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mariacallous · 5 months ago

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Black Friday is not just about cheap TVs, cut price gaming consoles, and saving money on laptops; it’s also about getting a bargain on Faraday cages to stop 5G from melting your brain, grabbing a great deal on biblically inspired diet pills, and securing that hot-pink T-shirt with a picture of president-elect Donald Trump on the front.

This year, far-right extremists, MAGAworld, and conspiracists are all jumping on the Black Friday bandwagon to try and persuade their followers to buy untested health supplements, unfunny novelty mugs, and guns—lots and lots of guns.

Rather than advertising on mainstream online marketplaces offered by sites including Google or Facebook, these groups are targeting their audience where they live, on fringe and alternative online platforms with little or no moderation. Spaces like Gab, a white-supremacist-friendly social network run by a christian nationalist. Or Telegram, where election deniers and neo-Nazi groups happily sit side-by-side despite new privacy changes being introduced this year. And of course,Trump’s own Truth Social, where his most devoted followers can be found.

Gab and Truth Social did not immediately respond to a request to comment. Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn said that ads placed through the Telegram Ads platform are vetted before they are shown.

For those feeling a little drained after Thanksgiving, alternative health company Exodus Strong is offering discounts on a dietary supplement which has “7 Biblically-inspired ingredients and a molecular hydrogen generating blend that optimize your Mind and Body to function the way God intended.” The tablets, which are currently being advertised up to 60 percent off on Truth Social, include, among other biblical ingredients, frankincense and myrrh. Those who purchase one of these supplements will even get a free gift: a prayer plan.

Undermining the boasts about the product slightly, however, is the disclaimer on the company’s own website that reads: “These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

Launched just in time for Black Friday, the new online store from right-wing YouTube-alternative Rumble features a who’s who of conspiracy theorists and conservative agitators on its front page, including Trump confidante Laura Loomer and underpants-wearing baptiser Russell Brand.

The store itself is a cornucopia of unimagined gems, everything from Faraday cages for your phone to stop 5G melting your brain, to nuclear fallout preparedness kits for the bargain price of $349. Rumble did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many far-right and conspiracy newsletters and subscription services are offering huge discounts to lock in their audiences for the next 12 months. Gab for example is offering 50 percent discounts on yearly subscriptions to its AI service, whose racist chatbots have been trained to deny the Holocaust.

An antisemitic Irish blogger who is a close ally of white supremacist Nick Fuentes is offering 40 percent off his Substack subscriptions directly to his existing readers, showing that the effort to cash in on Black Friday hype is not limited to extremists in the US.

By far the most popular Black Friday ads on these platforms are from gun manufacturers, who are offering huge discounts on everything from high-powered rifles to a pink “no drill cheek rest” for your scoped long gun. (The “MAGA Patriot,” a Trump-themed AR-15 that was created in the wake of the president-elect surviving an assassination attempt by the same gun, is not discounted for Black Friday.)

Some of these promotions are simply flogging pro-MAGA paraphernalia. On Truth Social, Fox News host Sean Hannity is promoting the Black Friday deals available in his own merch store. From coffee cups with the phrase “leftist tears” to a “Daddy’s Home” T-shirt featuring a picture of Trump in front of the White House wearing a hot-pink jacket, Hannity has something for all tastes—as long as those tastes align with a pro-Trump, MAGA, Christian nationalist view of America.

For those Trump supporters who may be missing the glory days of 2020 when they could come together online to rage against the voting machines for stealing the election, conspiracy group Audit the Vote PA has got you covered with a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “election denier,” advertised on Gab.

And the biggest election denier of them all, pillow salesman Mike Lindell, is, of course, having a massive Black Friday sale. The man who has sponsored huge swathes of the far-right media ecosystem with promotional codes for the last four years is now offering a two-pack of “We the People” pillow covers for just $25.

On these alternative platforms, discussions about Black Friday are not only about getting 50 percent off “Make Christmas Great Again” T-shirts. Those promotions are interspersed with incredibly antisemitic and racist posts about the day, including several featuring children in black face.

