Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

abbywinters2 ?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    abbywinters2 ?

    Ok, so here's a thread that's sure to evoke a lot of discussion, and knowing my luck, abuse. Still, I am hoping there will be some constructive ideas offerred as well.

    Here's the deal.

    The website is successful. We have a lot of members, we also have a lot of models. In fact, we have too many models! Evidence of this is when people get grumpy with models who appear in "upcoming" today, do not appear on the site for six to eight weeks as standard, and sometimes longer.

    We have a lot of models on our "to be shot" list - 59 right now - and we have around 75 models shot but not yet on the site. We're interviewing between 10 and 20 new models every week, around four of them are "keepers", and we're shooting around four a week. We're adding around three or four models a week to the site, so we have no hope of lowering both the number of models to shoot, or the time it takes for models to appear on the site.

    Soooo, we have a few options:

    (1) add more models to the site each week
    (2) put ~half of all models on a different site
    (3) shoot less models
    I am hesitant to put more models on the regular (non-gold) site each week for a few reasons. Firstly, if we did that, we'd kinda have to charge more, which I do not want to do. Secondly, it's kind of over-captialising.

    There are only so many models one average person can "consume" in a week. More than that is a waste - it does no justice to the model or myself as a photographer. Some sites, like ATK, add four or five new models every day to their site. I guess the theory is, every day you have a good chance of SOMETHING satisfying you (our goal is to have at least 50% of the models satisfying you on a given week, though plenty of people get pissed off if one image from one set is unlikable!).

    I think we have hit a sweet spot of adding three to four new models a week. We never get complaints about there not being enough content, for example (a few years ago, when we were adding one model a week, we sure did get complaints). From a business point of view, simply adding more models to the site cos we can is a waste of capital investment.

    We could add a new section to the Gold area, "overflow", and add models there, but I think the Gold section is pretty good value as it is, especially when we start adding two new GGT3's every month.



    We could start a new site, perhaps "in competition" with this site, and randomly choose to put half the models we shoot on each site. We'd probably do some kinda deal, join AW2, and get AW1 for cheap, or something (and all existing customers would get AW2 for a few months for nix, or something). That's a fair bit of work, but it would be made easier by the fact we have a great CMS to manage the content, close ties with GMBill.com to manage the billing, and we know how to market to that audience.

    The new site would probably have a lot less "soul", and less personality about it, it'd just present the content as is. No discussion boards or blog page, either. More bare-bones.


    Of course, we could just be more selective in the models we shoot, but I like the models we shoot now, damnit. It's hard to turn away people like Anthea, and we have a lot of them coming up.
    So, uh, whatcha think?

    a


    #2
    Originally posted by Abby
    So, uh, whatcha think?
    One of your problems is that AW is one of a kind - and I'm not sure that being your own competition is going to earn you much more money: as you said, there is a limit to what one person can consume in a week.

    In the thread about the Special Project I did suggest (somewhat tongue in cheek) that the purpose of that project was to give (most of) you a good long holiday. You seem to have back-up for Vid Dude on the video editing and now in training for his updating duties, so perhaps the only team member who can't go on holiday is Arsby...

    Probably not very constructive

    Jorinel

    Comment


      #3
      Hello Abby,

      I see another option that you might have overlooked. I believe that as things stand right now you pay out commissions for most AW subscribers. This is both good and bad in that the Abby Winters site becomes more popular because other sites promote it and that a great deal of your revenue is paid out instead of being reinvested where it is truly earned. If your models are too plentiful then a different type of new site might be a good option.

      I suggest that you create a completely new company with no direct affiliation to the AW site. I suggest that you verify any and all legal obligations to pay extorted fees… I mean commissions to any third parties directed to and through the AW site. With the new company established and all ties to the vultures severed, I suggest that you start a new site that DOES NOT pay for any form of advertising whatsoever! It might be necessary to pay the AW site a small fee to meet legal requirements but that is for the legal professionals to decide.

