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Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

mixergy.com

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Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#71

Post by plinkplonk »

melvinram wrote: post #67
noarchy wrote: post #44

The best response to this will be to not pay. Watch this week's video, and maybe save the stream. Take the responsibility for archiving into your own hands.

If you have the time to do that 5 videos a week x 4 weeks instead of paying $25/month, you're valuing your time too cheaply.

"If you have the time to do that 5 videos a week x 4 weeks instead of paying $25/month, you're valuing your time too cheaply."

If he is a half way decent programmer he could build a script in half an a hour to automate the whole thing. So the "valuing your time too cheaply" argument doesn't hold at all.

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#72

Post by seanos »

melvinram wrote: post #70
seanos wrote: post #66

Three subscription options: $25, $50 or $100 per month for exactly the same product. Normally tiered pricing is used with different product variations to target different market segments more effectively. In this case, since the product is fixed and surely nobody would voluntarily pay the higher price, he must be using this as a psychological trick to make the $25 seem more reasonable - an interesting idea.

I'm sure it's just a test.

What is he testing? He is not, for example, testing if people would pay $50 because I'd assume 99.99% of people who would pay $50 will instead pay $25 whilst that is an option.

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#73

Post by scottdrake »

This is something all publishers grapple with so I'm not going to fault Andrew for exploring ways he can make money for his time investment which is substantial. I think the pricing is a bit high ... I'd be more likely to pay $100/year for a subscription but I'm not sure if there's enough value in these interviews to warrant more. There might be but I'll have to think about it.

I also think it's going to prevent new users from discovering the value of the site and returning/becoming fans. Yes, you can watch one or two recent videos for free (currently doesn't work?), but I think people become fans when they can dig into the archive and watch some other interviews. I became a fan after discovering a link to a video somewhere and then spending a few hours digging through the archive. I'm not sure people who are just discovering Mixergy will get out the wallet on the strength of one or two videos, so they'll be less likely to dig deep and find the value of site. I wouldn't have done that, and probably wouldn't have returned except for the occasional link that shows up in a stream somewhere.

It's a tight rope to walk. There are a ton of monetization options he can explore and I don't blame him from trying. Just hope he doesn't put off his audience/guests or lose his momentum while trying to find the right path forward because this is probably the hardest one to sell.

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#74

Post by jakarta »

sailormoon wrote: post #64

Well, I've read all 60 comments on this thread, and I'm not convinced. I think this decision is bullshit. The type of people who need to see these videos don't have the kind of money Andrew is asking for. What is the ideal story for these videos? That some kid who doesn't know what to do with his life stumbles across them and is inspired to start a startup. Is that going to happen with a $25/month paywall? Of course…

I agree, the $25 / month approach definitely seems weird.

I see a lot of reasons for Andrew wanting to charge. People countlessly complain on here about the quality of transcripts. That could be remedied if he had more money coming in. Charging might also support the b/w costs. Not sure how much he has been taking in via the ads in the beginning of his videos.

I have to wonder if there is a better solution for what he is trying to accomplish. To me, part of the problem with making Mixergy throw off cash probably stems from the fact that right now the audience is kind of narrow. It targets scrappy people involved in startups. Advertising probably wont yield much on that end.

Maybe the goal should be to actually expand Mixergy's audience to a wider audience to create more advertising opportunities. I wonder if Andrew has ever considered trying to offer his programming on one of the bigger tech sites. Some kind of deal there could work and he has a good library of content built up.

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#75

Post by [deleted] »

sailormoon wrote: post #64

Well, I've read all 60 comments on this thread, and I'm not convinced. I think this decision is bullshit. The type of people who need to see these videos don't have the kind of money Andrew is asking for. What is the ideal story for these videos? That some kid who doesn't know what to do with his life stumbles across them and is inspired to start a startup. Is that going to happen with a $25/month paywall? Of course…

[deleted]

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#76

Post by [deleted] »

ruby35 wrote: post #61

$25/month is not a big deal. Andrew works his butt off setting up these interviews, researching the interviewees and their companies, and then talking to these folks for 60 minutes each time (not to mention paying for transcription services, hosting fees, etc.) The sense of entitlement here is appalling.

[deleted]

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#77

Post by [deleted] »

ruby35 wrote: post #61

$25/month is not a big deal. Andrew works his butt off setting up these interviews, researching the interviewees and their companies, and then talking to these folks for 60 minutes each time (not to mention paying for transcription services, hosting fees, etc.) The sense of entitlement here is appalling.

[deleted]

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#78

Post by rasikjain »

ruby35 wrote: post #62
ArcticCelt wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am tempted to start contacting some of his old interviewees and ask them what they think about it. I'll ask them to contact him if they are pissed by the fact that they were tricked into giving their free time. Many of them precisely said in those interviews that they were only doing it to give back to the community.

I'm sorry, but that's a douchebag move if you don't warn Andrew ahead of time.

Information should always be free to the community and Mixergy should concentrate on monetization with different ways rather than subscription model....

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#79

Post by underover »

I predicted this move several days ago based on this comment.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1130231

I have long suspected that Andrew has been using fake accounts or paying people to put a positive spin on his threads. The above comment was made by a brand new a account and follows a trend of other fishy comments.

Re: Mixergy is now a paid subscription service for interviews older than a week

#80

Post by Tichy »

ruby35 wrote: post #61

$25/month is not a big deal. Andrew works his butt off setting up these interviews, researching the interviewees and their companies, and then talking to these folks for 60 minutes each time (not to mention paying for transcription services, hosting fees, etc.) The sense of entitlement here is appalling.

I can only speak for myself: I only think it's weird that the interviews were given when the site was free. If the interviewees are fine with it, and obviously for the coming interviews, I wish him luck. I personally won't subscribe, but then entrepreneurs also aren't entitled to me having to buy their product.

25$ not being much: if you are not Ramen profitable, it is (It's 5 days of food). To put it in perspective: 25$ is the price of my internet flatrate or a book like "Founders At Work". At the moment I don't buy every book I fancy.

Not saying the interviews are not worth 25$ (don't know), but it is not a "sense of entitlement" to simply have other priorities for spending 25$.

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