Appeal to Support EN World!

[Morrus]

And on the note of new content - I've just begun adding the back-catalogue of Emerald Press' COMBAT ADVANTAGE supplement.

COMBAT ADVANTAGE #1: POWER KNOWLEDGE is now in the downloads area. I aim to get all 13 back-issues up by Christmas. The next new issue of COMBAT ADVANTAGE (#15) is in January.

 

[Theroc]

Well, it wasn't unexpected. If the system enables you to do something, then a certain percentage will do it.

There's not a lot of point in my whining about it; my job is to figure out the price structure which results in the highest profit for EN World. Someone signing up, downloading and then cancelling is a net loss (it costs me money to provide the downloads); so I need to work out how to prevent that.

Some people have suggested a limit to the number of downloads one can make per month so that they'll have to continue subscribing if they plan to download *everything*. That seems a bit draconian to me (and is hard to implement).

The "you're welcome to cancel, but you'll lose the $3 price" is a softer approach and might help with people who are planning to sign up and cancel periodically to get as much as they can for as little as possible (and who can blame them?), but it would have to be pretty high to actually be a discouragement to someone who wants to pay $3 every six months or whatever.

How does WotC handle it? Or are they able to simply factor in that people will do that?

Morrus, does each download cost you money, or is it simply the service of providing downloads at all?

 

[Morrus]

Morrus, does each download cost you money, or is it simply the service of providing downloads at all?

Yes; as one example the WotBS products cost over $2000 each to produce. So unless people who sign up stay signed up for a reasonable period of time, the costs don't get covered. And remember, that's just the WotBS stuff.

Fortunately, we've had some donated product which doesn't have a production cost for EN World but which generates subscriptions. That certainly helps!

Of course the problem goes away if you're the size of WotC, with 8000+ subscribers. As folks have pointed out, that means they can easily absorb the one-shot subs because they have the scale. We're at about 500 subscribers, so we have quite some way to go before that sort of thing can be absorbed (and, of course, as I mentioned, the number went down this week, not up).

If I can increase the subscriber level to a couple of thousand (and that's a tall order!) then it ceases to be a worry at all.

 

[Theroc]

Not sure I conveyed my question properly. I'll be more clear.

While I had the bonus CS subscription month you gave me, I downloaded things.

Did that act actually cost you money? Or did it cost a flat rate to make the items available in the first place, and my downloading had no effect on your revenue stream at all?

Just wondering, as if it did cost you money for each download I made, I would not have downloaded as many things during that period... as I kinda feel like a jerk now.

 

[tuxgeo]

Just curious, what's the current subscription count?

It's currently going down, not up. A lot of cancellations this week (I don't know why). Also quite a few people who sign up and then cancel within 2-3 minutes.

I think people are seeing it as a "grab all you can for $3".

I'm considering a "it's $3 the first time, but if you cancel you lose that rate and its more the second time" type arrangement to discourage people from that. Basically, it needs to be pitched at a level where someone makes money for EN World, not costs me money by grabbing more than $3 worth of stuff then cancelling. Might be some technical difficulties implementing it, though, since somebody could just create a new account.

Is there any chance that this is a temporary Burst effect -- in which most of the current userbase who would do such a thing are doing it all at once, and having done so will stop thereafter?
If 0.01% of 80,000 users do it, that's still a lot of people; but if they don't do it again, and only 0.01% of the new users each month do the same thing, then the number of download-and-quit users should drop dramatically after the initial burst of such activity.

 

[Morrus]

Just wondering, as if it did cost you money for each download I made, I would not have downloaded as many things during that period... as I kinda feel like a jerk now.

No, no. The cost of the dowload process itself is negligible.

Is there any chance that this is a temporary Burst effect -- in which most of the current userbase who would do such a thing are doing it all at once, and having done so will stop thereafter?
If 0.01% of 80,000 users do it, that's still a lot of people; but if they don't do it again, and only 0.01% of the new users each month do the same thing, then the number of download-and-quit users should drop dramatically after the initial burst of such activity.

It's a theory! Only time will tell!

 

[BryonD]

If 0.01% of 80,000 users do it, that's still a lot of people;

8 is a lot?

 

[tuxgeo]

8 is a lot?

No, it's not.
I threw that incorrect ratio ("0.01%") out there because I have no access to Morrus' actual data of how many people are doing that, i.e. subscribe-download-cancel.
If you would like to try it, please entertain the same idea using "1%" instead of "0.01%" and see if you find the proposition more acceptable. It will still be inaccurate because we do not know the actual numbers involved (nor should we); but that ratio would make the number of people doing that 800 instead, which is a lot of people; but I'm sure that this is fully as wrong a total as 8 must be. (Morrus was talking about a target of 1,000 subscribers, so if 800 of them are canceling, matters are vastly more dire than he so far has let on.)