      Now you have a brand new company with its own very nice website. All revenues that it receives may be used to pay models, buy new equipment, pay bills and so forth. Advertising on AW directs people to this new website and gives them the opportunity to decide for themselves if they like it or not. Because you are not forced to pay commissions for the new site, its fees are only 2/3 of the price of AW (arbitrary percentage). The new company makes plenty of money. AW retains its place in the community. Everyone wins. You might even offer AW customers a discount subscription to the new site.

      I am confident that you already know how to properly measure traffic and evaluate productivity. If the new method fails to produce the results required for healthy operations then turning up the paid links is as simple as telling the vultures that you will meet their demands. I doubt that this would be necessary but it is always an available option.

      The fact that you are up front and direct about your intentions says a lot about you! Most companies would slink off and do whatever they wanted and their customers would never know the difference. You chose an honorable alternative to that method and deserve recognition for your honesty. This kind of attitude is one of the major reasons that I keep coming back to AW. (Well that and the models themselves!)

      I say that you give a fresh startup company a try. There will undoubtedly be a few legal issues to resolve but I am confident that you can work out the fine points before you put the site in operation. Everyone wins if you keep the vultures out of the loop. There is no reason to change the AW site as it is and adding a few different banners for your new site is not likely to offend anyone. You have paid the price for starting Abby Winters as we have come to know it. I see no reason why you should continue to pay these fees on a new site with similar content. If it fails to produce the results that you require then paying the vultures is easy to accomplish.

      Thank you for being up front with us,

      Numlock

      Comment


        #4
        As idyllic as the location was, it was not at all relaxing. We shot two, three, four sometimes five models a day in hot, humid weather. Shooting two models a day two days a week in melbourne (comfortably cool) is stressful enough. I also totally under-estimated the problems that would arise from eight girls living in a house and working closely together.

        The project was successful in that we got a lot of excellent shoots, but it definitely affected people mentally in a bad way.

        a

        Comment


          #5
          All of those options have positives and negatives but I agree with Jorinel that being your own competition is not the best, the WWE is currently doing that both revenue and ratings are down.
          The only thing that I can really suggest it to add a higher level than gold like diamond or platinum that people have the option to subscribe to.

          I'm glad the site is doing well.

          Dave

          Comment


            #6
            How is the new dressing room section going to fit into the site? Especially with the possibility of changes.

            Dave

            Comment


              #7
              Well Abby, perhaps just the fact that you'd post this up for review say's it all. Bigger is not always better. If this is paying the bills and making everyone a great living why mess with a good thing? I REALLY enjoy the company. I Do like the pretty naked girls a lot I'll admit, but I'm afraid I'd of cancelled a while back out of frustration with my connection with out this forum. (I'm now very selective at what I try to download).

              I believe you might have room to grow the site a bit to cover more tastes, but if that meant I'd be paying more to keep up I don't think it'd be worth it on my end. (mostly due to what I can download - I do like collecting beauty and it drives me nuts when downloads fail) MET art has sixty kabillion beautiful pictures but I had to quit - I was going bonkers trying to 'build' a collection.

              What do you want to do? Shoot less? Manage more? Sip bubbly on a beach? If you are shooting too many models (is that possible? if it is possible I want your job..... (please?)) why not sell some to another site. I don't think an AW2 would go over with this crowd but perhaps something totally new and different might (with an eye for art, Eros and beauty of course

              I look forward to this thread tomorrow! (bedtime for me)

              and yes I am looking forward Erin T too (and her 75 followers )

              --bif

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Darth Dave
                How is the new dressing room section going to fit into the site? Especially with the possibility of changes.
                DR will be going ahead, a new section in Gold. Penny will start organising those pics soon, hopefully start getting them up on the site next week.

                a

                Comment


                  #9
                  Bifman, we ALL wanna be sipping bubbly on a beach, dammit! But we've got all these pesky models banging down our door and keeping us busy...what to do?!

                  Hehe, just joking. (About the models being pesky, not the bubbly...)

                  If we did have to put some models on a new site, what would we call it? Hmmm...what about...

                  www.Susie'sSpunkrats.com?

                  s

                  Comment


                    #10
                    suggestions

                    Hi Abby,

                    Effectively there is a limit to what one person can "consume" in a week.

