blonde poker forum

We have had to make some changes to blonde, to keep us financially viable.

In short, snoops & Floppy have agreed to step down for a few months, until we can find a way to finance their costs.

Rich & I met with them both yesterday. I had kept them up to date regularly, via long e-Mails, so they knew the spot we were in. They both understood & agreed totally, not happily, but stoically. The plan is to get them back around August time, if not sooner, the decision to be reveiwed/implemented in March or April.

The Updates in particular, are a sore point with us. Without Updates, blonde would be poorer, & richer. Poorer, because they are popular. Richer, because without them, we'd have (I estimate, I may be a bit out) between £30k & £50k in the Bank right now.

Updates are MY baby, let's be clear on that. I started them. I've defended them. I was wrong - they cost us too much, & the "payback" in revenue terms was nil, though the community payback is huge.

Right now, we cannot afford them. That's all there is to it. We struggle to pay Chris's wages & Exs some months, & I have no plans to run up a debt to him that we cannot repay. We have paid all of Decembers Wages, & we have just about enough to cover January's wages. So we cannot spend any more on them, until we get some money in.

This is a heartbreaker for me, & I intend to try & keep the Updates going somehow, even if only by community minded volunteers. We shall see, everything is moving a bit fast right now, so give us time to sort it out please. More news soon.

For now, a huge thanks to Floppy, who, particularly latterly, has worked heroically on "solo" Updates to preserve cash. He understands fully, & will keep his options open, because we all agreed (him, Rich & me) that we want to reserruct the blonde Live Updates.

The reality is the notion that Members would play more on blonde because of the Updates was a misnomer. There is a total disconnent in that logic.

As to snoops, well, that's even worse. snoops IS blonde. Nobody - nobody at all - has done more for blonde. Nobody has worked harder, done more, gone more extra miles, anything, everything, snoops is the man.

So I really enjoyed seeing him yesterday.......

He knew it was coming, it has been well flagged for some time.

The Home Page is his baby, & blondepedia, & they are excellent, superb, absolutely top notch. But they get no traffic, (or nearly no traffic), & earn not a bean.  A luxury, a magnificent luxury, but we ain't got the money to pay for it. It's as simple as that. And no less gut-wrenching for me, Rich, or snoops.

I have just one blonde ambition right now, get snoops back, get Flops back, & carry on as before. And I generally get what I want. You'd better believe me - I do, I'm a spoilt bastard, & I generally get my way, if I want something bad enough, & I sure don't do quitting.

But I MUST clear our debt to Rich first. Doing that is easy.

We owe Rich quite a bit in wages, but nobody else, & I have to get that cleared next. With just Kev & Rich to pay, we can sort that out pretty quickly, assuming Cardroom Revenues hold up. I just HAVE to get Rich's wage backlog cleared up before we countenance any more spending on Updates & the Home Page. To do otherwise, would be fraudelent.

We have about enough in the Bank, allowing for overdue debtors (excluding Trillion) to pay January's wages. February will be easy, as our cost base will be so much lower. I'm assuming January Cardroom & Casino Revenues are "reasonable". They were OK at the mid-month stage.

Our Cardroom is quite proifitable, always has been. But not profitable enough to cover all the Updating & Home Page Costs. So the Cardroom will continue, & Kev has been told to sweat it, & sweat it hard. Expect to be spammed.

Do you know of any viable alternative? I don't.

The Forum will continue as is. Rich has been paying the Hosting Costs for some time, they are about £250 per month I think. Given he's owed a good few months wages, plus those Server Hosting Costs, I have now taken on that liability, personally. So that's safe, & sorted.

So, for now, Cardroom & Forum "as is", & Rich will, from now, until we can get snoops back (fingers crossed) maintain the Home Page. Amazing guy, Rich, he's not been paid for x months, but is taking on more work.

A big thank you from me to all of them. I've not written to them personally yet, subsequent to yesterday's Meeting, but I will, I'm just a bit pulled out right now.

snoops seemed fine & dandy with it yesterday - or as fine & dandy as one could hope. Top man him. I note Dana is well upset - I understand that. Totally What can I say? It'd be wrong to employ him when I do not know for sure we can fund his February, March & April wages. VERY wrong. We are not Trillion, we pay our debts. (Rich apart, we have none). And if we think we cannot, we don't incur them.

Lastly, I am not seeking to transfer any of this blame to Poker Trillion.  Their (our....) £7k would merely give us another month's breathing space. That'd be handy, but that's not the root cause, not at all.

Big thanks too to a whole bunch of blondes who have belatedly, but thankfully, started to support the blonde Cardroom in the last few weeks, via Staking, Sponsoring or blonde League, or just playing on blonde. That will bring benefit very quickly, if sustained. When I see the amount of staking on the Internet Board some days, almost all of it on Tilt & 'Stars, I do wince a bit, but there it is, you can't force peeps to do anythng, & it'd be wrong to try. We do have an individual who wants to become a blonde Shareholder & do Commercial Staking on the blonde Cardroom, but first he has to get hold of the Shares at a "fair price". Not easy.....Very complex, in fract.

Flame away, I'm all yours.

tl;dr

+1

He doesn't half ramble on when he knows he'll have an audience.

Itll be total com when we stumble into Subway after a night out in Headingley and see none other than Chris "Foaming Homer" Hall serving up the buttys.

Toasted? yes plz Flops.

Pickles and Potter across the road is way better.

Tony,

As usual appreciate the frankness, was gonna PM you with this but no doubt your inbox will be full.

You have documentedwith honesty, for a while now, the problems of funding and I'm sure like me, that blondites appreciate this.

There was a thread championed predominantly by Tracey and Laxie which highlighted potential means of creating this revenue. Obviously the main one being through supporting the cardroom. However there were other suggestions on the line of subscriptions and the like.

What I find baffling is that we have not had any feedback on the various suggestions, we blondites have not been approached (apart from being asked to play more on the cardroom) to assist in funding for the likes of updates.

I appreciate that things can get costly and whilst any contribution I could personally make would be minimal, from what I seen there were a few who were prepared to offer what they could.

Were any of these looked at and if so, what were the reasons for not approaching the blonde community to assist?

We have a saying up here that goes "mony a mickle maks a muckle" most people associate it with the mountains out of molehills scenario, however there's another comparison - "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves" in other words if there are enough of us that can give a few pennies, the pounds will soon gather.

Not having a go in the slightest, I'm just frustrated and I assume many others are that I haven't been given the opportunity to assist.

Geo

Tikay has repeatedly said that forum access and updates will always be free.

But at what cost?

Why don't Blue Squirrel employ Blondepoker to do the updates on the UKPT?

£250 per month atm

And now that the updates can't be produced free we just give up on them??
 

Like many others, it was the live updates that brought me to blonde, some might not be happy about that but there we go. blonde has given me so much and I'm now being told that I can't give back because Tikay wants them to be free to us all.


Geo

Thanks Geo, & I'm impressed with that mickle & muckle malarky. Is that Kidz speak?

Apologies if you think we have ignored your, & other, offers of help. I'm way behind with my PM's (you were not wrong there!).

Rich, who runs the business, is always open to offers. I'm gonna leave this one to him. That's what we pay him for. Oops, I just remembered, we don't.....

except to say......

Charging for Updates? A great idea, but I do not think it would work. It only wants one person to C & P an Update Post, & everyone who has paid gets cheesed off, & so they should. We have looked at it, & I can't see how it would work.

Voluntary donations, from the "Community"?

A lovely thought, but blonde is a Ltd Company, & has Shareholders, many of whom would sell at the drop of a hat. I can't quite find the right words, but Shareholders benefitting from donations seems wrong.

I need to think on your thoughtful Post Geo, & I'm all a bit brain-frazzled right now, what with this & that.  Let me cogitate for a while. But thank you.

PS - You coming to Edinburgh on Saturday? I'll be at the Gala Maybury - it'd be grand to see you.

I would willingly donate here and there where I could hence asking/pondering as towhether would put a 'donate' button onto the forum  (a lot of sites do have them).

Sometimes I am unable to play on the cardroom due to my own techy probs here so can't donate that way. 

I would more than willingly donate directy if I could as to me this site (the live updates, results service and forum) is more than worth it.  I would see it the same as an annual subscription to a poker magazine - except it's more value for money than just a magazine (IMO). 

FWIW I would subscribe (not donate – subscribe)  just to read the updaters reports alone as they are excellent, so please at least 'think' about having a donate button on the forum for the people that would be willing to donate 'whatever' here and there. 

Besides - it'll give Kev something else to spam   ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D

I can see the Sig now  ..... "Did you enjoy our updates .... please help to keep them going by clicking on our donate button now"    LOL, tongue in cheek BUT I'd rather have this option then lose the writers we have.



Feeling quite sad about all this.

EDIT - was typing this while the last couple of posts went on site

because they do it themselves Keith (I know you know that, just saying)

How come sites like AWOP are still financially viable? They employ 4 people and have a lot more equipment. Also I was under the impression that that the tours paid something to have people blogging/updating?

This is all good, thought-provoking stuff, & I need some thinking time.

For now, the quickest, simplest & most effective way to get the Home Page & Updates back is to use the blonde Cardroom. If just a few more of the regulars did that, we'd be in easy street. It really is that simple.

I have just, by the bye, finished speaking with the would-be Shareholder. He's very keen to come on Board. At the right price. I am quite certain that his presence would solve everything. But he's struggling to buy blonde Shares at a price he considers reasonable. We shall see. You never know how these things might pan out.

Oh, & we have secured a new Internet Board Sponsor for a few months. Not much, but it helps.

Michelle says it so much better than I could. I would see a subscription as paying for a service (and a great one at that.). But certainly see where you're coming from Tony.

I will be at the Maybury Casino till about 5:30 to meet up with those I know and am then heading to Glasgow for Bobba Fetts team tourney to meet up with the likes of Bandit, Bobba, Cambo and Mads and about another 8 or so Scottish blondes. A little blonde weekend if you like.

Geo

No, Tours don't pay for Updates! If only......

AWOP? They have a different, clearly better, business model. I think it's Affiliate Based, which has never worked for us.

Donation would not have to be made to blonde poker ltd, they could be made to updates charity or something similar

tours pay something? Nope

AWOP...have a profitable sideline in using their team/camera for third party hire, and an affiliate model that works fine. As I said some time ago, given a blank sheet of paper I'd not necessarily choose a business model that funds added value services out of card-room rake, especially when combined with an open forum, but we (tikay/I) inherited it in 2006 and have to make it work. If we had gazillions in the bank would be easy to change the business model, sadly we don't.

I have asked for a donate button on the live updates many times and always will are not a charity but what if the donate button was only on the live update thread? Im sure it would go along way to pay for "the updaters" not "the shareholders" i dont get the problem?
If someone is following the progress of a friend/family member thy are never going to sign upto the cardroom but there is a good chance they will donate a few quid to "the updaters" please reconcider this option it works on a lot of forums.

