4 set for a one time fee of 4.99 or whatever. Of course, since you both are also fans of Carlin, maybe you thought of this and there is a reason it doesn't make sense. But it seemed to me to be a really reasonable approach by him.

On my end, made a small donation today and will make sure to renew once my current subscription is up soon.

A_Ron_Hubbard

@oldgriswold - Yeah, man, that's the scary thing.  I have no idea how many current members will choose to remain members.  I feel like 50% is pessimistic, but I don't know.  At the end of the day, we're just a silly podcast on trivial subjects. Sure, people like us and people care a lot about their favorite shows, but we're not saving lives or putting rockets into orbit.  Going forward, I also hate the fact that we're going away from the "buck a month", because that had a lot of just stand alone appeal.  Like, shit, that's a no brainer if you're engaged with us at all.  $5 bucks a month is a thinker. We are definitely going to hit this as hard as we can.  I'm not terrified, but I am afraid.  I've worked hard at this at a good deal of personal cost and I don't want it to end.

As far as the app goes, we're shopping the proposal around to get the best price,this is just Jim and I's gut feeling for a target price.  Remember, we've sat at both sides of this particular table, so we have a pretty good idea what it would take to professionally develop this.  Key word is professional.  I don't think an intern learning on the job would cut it. I'd be open to people wanting to help out on this, but at the end of the day it's got to work, it's got to be delivered on a time table, and it has to do what we need it to do.  We have a few shops we've worked with (and at!) before, but again, if anyone has suggestions or hats to throw in the ring, we'd listen.  Shit, we could do this ourselves, but it would take for ever and take away focus from developing content.

@garthgou81 RE: ad drops into old content.  I'm going to see if that's an option. Ironically, that's a selling point of Libsyn Pro!  On the other hand, we don't have a very long tail on our content, it's very much about the here and now.  But on the third hand, saying that our more engaged fans are going to be the ones going back through old content is an easy argument to make, so while the #'s may not be there, the passion and the perceived value, is.

@joepinetree - We've considered it.  As we said, we think paywalls limit growth, and opportunities for people to connect with us.  We've found that highly engaged fans become so by binging our content, and I'd be concerned that making people pay to visit the back catalog would keep a person from making the personal connection that has them saying, "yeah, it's worth $5 to keep them doing this and also I want to hear their lunches and see some videos, etc." 

It's actually incredible, I'm already seeing people donate and sign up at the new levels, and it's the middle of the night in the US.  If and when this works, it will be because the community wants it to happen as bad as we do.  I think it's unlikely that we'll shut down, but to what extent the community responds will kind of indicate to us what you want us to do.  Get bigger, get more content, more new club features, slicker / easier club, or just kind of stay the same, or somewhere in between.  I'm grateful for whatever support we get, and excited to see what the community wants us to do!

And now, bed.  We'll talk more tomorrow.  Or later today. In the morning.  Whatever!

darwinfeeshy

I plan on using the $5/month option until I have the cash on hand for the yearly payment in a month or two!

Also, I followed the http://baldmove.com/product/donate link and it didn't work. I think you forget the "s" in products.

27timechampsPLUSarodsucks

I joined back one February about a week after I stumbled onto you guys because of TWD. The quality of content provided by you guys can't be translated to a monetary value for me. I feel that even at $48 bucks a year is still a great price. During the peak times of the year I am listening to at least 4 new podcasts a week. When you sit back and break down your current level of payment versus the amount of new monthly content you receive, your paying pennies per podcast. This price increase is a non issue for me all based on what I would be losing on a weekly basis. This news is very sad to me and to be honest I fear that some people may have a hard time justifying the increase to themselves.


I usally roam the forums daily but because don't post very much so I felt like the more support the better! So let's climb this mountain of "dry cold rolled steel pie" together and let us BALD-ERS help you guys continue onto do what you guys do best!


Maybe this is just a time jump and a revery is allowing you to access the files of despair from past BALD MOVE archives 30 years ago.


Thanks for the honesty guys and I will support you as long as your around! Couldn't get through my day of work without you guys!