                    One of the most competitive avantage of AW is just the big models database and especialy the weekly model's addition.

                    I've two suggestions:
                    1) In the upcoming section you could add when the new model could appear, or which week...

                    2) As in discussion boards, every user could have a favorite model's sections. This is to create a new section where every your could make his own categories (similar to categories section). The user could create folders and inside, the user could include links to favorite shoots, images ore some text,..

                    What do you think?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by danisr
                      Hi Abby,
                      I've two suggestions:
                      1) In the upcoming section you could add when the new model could appear, or which week...
                      Uh, that does not solve any of the problems we currently face (stated above), but we could do that, yes. *confused*

                      2) As in discussion boards, every user could have a favorite model's sections. This is to create a new section where every your could make his own categories (similar to categories section). The user could create folders and inside, the user could include links to favorite shoots, images ore some text,..
                      have a look for the thread titled "listmania", there are plans afoot for a feature similar to what you're describing, similar to Amazon.com's listmania thing. But better.

                      a

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by Abby

                        Soooo, we have a few options:

                        (1) add more models to the site each week
                        (2) put ~half of all models on a different site
                        (3) shoot less models

                        a
                        Hmm. Tricky.

                        Perhaps another possibility is an AW Extra option - two extra models per week for an extra 10$/month or whatever on top of the regular or gold membership.

                        Regarding starting a new no-frills, barebones site, would you really want to allocate half your models to it randomly? If it were me I'd want to keep my best work for the main site.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          If I understand correctly, of the models you interview every week, you decide to photograph about four, which is about how many you do photograph each week, and is also equal to the number you put on the site each week. So, if you think of the interview-photograph-post process as a pipeline, it seems to have a weekly throughput of four, with no bottlenecks.

                          Somehow, you developed a backlog, and the pipeline acquired a six-to-eight week latency. (Actually, the 75 models waiting to appear on the site seem to imply an 18-week latency.) How did the backlog grow? Is it still growing?

                          If the backlog is growing, then that indicates a bottleneck somewhere, and you would have to consider some of the options for raising the pipeline's capacity put forth in this thread to slow the backlog's growth.

                          If the backlog is not growing, then you have a nice savings account to see you through any temporary declines (which might include vacations for the staff) in your supply of new models. Raising the pipeline's capacity would pose something of a risk.

                          Regardless of the backlog, you can solve the "upcoming list" problem by introducing a new stage in the pipeline that delays each model's appearance in the list until some suitable time (three weeks?) in advance of their appearance on the site. (I have no sympathy for the complaints about models who appear in the list for a long time.)

                          Congratulations for the site's success--I'm glad to learn of it!

                          By the way, many of the photo sets recently have been spectacular. Also, I thought Rosanna's anti-war shirt in her set with Chloe was a nice touch--very Lysistrata-like.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by charliebrown
                            If I understand correctly, of the models you interview every week, you decide to photograph about four, which is about how many you do photograph each week, and is also equal to the number you put on the site each week. So, if you think of the interview-photograph-post process as a pipeline, it seems to have a weekly throughput of four, with no bottlenecks.
                            That's the theory, yes.

                            Somehow, you developed a backlog, and the pipeline acquired a six-to-eight week latency. (Actually, the 75 models waiting to appear on the site seem to imply an 18-week latency.) How did the backlog grow? Is it still growing?
                            The biggest part of the backlog occured when we went away for the special project and shot 45-odd new models there, while Beatrice kept interviewing new models here that we could not shoot.

                            Also, in reality, we do not always shoot four a week (sometimes less, sometimes more, four would be an average), and we sometimes get six models from a week of interviews.

                            If the backlog is growing, then that indicates a bottleneck somewhere, and you would have to consider some of the options for raising the pipeline's capacity put forth in this thread to slow the backlog's growth.
                            Ironcially, the bottleneck is the site, which is why I started this thread. It's a good position to be in, however.

