postpone charging a fee please

Thanks for your reply Tom. I have a few suggestions/wishes before I would actually start paying for a premium network.

* I think 5gb storage space and 50gb bandwith is not a very competitive price for 15 euros. Please increase the storage space and bandwith.
* The technical possibilities of Socialgo are very attractive but the uploading problems must be resolved first.
* Furthermore I think that owners and admins should have no limits in how many messages or bulletins they can send on their own premium network.
* Drag and drop must be implemented

When these issues are resolved I'm quite willing to pay.

Tom, if I would start paying for my network, how would that work with my URL? Do I have to register is myself or will it just lose the Socialgo part in the address? And will my network go offline in the process?

How would I be able to pay? Could I use paypal for this?

Where did you get those pricing figures? They have not posted it anywhere yet.

I think I found it via the admin section, I tried to find it again but the admin section won't load at the moment. They charge 9,95 pounds per month for 5gb storage space and 50 gb bandwith.

on the main Socialgo site it lists some grey'd out info that looks to be just place holder info about pricing. I would ignore that until it is announced via the blog.

Those are not the prices for adult networks... not even close. The 18+ package will be announced and will be very favorable compared to any other adult options available anywhere else... but will still be distinctly different than the non 18+ premium package.

There is a need to segregate out the paying sites on the 18+ servers from the rest of the user-base so that they can get the premium speed and bandwidth that they require for such media-intensive content.

Chicken/Egg questions aside... this means that the introduction of the payment requirement will create a divide between those who wish to pay for "premium 18+" service (features/speed/bandwidth) and those who do not. By requiring that Site Creators "choose"... it will help everyone by balancing the benefits and burdens where they rightly ought to be.

At the moment I'm totally frustrated with the lack of progress in improvements. I am not willing to pay anything at the moment and not far from dropping the whole project. A lot of the networks coming from Ning didn't have to pay anything, Ning just ran advertisements on our sites. I would be willing to pay something like 15 euro's a month with some adverts from your side but certainly not more. If you would charge much more you would lose like 90% of the new groups I think.

If you're planning to charge a large amount of money I would prefer to know this asap so that I can stop being frustrated and drop the whole thing.

Hi Michael,

your frustration at the lack of information concerning the details of the adult networking package is understandable, but at the same time there is a valid reason for the withholding of pricing details. To wit:

Many of the networks that were using Ning for 18+ content were "abusing" the system. It is very likely that many of these same networks are now doing the same during the BETA test period on SocialGO, and running up huge server and bandwidth numbers without costing themselves a penny.

On Ning, they had no contingency or plans on how to handle this traffic because Advertising is WORTHLESS on 18+ sites if you are speaking about Adsense. Ning did not have any Adult Network advertising relationships or plans as would have allowed for something to occur as you describe.

Now, how does that apply to your question?

For the moment, the increase in traffic and use continues at a furious pace. The team at SocialGO has informed us that they prefer to run out the testing of the extra servers and further optimize the code to handle this larger traffic BEFORE they go ahead and announce the final details. Why? Two reasons:

1) Because they believe (we have advised) that when the pricing plan is announced that there WILL be a huge drop in actual use. We estimate more like 50% of 18+ traffic will go away (rather than your 90%), but the point is the same. By building and testing the architecture for overcapacity, it will then be able to run more efficiently for those who choose to remain as paying customers;

2) Because it should be irrelevant to your decision about using the platform whether they are in BETA for another week or not. If you are truly basing your decision on a strict limit of $15 Euros per month with advertising on board to subsidize, then you are likely going to be disappointed. That is setting the bar too low for the cost to deliver the features/storage/bandwidth that is typically used by most Adult networks, and not taking into consideration the aforementioned realities about Adsense.

Having said that, there will be options for monetizing your site to offset the cost per month, and these include ad-networks, subscriptions, and other means that we have described at length both here and at http://widgetlaboratory.com

Whether you choose to stick around and wait for this to come to fruition is obviously your own choice, but we do not agree that there is such a "rush for the door" as you describe. It took Ning more than three years to make any significant improvements in their platform from the weekly crashes and lack of meaningful features... and people stuck it out. In our opinion, another week or two is not going to change anything, especially for those adult networks who have no other reasonable options.

