blonde Live Updates - your opinions needed please.

[Colchester Kev]

floppy raises and makes many valid points, however what he does not mention is the fact that the updates cost lots and return little in the way of revenue ... THATS what we need to address, maximising a return to blonde in measurable terms from the expense of covering all these events.

The fact is, we do not get a return financially from live updates, and they are without any doubt whatsoever the biggest cost to blonde. and although they are very very popular, if they cost us a lot more to cover than they bring in, then common sense and pure business acumen means that we cannot continue to be travelling all around europe following poker as much as we have done without the backing of a sponsor.

we are an all round poker community and we have to concern ourselves with all aspects of that community .... as much as we would love to bring coverage from every major poker event in Europe, the fact is that without some sort of return on our costs OR a full sponsorship deal, we cannot justify covering everything.

Now of course, if a fair % of the people who come to blonde for the updates actually downloaded the cardroom and played a few hours a week, we wouldnt be in the position of having to worry about expenses such as this ... But unfortunately, blonde IS a business with overheads and costs .. and these need to be covered, as tikay has said many times, we have no overdraft and we owe no one a penny piece and thats the way we will continue ... the shareholders of blonde have each contributed to blonde in many ways and most of those financially ... not one of them has ever taken a single penny out of blonde .. NOT ONE !!  so it remains that we have to carry on trying and doing everything we can to become self sufficient ... but much of that falls on the shoulders of every member who uses blonde in any way shape or form to give a little something back ... we are blessed with a fantastic community here, we have meet ups and get togethers, friendships and even relationships have been forged through blonde. Many many members participate in blonde cardroom comps and contribute in many different ways ... those people know who they are and also know how grateful we are for their support, the fact remains however, for every one member that actively supports all blondes endeavours, there are many more that do not.

[tikay]

Good Grief! What a wicked thread this became. I asked a few questions, & boy oh boy, you gave some terrific answers.

One point I'd like to make is with regard to the practice of leaving flyers & CD's around, when the Venue is Hosted or Sponsored by another Cardroom. For instance, if Blue Square give us free access (& sarnies, a Press Room & good co-operation) to GUKPT's, then the last stroke we are gonna pull is to bombard the Venue with blonde Flyers. That's just bang out of order, & it's a case of "do as thy will be done". The blonde Waterford Fessie suffered from this malaise, when another CardRoom literally showered our Event with CD's & Flyers advertising their Site, & all of us in blonde were mortally miffed.

It's business, & we need to think that way, but there are depths to which we ain't gonna stoop.

As several have said, the real & best answer is for blonde to increase it's Cardroom Revenue. It's that simple, really.

In the meantime, life will go on, our Updates will continue, & we will simply cut our cloth according to our means.

I'd like to end by congratulating our Updaters - ALL of them - on doing a splendid job. The site would be much poorer without them. Richer, but poorer, if you get my drift.

[Tractor]

What about taking Paypal donations?
I mentioned it earlier in the thread, it gives people a chance to give a bit back to Blonde without having to play on the cardroom(if they do not have time etc).
Its easy to set up and im sure it would generate quite a bit of revenue.

[kinboshi]

One thing that I've seen little of (in this country anyway) is non-poker companies sponsoring poker events. 

There's nothing stopping a clothing firm, drinks company, or someone similar from sponsoring the updates on the forum (and possibly beyond that).  That way there's no conflict of interest in terms of promoting a rival card room.

At the WSOP there were energy drinks and the like who have got involved in promoting their products, realising that poker players do actually might buy other stuff that isn't directly poker related.

[tikay]

What about taking Paypal donations?
I mentioned it earlier in the thread, it gives people a chance to give a bit back to Blonde without having to play on the cardroom(if they do not have time etc).
Its easy to set up and im sure it would generate quite a bit of revenue.

It's a very nice thought, by you, & several others to me, via PM, thank you.

But ultimately it's a business, & my businesses (by which I mean, those I've been involved in running) have always stood on their own two feet, & so should blonde, it's just a principle thing. We just want the numbers to stack up, & I think we'd all be uncomfortable taking what amounts to charity.

I don't want this thread to make it appear that blondepoker Web Ltd is on it's uppers - it's definitely NOT! It's coming along nicely, it has no debts, no overdraft, no borrowings (unless you throw in payment for the time that, for example, Denis & I & others do, & we have no plans to draw Salaries or Dividends), so it's in decent shape financially. But we are ultra-prudent financially, & with Rich being of the same mind, we are thinking ahead on this thread, just making sure we spend our money where it's best spent.

There are very few businesses that can exist without an overdraft, but we are one, & we intend to stay that way. But it is a business, so although we are most touched by tne idea of a "paypal" donation button, I'm afraid it's just not appropriate. How would you feel, for example, if we suddenly sold the Site for a shed-load of money? I'm not suggesting we will, but it's possible - we are frequently asked to "name our price"! So far, we've resisted, but one never knows.

Anyway, thanks again.

[Tractor]

What about taking Paypal donations?
I mentioned it earlier in the thread, it gives people a chance to give a bit back to Blonde without having to play on the cardroom(if they do not have time etc).
Its easy to set up and im sure it would generate quite a bit of revenue.