 Another thing i would think about is scraping the homepage alltogether if its not going to be updated and get the forum at the main domain and use a system like avforums which is a complete site but driven by the forum, this works very well.

Is it too cheeky to ask how much a two person GUKPT or DtD update costs?

Depends on whether we were using staff updaters or freelancers

There's a daily rate for each updater, a food allowance and then travel and hotel costs

For a four day GUKPT manned by two people, one a freelancer, both needing a hotel you are looking at £1,000-£1,500. In the good old days updaters shared rooms too which helped a bit

Less for a two day dtd-er

EPTs were horrific

It's not quite that simple, as we employed Chris on a monthly fee, & th quantity & length of Updates varies.

For a typical GUKPT Update, though, assume these rough costings.....

2 Updaters, 4 days wages each.

3 nights Hotel each.

Travel each. (Location dependant).

In the high season, we Updated most weekends.

A two-dayer - DTD £300-er for instance - comes in a lot cheaper, say 2 peeps x 2 days, 2 Hotel Room for 1, maybe 2 nights, & travel exs.

Lately, we've used one Updater, so costs halve, as does the quality of Update, to a point.

Does the amazon link create much revenue ?

If so perhaps you could get some revenue via dell ? Lots of people mention them when screens, laptops etc are sought/looked at.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/emea/topics/affiliates/home?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml&~section=001

Don't forget bookies/exchanges too as i said before.

Sandy

Have used Blonde as a resource for a couple of years, love it and will be sad to see it changed in almost any way. I've seen sponsored by and banner ads but never gave much thought to how it all was funded.

I'm guessing Tikay frowns on spamming but the odd email asking if I enjoyed the updates (etc.) and to ensure they can continue might I try my luck on Blonde Poker wouldn't be too intrusive. There should be plenty of us who'd prefer our rake to come back to the community in the guise of Blonde.

Spam away.

Amazon, no

Negotiating a link with a computer supplier currently

Bookies, that was one of the aims of William Hill deal a year ago, but they never showed any interest. Currently approaching other online bookies

Loving that avatar Sandy

 rotflmfao rotflmfao rotflmfao

This was partially due to the cash flow problems. It was difficult for me to book anything too early which meant many prices would go up but I'll point out that some of the EPT's cost less than some may think. For example, the PCA was booked well in advance and flights and hotel ended up costing around £1,500 which was cheaper than many of the EPT's. The EPT in Monte Carlo with three people, was about the same. Some of the others were much more expensive like Barcelona or Copenhagen but it was often a case of me searching for a few hours for each in search of the best deal. One idea I briefly mentioned to Tighty, but that we never got around to act upon was that we should organise all the EPT media to block book all their hotels together, thus everyone saves money and there isn't really a downside.

Chris is correct, a nice cash buffer/funding in the bank would have allowed us to benefit from discounts far more readily

hate to say this but I am sure a lot of the readers on here will agree. Without live updates you will go the way of poker trillion. They are the number one reason people come here. Ok they may not generate revenue directly but without them you will never get any new players onto your card room and unique user hits to your site will drop massively which will effect the banner advertising revenue (be it pay per click/affiliate or direct sponsorship).

letting snoops and no flops go imo will prove to be the biggest mistake blonde have ever made as you have rightly said they both ARE blonde. God help you if awop or any other firm snap them up as they are both updating gods and huge assets.

I am not trying to inflame things here as I am sure this really hurts you to do but by letting these two go I feel its only a matter of time before the last one to leave should please turn the lights out. Its a shame to see but if AWOP/pokernews/cardplayer etc all run better business models then you then you should be looking at the people who run the business/generate revenue for the site before getting rid of the real assets- snoops and floppy always did their jobs very well and its obviously other peoples fault that blonde is in the state it is currently.

without live updates you are just another poker forum (of which there are many). Your updates were unique because of the ones who are now being punished due to other peoples failed business acumen.

But they already work for other updating sites anyway!

Advertising wasn't my intention more just sign up revenue. Betting board is used more so now that Boldie and Camel are running threads and many bookies get mentioned. Could you not link the names like the names with Blondepedia ? It's not like you would be competing with what you offer v another site like rakeback. If anyone started a thread like that i sent you via pm then i'm sure it'd bring in a few sign ups although maybe not betfair as they are common. It is like bonus whoring and a few blondes do that i think.

Sandy

I get the impression Ariston that there isn't a brass farthing in the bank, not one, and Tikay doesn't want to run a business like trillion, owing people along the way. As he's said Blonde owes Tighty months of wages and Tighty doesn't get paid anywhere else as far as I'm aware and without Tighty the whole thing will unravel even quicker and there definitely won't be an option to re-employ the updaters in the future because there won't be a blonde future. (Someone correct me if I'm reading this wrong please)

Reading between the lines if it was any different we might all be having this convo by msn as Blonde wouldn't exist.

It's an economic choice for longevity and Tighty is the glue, the updates are the glitter. Hopefully by keeping the glue in place the glitter can be sprinkled in the future and in the meantime we all stay put and support blonde, so the glitter can be paid for soon as.

I have to point out that Cardplyer recently cut out a couple of members of staff and a few pages (I should know I lost the monthly column I'd just started there!). They have one updater for EPT's called Rebecca, who just gets swamped with all the work on her own. Also Pokernews seem to be scaling back their live updates. They didn't cover Deauville or the PCA (4th biggest tourney of the year imo).

AWOP's affiliate scheme is good and has served them well.

My point is just that there are bigger companies, monetary-wise, that are struggling as bad/worse than blonde.

In my half asleep state, I've been trying to think of the words for my comment...

the glitter/glue has hit the nail on the head.

Anything at all that I can help in any way ( hitting the cardroom hard as always), please don't hesitate to ask :)

i was not and am not trying to stick the boot in and i wish blonde all the best. I know this decision hasn't been taken lightly but I do feel in the months to come tony will regret it.

to use your analagy we have to lose the glitter and stick with the glue- whats to stop someone else nicking the glitter and everyone going to wherever the glitter goes? this will mean the glue no longer has anything to hold together.

when you have to cut costs in business it doesnt make sense imo to let your best assets go first. they are the thing that attracts most people to your business in the first place and if you let them go there isn't much left so its a false economy to cut costs like this.  

I'm busy until Midnight, so I'll respond to this later, after I've finished work.

I've just spoken to Tighty & asked him not to respond. It's best - he's hardly thrilled by this Post.

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm fully aware of how vital the Updates are to blonde, & I've worried myself silly trying to find the right solution by everyone.

The people who "run the business" are Tighty, & myself. Tighty has been awesome, & I don't take a salary, fees, or exs.

It's tough out there right now & other Updating sites, such as CardPlayer, are feeling the pinch, too. As are Poker Magazines - have you seen PokerNews lately (rhetorical - it's not been published for a while). The gravy-boat is not as full as some think.

Trust me, watch & see......

By the sounds of it, if they kept the updates, there wouldn't be a blondepoker in few months.

Tough decision, one I wouldn't want to make, but one they had to make to keep the business going i think.

more glitter and glue talk than blue peter imo

Wrong. That assumes I don't already. I do, but I had no option.

If you haven't got the income, you cant pay the costs.....the large majority of which is wages.

 What other assets are there to cut???!!

This is all very sad to read as far as i am concerned.

During my time in the Philippines, Blonde was my lifeline with the poker world back home, I like many others started with following the updates, and that led to becoming a reasonably regular poster on the forum (to the annoyance of 1 or 3), I was unable to contribute to the cardroom due to my financial commitments and therefore I am one of those who have benefited from Blonde completely for free, not through choice but circumstances, therefore i owe a huge debt of thanks to EVERYONE involved with Blonde, but especially ALL the updaters who have bought me so much pleasure over the last 3 years.

In a couple of weeks time my situation will allow me to play online poker again, not to the same volume as before, but in return for the pleasure and knowledge I have gained from Blonde i will say that my main cardroom will be the Blonde one, if it helps just a little then I am more than happy to give something back.

The community has always what Blonde has been about to many people, and I have said a couple of different times in the past that the spirit changes, and again in recent weeks I have noticed a lot of "regular" posters have disappeared for whatever reasons and I always feel its a shame when this happens because one or to posters feel its ok to take IMO cheap, personal shots at others, but I guess thats life in general.

I wish Blonde ALL the best in what are obviously difficult times and I for one hope we are still all around for a long time to come.

Correct. Sometimes pruning is the only option.

We still plan to bring them back, we just need a few months to restore our cash balances.

Hopefully, if Ariston plays on blonde now & then, that'll help.

It sucks that you have to take these measures, but if it's what has to be done, then so be it...

Feel bad for Snoopy and Floppy but I'm sure they understand.

I don't see why Blonde can't survive without the updates, although they are cool they certainly aren't a main reason I spend time on here...

I don't think you were trying to stick the boot in at all, we're just looking at it from different angles is all.

As it is the glitter doesn't provide any income for Blonde anyway (or not much as I understand it) it doesn't reflect in increased revenue for the card room which is where income is generated for Blonde. I agree the updates are one of the great things about Blonde but I still come on here even when there isn't an update because there are other things that I enjoy too.

So, with me being devils advocate Ariston, if you were blonde today how would you pay the updaters if the person who negotiates all the deals has gone (Tighty the glue person) and after a few months the deals dry up and there is no money to run the site at all?

Lets open that up to all - think outside the box and lets come up with ideas...

just as a suggestion I think if live updates where offered to platinum members of blonde at $x per month transfered through the blonde card room I feel you would have no problem covering the costs. There is a blonde faithfull who definately wouldnt mind chipping x per month so they still get their updates. This would also increase traffic to your cardroom as many players who watch the updates would open blonde accounts to fund the updates and no doubt play a few hands there as well.

this is only a first idea but I feel many people on blonde would rather be given at least the option of funding the updates rather than losing them. Hell even I would open a blonde account and happily chip in if it means the updates are still available. I know you have always said you wanted to keep the updates free but now its clear you can't you should at least give the members here a choice of saving them

given a week to sort out another option would be to get a commercial partner to back the updates. Given the number of visitors you have to the updates this would not be a problem in the slightest for any half decent salesman. I have a company now that would happily cover snoops and flopsys wages and costs if you wouldnt mind whoring out certain aspects of your site. Its a matter of how much you really want the updates to carry on.

save snoops and flops campaign starts here

I agree that floppy snoops & all the updaters do a great job.However,your saying that the updates are the main part of the forum but in what sense ? Certainly not in a financial sense it would seem as they aren't providing much or any revenue from reading what's been said therefore i would suggest maybe they're not the greatest assets to blonde since that's who they've let go 1st,I'm pretty sure they didn't decide this lightly and maybe it's a bit patronising to rich/tikay to suggest they've made such a catastophic error which is how your post reads.Also most of the people who register on blonde to read the updates don't seem to provide anything else i.e playing on the cardroom,using the links so what does that provide to blonde financially ?