Some users of Gab and Truth Social are also pushing back against Black Friday, calling out the “deranged libtards who turn into dangerous NCPs” during the event (misspelling NPC, which is used to describe someone who is predictable or robotic.) Others insist they are “boycotting Black Friday” because it’s a cash grab by the globalist elite.

And of course, conspiracies are never far away.

One user on Trump’s Truth Social, who calls themselves “Trust the Plan” (spelled like trusttheplqn), believes they have uncovered a secret message in one store’s Black Friday promotional material based on “intel” provided by another Truth Social account called Entheos. The conspiracy theory centers on the store promoting a “storewide blackout” for Black Friday, which “Trust the Plan” believes is code for something sinister taking place, though they fail to say exactly what this is.

��Black friday is on the 29th, but their sale starts on 27th (date that Entheos gave). And why would there be a ‘blackout storewide’ for black friday? You want complete opposite of a blackout...so people can actually shop.”

For others however, the situation appears much more dire. One Gab poster shared an article from a conspiracy site discussing a “global escalation” on Friday. The piece suggests that recent comments by Russian president Vladimir Putin related to launching a nuclear strike signal a looming apocalypse. “Stay Armed, Stay Safe, Patriots,” the poster wrote on Gab.

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tknblog · 3 months ago

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$15 a month for a single newsletter is unsustainable

#journalism #dollarnomics #editorial - Tyler K. Nothing reporting.

DATELINE INTERNETOPIA - #Substack has created a mythology in the form of the $15 a month newsletter. The claim was that it would help support independent writers who have been driven out of organized news gathering by capitalist greed’s desire to “trim the fat” (meaning people who cost money they’d rather have in their Cayman bank accounts), but the model is unsustainable. In reality, all it does is net Substack more revenue.

Of course, they need that larger cut to support the now far more bloated model that appears to include completely free hosting of a blog, unless you want to use your custom domain, and then you’ll have to cough up $50… and then do it yourself. Yeah. You pay them to then do all the legwork. Liberating, indeed.

Whinging about fees nobody else charges aside, most newsletters are asking for $15 every single month. That doesn’t get you an entire newspapers worth of content, but the words of one contributor. And Substack doesn’t offer discounts for subscribing to multiple newsletters, so if you pay for three newsletters you will be forking over $45 a month.

That comes to $540 a year which is more than double what we pay annually to heat our water and dry our clothes. Imagine floating an entire newspaper’s bullpen at those rates so one person could stay up-to-date with the news! Not that I would, but I can get a subscription to the Pasadena Star-News for $3.50 a week. That’s an actual newspaper with lots of contributors, sections, resources, and whatnot and it’s still a buck less a month than that single newsletter.

We can’t do this. It won’t work. We cannot continue to rely on insanely wealthy oligarchs owning all of our local and national news, whose collective bias against a free press has become increasingly clear over the past few years, to transmit that bias into our consciousness on a daily basis.

If there is one thing we can do as, and I’ll use the word yet again, a collective, it is to subscribe to an organic virtual bullpen of writers to produce open source news that everyone could benefit from, regardless of how deep (or shallow) their pockets are. Several such collectives would be even better. And let’s start it at $5 a month with a sliding scale so readers can select a contribution they can afford.

The mainstream media, popularly known as the MSM in various circles, and the internet as a whole, has been slowly and methodically subsumed by the rich and powerful and turned into outlets for their increasingly unhinged desires to terraform society into something better suited to their wants and needs.

Look no further than Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and its rapid descent into madness. More recently Mark Zuckerberg has announced the end of fact checking on Facebook and other Meta platforms for reasons that are plainly disingenuous. X is much smaller than Facebook, but Facebook and Instagram represents 5 BILLION USERS.

If Mark is able to influence a mere 1% of his global userbase, that’s 50 MILLION people.

That’s just insane.

A solution requires two parties, creators and readers. We have the creators, but readers need to step up and be willing to pay a small monthly fee knowing that it will go towards the production of quality, reliable, fact-checked news gathering. Getting everything on the internet for free is a zombie shambling around a china shop, smashing everything and making a chaotic mess of things and we need to put it down, for good.

