blonde, going forward.

[tikay]

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...

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 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.

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.

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?

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.

[tikay]

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.

I for one totally agree, fantastic post Russ.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

[tikay]

".....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.

[Card_Shark]

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.

[Card_Shark]

".....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.

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

[MANTIS01]

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.

[Woodsey]

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.

[totalise]

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

[tikay]

".....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.

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

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.

[tikay]

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.

[dik9]

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!

[ItsMrAlex2u]

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.

[kinboshi]

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

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. 

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...

[DaveShoelace]

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

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. 

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)

[henrik777]

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

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