I hope,and fully expect that blonde will come through this difficult time.Also to compare blonde to trillion is just bs mate

i was not meaning to compare blonde to trillion and i apologise if thats the way it came across. I was saying they would go the way of trillion ie pop (being that is current in everyones mind). Trillion fcked everyone over and tony will confirm I warned him last july and also september what was happening there. Blonde has never tried to have anyone over so they are different in that respect.

You might have missed it Ariston, but the updates were sponsored for 2 years...

I must say Blonde's updates are BY FAR the best available.

And that isn't a slight on other updaters.

It's just the interaction plus the skill of the updaters adds immensely to the pleasure of the reader.

I would definitely contribute to any fund.

Play on Blonde = healthy Blonde.

Brilliant...why didn't I think of that??

and you wouldnt be the only one keith. the problem is we arent being given that option as the decision has already been made. i dont think tikay and tighty realise what an asset the updates and update team is. many would happily pay for them to continue. 

without the updates i wont have a reason to come here anymore, ok most will say thats no great loss but how many others will feel the same way?

how much traffic do the updates get approx?

I just meant making general comparisons didn't think you ment it like that.TBH i'm knackered and cba to say out more as i'll put it across wrong  ;).My point was just that the updates really don't seem to be blondes biggest asset

Edit I'm pretty sure most people who contribute to blonde in anyway will continue to do so with or without the updates

1. Ariston - you don't already play -  even a little on Blonde to help towards costs?  ;smackedbottom;

2. I think Tikay has already said he is not keen on the paying for updates because people with cut and paste and those that have paid will get cheesed off. I love the idea of paying for updates, and perhaps paying the updaters a percenate of any new sign ups generated from them. (Not sure how that would be measured though)  

Lets not forget though that I think Tikay's focus is on paying some money to Richard. If Richard doesn't get paid soon he will have to disappear (I think it's been 6 months or so) so any money that is generated has to go towards him rather than updaters as I understand it.

I think it would be wrong to start playing emotional roulette and offering to save the updaters. None of this is a shock to them as far as I know, and I am hopeful that they will be back sooner rather than later.

Perhaps if people are really keen we can persuade Tikay to take on board the pay for updates idea, it's a good commercial asset in my opinion, and Blonde is not a charity. I'm sad to say that Tikay has a certain humility (IMO) about him that seems to stop him wanting payment for updates, sweet but close to commercial suicide imo. Howabout a poll??!

Blonde Poker account opened.

Fold when 5ukkkraM bets on the river.

Off to Broadway now for the £150 - hopefully see at least a couple of dozen others have done the same when I come back with my winnings.

I will be honest tracey. I hardly play poker anymore at all. I work full time in the poker industry now and have little time or motivation to play anymore. When I left geoff.cc in november after putting a lot of time and effort in I really didnt have any motivation to play anymore and that need/hunger hasnt come back. if/when it does I will certainly play blonde if it helps get the updates back on. Even if I wasnt playing on blonde I would still happily contribute to the fund to pay snoops and floppsy to continue with the updates- live updates without them are imo just cards and numbers and i get paid to look at those all day already.

I obviously knew Blue Squirrel did their own updates, but surely throwing £1000 to blondepoker for them to do some parellel updates is just business sense.

Hell, use Peter alongside Floppy and Snoopy.

I think they would get more use of their sponsorship money to spend it on blonde updates (with a few plugs to their upcoming tournies obv) than to put in 3-5 players in each event.

they're both on the same network tho. i think blonde should take a look at entraction as a possible up and coming network

People just won't pay for updates, everyone here is saying 'i would chip in' etc but it just won't happen, in all honesty why would someone pay when they can get better content elsewhere for free?

dont know about "better content" flushy. I personally think blonde have the best written updates on the net. The advent of the TV updates awop are doing may change my views on these updates being the best but only time will tell on those as they are still quite new.

"better content"?

Where exactly?

If people did pay how would they feel if that content was then cut and pasted elsewhere and people got to read it for free - would that be an issue - as it almost certainly would happen.

How could/would Blonde be expected to police that?

Ariston - I don't play a lot of online poker but I play a bit on Blonde just to help out. How about you signing up depositing and, if you would be happy to pay for an update, do it another way by playing on Blonde or perhaps sponsoring some blonde members to play on the site where you may make some money at the same time?

ariston if you want to pay my expenese i can do live updates from any event any time
aslong as my travel and hotel costs are met i am more than happy to do them

i might even do them in proper english with proper grammer and spelling

Wouldn't bother me one little bit.

Snoopy is the best updater on any site period. Floppy, Jen (does she still do them?), Dana and Jungle Cat are way above average.

I know pokernews, awop, cardplayer etc etc are possibly more up to date with chip counts and hand histories etc.. but the fact is the writers on here are MUCH better than elsewhere.

 :)up 

i taught them ALL I KNOW

It was going so well until

agree totally with keith although I actually thought jen was the best (she had a way with words). the fact all the blonde updaters where the best at what they did is good for blonde.

ironside many thanks for your kind offer but I think I would prefer sofa to you doing updates ;)

ok if you payu for the expenses i will accompany my sofa too all the events you want covered and allow it to update for you

obviously my sofa is very expensive and i cant allow it lose on its own

They won't pay when they can get any content elsewhere covering the same event - it doesn't have to be better.

I'm sure some loyal blondes with money would do it, but not enough to pay for it so they still wouldn't be viable until they can be paid for with alternative means. i.e. it wouldn't make any difference to the current situation at all.

Stick one of these buttons at the top of the next volunteer update. It's a zero cost option and only then could you gauge how much it would bring in. I understand Tikay's reticence regarding donating to shareholders however, if the donations are kept separate and only used to fund current and future updates, I don't see anyone who actually does donate having a problem with that.

I was referring to the live AWOP feed, almost every other site also does faster updates on top of little gimmicks to present this information to the reader.

Blonde's updaters are the best, of that i have no doubt.

The simple truth of the matter is those in charge got complacent when blonde owned the update stage, if you look at an update now to one 3 years ago there has been just 1 single innovation (the tournament clock) this has allowed other sites to come and take nearly all of blondes market share, there is no point dwelling on the past though, it can't be fixed, however if they are going to make a return they have to be done a lot better.

I disagree massively.

The lack of all the gimmicks and gizmos ADDS to the sense of community. Less is more imo.

When a Blondite is going deep in a big tournament, the feeling of community and support is overwhelming. Nothing like it on any other site.

Do we really need a video of Marc Goodwin saying how he did in the first two levels to improve it?

No but it would be nice too see a list of updated chip counts on a separate page, or a list of payouts etc

Or a video showing the action from the table so if i wish i can see the hand for myself rather than waiting for the picture of the cat first.

fair enough i see what you're saying mate. Aren't blonde concerned they may lose a hellova lot of traffic to the likes of awop as they will now be the only updators at walsall in a few weeks? I wont be in the country but surely many who would normally tune in on here will now watch the live feed and their updates instead. If this means loyal blonde followers now get used to using another source for their updates (and even tikay and tighty have admitted awop is a better business model who know how to get the most from their traffic). Surely it is bad practice to force (and they will be forced if they cant see updates here) loyal customers to a competitor?

From what was said earlier it sounded to me Blonde may be doing some voluntary updates in the interim.

They are not customers....they are community members, i can't see the members not posting on here any more, what is more likely is someone sets up a mini sweat thread on here and then we get people posting how the regular blonde players are doing in Walsall.

I watched the live updates on AWOP of the GUKPT for the video footage and read the updates on Blonde not awop. I  think it all comes back to money, I don't think Blonde has/had the budget for It innovation. The business model just doesn't give them the income that awop has.

FTR although i enjoyed the awop live streaming it wouldn't make me want to play on their site so if that was their intention it failed over here.

There is a blonde comp starting at 8.30

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=39852.0

dont miss out.

I agree with Flushy- AWOP are doing more innovative updates at the mo and as much as I love the write ups on blonde sometimes I just want to know someone's chip count and this tends to be quicker on AWOP than blonde.

Saying that blonde's write ups are more enjoyable and accurate and the likes up snoops, noflops, jen etc etc are very good journalists.

I also agree that altho a loyal few would pay for them- the casual reader will go somewhere for free than contribute for updates

and as long as a business sees people as a community and not potential customers then its deamed to fail. maybe awop succeeds because it treats its members as both a community but also customers? Ive not even seen the awop updates yet but as so many of you are watching them i will give them a try.

But before you do why not open up a blonde account... ;)  If you don't want to play yourself you can tutor/sponsor me if you like.... ;marks;

IMO I have always felt that that the members can contribute/interact has been a big plus to the updates. I have viewed other sites when Blonde havent covered an event, and while the sites i have visited have been very good at the news they distribute its not quite the same.

I am rather sad to hear that but understand.

The updates are an important part of blonde but some events (like the EPT) I just don't give a crap about..unless a blonde runs deep in one.
A big bunch of no names at the EPT or WSOP holds no interest to me, so I stopped reading them.

The DTD 300 however I love to read...and I shall miss that....a lot.

Hopefully this hiatus is for the short term Mr Bolidie.

lol excellent

You won't miss it if we still do it. And we might.

Remember Obama's words.  YES WE CAN.

I never said they were dead. I explained the whole scenario, carefully.

We hope to restore them, if we can do it in a financially responsible manner.

At the moment, we have more pressing needs for our Cash. Tomorrow, or next week, who knows?

It's a sad thing to read but I'm finding myself agreeing with a lot of what Ariston and Flushy are saying, certainly from a business point of view.   The missing money from PT obviously didn't help, but Tikay has said that even with that it wouldn't solve the problem, so what will solve the problem is the question?   Is it not an option for the shareholders to invest more in to their business while their share holdings are worth a reasonable amount?  Without some investment things don't look too good, but even with it, what's going to change to stop blonde being back in this situation in a few months time?   Asking people to pay for the updates is putting a plaster over a gaping wound in my opinion.

I do hope you get things sorted, I'd be gutted if the place was go close.

I think whatTikay has said in a previoous post is that the shareholders really don't want to invest any more money, most of them aren't really that active in the business.

ROB YONG TO THE RESCUE WITH A BLONDE BUY OUT

I'm sure they don't want to, nobody that owns a business that isnt' doing to well wants to put more of their own money into it, but if needs must, you have to consider it to keep things afloat.   If a couple of the shareholders are serious about selling there shares, then they want blonde to be worth a premium otherwise their not going to be able to get what they want for their holding.  Didn't Tikay say someone was negotiating with one of the shareholders recently?  I'd expect if Live Updates are dropped, the price to buy just came down.