We invite you to try other things while you wait, or just be honest with your site members that some additional time is needed before things sort out. Either way, your feedback is appreciated... and your patience is even more appreciated.

LOLz just before reading this I did an extensive research on the cost of doing an adult site on your own server. 15 euros would only cover the domain registration. Some of these adult site owners may not have the entrepreneurial drive to really do it. It takes blood, sweat, tears and cash to create a successful online network that makes enough revenue to support itself. Facebook has 120 million users and it doesn't support itself. Just do some research to see the costs of doing it on your own and you will know with out putting more burden on SocialGO if you think its for you or not.

I am new to Socialgo and just reading through all of the posts. I do have to comment here. Even without knowing yet what the charge is going to be for premium I will definately be doing it. I have two adult sites with two different domain names that link together. I have two seperate adult hosting companies. Doing any kind of adult site is not cheap. Adult networking...I have researched in the last 4 to 5 months I think every possible adult networking script to find what I was looking for and still hadn't found it til now. I ended up with one where I paid a yearly licence fee to use it. Some of the scripts out there that you can modify quite a bit and are user friendly are very expensive and that is just for the script let alone, not to mention your domain registration on top of that, your hosting through an adult hosting company, etc. I came across SocialGo three days ago...and in the last three days I have done more with creating this network then I have in the last few months with the one I have now on my site. I will be trashing the one I have on there and going premium with this one and adding it to my existing site. I have been able to customize this so much and so quickly...I love it. Have patience with the bugs...because even with those right now...SocialGo is still far better with them then alot of adult networking scripts that don't have any bugs. So I can only imagine how good this is going to be once the bugs are worked out. I will definately be sticking with this. You guys are doing an awesome job!

@ Evil Genius - I thank you for your response it has certainly got me thinking and doubting the whole project even more. Of course I don't want to abuse anyone. I realise that porn customers are responsible for huge internet traffic. On the other hand it's absurd that so many customers could not generate a decent income by advertisement revenue. But maybe your URL link can shed some light on this. I will read it closely later today.

@ Ryan - registering a domain does certainly not cost 15 euros per month, it might cost that per year. Where did you get that information?

@ Kryket - I agree with you that I've never seen a social network with so much potential. And therefore I keep telliing my members to stick it out for the moment.

My motivation for starting my adult network was to create a platform where members with the same fetish could meet and share videos and photos. A bit like Youtube but then with a soclal network attached to it. By no means did I intend to create a professional adult hosting company. I don't want to spend blood sweat and tears on it.

I have a suggestion. What if we only linked to videos on networks like youtube and dailymotion and not upload anything (or just a few GB) to Socialgo, might that be a cheap option?

@Michael,
just to clarify, no one is suggesting that you or your site are "abusing" anyone. The BETA is set up for free to allow folks to test it and "strain" it.

However, once that goes to final version, there is a decision point for all these Beta testers.... pay or not. If one chooses to pay, it will be for a reasonable product at a reasonable price. The problem with Freemium (as on Ning) was that this was never balanced. People were taking an extraordinary amount of resources from Ning but paying nothing back in return via monthly fees or Adsense returns (Adsense pays virtually nothing on an adult fetish site because there are no clicks).

It would sound like your best bet would be to consider using SocialGO for your base site, and then decide whether you wish to host your graphical content directly on SocialGO using the 18+ option (when the pricing is formally announced) or to consider what we are proposing as a complimentary accessory such as "Project X", which is focused on your photos/videos/communication needs. It sounds like your wishes are exactly in line with what we are already building.

In general, you will find that if you have a user base of a couple hundred or more, that you will be provided with built-in features and monetization tools that will allow you to achieve a break-even or better proposition. This simply requires you to adjust your concept of how to run the business-end of your site. Freemium with Ads is not a path to success with adult fetish sites.