                            If the backlog is not growing, then you have a nice savings account to see you through any temporary declines (which might include vacations for the staff) in your supply of new models. Raising the pipeline's capacity would pose something of a risk.
                            The problem with this is that it's a lot of effort to shut the machine down, then crank it back up again. It's a lot more efficient to keep it ticking over, if you know what I mean. Also, our model recruitment is tied up with the guys who produce ISM, so we don't want to affect them negatively. Also, we don;t want to miss the next Anthea, which there is a risk of if we switch it all off!

                            With the addition of Millie editing video, and Beatrice doing the site updates, that means finally that VidDude can have some time off in the future. With lots of stills and video shoots in the can, it means Verity and I can take time off as well if we want to, which is also good.

                            Regardless of the backlog, you can solve the "upcoming list" problem by introducing a new stage in the pipeline that delays each model's appearance in the list until some suitable time (three weeks?) in advance of their appearance on the site. (I have no sympathy for the complaints about models who appear in the list for a long time.)
                            The complaints don't bug me that much either, tho I do find them annoying now and then. Delaying the time til they are closer to appearing is a good idea, but the amount of hassle is probably not worth it.

                            And anyway, the real problem is having too many models.

                            By the way, many of the photo sets recently have been spectacular. Also, I thought Rosanna's anti-war shirt in her set with Chloe was a nice touch--very Lysistrata-like.
                            oohh err, a Greek theatre referance. I have a BA in theatre you know, so look out! I am trying to think of a witty greek comeback, but I cannot. I can tell you that the irony of Rosanna's shirt was lost on me when we chose her clothes. I think I was looking at the way it fitted her (for which you'll forgive me, I'm sure!), not what it said!

                            a

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Abby
                              (1) add more models to the site each week
                              Ramp up Mezzanine.

                              Originally posted by Abby
                              (2) put ~half of all models on a different site
                              Labor- and capital-intensive, puts you in competition with yourself, and the content of the second site wouldn't have anything special about it that would differentiate it from the current site. ISM, for example, is a different kind of site with a different content theme. What, besides the name and layout, would make this new site different, especially since the content is already shot with aw.com in mind?

                              Originally posted by Abby
                              (3) shoot less models
                              According to your own numbers you've got over 18 weeks of stuff already shot; you've got over 14 weeks worth of models you've decided to shoot. Let's say 20% of them fall through for some reason before you get to them; that's still over 11 weeks.

                              Two approaches come to mind:

                              1) Lower your advertising budget, at least for a time, for new models. Slow the influx of new models without lowering the pace of production; this will have the effect of lowering your backlog. When your backlog reaches a total of, say, 6-8 weeks, ramp the advertising back up. You can still accept incoming referrals, but I'd be surprised if all 20 women you interview every week are referrals from existing or potential models.

                              2) Just take a vacation. Abby, when was the last time you disappeared for two weeks, turned the phone off, got drunk, had wild unprotected sex with large groups of drunk people you'd just met, smoked some weed, and just had a good time without worrying? You've sure got enough content, and between having VidDude, Beatrice, and (presumably) Millie, Verity, and Susie using the CMS to do updates, the ship would be able to auto-pilot for that long. One of the perks of success is that you do get to take a break now and then. You're not exactly a startup anymore.

                              -----
                              One other complaint reduction technique comes to mind.

                              The episode with the Dom and Olivier shoot, which you admitted to sorta forgetting about, and the mixup with the twins' videos last weekend, bring up the possibility that you now have a deficiency in your content -scheduling- system. You have so many shoots to keep track of that you can't do it in your head anymore [and there are more heads in the office to coordinate now], and mix-up mistakes like those seem to be becoming slightly more common. What you need is a better method of tracking of pending shoots.

                              This system needs to be accessable to at least the in-office staff and arsby. It needs to allow you to specify schedules and priorities for various models, perhaps by section, and certainly by "target release week." It needs to be able to track release dates for both stills and vids. With such a system, you could schedule and better track releases so that you wouldn't accidentally omit shoots like D&O, and wouldn't get goobered on whether you're doing stills or vids this week, because the system would tell you what you'd planned.