This is quite simply not true, I'm afraid. I have never had my own hotel room while working for blonde - the updaters have ALWAYS shared rooms, whether there were two or three of us at any given event. The number of times I have shared a bed with Floppy makes me shudder (no offence, man, I'm certain you feel the same way about sharing with me ;) ). At Monte Carlo the year before last, Jen, Floppy and Snoopy actually shared one bed between the three of them. In addition, the freelance rate that blonde paid us was roughly half that which we got working for other update sites. Every last corner was cut with the updates, and the fact that blonde could still not pay us on time suggests some very serious problems with the business plan.

I think Tikay will have to answer that one but from experience salling and valuing shares in a small company like this one where most of the shareholders are sleeping is very difficult.  

Yeah, Rich is EVIL!!! He even made me share a room with Kev when we updated DTD... twice!

lol

It's a real shame things have come to this but I like to think if I were in a similar situation I'd act with the same integrity Tikay and the rest of the team have shown.

Better to cut back now and live to fight another day, than put the head in the sand and run up unsustainable debts before collapsing the company and stiffing a whole bunch of good people.

As has been said elsewhere I'm sure there will be plenty informal updating going on during the most popular events - especially now so many people have Blackberries, iPhones, G-Phones, etc.

My own tuppence on the revenue (as opposed to costs) side of things is I don't see any harm in a voluntary donate button on the site, or specific threads, and I also don't see any harm in being a bit more pushy about affiliate deals - be they for Amazon, Dell, or whoever - so long as the marketing is more along the lines of 'if you are going to buy here please use our link' rather than random spam.

So you're saying that if I'd volunteered to do an update at some point, I'd have had the chance to share a bed with either Jen, Dana, Floppy or Snoopy?

I wouldn't have minded risking that 50/50.

Blonde's very own Corrs Gamble

1) The place is NOT going to close. I've explained that. It's here to stay, permanent. No question, no doubts. The Cardroom is profitable, so is the Site without the Update Costs. The Forum costs 250 per month, which I have now signed up to fund personally. They both stay. The Updates & Home Page, we'll have to see "if & when". I'm hopeful we will be "buiness as usual" asap.

2) People paying for Updates. It's not practical, or viable, imo, because of how the Internet works. It's free, everywhere, & Cut & Paste-able. I've always stated this position. Paying for Updates is a Plaster over a gaping wound? Not sure about that, there is no gaping wound. We just cannot Fund Live Updates at the mo, that's all.

3) Shareholders investing more? I've invested more than enough, far too much in fact, & the other major shareholders are not active any more.

4) The Site goes foward for now as Forum & Cardroom. If more folks play on the Cardroom, we'll restore the Home Page & Updates.

Some most interesting offers from big players to play on blonde have come in this evening - huge players. Some of them said they never realised playing on blonde would help, & have agreed to start rght away.

Let's hope they do.

Many have said, in Henrik's Poll, that they are not fussed about the Updates.

or ME !

Or JC, it's actually a 60/40.

Btw, it wasn't actual sharing of beds, but usually twins next to each other.

not quite 50/50 if you throw in junglecat

bring back chili and its 50/50 again

Exactly that. It ain't goinna happen whilst I'm here, or Tighty's here. Painful, but necessary, it had to be done.

I joined blonde to help tikay with the growing demand for content and updates, and managed the latter for over a year, during which time they became pleasingly popular - we didn't know at the time that they wouldn't help generate revenue and there was such a good buzz about following heartily-supported players in an interactive forum.  While I was booking things on my own credit card months in advance, there was a sort of cash-flow truce and we managed, but times are harder now and it is understandable that the ship needs to be steadied before it can continue circling the stormy waters of the poker industry.

I would just like to agree that we have always tried to help by cutting accommodation costs etc. and am sad that interest in far-flung not-so-stocked-with-locals events is not higher.  For a while blonde was checked by a decent swathe of Americans, Scandies etc. during these big events, and there would have been huge interest if our SEO had been higher earlier or we'd found a way to advertise/get our brand known abroad.  Possibly a foreign sponsor could even have been interested.

As it is, I just want to thank Snoopy and Homer for doing the majority of the planning/updating after I became a back-seat freelancer - they did a great job and would undoubtedly do it again given the chance.  I disagree that any site's coverage is, overall, superior in spite of any lagging in technological advancement.  A boring update with a separate chip count page is still a boring update. 

Separately from the updates, I reckon people will notice the lack of results/info/galleries in about a week or so - these pages consistently got excellent hits and are possibly a less visible, but more important loss that departs with the beagle.

Dana I don't think anyone appreciates what the updaters do - its bloody hard work and not always as luxurious as some might think but I think the theme here seems to be that Blonde would like things to be different but there just isn't any money. It's been said for some time that the business model isn't right but without the money it's not possible to change it, it's a real catch 22 situation.

You are at the sharp end, really getting affected by this, and we all just watch with sadness/horror/sympathy but none of us know what we could do at this point in time to make it better for blonde and the updaters. I was made redundant a few years ago and it's like a berievement, with anger, sadness, feelings of rejection and helplessness and if you're feeling that it must be horrible. I'm so sorry.

I really hope that it gets sorted out, and you might not feel too charitable at the moment but if you (from the sharp end) can think of revenue generating ideas that could help pay the wages and get all you guys back on board then get your thinking cap on. I understand if you're not feeling like it right now and i for one hope to see those red pigtails at an update near me soon xx

chilli is a 50/50 on his own though

If the homepage is not going to get updated for a while then i would definatly get it to forward straight to the forum for the time being, if new people arrive at a homepage thats out of date i doubt they will ever get to the forum.
If things change it would be easy to get the homepage re-instated.

That is a very good idea.  Nothing says Unprofessional like having a main site portal that is covered in dust.

Did the link up with Poker Player Magazine not have any benefit to blonde?

The homepage is going too?

All in all, a pretty sad day.

Many have said they didn't find blonde for the updates, I expect it's fair to say that most will miss them.

I have to break radio silence here

There are a lot of misconceptions on the thread

I am aware the business model is faulty. However to change it, possibly to a super affiliate model, requires two things

a) a sum of money to tide us over while we change, via income or shareholder investment otherwise we're busto and we have a non commercial forum only. Probably a neat solution for tikay and an easy life but not for shareholders of a limited company overall

b) a potential partner. Full tilt are spoken for, Stars uninterested and what other "must play" site is there that is a cast iron certainty to make us more money than we currently do? Always allowing for the fact that a lot of blondes will be signed up already with whoever we go with

We're suffering from

a) A hugely dysfunctional shareholder base completely limiting any prospect of investment to spend on IT, marketing, promotion, player retention, updates etc etc

b) wrong, very wrong, strategic decisions in 2005-2006

Updates? I hope they are back asap. Investing in them via gizmos and the like has been investigated by me any number of times. never had the money to spend on IT, or kit, to make them competitive in that way.

I treat blonde as a business, but a business that has to take the community with it. I have a successful track record in sales, marketing and business trategy

If we had any viable options apart from what we did, we would have done it

My leaving wouldn't have helped financially, as I am hardly paid anyway (a victim of the wrong business model) and I personally am down in blonde to the tune of £12,000. In effect I have been funding updates in 2008..paying for them rather than paying myself. I can no longer afford this.

I first suggested severe cost cuts last September, and its taken five months of worsening news to draw a line under things

Through that period the person who has suffered the most, voluntarily, is myself

Thanks Jen, all agreed.

Except the last para. We plan to continue with the Results Service for the forseeable future. Hopefully we won't get it in too big a mess before we can ask snoops to come back on board. If he agrees, that is.

I really am sorry, but it had to be done. We don't share Poker Trillion's morality or financial ethicacy. We are NEVER gonna run up debts to Staff that we cannot pay. And that was where we were heading unless we did something. We had been late paying the wages several times, & the Staff did not like that one bit - why should they? - so something had to be done.

There seems to be a view that poor management caused this, Maybe it did, maybe it did not. If someone wants to take over Tighty & my roles, they can PM me. I'd gladly step aside if someone will do what I have done - guarantee the site's future, & guarantee that nobody will get stiffed by blonde.

FYP.

I may have mentioned this about a million times before but please send out a bloody newsletter. how do you expect to increase cardroom traffic and therefore revenue if you don't tell people what's going on? you have a large database, use it

I will be updating it until Snoops can come back

No, the homepage will still be there, but without snoop's content being provided.

I'm sure there will be a temporary solution in the pipeline.

Apart from articles no

Three people used it to sign up

the results are ongoing and updated daily, I've been doing most of it for nine months, now Laxie has taken it on

That's ok, girls in my bed are usually shuddering for other reasons. :)

I will also write a few articles for the Home Page, until, hopefully, we have snoops back on board. tikay style, not snoops style, I'm afraid.

Sadly, Results Service apart, Home Page traffic has always been very light. No idea why, as snoops writes beautifully.

Err, yo.

Except that I've not been able to get onto that part of the site since this morning for some tech reason, which I'm sure Bongo will help with when he gets a chance.   ;D

you've nicked the duvet?

Wondered why my Luton result wasnt there ;)

Thanks very much - I wasn't aware of that.  Incidentally, blondepedia comes up top when googling UK players a surprising amount, and that would definitely be a good thing not to let slide if Snoops is stopping updating that.  It always gave me a warm glow inside when a poker-related search came up with a link to something on blonde, and I hope that will still keep happening.

I've slept with a few dogs in my time but even I would draw the line at sharing a bed with Snoopy  ;)

Sorry, I'm reading through this thread slowly and periodically commenting as I see fit.

The problem is, it's not just the updates that are going.

I know that the forum is what all the regulars love most about blonde, but how do new members find blonde? Blonde is incredibly, impressively Google-able. When I have searched pretty much anything European-poker-related when writing articles and so on for other sites, blonde has come up on the first page of search results. If you google my name, the first thing you get is my Myspace page, and the second thing you get is my Blondepedia page. That's awesome. Getting this kind of visibility for a site requires a massive amount of maintenance work putting up articles at least once a day, badgering people for interviews and such, and being frankly anally retentive with the thoroughness of the results page, and with Snoopy gone it will all vanish in a matter of months. If people can't easily stumble on to blonde, there will be no new sign ups. The photo galleries will no longer magically appear on the site, because Snoopy spent endless tedious hours putting up all the photos, one by one. Although with no updates, there won't be any new photos anyway.

The forum will of course not be affected immediately, but keeping this visibility up is incredibly important. If the visibility goes, the forum can do nothing but stagnate. If people can't find blonde, they won't sign up to blonde.