It's a very nice thought, by you, & several others to me, via PM, thank you.

But ultimately it's a business, & my businesses (by which I mean, those I've been involved in running) have always stood on their own two feet, & so should blonde, it's just a principle thing. We just want the numbers to stack up, & I think we'd all be uncomfortable taking what amounts to charity.

I don't want this thread to make it appear that blondepoker Web Ltd is on it's uppers - it's definitely NOT! It's coming along nicely, it has no debts, no overdraft, no borrowings (unless you throw in payment for the time that, for example, Denis & I & others do, & we have no plans to draw Salaries or Dividends), so it's in decent shape financially. But we are ultra-prudent financially, & with Rich being of the same mind, we are thinking ahead on this thread, just making sure we spend our money where it's best spent.

There are very few businesses that can exist without an overdraft, but we are one, & we intend to stay that way. But it is a business, so although we are most touched by tne idea of a "paypal" donation button, I'm afraid it's just not appropriate. How would you feel, for example, if we suddenly sold the Site for a shed-load of money? I'm not suggesting we will, but it's possible - we are frequently asked to "name our price"! So far, we've resisted, but one never knows.

Anyway, thanks again.

I donate quite a bit on another site i use regularly and if they sold up tomorrow it wouldnt bother me at all, ive used ther esite for about 3 years or so, and i give them the donations because the service they offer is second to none and they do it for free (a bit like Blonde updates).

[GlasgowBandit]

What about taking Paypal donations?
I mentioned it earlier in the thread, it gives people a chance to give a bit back to Blonde without having to play on the cardroom(if they do not have time etc).
Its easy to set up and im sure it would generate quite a bit of revenue.

But ultimately it's a business, & my businesses (by which I mean, those I've been involved in running) have always stood on their own two feet, & so should blonde, it's just a principle thing. We just want the numbers to stack up, & I think we'd all be uncomfortable taking what amounts to charity.

I don't think it ammounts to charity TK, its an option that a helluva lot of sites have these days where there is no charge for the service provided.  The link could be displayed discretley on the homepage or on the live update section, I'm sure people would only be too happy to give a couple of quid for each live update they read, its not begging. 

If your still against the idea then you must be more pro-active on the live updates and get people to play the cardroom. 

[lazaroonie]

i always thought that the blonde "business model" was based on attracting new forum members thru the live updates who then provide revenue by either spending money with blonde affiliates and/or play on the blonde card room.

Based on this, only the number crunchers will be able to discern the true cost of doing the live updates over the long term benefit to blonde in terms of revenue.

I would suspect that sticking to doing live updates from the domestic competition will ultimately limit the growth potential of blonde. It may even have reached a critical mass already based on UK members. The only real areas of growth left are in a european/global market place. So ultimately it is a fairly hard headed business decision as to whether reaching these new members is worth it.

[lazaroonie]

oh yeah, and I would like to vote for the live updates to happen at the Glasgow Stanley friday night tenner rebuy tourney....always high drama

[tikay]

i always thought that the blonde "business model" was based on attracting new forum members thru the live updates who then provide revenue by either spending money with blonde affiliates and/or play on the blonde card room.

Based on this, only the number crunchers will be able to discern the true cost of doing the live updates over the long term benefit to blonde in terms of revenue.

I would suspect that sticking to doing live updates from the domestic competition will ultimately limit the growth potential of blonde. It may even have reached a critical mass already based on UK members. The only real areas of growth left are in a european/global market place. So ultimately it is a fairly hard headed business decision as to whether reaching these new members is worth it.

Laz, despite being a Scot, & thus not having much business nous, hits the nail on the head, & sums it up perfectly.

[GlasgowBandit]

oh yeah, and I would like to vote for the live updates to happen at the Glasgow Stanley friday night tenner rebuy tourney....always high drama

Aye, that would be fun!

[snoopy1239]

i always thought that the blonde "business model" was based on attracting new forum members thru the live updates who then provide revenue by either spending money with blonde affiliates and/or play on the blonde card room.

Based on this, only the number crunchers will be able to discern the true cost of doing the live updates over the long term benefit to blonde in terms of revenue.

I would suspect that sticking to doing live updates from the domestic competition will ultimately limit the growth potential of blonde. It may even have reached a critical mass already based on UK members. The only real areas of growth left are in a european/global market place. So ultimately it is a fairly hard headed business decision as to whether reaching these new members is worth it.

This is a cracking post and reflects a few of my concerns, except Lazaroonie said it much better than I ever could. For me, just saying that the EPT updates don't bring us enough card room revenue is too simple and slightly rash. These events bring in a sea of guests and attract many NEW viewers who may not have even heard of the blonderoom cardroom before. Surely these are the guys that we should be trying to lure in rather than the same old UK crowd that already know about our cardroom. In this sense, I believe the problem lies more in the way we market our cardroom, so perhaps it might be better to look at aspects such as the banners, our update thread spam, etc rather than merely saying 'right, let's cut back' without looking at it from all angles.