Freddy

4790 Red Bank Expressway Ste. 221, right? Just double checking before I send you my silver.

MichaelG

Just finished the video. Thank you for the transparency and honesty. It sucks that this wrench has been thrown into the mix. I will do and give what I can as soon as I can, and I'm confident that your community of listeners will prop you up and push through this challenge together.

A_Ron_Hubbard

darwinfeeshy said:

I plan on using the $5/month option until I have the cash on hand for the yearly payment in a month or two!

Also, I followed the http://baldmove.com/product/donate link and it didn't work. I think you forget the "s" in products.

Oh shit, glad I saw this before kicking off. This is fixed now.

A_Ron_Hubbard

Freddy said:

4790 Red Bank Expressway Ste. 221, right? Just double checking before I send you my silver.

Yep, that's the one!

weezerwes

Just FYI, I was signed up to the club through paypal and as soon as i changed my payment type to my credit card, it let me update my subscription to the new amount right away. Also threw in on some movies. Considered that some back pay. 

Keep up the great work!

WintersComingAfterFall

I went to switch from monthly to yearly but it only gave option to switch to new monthly plan.
One simple suggestion, use more social media but twitter especially to promote bald move. Im a big twitter user and its only social media ive ever used outside of yotube. Just thinking making your account more active on there would really help. See that you guys tweet out new casts but i see sites tweet same tweets hourly cuz with twitters timeline design users can miss it. Shit, just hashtags like #gameofthrones with ur poscasts would get tons of views id think. Obviously im talking about free content not giving away premium content but even then you could give 1 episode of premium for a show like GOT out for free for ppl to get a taste like how hbo n showtime typically do with new shows to get them out there. Srry if this sounds like common sense but just a thought i wanted to offer and had been thinking about b4 this news.

Ajas

First of all, this post should be at least a banner on the front page of the feed. Maybe caption it like "The officially official plea for help" or... "For less than a buck a week you can feed and clothe a podcaster. Just... not in person."

Also why sweat the video aspect so much? I personally just download the mp3, and whenever something is only available by video I just ignore it (except this one), and get slightly grumpy. In fact even for this I just listened to it while walking the dogs. The tone of your voices made seeing the charts unnecessary.

Why don't you market the LWJ&A/premium off-the-cuff stuff harder. It's some of my favorite shows! In fact I was a member for months before I even bothered to click one. The banner was weird, no explanation... But it's a fun show! On the rocks, similar story.

gjulleen

I listened to the podcasts, but it was the TellTale walk through that got my membership. I freaking loved those. Noticed LWJ&A and got hooked.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

GredalBee

Jesus.  I was tearing up watching the Cubs win the world series, now I'm tearing up because of the video.

The financial change may all but put the kibosh on a new employee, but is there an email for sending resumes? I'd love to be able to offer services and help out, even at a significantly lower price than what you estimated.  If promotion and advertising are going to be paramount in this next phase, it still might be worth having another set of hands and I'm just letting you know there are people already in the community who can help.  If it's out of the question, I'm still happy to do freebies and help with things like House Snow. 

Frakkin T

I'm sorry this happened, Jim & A.Ron. Bald Move has been on such a great trajectory since I started listening (5 years ago!!) and it's tough to see you take a blow like this. If you can quantify how much blood, sweat, and tears go into a project like this, you did in that video, and the answer is a lot of fucking blood, sweat, and tears. I'm honestly humbled to see how much time and care you guys put in every week just so that we can have a cool place to chat about our tv shows. Bald Move is the best and I'm happy to increase my support.

Also cosign @WintersComingAfterFall regarding Twitter. Hashtags are a great way to get in front of eyeballs with something short and punchy and Twitter rewards good content. Not only that, many of the people we talk about are spectacular on Twitter. Most of the Villigang talk to each other and it's a cesspool of dirty innuendo. Leslie Jones live-tweets GoT every week and is hilarious. Definitely good material to talk about in the podcast.

Last thing, some words of wisdom from one Philip J Fry: "It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long, the grasshopper kept burying acorns for the winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched TV. But then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus ate all his acorns. And also he got a racecar. Is any of this getting through to you?"