I agree with you

I am speaking to Snoops about blondepedia, and have offered to keep it active in the short term. Ideally of course he'll be back to continue to strengthen it as its hsi tour de force

I don't think anyone disagrees with you Dana but I don't think there was any other choice at this time. i think everyones hoping this is just temporary.

different people keep throwing in the fact you wont go down the route of trillion.

sorry but this stinks of the old government trick of throwing in bad news when there is a big disaster going on. Just because you didnt want to screw people over and practise bad business shouldnt mean we applaud you.

the fact that tighty is the one who is suffering more than anyone is perhaps the fact that a bad business model is being run. If tighty is the one running the business then its only right he should be the one who suffers??? Im sorry if this seems harsh but in the current economic climate if more ceo's or mds suffered down to their bad business sense then maybe things would be better run all round.

before anyone assumes i am attacking tighty here i say it as i see it. I warned plenty of people about trillion and they didnt listen. When other things have seemed strange i have never minded saying what a lot of people though but didnt dare say. i was once banned from here over something and nothing but allowed back on. almost a year later i was attacked personally by a couple of well known blonde members and even the "boss" attacked me himself and made some very personal claims against me. After I asked by pm wtf was going on the thread was quickly removed and swept under the carpet. Even back then I thought what sort of man is this to be running a site. I will probably be banned again for saying this but where so many of you think tighty is the glue that holds the site together I think you have been sniffing it. I am allowed my opinion on this even though it will be probably be removed quite quickly.  

no no lets keep your views up for all to see.

In the meantime, without Snoopy, there are volunteers for galleries and other parts that need updating (snoopy knows that I have offered to sort the galleries,  previously)

Like it has been said time and time again, hopefully this is a temp solution.

The business model is inherited from a time before Tighty had anything to do with the running of Blonde. He has said many times he would like to change it but without funds he can't.

But there is no temporary with losing that level of visibility. It will tail off very rapidly and once it's gone, it's gone, and then you have to start again from scratch. Some sites pay hundreds of thousands for that kind of Google visibility. I think throwing it away for the sake of a grand a month is a massive mistake.

But they haven't got a grand, thats the issue. You don't really think they want to get rid of you surely? I don't think this situation and decision came about lightly.

dana, we don't have the money to pay the staff going forward.

Our cost base has to get below our revenue line NOW

sure you will get a lot of support and hate for me. not many people saw what was said about me on the night in question though

I'm not criticising you, I merely wanted to let your comment stay. Of course I disagree with it, but you are entitled to your view

A bit 1 sided though isnt it?

wrong thread!!

damn

opinions do tend to be one sided and i will admit mine is cloudy after being attacked personally previously. tighty knows where i am coming from though

tighty will tonight be the bigger man, Matthew.

We will always disagree on the issue and thats that

fair enough. this makes us square on the kicking a man front

No way will we remove it, it will stay.

May I suggest you read my OP again - carefully this time.

Snoops is golden, he has done more for blonde than anyone, as I stated clearly.

He is also a great asset. As I stated clearly.

The Home Page does not contribute any tangible revenue.

The Updates do not contribute any revenue, on the contrary, they soak up all our spare cash. Some folks ONLY visit blonde for the Updates, then disappear until the next one. We'll cope without those fair weather Members.

It may surprise you to know I am aware that no Live Updates will send our Members elsewhere. So be it. I am responsiblefor, & aware of, as the only large Shareholder still active, my fiduciary duties. They do not include employing Staff we cannot pay. I don't have a single CCJ, or Business Bad Debt, to my name, in 40 years of running businesses. I don't plan to change that anytime soon.

Just looking at the homepage,is there a reason you (blondepoker) cannot have affiliate links for other sites?
Looking at the competitors, they are full of them. The only banner at the moment is to Blondes own cardroom.

if snoopy is such an asset how can he be allowed to leave? surely another roll could be found if you realised what an asset he was.

points very well put as always tony, sorry for allowing my personal feelings to come into this debate- wont happen again.

So this is just a personal attack on Tighty, in truth?

Do me a favour Russ, back off. Now. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong day.

Anyone interested?

Any early league exit'ers still around and fancy some blonde cash?

I'm on 10/20 cash - feeling very billy no  mates ;-)

Would you like to ask Snoopy to work for free?

difficult balancing act, don't want to stuff our card-room revenue. None of our major competitors have their own card-room

He has not been asked to leave. He's been asked to step side until we can sort some things out. As stated in my OP. He agreed readily. He understands. He also wants his wages when they are due. Which is entirely reasonable. We don't have enough to pay them right now. What do you suggest, we ask him to work for free? Or grim him?

isn't snoops around to comment?

errr costs me thinks

No idea, but he's free to comment if he wishes, & he's commented perfectly reasonably about the matter on the Mods Board today.

He probably thinks that right now is not the best time to muddy the waters further.

He knows I want to get him back on board asap. He is also a Shareholder, holding 5% of the Shares.

Are the links on the bottom right of the homepage affiliates or have the just paid to be on there?
If there not affiliates i would definatly be looking at replacing those asap.
I imagine you have been over all these things many times but just trying to think of a few things to possible improve your ctr.

thank you

There are three announcements imminent: deals, etc which have the same aim

For instance, you link to http://www.pokerlessons.net/ on the homepage unless your getting good money for a ct then what is the point in sending someone straight off of the homepage onto a site which is basically an affiliate whore?

I tend to click through the front page to the forum tbh without stopping to have a look. I'm not sure how many others do - i go back to it if I'm alerted to something thats been posted on there that interests me.

If I'm not the only one that does that can I suggest affiliate links on the forum rather than the front page?

Yup, I need to compare notes with Snoopy on the history of some of these

Too many compliments for one beagle on one night. He'll have a head the size of a beach ball.

I think he's a work shy good for nothing.

just an idea if poss, everyone interested paying £5, half goes towards updates the other half goes into a pool, each person who donated gets a number, this number is matched by a draw to be worked out for a player who is playing in gukpt , if your player reaches final table the people who have drawn that player would play a final table on blonde for the cash in the pool,

Taken me 2 hrs to read all this and catch up. 

Bad decision I think to "suspend" the updates. 

What I don't get and this isn't a criticism but Tighty has responded a few times about this "bad business model" he inherited.  When was this realised and why were things not changed sooner?

Viable ideas have been refuted in the past the donate button is a great idea, the subscriptions for the updates isn't a bad idea to counter the arguement about cutting and pasting why not disable the right click button?

We've never had sufficient cash to tide us over to go through the process of change for example go affiliate only

realised...? well over a year ago, and we've had to work with the hand we've been dealt

I claim no business acumen so please be gentle when dissecting these ideas.

How about only allowing blonde forum accounts with an associated card room account to access the updates. All but new sign-ups have to have played on blonde in the previous month to maintain access?

To get (what sounds like) some much needed investment, could a section of willing members club together to buy a shareholding?

I would have thought the days of starting a new affiliate are long gone.

Most players are signed up with most networks now.

Now that IS interesting. Thank you. Tighty, pick the bones out of that!

The Shareholding question is much more complex, & I'll answer it later, after I've finished my PTP session, too busy right now, sorry.

Nice idea but ideally would have to keep them coming back to use the card room ideally. Not just sign up for the night of the update.

How abouts a monthly comp for new signups from that month that have raked over a certain amount or something similar?

Also if the competition are offering updates for nothing, no sign up, nothing then I'm not sure if that would work, the public will go where it's easy?

I like the theroy behind it though - I'm sure that this could have legs...

There seems to be a fair bit of churn on the networks that use skins. Entraction is a good example since anyone who was on Trillion could swap over to Minted and get a good rakeback deal.

The big standalone networks - Stars, Tilt, Party - are more problematic, but since Blonde tends to be very welcoming to novice players there should still be scope for picking up some new sign ups.

looking for some blonde bucks if anyone can help....

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=37896.135

I for one totally agree, fantastic post Russ.

Adsense on non poker forums, bingo straight away that's hosting costs paid for instantly. Don't tell forum users to click on them! that of course would be against the rules but say if every forum user clicked on them just once a week its on average $0.50 each weekly. I know I said it before but your throwing away good money not using ad sense and you know your going to get paid monthly. I make $50 a month on a forum with 30 adctive users, go figure.

Blonde seems all rather complicated to me, I guess that's what happens when you have share holders etc. But in these times you have to cut right back and build a solid base again :)

interesting. i havent read all of the thread yet, but will be going back to do so shortly

To my mind the only possible way that live updates can ever become feasible, and by that I dont just mean that they pay for themselves, but that they actually become serious revenue stream generators, is by some form of syndication. There must be a lot of other forums/cardrooms/sponsors would like to have live updates on their sites, to look after their vested interests. It would be interesting to explore various technologies which could deliver a branded update service to each of them, from the same unbranded source.

apart from that the cardroom needs to stand on its own. spamming existing blonde members isnt going to make them play any more. you need to get the brand out there and give "non blondes" a decision to make as to where they play their poker.

Hi Steve,

You might agree, but the Post was made on a false premise. Most people do NOT come here for the Live Updates - only 25% do. See here......

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=39867.0

In reality, it was just a thinly veiled attack on Tighty, later admitted by the Poster, who was nursing a grievance following the ban-stick some years ago.

We will NEVER do a "Poker Trillion", because we are honest.  And that's exactly why we did what we did.

Hope you are well, & in good heart.

I remember suggesting Google Ads a couple of times (is this the same thing?) but there was some kind of problem, perhaps because it's a 'gaming site' or attached to one?  I can't remember exactly but there was some kind of barrier or this is obviously a good plan. 

Hi Jen,

Yes, you did, but we'll have to wait for Tighty to respond, he'll know why we got knocked back. I do seem to recall it as because we had the Cardroom, but I'm really not quite sure.

To be fair, that's 25% of people on here on a random Thursday night when no update is on, therefore those who only come for updates or mainly for updates are unlikely to have aired their views.

Having said that, if those people never contribute to the fortune or posting on blonde then I know you consider them to be irrelevant to the discussion anyway, which is reasonable in this context.

(http://www.popimage.com/dec99/pics/scrooge.jpg)

my later attack was on tighty and you asked me to leave it at that so i did and havent posted since- please stop assuming every post I make is an attack as i made it quite clear which post i was having a pop. if ever I am having a go at anyone I make it quite clear I am doing so and would only do it when I know they are there so they get a chance to see it, i wouldnt dream of doing it behind his back or when he wasnt online meaning everyone would see my point only. There is no way he would have to get phonecalls etc saying have you seen what russ is saying about you etc.

I do stand by the points i made in this post and they were not a personal attack on anyone.

It's also a poll of why the posters of blonde came here originally, not a reflection on if they want the updates or not

imo obv yo

just been reading a bit more, and the impression I am getting is that basically all the sites who are doing live updates are suffering in some way. thinking out loud, that would suggest to me that unless someone can come up with a uniquely brilliant business model, then they are really not viable. As I hinted at in my last post the only I can see it being viable is by getting other people/companies to pay for your product (updates) directly. Effectively then you become the big daddy in the updating world, which may just make the whole thing viable. It also becomes more viable for others, because they will then pay a flat fee for your updates, rather than travel/hotels/exps/wages to keep their own people on.

one other thing I was thinking about is, if one of these business gurus came in and asked for a mission statement, what would you say that blonde poker was ? It may appear to the casual observer that it is trying to be too many things, and as a result not concentrating on one main area.

Hi Tony, i am in good heart thank you for asking, i have now read all of this thread and agree with you that needs must, it just seems such a shame to loose (even for the short term) a commodity like Snoops.