                              Obviously it's a planning tool and you need to be able to change your plans as needed, but the system you have for keeping track of your pending product is showing its weaknesses.

                              You could also use this system to drive what's in the "Upcoming Models" section. Reduce the backlog
                              there and you'd get fewer complains and allow yourself more flexibility to deep-six a shoot you regret in retrospect, or slip a shoot a few weeks. Attach the preview picture to the scheduling record, and rig the PHP to only select preview pictures from the next, say, 5 weeks of material. With this setup, you no longer have to manually maintain "Upcoming Models," and you don't let a model sit in there for five months, but it allows you the flexibility to move models around in the scheduling process and record your decisions in a centrally-located place that all relevant staff can use.

                              This back-end can also be used to drive your two-week table on the right side of main.php. You can even use it to include notes about a shoot you want to post to the daily news when the shoot comes up.

                              You may have the beginnings of something like that in your CMS now, but "forgetting" shoots and miscommunications with VidDude about vids vs. stills shows that it's not working the way you intend. None of this directly affects your backlog, but implementing the "Upcoming Models" based on this system idea would reduce your customers' -perception- of backlog.

                              ag

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Originally posted by Abby
                                Shooting two models a day two days a week in melbourne (comfortably cool) is stressful enough.
                                Perhaps this should be a clue that shooting twice as much will not be good for you, personally.
                                If you spread yourself too thin you might not put as much into each individual shoot, or even worse, get sick of it completely and give up.
                                What I'm saying basically boils down to not sacrificing quality for quantity, because your quality is what keeps many of us here, I'm sure.
                                However, if you want to do something different, to keep challenging yourself and your creativity, then maybe starting a new (and perhaps significantly different) site is best for you. If it was to be something less popular, then you could presumably subsidise it with the revenue from here (which seems to be going well if you can spare 10k for charity; an impressive thing to do, BTW).

                                Originally posted by charliebrown
                                Regardless of the backlog, you can solve the "upcoming list" problem by introducing a new stage in the pipeline that delays each model's appearance in the list until some suitable time (three weeks?) in advance of their appearance on the site. (I have no sympathy for the complaints about models who appear in the list for a long time.)
                                I did write out my own paragraph saying much the same as this, so I'll just trim it and say I agree with this idea.

                                Really wish I could add more of a constructive opinion on this situation (I can't bring myself to call a surplus of beautiful women a "predicament" ).

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Just some thoughts from my perspective...

                                  Extra photo sets a week would be appreciated, and mean that I am more likely to keep renewing my membership.

                                  Putting them in Gold somewhere sounds fine.

                                  Adding suprise sets, eg extra sets of existing models, will give members something to look for and a reason to go back to older stuff.

                                  Putting them in somewhere & getting people to find them, with some kind of clue etc..,


                                  Would also say that you deserve a holiday!

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    I think one of the key factors that needs to be determined is the nature of your membership base. How many of permanent members and how many are casual who bleed the site dry then come back 6 months later and do the same? Also how many members have basic membership and how many have gold? To be completely honest I never understood the concept of these two tiers. Not having gold really does take away a large part of the site so Im not sure why people do not have it.

                                    As mentioned already, there is a danger of cranking up prices and alienating existing members. I would instead look to change the existing format in particular the whole concept of gold. Introducing yet another tier (platinum for instance) would cause confusion for people thinking about subscribing. My idea would be to make all content (gold, mezzanine, deviations) available to all members.

                                    Distinguishing between standard (or basic) membership and gold would simply be about bandwith and quantity of downloads. New sets could be put in a certain area so the number downloaded could be restricted. Standard members could be limited on how many sets they download in a particular week or could even been prevented from downloading a particualr number of new sets in a week. After a set amount of time (6 months perhaps) "new" sets could be put into the archive to be downloaded by all members but limited in number downloaded because of the cap.