DoubleA_Ron

Fuuuuuuuuuck this noise.  Bald Move is NOT failing.  I won't let it.  

If I have to move my ass to Cincinnati and sell MY body on the street... well... I'm open to it.

FlashGordon

Happy to jump onto the $48, although you could have been a bit more considerate and done this before my lunatic countrymen decided to vote Brexit and devalue the pound so severely. The sad truth of economics dictates, if you increase price, you will lose club members, but the model needs to be sustainable and this one + more advertising seems like it is.

The video is great and comprehensively answers a lot of questions people will have around this. I think you need to do more though and to echo some of the above, it's got to be short and punchy. I'm thinking something like a 3 minute explainer and call to action, release it on every feed with - "Do you want this podcast to return",  get it on the website, facebook and the newly active instagram, but you've got to carpet bomb every channel you have, regularly , "if a tree falls in the wood and no one hears" - and all that . 

Generally there are two main factors in making a purchase - being at the right stage in the buying cycle i.e you've decided to actually make the purchase,not just thinking about it. Second - having the actual cash on hand to be able to make the purchase.  

People might still be in the 'consideration' stage of buying when you first hit them with this or they simply need to wait to get paid to have the spare cash. 

So weekly updates on progress, redirecting to full length video,   but keep hammering the message and i'm confident there's a critical mass of bald movers to get you over the line.

voodoorat

man, i don't know if i could lay bare my finances like that...  partly because i don't track them well enough, but it's also disconcertingly intimate.  i really appreciate the transparency (a little ironically from my position of internet anonymity).

i don't know about the "silent majority" of subscribers--assuming there is one and we're not all just internet-vocal weirdos spouting off on the forums--but i feel like $4/mo (or $5/mo) is still reasonable.  much higher and you're competing for monthly budget space with stuff like hulu, netflix, spotify, amazon prime, etc (i know that's not fair because those are ridiculously cheap for what they offer, but price and quantity of content is a big part of how people compare services).  i think you've fostered a relationship with much of the current subscriber base that makes that pretty easy for many (most?) of us.

it will be harder for new people who don't have that relationship to jump onto a $48 subscription train, though, especially if they have a mental cherry to pop when it comes to paying for podcasts--i know it felt weird to me to even pay a $12 sub for podcast content in spite of the fact that that's still very nearly free just because every other podcast i listened to i listened to for free.  i'm no expert (or hobbyist, or even a person who knows fuck all about it) on internet advertising but from what some other people have posted it sounds like you might be able to squeeze that lemon a little harder too.

hang in there, though.  long term (assuming you can get the math to work, and i know you know this already) it will be better not to have to depend on some outside benefactor that doesn't care about your success (and to the extent they are aware they are probably annoyed).  meanwhile, ima toss a few bucks in the tip jar, kindly point it at the whiskey budget item.

SomeBiscuit

Well, I've been considering joining the club for a long time now, and this seals the deal, even with the price increase. I'll go in on the $48 as soon as I sort out a few things, Brexit be damned. Been a huge fan for two years now, so it's the least I can do. Couple of points:

@joepinetree @A_Ron_Hubbard Based on my own personal experience, I'd be against you charging for the old content. Listening to your back catalog was what got me into Bald Move in the first place, and if it'd been behind a paywall, I definitely wouldn't be here now. (Again, that's just my personal experience though - if it has to be done just for you guys to survive, then there's not much that can be done about it)

Also, I have to second @FlashGordon on the fact that you absolutely need to get some sort of announcement about this onto every feed, website, social media account you have (and I agree with @WintersComingAfterFall that the Twitter account definitely should see some more use). Make sure as many people as possible know. If they're fans of what you do, it shouldn't bother them.

Anyway, that's all I can think of that hasn't already been said. Keep doing what you do, you'll get through this mess, no problem.