I have been in business for the last 20 years, i have never made anyone redundant nor have i had to lay anyone off during this period, even if it meant struggling through some very difficult times. How would you feel if Snoops was snapped up by one of the other sites?.... Don't answer that as i already know the answer.

Business is business and you need to do what you think is best, hope you are well and manage to get through these very difficult times.

Ps. sorry to hear about the Poker Trillion sarga.

Steve Read.

correct me if im wrong please but id just like to get my facts right here.

dont get me wrong i think blondepedia is a fantastic creation but are you telling me it costs £1000 a month alone to maintain and keep up to date?

A lot of people seem to be unaware that the updaters already do work elsewhere.

yes they do and that blonde helped these updaters grow into the excellent poker journaliists they are today.

No, that's what Snoopy costs. He does a bunch of stuff.

thanks dana appreciate your reply thought it was a little excessive for that alone.

Until i read this thread i was not aware of this, but i still think that Snoops will be an enormous (even if temporary) loss to Blonde, but as i said.... needs must.

it just seems such a shame to loose (even for the short term) a commodity like Snoops.

Despite what has been implied by others, what makes you think I do NOT think it's a shame? And he's not a commodity, he's a good friend, who has been totally loyal to me, & to whom I have been totally loyal, in ways (mutually) you could not even begin to imagine. What would you say if we tried to keep him, but ended up grimming him for his wages? That'd it'd be unfair? Yes, it would.

How would you feel if Snoops was snapped up by one of the other sites?.... Don't answer that as i already know the answer

Do you? Really? So you already know he already works for other Poker sites. With our blessing. (Like he needs it). Regularly?  And good luck to him, so he should. And if he departed us permanently, well that'd be a very sad blow for me. But I'd rather he left, & went elsewhere, than I risked grimming a top man for his wages.

If we did not pay his wages, & knocked him, I know exactly who the first ones would be to tell me I'm out of order.

are the articles that are regularly on the homepage by the likes of snoopy exclusive to blonde or are they written for other sites or magazines and just reproduced on blondes homepage?

Err, so do I. It's a statement of the obvious really Steve. Who in their right mind would NOT think it sad?   

For the avoidance of doubt, ALL our Updaters, I believe, Freelance to other Poker Sites from time to time. It's a freelance trade, & everyone in it is Freelance.

Blonde do not "directly employ" anyone, everyone is a Freelance "sub-contractor" so far as I'm aware.

Although we have not allway's seen eye to eye Tony i am actually agreeing with you here, my written words sometimes let me down, i am not as literally gifted as the likes of yourself and Snoops, which is why he'll be such a loss!

Snoops, as Dana noted, does "a bunch of stuff".

Regular articles, (exclusive), galleries, Results, (now part delegated after three years of snoops toil), Caption Comps, blondepedia, Updates, lots of things. All done splendidly. Unfortunately, they do not translate ito Revenue, but they are a wondeful constituent of the Ste.

I hope they soon will be, again.

I was blissfully unaware we "have not always seen eye to eye". It's news to me.

Yes, I now he'll be a loss. Consider that I know that, please. Then consider, bearing that in mind, how pleasant Rich & I found it driving down to meet him, & tell him, yesterday. It was the better thing to do, in the circumstances.

".....I was blissfully unaware we "have not always seen eye to eye". It's news to me......"

I recall now, I think - sorry. I think you (and a million others) were on my case when APAT Launched.

I completely agree, that can't have been very pleasant at all, i hope i never find myself in that horrible situation, good luck and i hope Snoops returns sooner rather than later.

That's the one....LOL all in the past now hopefully.

At Broadway Casino on Friday nights there's a free buffet at the break. It's always chicken & chips. Fecking always. This same guy moans and groans about that free meal every week. He offers some ridic juice-based argument to defend the moaning. But I pay juice wherever I go. It's free chicken & chips man!! This thread has turned into that moaning Broadway man imo. Ariston I reckon you were making good sense at the start of the thread. Liked that a lot. But strenuous criticism of what is really a fantastic free facility for letting down it's non-paying customers is plainly out of line. The business model may not be perfect, but how can the guys who contribute to making this available at all be open to anyone else's scorn?

The guys who run this site seem like pretty passionate people to me, especially to put up with this shit and still want to carry on. This passion makes them nothing like PT. Nowhere near it. But passionate people can get agitated pretty easy if you poke them, so it's disappointing to see these guys having to justify themselves. I think people should just relax a bit cos the chicken & chips is actually pretty tasty imo.

This..........and other than to keep us all informed as to what's happening at Blonde, it's up the owners of BP whats in its best interest to keep it up and running. Whilst its maybe helpful to throw in the odd suggestion to help these guys out, the rest doesn't involve us really so we should keep our noses out IMO. Especially those that don't otherwise contribute constructively or financially to the forum/cardroom, had to be said really.

this is all quite sad, best of luck steadying the ship. I always thought that blondes main asset was its forum and the way the forum was conducted, that ethos has died a little since its inception, but its still in my mind the best forum out there, and I cant see any reason why it wont remain that way even though the updates are gone.

Most of the people that only come here to read the updates are easily lost, and its no skin off anyones back if they go... and even if blonde members DO go to other forums to read updates, the core members will still post here even during those updates, its not like the internet invoked some rule whereby you are only allowed to post @ 1 forum per year.

I guess the only thing that matters at the moment is Tony and the other shareholders, tony has been very insistent that he didn't want to use this place as a way to make money, he was happy to provide all this as a breakeven proposition because that is what he loves to do, and if they still feel that way, then by far the best scenario is to chop out the massive costs like updates that wont generate revenue.

If they want to try and turn it into a business/profit orientated organisation, that might mean a detriment to the whole "blonde" attitude, and while I have no doubts that this place could be turned into a real cash cow, its the cost of turning it into a cashcow to Tikay et als ideals that is probably most important. It is after all his baby.


My only sticking-the-beak-in suggestion would be to do all you can to maintain the blondepedia. That has a truly enormous scope to turn into something huge. Not many people on here, and not many people around the internet, take much interest in the front page, but many many people take an interest in the blondepedia, search google and see the results when you type in peoples names. A lot of them come back to that, and as we saw with thehendonmob and their results-database, that turned into a huge world-wide success, and I personally think that the blondepedia is your best chance of having an economically viable business, whilst maintainng the values that tony et al wanted when they started this venture.

best of luck either way, I hope it all turns out for the best

Yup. Three years on, into Season Three now, over half a milllon dollars worth of Added Money garnered from Sponsors, every last cent of which is passed onto the players, Membership now free, nearly a score of Live Events ticked off, all ran like cloclkwork, & Des, Tighty & me (me less so latterly, I confess) are still going strong. That ferocious battle to gain hearts & minds when we first started is probably why we are all still there, at APAT. One in the eye for the baying mob. Bring em on.

The only APAT failure are those damn Ferraris we were said to be getting. Still not got them.

Well, that's about me done for the day.

Thank you for all the positive words, ideas, & mostly good vibes.

I have not caught up on my PM backlog, but I think I've replied to every one that came in today - & there were over 30. ALL supportive, all understanding, & no personal shite or grief.

It's kinda odd that so many supportive notes came via PM - rather than "on thread". Many folks like to help discretely I guess.

Two of the most well-known names in British Poker PM'd me, & offered to play on blonde. HUGE Rakers both of them. We're trying to sort it right this moment.

And I just (02.45am) got a text from a true-blue long-term blonde supporter - another name everybody knows well. Everybody. And he said, (paraphrased) it's unthinkable that you won't be updating certain things, & I'll get back to you with a solution". With a solution.......

I replied to him "thank you. But just remember this please. I don't do give up, & I'd like to retain them in some form. Bet against me getting my way at your peril".

So, watch this space.

I'm an old skool grinder.

I'll not be Online much tomorrow, not at all on Saturday & Sunday (see my Diary for excuse), so I'm afraid Tighty will have to hold the fort. As per. He'll be OK, he's a bigger man than some might think.

Night all.

Regards Google Ads (They will not have anything to do with gaming sites)

Sorry to see Trillion have done this to you, and the knock on effect it has had. Hope the updates/updaters will only be a temporary loss, and they will be back up to speed shortly. I for one, as well as many others will miss them and await their return.

Dana has a valid point regards Google rankings, if you slip you are back to square one and would devalue the site (which is probably what you don't want hear as I suspect you wouldn't sell it anyway, but it devalues it non the less and would mean potentially less traffic in the blonde cardroom).

I would be very tempted to speculate to accumulate, but in the current climate that may be very disastrous, whatever route Tikay and Richard decide, best of luck to you.

Viva la blonde!

Read a post on a previous page about a members fee to the update forum. £5 direct debit per month.

I have a variation on that post.

Have £2.50 of that direct debit go to the update costs and £2.50 goes into a pot. Every time there is £1k in the pot do a random draw from all dd payers to win a GUKPT seat.
(or £300 for DTD or whatever)

Not sure how many would sign a dd just for the fiver a month to the update costs but I reckon quite a few would sign the £5 a month if there was a chance of winning the occasional seat somewhere. I would.

I've spoken to Google about this one.  They only recently allowed gambling (or gambling-related sites) to purchase Adwords.  These show on the google search pages, and also on other sites (Adsense).  The problem is that the Adsense links are not allowed to be placed on gambling sites. 

However, we're working on something else, something that is actually more lucrative than Adsense...

Links to porn websites?

(Would have to change the name to ShavedPoker)

Nor a poll on if they would stay without them or an indication that blonde would lose any revenue if they did leave.

Laz has a great idea there with syndication.

Sandy

Tighty / Tikay

I have read several times on this thread that the Blonde business model is failing and that the reason it hasn't been changed is because of a lack of funds.

Tighty says that he has a new business model which includes updates and homepage that would work but would require a cash injection to allow for the changeover.

If this business model exists then I can see no good reason to not go to a bank and ask for a loan/overdraft to implement it. If it truly would work then you would have no problem securing the funds as long as you could show the bank that it would work.

If it works you would then make a decent profit and be able to pay back the bank. If it fails then it's never going to work so you go back to cardroom / forum with none of the added extras but at least you've given it a good go.

I understand that you don't want to owe any money but unfortunately it looks like it has to be done in this instance. No new business can start up without a cash injection and an existing business with a new business model is essentially a new business.

Are you hoping that with the reduced costs over the next few months that you will be able to build a fund with which to implement the new business model? If this is the case and the new business model is expected to make a profit then I honestly can't see a reason other than personal feelings to not get a £xxk loan to make this happen now.

The sooner the change is made the better if it is a genuinely good business plan which will turn Blonde in to a profit making organisation.

i think what tighty said was that if they could go back 4 years then they would have been RB affiliates instead of site owners which would have made them a fortune if for example pretty much every time a blonde plays on any site blonde get a cut. however the decision was made to run a site and to become non RB affiliates with virgin, will hill poker heaven etc. Now if you were to become a RB affiliate today you have a problem that most blondes are already signed up with most sites so it would take a long time to attract new people to blonde who aren't already signed up everywhere. Hence the partnership with RTR instead of doing it inhouse I guess.