                                    The cost of gold membership could be increased (people really shouldnt expect a lot of new content for free!). Those who do not want to pay extra will then have to be patient and wait although in time they will have access to all sets. As they have a download cap, they will then have to choose whether to download new sets or archived ones. Standard membership could probably stay at the same price because although there would be a download cap, there would be a lot more material available which would previously cost extra.

                                    This cap would also discourage members who pay basic memebership for 6 months and then leech the site dry. As their downloads would be capped, they would be limited in the percentage of the sets they could download in any 6 month period.

                                    Anyway its a basic idea that would need work but what do you think?

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      You could simply make a separate site of every category:

                                      1. AW classic
                                      2. girl-girl
                                      3. redux
                                      4. deviations
                                      5. mezzanine

                                      However, I don't like the idea to reduce the number of the girls.
                                      You are one of the very best sites on the whole web and in my eyes there is no reason to throw away some of these excellent photos and videos!

                                      :-)

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        scrap the upcoming models section..... if you dont know whats coming up you cant bitch about it when it doesnt come up.
                                        just have a "next weeks preview" section when you know which models are locked in for the next week.

                                        also, and its just a personal peeve..... have a models full set released on the one day, it shits me when a gorgeous model (like erin t today) is put on the site, but i have to wait until tomorrow for the rest....its a total gip, but i guess i can see reasons for it, but like i said its a personal gripe of mine. perhaps you could grade them (you already rate them)....have 2 "a" grade models + 2 "b-c" grade models, a redux and a vid or 2 in a week.

                                        perhaps you could have a "gold" section for upcoming models which gradually make their way to the main site. perhaps just a 20 pic preview and a small vid introducing the model.......

                                        i dunno, justa few lame ideas for you to ponder.

                                        p.s. i like the AW classic idea.
                                        some of the older photos are (no offence) showing their age.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          My quick thoughts after reading this amazingly detailed and fascinating discussion.

                                          1. This site has "soul"--one big reason, Abby, is your willingness to share with your customers the site's growing pains.

                                          2. I agree with the consensus that competing with yourself, an AW-2 site, would be bad.

                                          3. I also agree that more models per week is too much. I'm already spending too much time here as it is

                                          4. I would think long and hard about tinkering with your business model--it has produced spectacular results.

                                          5. Some sort of system should be in place for making sure that upcoming models aren't forgotten, one that involves more than one person's memory.

                                          So... it comes down to this: be choosier about the models. I know you don't like to do this--you strike me as someone who really enjoys helping girls appreciate their beauty--but it seems the best solution to me. The fact is, you and your staff have your limitations, and they need to be respected.

                                          I also have a new suggestion. Leaving aside the uniqueness of the AW "product", AW is a business. Plenty of businesses, while offering different, usually clothed services, have to go through periods of rapid expansion. And there are folks whose business it is to help businesses through organizational crises (which it seems AW is having.) Surely somewhere in Australia is an open-minded smart person who would love to offer ideas as to how to keep the AW ship sailing while remaining true to its mission.

                                          Either that, or impose a "Whinger's fee"-- $10 extra per month per whinge.

                                          Hang in there Abby--you and your team are smart--you can find a way...

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            I read all the thread til now and I give some ideas:

                                            -The number of additions is on the limit to be atractive. I like the idea of the site of being conservative about the number of models you put on the site each week (I don't like ATM for example) but I think that you are too conservative. Mondays and Thursdays aren't the best days of the week for me: sometimes I wait till Tuesdays and Fridays to have the complete set. I think that three additions more every week (Monday, Thursday and Sunday) would be fine.
                                            -Another site is not a good idea for me. As you said, it's a limit in the girls you can handle, but it's a limit in the money you can spend too.
                                            -You can give the chance to the suscribers to choose one set between all of the "upcoming models" section to put it on the site in a "Choosen set of the week".

                                            I think that my whole idea is to add some more sets a week in the site and leaving the site "as it is" right now, because I don't want splitted sites or infinite sections "ad nauseam".

                                            I leave now, I go to work .

                                            Saludos

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              As if you needed...

                                              ...yet another vote against a second site, here I am to offer one anyway.