After all, you get what you pay for.

For more on my concept of Dollarnomics, read here and here.

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keenwombatpersona · 10 months ago

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Monetizing Influence: Diverse Revenue Streams for Social Media Influencers

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, social media influencers have carved out a unique niche that allows them to monetize their online presence in various ways. This burgeoning field not only offers creative freedom but also a range of income-generating opportunities. In this blog post, we'll delve into the different methods influencers use to turn their social media clout into cash.

Sponsored Content

One of the most direct and popular ways influencers earn money is through sponsored content. Brands reach out to influencers to promote their products or services, often paying them to create posts, stories, or videos that highlight these offerings. For instance, a fitness influencer might share a workout video using a particular brand’s equipment, or a beauty influencer might post a tutorial featuring specific skincare products. The key to successful sponsored content is maintaining authenticity; followers are more likely to engage with content that feels genuine and aligned with the influencer's usual style.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another significant revenue stream for influencers. This model allows influencers to earn a commission on sales generated through their unique affiliate links or discount codes. For example, a tech influencer might review the latest gadgets and include affiliate links to purchase those items. Each sale made through these links earns the influencer a percentage of the sale. This method not only diversifies income but also builds a passive revenue stream, rewarding influencers for their content's effectiveness over time.

Brand Collaborations and Ambassador Roles

Long-term brand collaborations or ambassador roles provide influencers with consistent income and deeper engagement with a brand. These partnerships often involve multiple campaigns and various forms of content over an extended period. For instance, a fashion influencer might collaborate with a clothing brand for an entire season, featuring their collections in numerous posts and events. Such collaborations benefit influencers through a steady paycheck and enhance their credibility by associating with reputable brands.

Creating and Selling Products

Leveraging their personal brand, many influencers venture into creating and selling their own products. This could be physical merchandise like clothing and accessories, digital products like eBooks and online courses, or even bespoke items like custom art. By using their influence to promote these products, influencers can achieve significant sales. A well-known example is YouTube creators launching their own merchandise lines, turning loyal viewers into customers.

Event Appearances and Public Speaking

Influencers with substantial followings and expertise in their niche often get invited to events, panels, or conferences. These appearances are not only paid opportunities but also a chance to expand their reach and network. For example, a travel influencer might be asked to speak at a tourism conference, sharing insights and experiences while earning an appearance fee. These engagements enhance the influencer's profile and open doors to further opportunities.

Subscription-Based Content

Platforms like Patreon, Substack, and OnlyFans have given influencers the ability to offer subscription-based content. By providing exclusive material to subscribers, influencers can generate a steady income from their most devoted followers. This content can range from behind-the-scenes looks and early access to content to personalized interactions. For instance, an artist might offer exclusive tutorials and process videos to subscribers, creating a reliable income stream while fostering a closer connection with their audience.

Online Courses and Workshops

Many influencers, especially those with specific skills or knowledge, create and sell online courses or conduct workshops. This method allows them to monetize their expertise directly. For instance, a photography influencer might offer a masterclass on editing techniques or a wellness influencer might host virtual yoga sessions. These educational products not only generate income but also position the influencer as an authority in their field.

Ad Revenue

For influencers on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, ad revenue can be a substantial income source. These platforms share a portion of the ad revenue generated from the influencer’s content. The more views and engagement their videos receive, the higher their earnings. While this method requires significant viewership to be lucrative, it provides a consistent income for popular creators.

Diversifying for Stability

The most successful influencers understand the importance of diversifying their income streams. Relying on a single source of income can be risky; therefore, combining sponsored content, affiliate marketing, product sales, and other methods ensures financial stability and growth. This multifaceted approach not only maximizes earnings but also safeguards against fluctuations in any single revenue stream.

Conclusion

Influencers today have a wealth of opportunities to monetize their social media presence. From sponsored content and affiliate marketing to selling their own products and offering exclusive content, the possibilities are vast and varied. By strategically leveraging these avenues, influencers can build a sustainable and profitable career, transforming their passion for social media into a thriving business. Whether you're an aspiring influencer or simply intrigued by this modern profession, it's clear that with creativity and dedication, the digital world offers endless potential for income generation.