Hi Matt,

The answer to this lies in the major shareholder's deep seated aversion to debt. I am not criticising this, its ultra prudent. It does however mean that any growth we do acheive is genuinely organic, as we can't invest to grow, or get any money to invest until we grow!

To give you an idea of how this debt averse attitude impacts, the business or any individuals in it are not allowed to have a company credit card. In practice I wouldn't need one but it would have helped the updaters booking hotels, flights, trains etc to do so through a card rather than funding through their own accounts and invoicing blonde.

Away from the updates, I'm frankly not sure if a "blank sheet of paper" and develop it business model would appeal to the banks at a time when lending volumes are so low. In essence I'd be going to them and asking for money to trade until the new model was up and running, when the success of that new model - -- lets say as a super affiliate of Ladbrokes, with all our players cardroom volume on blonde going to them in exchange for a nice percentage of rake-- would be uncertain at best

In reality, I am not going to be able to borrow from the banks. The central problem here is unsupportive and silent shareholders (with obvious exceptions thank you tikay) who are unprepared to back the business..that rules out a share issue for example to raise money

What would I use investment for? Well possibly

Well for a start greater IT resources would be +EV in many areas
Update enhancements, technology etc
Card-room promotion
Advertising (not necessarily expensive print media) to promote blonde away from our current members

All this would be costed, with benefits quantified and performance measured against these metrics but its a non-starter sadly.

why not just stop working on blonde, let the shareholders run it if they wish, if not let blonde die and you and tikay set up a new company without them?

We're getting to the nitty gritty of it now lol

Quite honestly this was suggested and discussed beginning around April last year

What can I say lol? er, ultra prudence and morals got in the way. I can't really say a lot more I am afraid

LOL. Beat me to it.

This makes perfect sense. Thanks for the info.

I'm afraid this is such an old fashioned attitude it's unreal. I, like you am not knocking it btw. In my own business which was started up many moons ago by my father we aren't allowed company credit cards. He is very much a "cash man".

When he retires I can "do whatever I want" but until then credit cards etc. are a no no.


I realised this as I was typing. It's definitely not a good time to approach banks for anything. Maybe a year ago it was easy but now your business model would have to pretty much water tight.


What a nightmare situation. I can't think of a good reason bearing this in mind to continue Blondepoker.com

Ever thought of setting up Blondepoker.co.uk?

Sounds like quite a catchy name to me. I'm sure you'd get lots of new members quite quickly.

Good posts Evilpie.  I agree that setting up elsewhere would be a better solution than sticking with the existing shareholders that don't care about their business.   I don't think you'll get away with simply using the same name but dot co dot uk though, I'm sure there's laws about that. 

If you wanted a business card, what's stopping you from getting a personal card and using it for business purposes only?  It would save you the added costs involved with business cards.  Can't see that this is a major point though, more of an example of the constraints that you are having to run under?

Can someone please PM me the URL of where the new People's Breakaway Republic of Blondepoker will be, and I'll see you there later on.

Actually we don't own blondepoker.co.uk. Back in 2005 when blonde was starting the powers that be didn't secure it and one of the domain sharks stepped in and bought it

Cost of acquiring it now is unhelpful!

Sorry you're in the wrong club.

We're the "Breakaway People's Republic of Blondepoker".

I hope somebody gets that  ;hide;

That's OK - just as long as there's no members of the Popular People's Republic around.

Splitters!

This is what I have to do which is essentially the same as what Blonde have done.

However the costs associated with a business credit card are nowhere near the costs associated with administrating expenses claims at the end of every month. It just makes sense to have a company credit card.

rotflmfao

Thanks mate. Made my day.

Then it is quite clear that you are not running a business; you are running a charity for the benefit of the 'sleeping' shareholders. 

Given that you have a potential investor who cannot do a deal because these shareholders think their shares have more than a nominal value, I suggest that you are being royally screwed by said shareholders and you owe them precisely what their shares are currently worth, i.e. the square root of sweet f. a.

All imho, obv.

Please post more.!

why not just stop working on blonde, let the shareholders run it if they wish, if not let blonde die and you and tikay set up a new company without them?

Well now.......

As Tighty points out, a scheme was proposed to us to do exactly that. I'm afraid I can't be doing with that sort of thing, & I never will. Short-sighted, obduracy, I know, but I just don't do those kind of things.

Borrowings? Again, I take the blame/responsibility for that. I'm just averse to running up debts we may not be able to service. It's an obsession of mine.

Turnover is vanity

Profit is sanity.

Cash is King.

It's ingrained in every cell of my body.

So no, I make things difficult by not sanctioning Credit Cards or borrowings. I plan to die with the squeakyiest cleanest Credit Rating ever. Credit can be an evil thing. See "credit crunch" & it's cause. Bear in mind, please, that I, & I alone, would have to stand guaranteed for any loans or borrowings, not the silent or non-active Shareholders. Everyone is on my case - "you should borrow, everyone else does" - but they don't have to stand guarantee for the loans. I do. So yes, this holds blonde back. It also ensures we cannot go bankrupt. If things went badly wrong, we just cease trading, owing nobody a bean. Anyway, is it really fair & proper for me to take on debt at my time of life?

I'll have to Post seperately as to the Shareholder situation, becuse it's quite complex.

Essentially, Dave started the business (not me, as suggested yesterday). Dave is now "silent", or "non-active", as are the other major Shareholders - Rhowena & Denis. All three desperately want to sell their Shares. Agreeing a price with would-be buyers is the stumbling block. The other Shareholders are myself, Jen, snoops, & Harry Demetriou. To cut any sort of deal, a majority is required. Here's the approx holdings.

Denis 27%

Me - 25%.*

Dave 19%

Rhowena 16%

Harry Demetriou 10%

Jen - 5%

snoops - 2%

* - I have pledged 3 of my Shares to another Sharehoder by way of thanks for services rendered, but I retain voting control of them until & unless sold.

Folks come in almost weekly to offer to buy Shares. but they always come to nothing, due to differing opinions on the value of the Shares.

My Shares have never been up for Sale, but if a majority voted one way, I'd be obliged to follow. A deal was agreed in the Spring of this year for new Shareholders to buy the entire Company, for an eye-watering sum, & retain the Staff, but it fell over at - almost literally - the last miniute.

If selling, or giving away, my Shares would aid the Company significantly, I'd agree without reservation.

Two "offers" for blonde Shares (not mine) are currently in train, but agreeing a fair value seems to be a problem.

There you go. Old skool obduracy.

Welcome back 12bar blues, you always cut to the chase eloquently......

Seperately, I just don't get all this "we  must have Credit cards" stuff. Why?

I stay in hotels 3 or 4 nights a week, & have never paid in advance yet. Credit Cards just delay the bill, & they can build up debts alarmingly if not strictly controlled.

I ran a business for the last 30 years of my working career, of which I was MD, & it employed 600 folks. Nobody - not even me - was allowed a Credit Card, or a Cheque Book. ONLY the Accountants. Accountants are a PITA, but they can, & shoud, control spend.

So, only our Accountant - currently Curtis Ledger (Sherff Fatman) has access to our Online Banking & Cheque Book. That won't change while I'm around.

maybe you should. a lot of hotels nowadays give a fairly large discount on advance payment

No way.

boooking.com, cheapest, best, & don't pay a penny until the day.

I'm sorry, but this Credit Card debate is a red herring. Maybe even a blue herring. Either way, it's not relevant to the centrl issue.

this - by not paying in advance you could be pissing a lot of money up the wall which seems a bit ironic given your apparent inclination towards financial prudence

You can usually pay in advance by debit card as well as by credit card.

here in lies another potential area for blonde to be looking at - possibly two levels of "blonde membership" which could include negotiated hotel rates, money off vouchers for casino restaurants/bars etc - the list is almost endless and the cost almost nothing - indeed a lot of these non-poker affiliate deals could generate revenue on their own.

so pay 0 pounds and you still get forum access and blonde news/results/pedia

pay x pounds and get a special "platinum blonde" membership card which gives access to the live updates, and all the non-poker affiliate deals which have been negotiated.

I don't pay in advance for Hotels. Why should I, or anyone?

Anyway, it's a trifle, & not relevant.

Book in advance and pay as late as possible. For someone that claims cash is king your working capital management is pretty shocking imo.....


luv PITA  :kiss:

p.s. look forward to seeing you all tomorrow  :D

Because it's cheaper

But yes.

Spot the Sky employee  ;)

No it's not.

I'm Duffy-Trained. ;)

Got to admit reading through this thread has left me feeling a bit of a fraud, as you can see I am not a regular poster, but I do read through the forum most days and keep up to date with the major event through the updates.  Take Take Take, is all I have ever done.

Bit late I know, but just registered with the poker client and made my first deposit, will play my ipoker games on blonde from now on.

Firstly, thank you very much

Secondly, no need to criticise yourself! Our problems are mostly of our own making on a medium term view of things

FYP

why has nobody blamed boldie yet?  :dontask:

He's got our money at the moment and we don't want grimming.

3 grand on the first horse, and he'll be buying 51%.

All part of his master plan.

Unbelievable thread.

Whats the point in pointing out how Rich/Tony feel about this? Im pretty sure they know.

Im probably gonna regret this but can someone PM me the implications of offering to have a go at updating the March DTD £300 myself, with my own kit, for free.
No hotels, no expenses.
They might not know it but Rich/Tony/Des are probably the reason I play as much poker as I do now.

I know when i normally post like this im drunk, but im actually at work today so im only half cut  ;D

Im not here for the Feb one, im not definately going to do the March one. But im interested in helping them out in someway.

Now for the tickboxes

[  ] My updates will be as good as the normal ones
[  ] My updates would be good
[X] At least we would have something
[X] They would be norkage tastic
[X] They may culminate in a picture of me being thrown out the building

In all seriousness though, if people are interested, I would have a go.

Stu's updates would be awesome.

There wouldn't be any poker info on there but the norkage pics would be first rate because he a real pervert.

Well volunteered Stu.

I wish i could argue that point

I might even include extra norkage instead of those demonic cats.

Stuart

If we're still requiring volunteer updates by the time you are sober enough to do one, we'll almost certainly take you up on your kind offer. Not just for norkage either, but cat absence will count in your favour.

Will PM nearer the time


For starters a volunteer or two for next weekend's DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) £300 on a budget of £0 would be handy....

If it didn't clash with APAT I'd gladly voluteer.  Stick me on the list of those willing to help out in case you're ever really desperate :D

Thanks Stu.

We might yet accept your offer.

I shouuld add, I'm more bullish than most that our Updates will continue, starting with next weekends's DTD £300.

