Maybe putting spoiler section past a pay wall could help drive up membership. I know I will extend my membership at the 48 dollar point. I have been dying for a wire podcast so maybe putting a membership level needed and if achieved doing a wire rematch could drive up membership as well to expand on Amelia's idea. Big fan keep up the good work.
They said on another comment somewhere they are against paywalls. They want the bulk of their content to be available for free for both philosophical reasons and pragmatic business reasons.
but that does't preclude a wire rewatch based on new membership
When you do the thermometer and the fund raising, I think it would be a good idea to highlight that there are multiple ways to contribute. The reason I mention this is because on today's LWJ&A you mentioned that some people said they could no longer afford the 48 a year. But even if they can't afford to be subscribers, they can still donate at whatever amount they can. Since there is no paywall, folks who can only afford the 12 a year can still keep that going.
I love the show but a 400% increase in the yearly price of your show seems like a crazy business plan. I can't justify spending that much for a fan podcast. I hope you meet your goals.
I love the show but a 400% increase in the yearly price of your show seems like a crazy business plan. I can't justify spending that much for a fan podcast. I hope you meet your goals.
Everyone has to make their own decision, I respect everyone's decision either way. I for one will definitely stick around. 5 bucks a month is a steal for the amount of quality content you guys provide. yeah technically 400 percent but that's only because it was insanely cheap to begin with.
I mean the other thing is folks that can't or don't want to pay the increased price for 12 months could always subscribe for 3 months while their favorite show is on and still enjoy it. It's not like you have to subscribe for the year or not subscribe at all.
I am truly sorry for your troubles! I am addicted to Bald Move and will be a member for life! Just made a donation and will re-up my subscription asap.
This was such sad news. I love so many of the podcasts and really enjoy hearing your thoughts, theories and predictions. I have starting watching several new shows at your request and have never regretted it!
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to throw out ideas, but i have a few!
- Use your resources! While (strangely) the Club Bald Movers are a small group, I feel like they are a dedicated audience. I would assume there are many of us who have a talent or trade they would donate time to in the name of Bald Move. What about having contests; such as listeners submitting designs for web banners, merch or new show art for bragging rights, internet points and a free year membership? I feel like people could submit designs and they could be voted on in the forums or hell, just arbitrarily chosen. You could spend a whole lunch debating the best designs. Cracked does a Photoshop contest every week and receives thousands of submissions, however they only pay $50 to the winner. The exposure could be well worth the pay off
- Social Media: You guys are great on Facebook, love that Cecily is taking over the Bald Move Instagram account, but maybe expand your network. I have seen other start-ups exchange a year membership for people to promote their products a certain number of times per month. Think about it: sucks you cannot afford the new membership fee? Hows about promote Bald Move on your social media X times per month and get free access. Choose regional representatives to avoid over-saturation and consider number of followers as a contributing factor. If they already listen regularly, it shouldn't be too hard to share their favorite podcast of the week, right?
- OK. real personal bias here because i love stickers and have worked in the vinyl and digital printing world for the majority of my adult life. Cut vinyl logos are one of the cheapest marketing plans that actually work.. Vinyl is cheap, so you can pay pennies per square foot and ship them as easy as slipping them in an envelope and sending regular mail. It gives exposure, people can send in selfies and who doesn't love stickers?!?! Give them away with large purchases, send as a thank you and contact me if you need an estimate. Branding + Marketing+ Barley+Intellect = Profits?
I would love to contribute ideas, skills or just brainstorm drunken ideas. Would be a huge loss for me personally if you went off the air.
I love the show but a 400% increase in the yearly price of your show seems like a crazy business plan. I can't justify spending that much for a fan podcast. I hope you meet your goals.
Even if you can't spend that much, keep in mind that you can still donate and have access to their stuff.
That said, 5 bucks is still a phenomenal value. As an example, audible.com is 15 bucks a month for one audiobook each month. An audiobook is on average about 20 hours of audio content. Watching westworld and watching dead alone are more than that. Now, every person has to make a decision for themselves. But I think it is important to remember that even if you decide not to resubscribe, you can still donate and contribute in other ways.