Your success will be found by creating a finely-tuned "niche" site for which you can monetize via the built-in "turn-key" tools and features. Your members will help you discover which aspect of your site is valuable to them and for which they will be willing to pay a micro-transaction to access or obtain each month. WidgetLaboratory will be providing you a buffet of attractive features to offer these members that do not require you to undertake the enormous and expensive task of running and managing your own adult site solution.

Let me get this straight....you are going to charge us for having an ADULT site but you won't allow us to charge our members because PayPal doesn't accept ADULT material...so the webmaster are going to be COMPLETELY out of pocket, out of the kindness of our heart??

Will there be different packages for 18+ sites? I still worry about this and didn't see this thread till today which still does not put the worry out of my mind. Networks like the one I am working on that allow their members to post content ranging from G-X and aren't porn site money makers, will they have a competitive option? Or is it going to be lumped in with the sites that are money makers and be charged $$$10s-100s per month? I hope I am not wasting my time working so hard on this network :(

@Shy Matsi,

There will be a different adult package for any sites that display "graphical" 18+ content. The price plan will actually be as competitive, or in some ways "more" competitive, than the standard premium plan...considering what is offered.

If you are NOT planning to have graphical 18+ content whatsoever, then don't sweat it, you may be able to choose a starter pack plan which SocialGO has already indicated will be at $4.95 per month. Forums and blog posts (text) are not likely to be the main factor in determining the nature of your site as much as the images and videos.

Thanks EG! Thats very good to know, but I know my members will want to post up any art that they draw and such that may or may not contain x rated content, plus any pics they decide to take of themselves. Most of them will probably embed stuff from sites like Xtube on over..

But if the price plan ends up being just as or more competitive that does sound like it'll be affordable!

Shy I think that embedding G-X rated stuff will also rate your site 18+. But I would like to know that too. Does that make a difference?

Mr. genius could you explain why adult material generating a lot of traffic is different from maybe a sports network generating a lot of traffic?

Mike

Many people would pay for adult content, but the same people surely wouldn't pay a cent for sports content... that the only difference I think.

If you try obtain money from a sports network you'll have it very very hard. I guess SocialGo is trying to take a profit with that (I think they are in his perfect right to do that... this is the bussiness'world)

@Michael,
Traffic is not the issue that would differentiate an 18+ hosting package requirement from a standard hosting package... it is the Graphical Content.

A sports network would be hosted on servers and a platform that do not contain any graphical 18+ content.

The criterion for your entire site is based on the extreme end of any content found. Thus, if you have teddy bear images and videos and ALSO have hard-core pornography, then that would bump it to an 18+ site package requirement... even though the teddy bears are perfectly fine by themselves.

Think of it like going out to a restaurant with friends who smoke. You are either going to sit in the "smoking" section or "no smoking". However, the second your friends light-up... you need to be sitting in the smoking section. Same idea. IF your site members never post graphical 18+ content... then you can remain on the standard platform package. As soon as they do, then your site would need to move over.

The pricing for both platforms are similar and competitive on the storage and features, although the 18+ package will be geared with built-in features that are oriented towards those networks (things such as white-label, domain name forwarding, etc.) Therefore, it does not "punish" anyone to have them on one platform or another... it merely sorts out the smoking/non-smoking sections if you will.

@Zelator
Your assumption is correct that it would be a bit harder for most folks to make money from a sports network UNLESS they had something quite unique in either the content or the features of the site. We believe that sites that are LOCALIZED to Specific Team FAN CLUBS or grade school/high school/college level/intramural sports can actually make money by their ability to service organizations (and memberships), or as sources for local news, or Fan participation.

SocialGO's offerings into the 18+ category are not intended to be a FREE LUNCH to anyone.... of course not. Anyone who intends to start and operate a small business, whether online or offline, has to be creative, enthusiastic, and passionate about what they are doing. SocialGO intends to be offering the TOOLS, SERVICE, and SUPPORT to allow 18+ entrepreneurs to thrive just as readily as any other niche network creator. THAT is the point of offering the 18+ platform, and of course there is a very high demand for the same, especially given the lack of any other reasonable offerings from the mainstream.