                                              Everytime I think I have too many clients and turn some away, I will almost invariably have a dry spell not long after and wish I had worked the extra hours to keep the new clients. Point being, a surplus now is not a guarantee of a surplus in the future. You absolutely WILL hit a dry spell. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even this year; but it is inevitable and there's nothing wrong with you shoring up against this certainty, especially since such a solution avoids tampering with your very agreeable business model. My thought: don't be hasty. If the upcoming models list provokes some anxiety, whittle it down a little bit. If you threw in an extra model here and there (as opposed to uniformly changing your schedule), that would be OK too. But those are the only changes I would suggest. Keep on shooting them in your own inimitable way, stock up against the dry spells and post them in roughly the order they arrive.

                                              Thanks for hearing me out.

                                              SparkyZ

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                A vote for the second site idea, with caveats

                                                Sounds to me like you're doing just what you should be doing, but not thinking enough about growth.

                                                I would recommend that you poll the current membership base (and perhaps weigh the results by how long people have been - are committed to being members). See what they like, find out what they don't like.

                                                For example - I don't tend to like the 'goth' models, but I'm sure there are folks who do.

                                                Then, once you've decided on what your core model type is (I think it's going to be pretty obvious, you've been getting great models to date) you'll spin off another site with those model types your customers don't want.

                                                Now here's the key - you need to get someone ELSE to shoot that site. Work on doing what you're doing and get a nice revenue stream from the new site.

                                                Share the new site with us (please) if you think that creates a marketing opportunity in which you make money.

                                                I'm sure there are a number of extremely good amateur or professional photogs who'd love this potential job.

                                                And I agree with the 'vactation' comment in the earlier post. Always a good idea.

                                                keep up the good work!

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  A second web site might be an option depending on the concept. I think the idea of just splitting the content is a waste of time. ALS has developed this concept... their original site ALSSCAN has petite models (small breasts & thin) their second site ALSANGELS has models with larger breasts and more curves. I think there are a lot of options one option that springs to mind from your site as is.... one site with models posing and another with models 'doing stuff' ie swimming, jumping, houswork.... basically a naturist type site people doin stuff in the nude.


                                                  Comment


                                                    #26
                                                    I'm also not certain about a second site. It's one thing having too much for one site, but that's a long way short of having enough for two! I know it should be possible to run another for less than twice the cost of one, but the amount of effort involved for you and your team is much closer to being proportional to the number of sites. You'll have to grow your team and find yourself managing people more - and perhaps photographing less yourself.

                                                    Sooo, how about a constructive suggestion (rather than whingeing about a new site at the risk of being accused of not wanting to spend the extra money). I like the idea of a platinum level, perhaps with access to the "upcoming" girls in advance even of "Gold" members - except me, 'cos it's my idea. It can be fairly simple in layout (perhaps not even using thumbnails beyone one or two tasters) so long as it is easy to maintain.

                                                    Whatever you decide, Abby, all power to you, I'm sure you'll do us proud.

                                                    Comment


                                                      #27
                                                      Just echoing what has already been said, but adding my voice, for what it's worth:

                                                      1. I would like to see the site remain in one piece. Why compete with yourself? A bare-bones AW2 sounds like a poor country cousin. As Artlover (I think) said, this site has personality, and many of us don't just "download and run."

                                                      2. I agree with sparkyz that there will eventually be a dry spell, (or a well-deserved vacation) and I see nothing wrong with having a "stockpile" when that happens. Just a week's worth of upcoming models would be fine with me--in many cases, when a new model is released, I have already forgotten seeing her in the preview. No offense intended, of course. And you are less likely to hear "when is ___ appearing."

                                                      3. Someone mentioned ALS running 2 sites to appeal to different tastes, but imo AW already accomplishes the same thing with redux, g/g, deviations, etc.

                                                      What a nice dilema to have! Thanks Abby & Co.

                                                      -k
                                                      Last edited by Havemercy; 7 April 2005, 04:19 PM.