That said, 5 bucks is still a phenomenal value. As an example, audible.com is 15 bucks a month for one audiobook each month. An audiobook is on average about 20 hours of audio content. Watching westworld and watching dead alone are more than that. Now, every person has to make a decision for themselves. But I think it is important to remember that even if you decide not to resubscribe, you can still donate and contribute in other ways.
The comparisons to other subscription based services (audible here, and a few of the examples used in the video) don't really hold up because in those cases you're paying for the full service being offered. In the Bald Move case, the bulk of the services being offered are available for free and the membership is for value-added premium services.
If you look at everything that's on offer and judge that $48 is a fair price to pay, I'd agree. But the premium membership isn't for everything, it's for the added features that are over and above what is freely available to everyone. So the memberships isn't for Watching Westworld, Watching Dead etc. it's for extended movie reviews, the live watches, ad-free etc.
Being in Canada (which is no one's fault but my own!) that $48 membership is actually a $65 membership. Am I getting $65 worth of value when looking just at the premium features? IMO, no...BUT I'm willing to pay it to support the overall cause, to help guarantee that the free stuff that I like so much will still be produced. For me to justify the price, I have to re-frame it like that for it to make sense.
Repeating something that I said earlier, I think that long term growth and sustainability would be better served by focusing on converting more listeners into members rather than drastically increasing the price of memberships - but I understand the reality of the present day situation that the guys find themselves in...the best plans for long term growth don't mean anything if they can't survive the next few months, so they have to do what they have to do.
I think once they're back on stable ground, they'll be able to make more changes - they should be making higher margins off their merch (by lowering production costs) for example.
In my view, it's up to us to get them through this rough patch and get them to a place where they're more comfortable. I suspect when that happens, they'll review and change a few of the things that they've laid out in the video. I'm willing to go along for that ride. I think some people who are considering bailing might want to consider this perspective before making any final decisions.
Really sorry to hear about your troubles, and as many others have said I really appreciate your transparency. It's breaking my heart, but unfortunately I will be one of the (hopefully few) who won't be able to afford membership at the increased price. I think it's absolutely worth it, and it's not a lot of money - by American standards. I, however, currently earn minimum wage in an Eastern European country, and there is simply no way for me to pay that much more.
You said you raised a fair amount of money in the first 24 hours, I don't know how things have been going since, but just wanted to mention another idea that might help you raise money. I have recently participated in an organized online auction for a lady whose house burned down and needed immediate help. The way it worked is people offered things for auction and the others could bid on them, the bidder got the item and the lady all the money. The items were posted in a forum thread and people had 24 hours to bid. Postage was paid for by the person who offered the item. Since this was a craft type forum most things offered were handmade, but also services (eg. I will paint your portrait etc.). I'm sure this could be translated into BM-language, say, items related to the shows you cover, gaming stuff, or anything really. Maybe you guys could add an item or two from your studio/merch? Not sure what you think of it, but the one I participated in was a huge success and even people who had no actual cash to offer were able to contribute to the cause.
@A_Ron_Hubbard I'm just thinking in purely advertising opportunity terms but what about doing an instant cast on both Westworld and Walking dead, even at the expense of the live watch on TWD.
They're two big shows , with active subscriber feeds and it will let you get your #savebaldmove ad campaign to as many people as possible, as much as possible in this crucial period. Even if it was a 10-15 min take and then 5 min pitch split front and back end of the cast, relatively low input for double the advertising opportunity.
I'm in at $5/month, no-brainer for me. I know everyone has their own situation so I would never cast judgment on any one person for making a financial decision, but does anyone find it a bit disheartening that only 1.7% of the audience pitches in? Listen to any one of the BM podcasts and it becomes clear how much work goes into each show. I can say unequivocally that Bald Move has enriched my life in many ways - and I'm sure many others could say the same. I wish more people felt compelled to give without this nudge, but I fully expect that enough Bald Move listeners will step up to the plate and help you guys out.
I think you will look back on this as a step in the right direction - freeing yourself from a revenue source that you had no control over and moving closer to the path of financial stability. The quality of the content speaks for itself and I think your audience will be willing to pay for it on an ongoing basis. Thanks guys - and good luck.