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bradyoil · 1 year ago

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On Set Electrician Jeanne Mailloux Talks "Birdman", Buddhism and Mental Health.

Jeanne Mailloux works on commercial sets as a union Electrician. (And spells out to me the difference between the Grips and Electricains.) She shares fascinating insights about her start in filmmaking meeting Nick Cage, working on "Birdman" and being a female Electrician in that male-dominated department. We delve into reflections on human suffering, ego, humility, and how Buddhism has shaped Jeanne's understanding of life and art. Her passion for mental health advocacy is clear.

I never know where these conversations will go, but sure apprecate Jeanne's openess and sharing her journey. Check out her substack here.

FLOW STATE Click MAGIC MIND and use this nifty discount code JB20 and gobble it up daily with your coffee. If you follow me on Instagram you've seen my geniune endorsment of this mighty mind power juice.

EVENTS My next in-person Commercial Directing Bootcamp is Saturday, January 20th, 2024. Sign up soon or miss out. Limit 12 filmmakers.

Check out my Masterclass or Commercial Directing Shadow online courses. (Note this link to the Shadow course is the one I mention in the show.) All my courses come with a free 1:1 mentorship call with yours truly. Taking the Shadow course is the only way to win a chance to shadow me on a real shoot! DM for details.

How To Pitch Ad Agencies and Director’s Treatments Unmasked are now bundled together with a free filmmaker consultation call, just like my other courses. Serious about making spots? The Commercial Director Mega Bundle for serious one-on-one mentoring and career growth.

Jeannette Godoy’s hilarious romcom “Diamond In The Rough” streams on the YouTube, Tubi and more. Please support my wife filmmaker Jeannette Godoy’s romcom debut. It’s “Mean Girls” meets “Happy Gilmore” and crowds love it.

Thanks,

Jordan

This episode is 70 minutes.

My cult classic mockumentary, “Dill Scallion” is online so I’m giving 100% of the money to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. I’ve decided to donate the LIFETIME earnings every December, so the donation will grow and grow. Thank you.

Respect The Process podcast is brought to you by True Gentleman Industries, Inc. in partnership with Brady Oil Entertainment, Inc.

Check out this episode!

#filmmaking #Jordan Brady #director #advertising #respect the process #indie

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sage-sips · 2 years ago

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Admit it.

If you don't know, you will later if you stick with this for any amount of time.

Own more than one Tarot deck, that is.

If you are a Tarot enthusiast you probably have a deck or two around, especially if you read very often. If you are a professional, it goes double. We all end up with more than one deck. Most are self-purchased, which shows what baloney the superstition about being gifted your first deck can be. The tradition of it has value, I suppose. It would boost the confidence of a young reader and tie them to some degree with a mentor, or at least connect them to a more experienced Tarot reader one way or another.

Some of the professional Tarot readers I know have dozens. Oodles and shelf loads even. I'm not a collector by nature and started off swearing that a good reader should only ever need one deck - so of course I have 10.

Choosing a deck for a reading is the same as dealing with reversals. When you get right down to it, it is a matter of pure intuition.

With reversals, I just feel my way through it and decide if the reversal should be considered as PART of the card's message, or whether it was just happenstance in which case I just flip the card right side up and move on.

Same with picking up the deck for these collective energy blog readings or private email readings. For in-person readings, I carry two decks in unmarked tarot bags with me and let the client choose. I have one deck, the only one gifted to me, that I use only to read for myself. I use the Alleyman's, Heart of Stars, and 1909 RWS primarily here in the blog - the first two because their creators have graciously granted me permission to do so and the latter because it is in the public domain.

Often I'll compare and contrast the different decks when I'm doing a one card post like this. Different decks visually capture different facets of the deck. You can do the same thing by doing an online image search to browse different decks.

Today's card is a good example. Some cards use fairly consistent images across decks. The three of swords, for instance. It almost alwasy has some iteration of three swords in or around a heart. I don't know if that is by design, by coincidence or the sheer strength of the card's presence in the collective unconscious. Other cards, like the five, differ. The RWS above gives a sense of "cleaning up" after a battle, both in the literal sense and in the modern meaning of profiting to the max. The figure seems to be picking up dropped swords, smiling and making gains from the suffering of others.