Lincolnian84

Good luck, guys. I just upped to $5/month and consider it a great value for all the content you produce and the hours of pleasure I get out of your work. I'm in strong agreement that you should have a short mention of your predicament at the start or end of each podcast and in each little description that comes up in the feed, include a link to the video or to an explanation on the website. More Twitter promotion is probably also a good idea. And if you can find the time, perhaps arrange to guest on other pop culture oriented podcasts--I often find new favorites when they guest on old favorites. I have a lot of faith in the community you've built, so I'm sure 2017 is going to be a banner year for you and your banner men and women. I'd also be happy to see more merch --Christmas is right around the corner! 

April_May_June

Just watched the video. First, thank you guys for being so transparent and honest. You two are awesome, and I have faith that things will work out for you two, and Bald Move will continue, and even thrive.

On a more negative note, while I am a current member, and have been for almost 2 years, unfortunately, $5 a month prices me out of it.
Without getting too personal, my husband and I are on a fixed income. What I did in the past was sign up for a year, but paid $24 for that year. Bald move is the only podcast I've ever subscribed to, but I felt the content was well worth the price, and I really wanted to support you two in your endeavors. Please understand that I'm not saying your content *isn't* worth $5 a month (it most certainly is!), it's just that it's frankly more than I can afford.

When my membership was up for renewal last year, I was somehow automatically renewed, and $24 was automatically charged to my account. I was ok with that, because I was planning on renewing anyway. As this unfortunately won't be the case this time, I just wanted to confirm that won't happen when my membership expires. $24 unexpectedly deducted from my bank account is a lot easier to deal with (and justify to my husband, haha) than $60. I know that it was mentioned in the video that people would specifically have to renew their membership from now on, but I wanted to double-check.

Thank you guys for all your amazing content - I am sad that I won't be able to continue my membership, but will most certainly keep listening to the podcasts that will be available to me once my membership ends.

A_Ron_Hubbard

April_May_June said:

I just wanted to confirm that won't happen when my membership expires. $24 unexpectedly deducted from my bank account is a lot easier to deal with (and justify to my husband, haha) than $60.

Yes, when we go to the Recurly backend, since we don't have your credit card on file, we have no way of continuing any subscription.  So, you'll get to enjoy the Club for however long your current subscription lasts, and then it will auto expire.

Very sorry you won't be able to keep on with us, but I definitely understand the financial reality of every day life, and you got to spend where it makes the most sense.  I certainly don't want people giving the "widows mite" to us.  I hope one day we can run a special/sale to bring it back within reach.

tom_g

For whatever reason I prefer to just send you cash - look for it in a holiday card soon!!

A_Ron_Hubbard

voodoorat said:

man, i don't know if i could lay bare my finances like that...  partly because i don't track them well enough, but it's also disconcertingly intimate.  i really appreciate the transparency (a little ironically from my position of internet anonymity).

i don't know about the "silent majority" of subscribers--assuming there is one and we're not all just internet-vocal weirdos spouting off on the forums--but i feel like $4/mo (or $5/mo) is still reasonable.  much higher and you're competing for monthly budget space with stuff like hulu, netflix, spotify, amazon prime, etc (i know that's not fair because those are ridiculously cheap for what they offer, but price and quantity of content is a big part of how people compare services).  i think you've fostered a relationship with much of the current subscriber base that makes that pretty easy for many (most?) of us.

it will be harder for new people who don't have that relationship to jump onto a $48 subscription train, though, especially if they have a mental cherry to pop when it comes to paying for podcasts--i know it felt weird to me to even pay a $12 sub for podcast content in spite of the fact that that's still very nearly free just because every other podcast i listened to i listened to for free.  i'm no expert (or hobbyist, or even a person who knows fuck all about it) on internet advertising but from what some other people have posted it sounds like you might be able to squeeze that lemon a little harder too.

hang in there, though.  long term (assuming you can get the math to work, and i know you know this already) it will be better not to have to depend on some outside benefactor that doesn't care about your success (and to the extent they are aware they are probably annoyed).  meanwhile, ima toss a few bucks in the tip jar, kindly point it at the whiskey budget item.

I think it's easier to ask for help when people fully understand your situation.  I also want to make this an annual tradition, every November we kind of give a State of the Empire kind of thing.