@A_Ron_Hubbard I'm just thinking in purely advertising opportunity terms but what about doing an instant cast on both Westworld and Walking dead, even at the expense of the live watch on TWD.
They're two big shows , with active subscriber feeds and it will let you get your #savebaldmove ad campaign to as many people as possible, as much as possible in this crucial period. Even if it was a 10-15 min take and then 5 min pitch split front and back end of the cast, relatively low input for double the advertising opportunity.
There used to be an instant cast for TWD but that fell off due to the additional workload. But you bring up a very good point and perhaps that decision was shortsighted.
There is a demand for TWD analysis as seen in the ratings for Talking Dead. Getting a quick take analysis show out can be the feeder to the main TWD cast then into the Bald Move family proper.
Looking at the @baldmove twitter account, we could all do a much better job in retweeting and engaging in the conversations to bring more people in. That could really do a lot to bring people into the fold.
Haven't read all of the comments yet but I was shocked when I saw that freaking Amazon pulled your account. I came over to click on the affiliate link before buying a new blu ray player on Amazon and saw the news. Makes me not want to shop there anymore.
Crap, man. Wish I could send you guys $50k. We need a rainmaker for podcasts like what James Patterson does for bookstores. He has donated millions to independent bookshops across the country. I'm saddened. I am really pulling for you guys and hope the community can come together and help. But what happens after you get over the hurdle? You're still going to need another revenue stream, right? There has to be someone or some way to insure the next few years' success.
It's not even a question of "how valuable is Bald Move Premium to me?".... The question is --" Is Bald Move valuable to me at all? "
Because it won't just be the premium feeds that disappear.
I wish I could like this more than once. I wish that people realised this more.
Yeah that's why I don't mind the price increase bc i just feel like they have the best podcast on each show they cover out of all of the podcasters. I don't think anyone else goes as in depth and I would prefer to pay $50 a year and get that quality then listen to replacement level podcasts and be pissed that I could have done something and didn't. Plus I trust the fact that they will put extra money they make back into bald move as they have done already. It really sucks that this happened like a month after they decided to rent a bald move studio.
@brewsevelt If I recall correctly, they ditched the Instant Take of The Watching Dead simply because they didn't feel like it deserved that much investment for the actual quality/enjoyment it was generating. And in returns they record only one podcast one day earlier, so I guess that saved some time too. If it was just about numbers & the audience, they would have probably kept it.
Even in these circumstances, I don't know if they should make decisions that have a direct impact on the quality of their content. Just my humble thoughts.
Is there any way you could maybe reach out to larger podcast networks for help getting your message out? For example, I think the Adam Carolla podcast alone has a few hundred thousand subcribers; if you could get on their show for a 5-10 minute phone call and briefly explain what BM is, the success you've had thus far, and the plight you're in now surely that would help?
Potentially tremendously I would think. If there are 200,000 ACS listeners and only 1% looked you up after hearing you on the podcast, and only 1% of them bought a 1 year subscription, that's still almost $10,000 right there. I really think that's a reasonable estimate too, not overly optimistic.
Is there any way you could maybe reach out to larger podcast networks for help getting your message out? For example, I think the Adam Carolla podcast alone has a few hundred thousand subcribers; if you could get on their show for a 5-10 minute phone call and briefly explain what BM is, the success you've had thus far, and the plight you're in now surely that would help?
Potentially tremendously I would think. If there are 200,000 ACS listeners and only 1% looked you up after hearing you on the podcast, and only 1% of them bought a 1 year subscription, that's still almost $10,000 right there. I really think that's a reasonable estimate too, not overly optimistic.
Ermmm... I think your calculation isn't right by a factor of 10. 1% of 1% of 200,000 is 20... Which would make c.$1,000 (not c.$10,000) if they subscribed to the Club at $48 a year.
Unless there's a typo in your post and there are 2,000,000 listeners of ACS?
A quick update, since the video has released, we've raised a total of $7,203.85!
That's pretty incredible, considering we weren't really thinking of the campaign being launched until we've had a chance to advertise it on our current shows. Raising like, 25 percent of our goal during a soft launch is amazing.