The Heart of Stars portrays the figure as more egotistical, even sadistic or disturbed taking a form akin to the Joker in the Dark Knight series of Batman movies.

Witches Tarot with art by Matt Evans shows five swords arranged tips together and downward in the sky with a dragonfly and fairies (I think hinting at the trickster wishes granted in Fea and Genie lore)

The five of swords made by Sam Dow for the Alleyman's Tarot shows a throne made of a tree with swords in the roots.

All show victory but at a high cost or some sort of concurrent loss, but all have subtle differences that shift the emphasis.

The advice today is basically try not to shoot yourself in the foot as the saying goes. Ask yourself if the victory, the win, the competition is worth the cost.

Weekly Digest:

Three card Energy Path Tarot reading for September 11-18

Odinsday Oracle: stop looking and see

Announcements

Energy Path Tarot posts Monday

New "Learn With Me" series starts next Wednesday, September 30

NEW free weekly newsletter is on both Medium and Substack.

The blog, the newsletter, the YouTube channel and the socials are NOT monetized (your Tarot message comes first, not an advertisers) The webhosting bills are due soon - please help support Sage Sips with virtual coffee on ko-fi, private email Tarot reading purchases, and membership (includes discount and free readings, exclusive content)

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nickgerlich · 2 years ago

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Lights Out

Where I grew up in Chicagoland, there were no Walmarts in the 1960s. That was still primarily a regional southern chain, and in the Windy City, we had Kmart. It was the offspring of the S.S. Kresge Company, which had long maintained a chain of so-called dime stores.

The first Kmart had opened in Garden City Michigan in 1962, and was an instant success. The chain peaked at 2486 stores in 1994, but has been dying a slow but steady death ever since. And as my friend Rolando Pujol, The Retrologist, proclaimed in his Substack account this weekend, once the store in Westwood New Jersey closes later this month, only two will remain. The store is busy selling anything and everything, from merchandise to fixtures, in anticipation of the closing.

I have many memories of going to the nearby Kmart with my family. They were the stuff of which middle-class America was made. While my family was in good enough financial position to shop at Sears for most of our clothing, tools, appliances, and so forth, we went to Kmart for everything else.

Kmart’s signature marketing tool was its Blue Light Special, in which some hapless employee would push a little cart around that had a vertical pole, atop which was mounted the revolving blue light.

At the designated spot, he would stop and turn it on. An announcer would make a proclamation over the public address system, and then chaos would ensue as shoppers tried to grab whatever they could.

I still have memories of this, as it made each Kmart visit unique and, for all intents and purposes, competitive sport. Shoppers knew to keep a watchful eye for the cart appearing, wondering where it would stop, or listening for the crackle of the PA.

I'll never forget the vision of my mother clawing with other women over stockings that were on deep discount. I still bear the emotional scarring. My Dad, brother, and I looked on with upper lips curled, wondering what the hell is going on here. Pavlov missed his calling; he should have studied retail, not dogs.

Skip forward to 2005, and a very strange thing happened. Kmart, which by then was starting to swirl down the drain, merged into Sears, another chain whose better days were fading fast into the rear view. I suppose that misery loves company, and rather than each looking for a buyer to save their very lives, they joined forces.

Here we are today, with a pair of Kmarts and 12 Sears still open. It was like the Titanic tethered itself to the Lusitania, the latter torpedoed by change, the former sinking from smug ignorance of the dangers at sea.

Of course, we academics love a sad story as much as a happy one, because there are stories to be told, case studies to be written. And people will be writing about Kmart and Sears for years to come, both of which were firmly mired in their pasts, oblivious to the present, much less the future.

It is comically unimaginable to picture Kmart having the moxie to weather the COVID storm, with curbside, online ordering, and a powerful app. Not in your life. They’re still stuck with the clunky brick phones of the 90s, with flip phones just wishful thinking. Sears, of course, wound up being where old people shopped; they even sold off their best assets, namely private label brands like Craftsmen, Die Hard, and Kenmore, in order to raise cash. But you keep telling yourself that things will get back to the old normal.