In my little dream world, if we could Update all the DTD Events in 2009, & all the GUKPT Events, I'd be delighted.

We had to do some things for prudency sake, I'm almost OCD about incurring debt we might not be able to pay.

So we did what we think we had to, & I came on here & fessed up - but then it all got a bit sidetracked by some, who thought it worth telling me that we'd regret it, & the people were all lovely. Like we did not know that......

It's not THAT bad, & discussions are taking place, all over the place, right now, to find a way to keep the Updates, albeit just DTD & GUKPT if I had my way. But I have to ensure we can pay our bills first.

Next weekend's DTD? If I were a betting man (I'm not any more), I'd say we were Even money to be there. Hopefully, with the usual personnel.

We shall see.

I must say, aside from the nonsensical "you'll regret it" stuff, there have been some marvellously interesting & positive ideas lsted on this thread, & I'm very grateful. Touched, even.

Taking Stu up his offer??

You might regret that.

he'll be taking him up the old camera obscurer next

Thanks Owen.

I think more than 20 Members have told us the same thing - they have now Deposited on blonde & will play a bit there from now on - in the last 24 hours, including some huge rakers. It's extraordinary. If they all come through, our Cardroom Revenues will spike sharply upwards with immediate effect.

And then we can try & undo all those things we regretted having to do.

Thanks again, to you, & all the others who have offered to help in one form or another.

+1  deffo, actually, I'd quite like to do it!

fear not blondites cia to the rescue i'll bail you out................

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Ha you fool!!

By posting this here you have gone against their security protocols and have set yourself up for grimming.

You've not even crossed out your unique lottery ticket number!!

If someone else gets to this cash award before you you only have yourself to blame.

Nice one Owen

If this was a bird watching forum, (with live updates :D)...I'm not sure how to generate income............but FFS were poker players......play on whatever site you like, just add some Blonde into the mix !!

Certainly the Manchester/Bolton based events I can cover quite cheaply ( as in I live 5 mins walk from Manchester G, work 10 mins away from Bolton) if it were to come to such things... need an excuse to use my digital camera :)

If I win the Euromillion lottery tonight...

.....we won't see you working at the G anymore??

That, too.

Some great news - please see....

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=39900.0

Aside from the help given by DTD today, we also had a bunch of help from Joe Beevers, over at THM.

He's come up with a whole raft of things that may help, & we are discussing them further with him very shortly, probably Monday.

It's terrific that our two Forums get along so well, & that THM is run by such genuine guys. We've helped, & respected, each others Forums since Day One. Joe, in fact, assisted me in the first ever blonde Live Update, from Copehagen, & has been helping us ever since. We will continue to respect Joe, & the THM Forum, as long as I'm around, & we won't queer their pitch, ever.

Just throwing a few thoughts out there (admittedly, have only gotten to page six of thread, will go and read rest after I add this 2 cents, apologies if it's already been covered or the ideas are naiive to the point of being silly)


Firstly, the donate button.

As I understand it, the idea is unworkable on the grounds of something to do with blondes shareholders.
Would it make a difference if things were structured so that none of the money from the donate button went to blonde directly and instead it went straight to the updaters.
The updaters wouldn't be employees of blonde, and would recieve only their expenses.

I think they'd get a decent amount from the doante button to make a decent wage, especially if people reading knew the money was going straight into the pocket of those hardworking and talented guys.
I guess they'd be like American waiters, working for tips.



Secondly, on the subject of expenses, would it help the cause at all if people who lived in the locale of a given tournament were prepared to put a roof over the heads of the updaters for a night or two instead of them running up hotel bills? At least while times are tight.

This might be a very naiive plan, but for the sake of keeping the hardest working journalists in buisness, I'd certainly be prepared to sort something out (that may even include a hearty breakfast and lifts to and from the casino) if ever the updaters were to venture to one of the GUKPT thingys in Aberdeen.

Ref accomodating updaters.
This crossed my mind as well.We have a nationwide group of members ,many of whom ,I am sure,would be happy to provide lodgings for the updating team.It would just come down to how the individual updaters felt about such an arrangement.

Getting closer to that "muckle" sir.

Will see you at lunchtime.

Geo

Sorry to hear the forum is struggling. I saw a post suggesting a newsletter. I agree you need to market more. You could ask everyone who wants to support the forum to play in a tournament you set up once a month and play some cash at the same time. By asking people to play for one or two hours you can see what support you have and generate some cash for Blonde. You could see what this generates and could make it a regular event. I am a fan of the forum and will make my first deposit on Blonde this weekend.

I think the newsletter is a great idea but there is an IT issue on this - and again it comes down to cost I believe. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Keep an eye on the boards for threads started by Kev - these list all the comps for Blonde - and hopefully soon we'll be hearing about some satt leagues for the bigger comps that you might like to play like DTD and WSOP.

Good luck at the tables this weekend - remember there is help on the hand analysis board for all levels of player as well as the bad beat threads....... ::)  lets hope you can post on the ship it thread!!

I've never understood this reasoning. It costs nothing to send out an email newsletter and how can it be an "IT issue"?

The answers on newsletters are actually quite pathetic and embarrassing. Well at least I find it embarrassingly unprofessional

Anyway we're going to move to do text based non-deadline based (!) newsletters regularly, and there are occasional opportunities to get paid to spam the database on behalf of a third party, including one at the moment I am tying up.

If something similar has been suggested then apologies.

To give Blonde support in the way of £££££'s is to play on there Cardroom.

I haven't got time to play online poker to gind my way to be a winning player which will also benefit Blonde a Tenner in rake.

I'd much prefer a "Donate to Blonde" Button. Either paying on paypal or debit card or set a direct debit up.
Totally optional and discreet. I actually think Blonde offers a great service and for this i'm prepared to pay.

The benefit to me I'd prefer to donate direct to you  £XXX instead playing on line poker losing £XXXXX to rake you £X

Everyones a winner

Just an idea that will work. IMHO.

Regards

M

I don't think it's a terrible idea this donating thing, I've seen other websites with that donate button on them and never been offended or anything but I very much doubt you're ever going to see them on blonde. tikay has obv been a very successful businessman in the past and clearly any businessman is going to have some winners and some losers just like Branson or Stelios or pretty much any investor/trader/poker player/whatever. So although he prob wouldn't say it my guess is that he would have too much self respect to ask for charity when this is meant to be a business. If there is a way to make money from the demand for updates then I'm sure tikay and tighty (tt?) will manage it eventually

Devils Advocate Alert

What happens IF

blonde put the button on for donations

We schedule some updates

we book the freelance updaters

we book accom

we book travel

the donations button does not collect enough to cover costs.

Excellent point imo, feel the same way

Someone suggested a "Blue Peter" style target thingy before.

Could you not have it running during a weekend of updates with something like "if we hit this target we'll be back for GUKPT Walsall"

What are the costs of say a 4 day GUKPT update?

"the donations button does not collect enough to cover costs".

Kev as long as Blonde has the same people around it I'm sure they will weather the storm and storms approaching.

The donate button idea is for someone like me or someone who enjoys the community i.e family members following updates of friends loved ones etc that are not poker players or just like the forum because it's a nice place to visit to contribute something.

I think you will get a reasonable amount of incremental income. Every £20 per week you can generate is a £1000
a year towards running costs soon adds up.

Regards

M

Two updaters. None are currently on the staff as we sadly know. We pay £100 per person per day. So thats £800. As was noted much earlier in the thread this is about a third of the rate that the large sites like PokerListings and PokerNews charge(d) for updates. This is only relevant in that we're competing for freelancers for some events. The £100 rate hasn't changed for years and frankly underdoes it.

Food allowance £20 or so per updater per day. They do long shifts over as much as 12 hours and to the best of my knowledge food is not provided by the GUKPT host venue, though it is at dtd, kindly

Hotel. One shared room perhaps at say £60 per night

Travel. Lets say £50 per updater


So totting that up £800 + £160 + £240 +100 so £1,200 or so

Cost for a two day two person dtd-er is £600-700 or so

Over a month on a basic slate of one GUKPT and one DTD we're talking £2,000 or so. To put this in context it exceeds the revenue (net) from our card-room in four of the last six months (though not previously, when revenue was higher). Here we are back to business model, weaknesses of our card-room etc etc


As to a donation button, I see it on a lot of fora but MOSTLY its on forums without associated businesses, thus non-commercial- forums only . If I said no it wouldn't be an issue of pride as such. I am sure we could get round the issue of it going into a big shareholders pot by setting it up to go to an "updates fund". I have my doubts though whether we'd receive the sums required to make the updates viable, on a regular basis.

I agree, first month you might get a reasonable donation........but no way would future months get anywhere near 2K IMHO. Sponsorship of  at least one of them looks a must, as well as looking at inceasing "proper" income via cardroom/advertising etc.

Aside from specifically asking for donations for updates the success of which I would have my doubts about, for those who enjoy blonde but don't want to play on line I think this is a perfectly acceptable idea. Frankly, it isn't me you have to convince though!

Well as has been indicated things are currently hectic. Nicely hectic

- Discussions to have with dtd
- Discussions with new card-room players, big rakers in some cases
- Advertising deals etc
- Partnership/content deals


Some of which have emerged as we've disturbed the earth publically and new shoots have sprouted in the last 48 hours. I'm more optimistic now than I was that some of this will come to fruition and help us restore finances and achieve what we'd like to do for blonde, its services notably updates/main site and of course our own personal staff finances!

Wow. Didn't realise it pulled in so little. Just out of interest, how much net revenue would blonde make from a player who raked $15,000 a month?

THEY EXIST??

er roughly roughly roughly $3,000-$5,000 depending on the deal with the player and the variable costs in the card-room at that time

Yes. I have a friend who is looking to move to ipoker shortly who currently rakes that much on Ladbrokes. Ask Kev to check his PMs from earlier this week.

It was (meant to be) humour!

but yes, thanks very much for the lead. Much appreciated.

Although there have been one or two exceptions, the gukpt does provide food for the press. Often the blonde updaters prefer to eat out, but a free food option is available.

thanks Jon, I didn't know that. Apologies for suggesting otherwise.

Lets cut the theoretical cost of a GUKPT update by two updaters food allowances for four days then................

I have never refused ... in fact I think I have only been beaten to the front of the queue ONCE !!


Manchester aside, Food at every GUKPT I have been to is superb.

the 400K rakerace is network wide I think and starts in 40 minutes. can't seem to get onto the blonde poker room website to check

1    $20,000.00
2    $15,000.00
3-5    $10,000.00
6-10    $7,000.00
11-15    $5,000.00
16-20    $3,000.00
21-25    $2,000.00
26-75    $1,500.00
76-125    $1,000.00
126-300    $750.00

Sorry for this.


Spacefrog will smile with you once this time has pass.

Smile?  Smile?!  You have no right to smile until you show us a breakfast.  Until then...go away.

just put the bloody donate button up...call it a voluntary subscription.

FFS, TK stop protesting against it! ;)