You know I hate that there is anyone being left behind that wants to join the club but can't. People can say "it's worth it" all they want but if you can't afford it and have to decide between us and Netflix, let alone us and getting to your kid a nice Christmas present, or God forbid food or medicine, you gotta make the right choice. I hope we come up with a way to help you guys out. We're working in a few plans.
As far as this being a smart way to grow, or whatever, I mean, I'm the biggest advocate for the 1 dollar a month club. Ask Jim if I'm passionate about it sometime, haha. That's what I wanted to do, and that's what we did for two years. I think, all things being equal, that's the way we'd like to keep going. But even pre-Amazon pulling out, that policy lead to a lot of pain points like, baldmove.com being on fire for large parts of peak GoT season. Club software that barely works and drops people's subscription for no damn good reason. And not for nothing, me flirting with going broke more than I'd like. That stuff limits growth too. How many people heard about our podcast on reddit and went to check it out on a Sunday night or Monday afternoon and got 504 errors? How many people tried to join the club and didn't hassle with support when it didn't work? How many people joined the club and then canceled when the feeds weren't convenient? I can show you the emails from folks who told us these very things, and I assume however many did speak up, many many more were just like fuck it.
1.7 percent of Bald Move's audience joined the club. That's not enough to keep up with our popularity. Not with Amazon bailing. So when "everyday low price" strategy fails and you're priced well below market value, what do you do? We wrestled with how much to increase, and whether quarterly fundraisers were an option, lots of stuff, and we're still open to suggestions. If we up it to 3/ month and 24/ year the margins were razor thin and what happens when we have to increase it again six months from now? You can also wear people down with change, as we discovered with the Subbable/Patreon/Club deal two years ago. It gets old real quick.
But what we're doing right now represents what we think is the best way to go for now, that best matches up what we're capable of doing, the time constraints we face, our skillsets, and gives us opportunities for growth. If this works, we're left with how to help the people getting left behind with premium. We can address that problem - if we're in business. If we're out of business or running back in part time mode everybody gets left out. I don't know if we've earned the trust of peeps that that kind of thing is important to us, but if I have built up any trust, I can say it is absolutely important to me.
And yes, I can't say that what you get currently is worth 48 a year. I mean shit, is two guys talking into a mic worth anything? The club has never been about the value of what you get, it's about the value of supporting an independent podcast you enjoy. Multiple surveys have revealed that people don't join the club because of the perceived value, over 75 percent of surveyed club members join because they like us and want us to succeed. So, bad news is the 25 percent that are in it for the value, we're now even less of a value. And I'm not disparaging those folks, that's a perfectly rational point of view to have. But when we build this thing up bigger and better everyone will benefit, especially the folks in the 75 percent which will enjoy a better, easier club experience. You can never make everyone happy, all you can do in life is take care of the people you love and try to generate as much happiness and well being as you can before your time is up.
Thanks to everyone for the support, suggestions, and feedback thus far. Now I got to get back to a kids birthday party! We'll talk more later.
Is there any way you could maybe reach out to larger podcast networks for help getting your message out? For example, I think the Adam Carolla podcast alone has a few hundred thousand subcribers; if you could get on their show for a 5-10 minute phone call and briefly explain what BM is, the success you've had thus far, and the plight you're in now surely that would help?
Potentially tremendously I would think. If there are 200,000 ACS listeners and only 1% looked you up after hearing you on the podcast, and only 1% of them bought a 1 year subscription, that's still almost $10,000 right there. I really think that's a reasonable estimate too, not overly optimistic.
Honest question, do you think ACE would have us? We're in a pickle in that we're big by small time standards and small by big time standards. We grant interviews all the time, we're just not great about chasing them down.
I'm sorry to hear of your trouble. I have used your Amazon affiliate link a lot since I learned about it. I only recently became a club member but I have been listening to your awesome content for a couple of years and I happily switched to the $48 annual plan last night. I think $5/$48 is more than reasonable. I listen to a ton of podcasts and I only donate to the ones I would really miss if they weren't made anymore. You mention the club all the time on your free podcasts but I never got the impression that they were in jeopardy if I didn't join. I think if you express the urgency and the reality that you can't keep doing this if you don't have the funding, a lot of people will pitch in who never have before.
And I know you are already planning to do this, but please keep us posted on your fundraising progress. If I need to pitch in again to get you over the hump I will.