Once the Boomers and Gen-Xers are gone, memories of these two chains will start to slip from public consciousness. There will be other companies as well, and my friend will no doubt be documenting them. This is his passion, chasing down the fading nostalgia of the day. It just makes me feel a little nostalgic, though, wanting to see one of those Blue Light Specials one more time. It would be entertaining.

That’s something no Walmart store can claim.

Dr “Just Don’t Trample Me” Gerlich

Audio Blog

#marketing #Kmart #Sears #retail

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topicprinter · 5 years ago

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The weird thing about running a marketplace, especially in the beginning, is that everyone on the platform makes more money than you. When I started MentorCruise and maybe made $100 or $200 per month from the platform, I had mentors on the platform making upwards of $500 every month. That was weird.I want to show you a few ways to monetize your marketplace, then: taking a commission is not the only way! Some of these are great to experiment with from Day 1, and some more only become a viable option with scale, so hang in there!Become a SupplierAs a marketplace, you are creating easier access to a certain supply, which wouldn’t have been as easily accessible without it. A key to that are good suppliers, which will in return often make a lot more money than the platform.The easiest workaround to this is to become a supplier yourself. This has been quite a successful tactic, when looking at the history of some of the biggest marketplaces, since it allows you to:Earn good money as a supplierFill up the marketplaceExperience the product from a supplier viewLearn about your customersThis is definitely a Day 1 tactic, and also has allowed me to earn a few bucks on top of the platform revenue by mentoring others myself.Take a commissionThe golden standard is to take a commission. As a marketplace, you are connecting a supplier with a customer, so on whichever side there is a benefit, you would take a commission.For example, eBay makes it extremely easy to sell products thanks to the network effects, but buying those products is not much different from doing so through any other website, so the fee is often taken as a part of the final sales price.Airbnb on the other hand makes it extremely easy to book an apartment to stay in and slightly easier for the landlords to rent it out. That’s why the fee for owners is often under 3%, while the fees for customers is usually around 10% or more.By taking a percentageA common way of taking a commission is to take a percentage of the sales price. This works usually well, because your suppliers ends up with a bigger check, and so do you. Percentages really depend on how much you, and how much your supplier is offering. For example, Upwork sources all projects and takes care of the application process and charges 20% for that. Airbnb facilitates access to short-term rental, but for a landlord it would be quite easy to source short-term rentals in a more unstructured way, so the fee is a little lower.By putting a fee on topThe second way to do things is to put a fee on top of what you are going to pay out to a supplier.For example, at MentorCruise Sessions we promise mentors a certain amount per session that they do, and put a little markup on top for the public display. The difference goes to us.This is nice because it brings some more flexibility to things. You can experiment with different pricing strategies, enable discounts or promotions, and your supplier still receives their flat fee.Charge for AccessIf you are curating a source of suppliers which is hard to find and hard to get access to, you might be able to get away with charging for access to these suppliers alone. The good thing about this is that you will not have to enable any restrictions on the marketplace, and it turns the marketplace from being purely two-sided to…. one-and-a-half sided?GrowthMentor is doing this, for example, as they have created a resource of growth coaches, which are usually almost impossible to talk to. Plus, many of these mentors are ready to provide services for free or non-monetary payments (network, exposure). That’s why on GrowthMentor you can pay recurrently for access to the bigger resource, and then use that resource (i.e. schedule calls with mentors) either for free or one-time payments.If you are in a situation like this, where you are creating access to a unique resource on one side, and have a resource looking for exposure or networking on the other side, this may be suitable.Scale: Promotion and Exposure OffersAs a marketplace grows on the supplier side, it will get harder for suppliers to get seen, especially if they are looking to build reputation or it’s about a product that is available multiple times on the market.The most prominent example of this is ebay. As a seller on a global marketplace, you are entering a price and service fight with all other sellers. If you are missing the social proof (reviews) to back yourself up, or it’s simply a product that is more of an impulse buy than something that people search for, then promoting it could be useful.It gets really interesting in cases like ebay, where promotion leads to a win-win. ebay does not charge the promotional fee, unless the item is sold. The promotions are backed up by data, and on average lead to a x% higher sales price. Makes sense to the supplier, makes sense to the platform.Maturity: Premium Tiers and Exclusive AccessEspecially in consumer marketplaces, navigating a marketplace can quickly become a game. Sellers want to sell the most, get the best ratings. People who are creating courses want to become the best course providers for a skill. Everyone wants to get the best ratings, the most sales, the biggest tips. It becomes competitive.For platforms, this is interesting, because it becomes crystal clear who your best suppliers are, and who is providing the best service.This is interesting because it allows you to curate a premium tier, for example for enterprises or wealthy customers who appreciate the added luxury. That’s why Uber Black exists, that’s how Airbnb Plus was founded and how arc is getting access to so many freelancers.Pricing strategies are probably the thing I am most excited about when it comes to marketplaces in general. Wouldn’t it boring to just charge a recurring fee and be done with it? ;)----I write about two-sided marketplaces on my personal Substack, hope to see you over there.