                                                      Comment


                                                        #28
                                                        My Suggestion

                                                        Abby
                                                        Very good idea to get people to discuss this.
                                                        I for one would like to see the upcoming moedels appear more quickly especilly when i see one I really like
                                                        I do see the problem you face but perhaps one way of 'offering up some of these models' more quickly would be to have a weekly poll. From the list of upcoming models on the home page members could vote on who they would like to see go up each week maybe allowing two from the list to be voted on.
                                                        I think this would do achieve a few things
                                                        1) enable you to get a few more models on each week (i agree too many will detract from the site but I think 2 more per week is not going to do that and would add to the site)
                                                        2) you might get a much better idea of the types of girls which your members like
                                                        3) give the members a feeling they are really contributing to the content (I know we do already but this would be in real time (well allmost anyway))

                                                        As for putting them on another site, unless they are all very similar models and/or fill a particulr niche (if there are any left) I do not see the point.

                                                        I don't know if that is the type of thing of feedback you were looking for but hope it is useful for somehthing
                                                        Beebop

                                                        Comment


                                                          #29
                                                          Originally posted by Ozboy24
                                                          also, and its just a personal peeve..... have a models full set released on the one day.
                                                          I think this simple statement speaks volumes on backlog.

                                                          Suggestion: Release most of the content of a model on one day, don't spread over two and three days. Worst case: all pics first day, all vids second day. You will get your backlog down.

                                                          Suggestion: Do not intermix the updates for Regular and Gold. Split the two sections and have a one-to-one update on both sections. You have a bit more content but it is in sections that current member are familiar with.

                                                          Suggestion: Pick up holidays, birthdays, special for no reason days around the shop and release extra content on those days. Share joyful days with your members with extra content.

                                                          Suggestion: Have a super Saturday editions where you release two or three new models that you have the lowest content of. Some models have very low content or pictures only. Bundling those releases shouldn't be too overbearing to members.

                                                          The question of starting up an additional site and/or section comes down to profit over (my humble opinion) quality. If you want more money, start up site/section and charge ppl. Simple as that. But there are a plethera of cons that will occur and start mudding up the simple solution; alienation of current members, reduce quality as both sites "battle" for content, more attention taken from your team to maintain more content, more models that must be infuxed to fill both site's worth of content (eventually the backlog will reduce), additional model demands means that some girls that usually wouldn't have made the cut now are thrown in as "filler" to maintain the quantity of two sites, etc...

                                                          What would make this second site any different from abbywinters.com now? If there is no difference (since the models all come from the same pool) then in some ways I feel cheated out of what aw.com would become of there was a second site.

                                                          Comment


                                                            #30
                                                            I think creating a new site to ”get rid of” the backlog seems to be a bad idea. The self-competition has been discused above, but there is one other aspect of this; What happens when the backlog is back to “normal”?

                                                            Originally posted by Abby
                                                            We shot two, three, four sometimes five models a day in hot, humid weather. Shooting two models a day two days a week in melbourne (comfortably cool) is stressful enough.
                                                            To keep up, you have to shoot more models every week. Is this what you really want? How did you feel about shooting so many models during a short while? More important; did this in any aspect influence the quality of the shoot? I’m not thinking just about the technical quality of the pictures, but also about things like creativity and keeping the models happy. Besides the natural beauty of “girl next door”, I think quality of the shooting is the absolutly best features of this site. Doing anything that will influense on this would be terrible.

                                                            I know you’re not liking the idea of adding more models on during the week, but I think this is the best way to reduce the backlog. This doesn’t mean that it has to be scheduled with one more model each week, but maybe as a celebration on different occations such as


                                                            • Birthdays of any of the AW employees
                                                            • Australia day
                                                            • Queens birthday
                                                            • add your favourit days to the list.....
                                                            Also; In another tread there were suggested that members could vote for whom among the upcomming models they wanted most. This could be a monthly extra “bonus”.

                                                            boa

                                                            Comment

                                                            Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter

                                                             
                                                            Sign up for the abby newsletter. Don't worry, we'll NEVER share your email address with anyone.
                                                            Working...
                                                            X