However, having said this, the cost of the European updates are so huge that I fully understand the reason for the cut-backs and would make exactly the same decision if it were down to me. I just hope that we don't ultimately brush them aside all together and perhaps one day come back to them when our marketing strategies have been tweaked, as I believe there are plenty of customers out there beyond what is perhaps a near exhausted UK market.

Great thread.

[tikay]

i always thought that the blonde "business model" was based on attracting new forum members thru the live updates who then provide revenue by either spending money with blonde affiliates and/or play on the blonde card room.

Based on this, only the number crunchers will be able to discern the true cost of doing the live updates over the long term benefit to blonde in terms of revenue.

I would suspect that sticking to doing live updates from the domestic competition will ultimately limit the growth potential of blonde. It may even have reached a critical mass already based on UK members. The only real areas of growth left are in a european/global market place. So ultimately it is a fairly hard headed business decision as to whether reaching these new members is worth it.

This is a cracking post and reflects a few of my concerns, except Lazaroonie said it much better than I ever could. For me, just saying that the EPT updates don't bring us enough card room revenue is too simple and slightly rash. These events bring in a sea of guests and attract many NEW viewers who may not have even heard of the blonderoom cardroom before. Surely these are the guys that we should be trying to lure in rather than the same old UK crowd that already know about our cardroom. In this sense, I believe the problem lies more in the way we market our cardroom, so perhaps it might be better to look at aspects such as the banners, our update thread spam, etc rather than merely saying 'right, let's cut back' without looking at it from all angles.

However, having said this, the cost of the European updates are so huge that I fully understand the reason for the cut-backs and would make exactly the same decision if it were down to me. I just hope that we don't ultimately brush them aside all together and perhaps one day come back to them when our marketing strategies have been tweaked, as I believe there are plenty of customers out there beyond what is perhaps a near exhausted UK market.

Great thread.

!!

First you say it was "a bit rash", then you say you'd make exactly the same decision!

We have not made a "cast in stone" decision, we are chewing it over, & we are asking for the views of the blondes.

Which seems to be, to my mind, the sensible thing to do.

Of course we want to cover all the EPT's! But we have bills to pay, wages to meet, & that comes first. Always. Borrowing to survive ain't gonna happen. And we want to spend our Live Update Budget on where the blondes most appreciate it. By doing so, it gives us the best opportunity to monetise them, by getting migration from the Updates across to our Cardroom.

Our primary responsibility is to get the optimal use of the Shareholders Funds. Which is why I started the thread, because we are not quite sure what is the right route forward. And our Members are the best folks to ask. We can't ask those who are not Members, now can we?!

[NoflopsHomer]

i always thought that the blonde "business model" was based on attracting new forum members thru the live updates who then provide revenue by either spending money with blonde affiliates and/or play on the blonde card room.

Based on this, only the number crunchers will be able to discern the true cost of doing the live updates over the long term benefit to blonde in terms of revenue.

I would suspect that sticking to doing live updates from the domestic competition will ultimately limit the growth potential of blonde. It may even have reached a critical mass already based on UK members. The only real areas of growth left are in a european/global market place. So ultimately it is a fairly hard headed business decision as to whether reaching these new members is worth it.

This is a cracking post and reflects a few of my concerns, except Lazaroonie said it much better than I ever could. For me, just saying that the EPT updates don't bring us enough card room revenue is too simple and slightly rash. These events bring in a sea of guests and attract many NEW viewers who may not have even heard of the blonderoom cardroom before. Surely these are the guys that we should be trying to lure in rather than the same old UK crowd that already know about our cardroom. In this sense, I believe the problem lies more in the way we market our cardroom, so perhaps it might be better to look at aspects such as the banners, our update thread spam, etc rather than merely saying 'right, let's cut back' without looking at it from all angles.

However, having said this, the cost of the European updates are so huge that I fully understand the reason for the cut-backs and would make exactly the same decision if it were down to me. I just hope that we don't ultimately brush them aside all together and perhaps one day come back to them when our marketing strategies have been tweaked, as I believe there are plenty of customers out there beyond what is perhaps a near exhausted UK market.

Great thread.

Also, I should've mentioned this earlier as it's not the sort of thing that usually gets said on the updates, but we do generally get good feedback from some of the less well-known (At least to the UK community) for the work we do at most events, both the UK and abroad. One example is here: http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=26939.msg546470#msg546470 from one of the Barcelona EPT finalists, another actually happened on Friday after the event had finished, where one of the Dutch players thanked us, (I think it was Peter Meeres) for reporting things for his friends and that other sites would never report on someone like him. Individual cases like these probably do not lead to insta-signups for the cardroom, but the word of mouth that these players spread helps solidify blonde credentials for updates which can only be a good thing and help, I hope, the cardroom in the long-term. The main problem is that many of these players already have accounts on other iPoker skins, or in the case of the Americans, are unable to play.

[Tractor]

One thing about getting traffic to the live updates...
I just went to google and typed in live poker updates, Blonde wasnt in the top page which suprised me.
First thing i would do is google optimise the site better, then hopefully more traffic=more revenue etc etc.
Just a thought.