Required Reading !!
by
PnP Staff
copyright 02-23-2002
Age Rating: 10 to 127
Many of you might be aware that yet another posting site is closing its doors... Writtenbyme.com
Frankly I'm not surprised. The premises of these sites were faulty. They simply cannot work. Some expected ads to pay costs. They didn't. Others expected that they could sell works to publishers. Ditto. The market for writers is very small in comparison to the number of writers. Getting published at all is a minor miracle.
First and foremost is that you as a Member of any site need to understand what is happening and why. You must get into the site owner's shoes and see what he sees... Here, I'll help.
Of prime importance is financing. The web might seem free, but it isn't. There are expenses which must be met. Free sites have to either be run by someone with substantial financal resources who is willing to donate them or the site must find some way of generating an income to pay its bills.
The reason the web started out free is that it was thought that advertisers could and would pay the costs especially for popular sites. Folks, this simply doesn't work and likely never will. All sites who rely on this will likely eventually go belly-up.
We have one ad on this site for a totally free download, no gimmicks... nothing. Over the last year, from 37,000 visitors, this FREE item has produced a total of 9 hits. The companion product which sells for $9.95 has not sold even one. Income=zero. (Not that I am encouraging anyone to buy This is just to show you what happens in the real world.)
People expect the web to be free. That is fast coming to an end. If this site is to continue (AND IT WILL!) it will have to devise means to generate enough to pay the bills. The Full-Members system does that at present. However with the expected influx from Writtenbyme, the site will eventually slow down and you will see very long times for page loads. Why is this?
We are presently on one computer with about 200 other sites. If one site gets busy, then the computer just can't keep up. What we would need to stop that is to have our own dedicated computer. Then we are the only site on it and don't have to compete for attention. That costs money. Prices range from about $400 and up per month. I personally cannot foot that expense. It will have to come from members or the members will have to settle for slow loads and that sometimes it will not load the page at all.
So... I am preparing for this and setting up the structure to have several types of membership. There will likely be free with few privleges, associate with more and Full-Member with all privleges. Full-Members pay $10 for three months membership. That will almost certainly stay the same. The associates will be in-between, likely about $1/mo. The biggest problem I forsee is that I will have to set up the accounting for this to be automatic. It would be absurd to have to do the receiving by hand as I now do with Full-Members.
Another thing is in the works. When completed, it will encourage sponsorship. Sponsors will have a page to themselves and they will be able to donate to the site. They can be individuals or companies. However... don't expect a lot from this. Advertisers are learning that web advertising doesn't work and are shying away from it. Perhaps, just perhaps this different approach will generate some income.
Finally: The sites esp writtenbyme had no policy toward quality and hence much of what was there was trash. Prose-n-Poetry is QUALITY. Please protect this, your site by submitting Quality. Articles such as "My big toe hurts whenever it Rains because I have Chronic Arthritis" might have gotten hits (and 'doobies') at writtenby me but they are counterproductive here. Why? Because one of our eventual aims is to produce books by authors. This may sound like writtenbyme but the concept is different: WE will make the books, not rely on outside publishers to make offers for our articles.
So... Quality... please! This is the one thing we have here which I believe is the thing that makes Prose-n-Poetry!
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you recommend or rate the work highly...
I expected it also. Many from WBM are coming here. This is good. As you well know, Terry, I'm a 'pushover'... until one crosses the line. So if any were hateful, they had better leave that attitude at the door. 'nuff said...
bob
I commented on the poetry page, I hope everyone does read these articles and becomes aware of how websites work, I get very frustrated over slow loading sites. As Captain of the ship I leave it to you to decide if you must limit our membership, our entries or if something will be judged for quality before being loaded. You do a wonderful job, Bob and I hope everyone cooperates, perhaps someone with computer savvy will help you to run the site....I know you could use some extra "deck hands"
Hi Bob, thanks for explaining about slow loading sites. I will continue to post the very best of what I can write, and I wish there were some other way I could help. I know very little about computers, but please let me know if you feel I can help in any way. Betty
I have only recently discovered PnP. Regarding Quality, I hope the quality I post meets your standards. I thoroughly enjoy PnP, and hope to be of some asssistace to others; as they are to me.
Thank You,
P.U.S.H.
Jeff
Frankly, due to time constraints, I no longer keep up with the other writing sites other than to read a couple people whose work I enjoy. (Even keeping up with PnP is a stretch some days, you all are so prolific! This is virtually the only place I spend my online time other than book stores *G*) I'm so out of the loop, I didn't know this was a-shakin' re: WBM, so I'm glad you posted something, Bob. (Ah, future thoughts... a "state of the market" column by some willing victim--er, volunteer? BUT NOT MOI!)
I have faith that PnP will "make it" as a writing site, for, as I said somewhere around here in some article-or-other, it was conceived and built (and remains so) around the principal that PnP's a site "of the writers for the writers and by the writers" (apologies to the founding fathers if I got the order wrong)
I commend you for all your hard work and determination, Bob.
~~nan
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