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog · 1 month ago

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Section 12: Practical Guide to Substack Discounts & Founding Memberships

Summary of my Udemy Course “From Zero to Substack Hero.” Image source from the video location Purpose of this Series for New Readers This is a new series upon request from my readers. I recently developed a course titled “From Zero to Substack Hero” and published it on Udemy and shared it on Content Marketing Strategy Insights owned by Dr Mehmet Yildiz who kindly allowed me to use his Substack…

#Business development on Subtack #Discounts on Substack #founding memberships on Substack #grow your subscribers with discounts #growth for advanced freelance writers #How discounts work on Substack #Substack education #Substack Mastery #writingcommunity

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toomanysinks · 6 years ago

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Patreon’s future and potential exits

Through the Extra Crunch EC-1 on Patreon, I dove into Patreon’s founding story, product roadmap, business model and metrics, underlying thesis, and competitive threats. The six-year-old company last valued around $450 million and likely to soon hit $1 billion is the leading platform for artists to run membership businesses for their superfans.

As a conclusion to my report, I have three core takeaways and some predictions on the possibility of an IPO or acquisition in the company’s future.

The future is bright for creators

First, the future is promising for independent content creators who are building engaged, passionate fanbases.

There is a surge of interest from the biggest social media platforms in creating more features to help them directly monetize their fans — with each trying to one-up the others. There are also a growing number of independent solutions for creators to use as well (Patreon and Memberful, Substack, Pico, etc.).

We live in an economy where a soaring number of people are self-employed, and the rise of more monetization tools for creators to earn a stable income will open the door to more people turning their creative talents into a part-time or full-time business pursuit.

Membership is a niche market and it’s unclear how big the opportunity is

Patreon’s play is to own a niche category of SMB who it recognizes has particular needs and provide them with the comprehensive suite of tools and services they need to manage their businesses. A large portion of creators’ incomes will need to go to Patreon for it to someday earn billions of dollars in annual revenue.

The market for content creators to build membership businesses appears to be growing, however, membership will be only one piece of the fan-to-creator monetization wave. The number of creators who are a fit for the membership business model and could generate $1,000-500,000 per month through Patreon (its target customer profile) is likely measured in the tens of thousands or low hundreds of thousands right now, rather than in the millions.

To get a sense of the revenue math here, Patreon will generate about $35 million this year from the 5,000-6,000 creators who fit its target customer profile; if you believe this market is expanding at a fast clip, capturing 10% of the revenue (Patreon’s current commission) from 20,000 such creators could bring in $140 million. And that’s without factoring in the potential success of Patreon implementing premium pricing options, which is a high priority. If Patreon can increase its commission from 10% to 15%, it would need around 47,500 creators in the $1,000-$500,000/month range (9.5x its current number) to reach $500 million in revenue from them.

There is a compelling opportunity for a company to provide the dominant business hub for creators, with tools to manage their fan (i.e. customer) relationships across platforms and to manage back-office logistics. At a certain point it taps out though.