I will be sharing your podcasts on my social media and rating them all 5 stars on itunes etc. Let us know if there is more we can do to help.
Comments
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to throw out ideas, but i have a few!
- Use your resources! While (strangely) the Club Bald Movers are a small group, I feel like they are a dedicated audience. I would assume there are many of us who have a talent or trade they would donate time to in the name of Bald Move. What about having contests; such as listeners submitting designs for web banners, merch or new show art for bragging rights, internet points and a free year membership? I feel like people could submit designs and they could be voted on in the forums or hell, just arbitrarily chosen. You could spend a whole lunch debating the best designs. Cracked does a Photoshop contest every week and receives thousands of submissions, however they only pay $50 to the winner. The exposure could be well worth the pay off
- Social Media: You guys are great on Facebook, love that Cecily is taking over the Bald Move Instagram account, but maybe expand your network. I have seen other start-ups exchange a year membership for people to promote their products a certain number of times per month. Think about it: sucks you cannot afford the new membership fee? Hows about promote Bald Move on your social media X times per month and get free access. Choose regional representatives to avoid over-saturation and consider number of followers as a contributing factor. If they already listen regularly, it shouldn't be too hard to share their favorite podcast of the week, right?
- OK. real personal bias here because i love stickers and have worked in the vinyl and digital printing world for the majority of my adult life. Cut vinyl logos are one of the cheapest marketing plans that actually work.. Vinyl is cheap, so you can pay pennies per square foot and ship them as easy as slipping them in an envelope and sending regular mail. It gives exposure, people can send in selfies and who doesn't love stickers?!?! Give them away with large purchases, send as a thank you and contact me if you need an estimate. Branding + Marketing+ Barley+Intellect = Profits?
I would love to contribute ideas, skills or just brainstorm drunken ideas. Would be a huge loss for me personally if you went off the air.
Hope this helps!
That said, 5 bucks is still a phenomenal value. As an example, audible.com is 15 bucks a month for one audiobook each month. An audiobook is on average about 20 hours of audio content. Watching westworld and watching dead alone are more than that. Now, every person has to make a decision for themselves. But I think it is important to remember that even if you decide not to resubscribe, you can still donate and contribute in other ways.
It's not even a question of "how valuable is Bald Move Premium to me?".... The question is --" Is Bald Move valuable to me at all? "
Because it won't just be the premium feeds that disappear.
The comparisons to other subscription based services (audible here, and a few of the examples used in the video) don't really hold up because in those cases you're paying for the full service being offered. In the Bald Move case, the bulk of the services being offered are available for free and the membership is for value-added premium services.
If you look at everything that's on offer and judge that $48 is a fair price to pay, I'd agree. But the premium membership isn't for everything, it's for the added features that are over and above what is freely available to everyone. So the memberships isn't for Watching Westworld, Watching Dead etc. it's for extended movie reviews, the live watches, ad-free etc.
Being in Canada (which is no one's fault but my own!) that $48 membership is actually a $65 membership. Am I getting $65 worth of value when looking just at the premium features? IMO, no...BUT I'm willing to pay it to support the overall cause, to help guarantee that the free stuff that I like so much will still be produced. For me to justify the price, I have to re-frame it like that for it to make sense.
Repeating something that I said earlier, I think that long term growth and sustainability would be better served by focusing on converting more listeners into members rather than drastically increasing the price of memberships - but I understand the reality of the present day situation that the guys find themselves in...the best plans for long term growth don't mean anything if they can't survive the next few months, so they have to do what they have to do.
I think once they're back on stable ground, they'll be able to make more changes - they should be making higher margins off their merch (by lowering production costs) for example.
In my view, it's up to us to get them through this rough patch and get them to a place where they're more comfortable. I suspect when that happens, they'll review and change a few of the things that they've laid out in the video. I'm willing to go along for that ride. I think some people who are considering bailing might want to consider this perspective before making any final decisions.
You said you raised a fair amount of money in the first 24 hours, I don't know how things have been going since, but just wanted to mention another idea that might help you raise money. I have recently participated in an organized online auction for a lady whose house burned down and needed immediate help. The way it worked is people offered things for auction and the others could bid on them, the bidder got the item and the lady all the money. The items were posted in a forum thread and people had 24 hours to bid. Postage was paid for by the person who offered the item. Since this was a craft type forum most things offered were handmade, but also services (eg. I will paint your portrait etc.). I'm sure this could be translated into BM-language, say, items related to the shows you cover, gaming stuff, or anything really. Maybe you guys could add an item or two from your studio/merch? Not sure what you think of it, but the one I participated in was a huge success and even people who had no actual cash to offer were able to contribute to the cause.
Crap, man. Wish I could send you guys $50k. We need a rainmaker for podcasts like what James Patterson does for bookstores. He has donated millions to independent bookshops across the country. I'm saddened. I am really pulling for you guys and hope the community can come together and help. But what happens after you get over the hurdle? You're still going to need another revenue stream, right? There has to be someone or some way to insure the next few years' success.
I'm giving $100.00. Pllus I'm a Bald Move member.
Unless there's a typo in your post and there are 2,000,000 listeners of ACS?
That's pretty incredible, considering we weren't really thinking of the campaign being launched until we've had a chance to advertise it on our current shows. Raising like, 25 percent of our goal during a soft launch is amazing.
You know I hate that there is anyone being left behind that wants to join the club but can't. People can say "it's worth it" all they want but if you can't afford it and have to decide between us and Netflix, let alone us and getting to your kid a nice Christmas present, or God forbid food or medicine, you gotta make the right choice. I hope we come up with a way to help you guys out. We're working in a few plans.
As far as this being a smart way to grow, or whatever, I mean, I'm the biggest advocate for the 1 dollar a month club. Ask Jim if I'm passionate about it sometime, haha. That's what I wanted to do, and that's what we did for two years. I think, all things being equal, that's the way we'd like to keep going. But even pre-Amazon pulling out, that policy lead to a lot of pain points like, baldmove.com being on fire for large parts of peak GoT season. Club software that barely works and drops people's subscription for no damn good reason. And not for nothing, me flirting with going broke more than I'd like. That stuff limits growth too. How many people heard about our podcast on reddit and went to check it out on a Sunday night or Monday afternoon and got 504 errors? How many people tried to join the club and didn't hassle with support when it didn't work? How many people joined the club and then canceled when the feeds weren't convenient? I can show you the emails from folks who told us these very things, and I assume however many did speak up, many many more were just like fuck it.
1.7 percent of Bald Move's audience joined the club. That's not enough to keep up with our popularity. Not with Amazon bailing. So when "everyday low price" strategy fails and you're priced well below market value, what do you do? We wrestled with how much to increase, and whether quarterly fundraisers were an option, lots of stuff, and we're still open to suggestions. If we up it to 3/ month and 24/ year the margins were razor thin and what happens when we have to increase it again six months from now? You can also wear people down with change, as we discovered with the Subbable/Patreon/Club deal two years ago. It gets old real quick.
But what we're doing right now represents what we think is the best way to go for now, that best matches up what we're capable of doing, the time constraints we face, our skillsets, and gives us opportunities for growth. If this works, we're left with how to help the people getting left behind with premium. We can address that problem - if we're in business. If we're out of business or running back in part time mode everybody gets left out. I don't know if we've earned the trust of peeps that that kind of thing is important to us, but if I have built up any trust, I can say it is absolutely important to me.
And yes, I can't say that what you get currently is worth 48 a year. I mean shit, is two guys talking into a mic worth anything? The club has never been about the value of what you get, it's about the value of supporting an independent podcast you enjoy. Multiple surveys have revealed that people don't join the club because of the perceived value, over 75 percent of surveyed club members join because they like us and want us to succeed. So, bad news is the 25 percent that are in it for the value, we're now even less of a value. And I'm not disparaging those folks, that's a perfectly rational point of view to have. But when we build this thing up bigger and better everyone will benefit, especially the folks in the 75 percent which will enjoy a better, easier club experience. You can never make everyone happy, all you can do in life is take care of the people you love and try to generate as much happiness and well being as you can before your time is up.
Thanks to everyone for the support, suggestions, and feedback thus far. Now I got to get back to a kids birthday party! We'll talk more later.