That’s one of the reasons why Patreon’s vision includes extending into areas like business loans and healthcare. For companies targeting small and medium businesses like Shopify, Salesforce and Dropbox, there is so much more growth tied to their core products that there is no need for them to consider such unrelated offerings as business loans. Patreon has to both expand its market share and also expand the services it offers to those customers if it wants to reach massive scale.

Patreon faces serious competition but is evolving in the right direction

Patreon is the leading contender in this market, and there’s a role for an independent player even if Facebook, YouTube, and other distribution platforms push directly competing functionality. Patreon will need to make three important changes to compete effectively: more aggressively segment its customers, make the consumer-facing side of its platform more customizable by creators, and build out more lightweight talent management services.

What’s next for Patreon?

Having raised over $100 million in funding over the last six years, what is the path to a liquidity event for investors and employees?

In a worst case scenario, it is unlikely the company would go out of business even if it fell into disarray because it would be strategic for several large companies to takeover at a discount. Patreon may be on the path to IPO (as CEO Jack Conte hopes), but I find it more likely that the company gets acquired sometime in the next couple years.

Path to IPO?

If a public offering is in Patreon’s future, it’s several years out. It now defines itself as a SaaS company and has a plan to earn a higher blended commission on the sales of its customers through premium pricing options. It is a frequently misunderstood company, however, and needs to prove that a big market exists for mid-tail creators building membership businesses.

According to a summary by Spark Capital’s Alex Clayton, SaaS companies who went public in 2018 typically:

had $100-200 million in revenue over the prior twelve months,

were 14 years old,

had an average year-over-year revenue growth rate of ~40%,

earned 90% of revenue from subscriptions,

had a median gross margin of 73%,

ranged from roughly 500 to 2500 employees,

had a raised a median of $300 million in VC funding,

and IPO’d with a median market cap of $2 billion

Public market companies to benchmark it against will be Shopify (as SaaS infrastructure for small businesses selling to, and managing payments from, consumers) and Zuora (Patreon can be viewed as a media-specific SMB alternative to Zuora’s “Subscription Relationship Management” system). Compared to Shopify, whose market of SMB e-commerce businesses globally is easily understood to be enormous, Patreon would face more skepticism from public investors about the market size of mid-tail content creators.

Patreon’s gross margins can’t be much more than 50% given that almost half of revenue is going toward payment processing. Patreon mirrors Shopify’s topline revenue growth in the run up to its 2015 IPO: Shopify reported $23.7 million for 2012, $50.3 million for 2013, $105 million for 2014 and I estimate Patreon brought in $15 million for 2017, $30 million for 2018, and will hit $55 million for 2019. Most of Shopify’s revenue came from subscriptions, however, with only 37% coming from the “merchant solutions” services where Shopify had to pay out payment processing fees. Patreon’s revenue net of payment processing fees is closer to $7.5 million for 2017, $15 million for 2018, and $27 million (predicted) for 2019.

There’s a lot of capital chasing late-stage startups right now. How long that remains the case is unknown, but Patreon can likely raise the funding to operate unprofitably a few more years — getting topline revenue closer to $150-200 million, proving creators will adopt premium pricing, and showcasing its ability to compete with Facebook and YouTube in a growing market. In that case, it could become a strong IPO candidate.

The acquisition route

The other scenario, of course, is that a larger company buys Patreon. In particular, one of the large social media platforms building directly competitive features may decide it is easier to buy their expansion into membership than build it from scratch. Patreon is the dominant platform without any noteworthy direct competitor among independent companies, so acquiring it would immediately put the parent company in a market-leading position. Competing social platforms wouldn’t have another large Patreon-like startup to acquire in response.

There are three companies that jump out as both the most likely acquirers. Each of these M&A scenarios would be mutually beneficial: advancing Patreon’s mission and providing strategic value to the parent. The first two companies are probably obvious, but the last one may be less known to TechCrunch readers.

Facebook

I highlighted Facebook as the top competitive threat to Patreon. This is also why it’s a natural acquirer. Patreon would bring fan relationship management to the Facebook ecosystem and particularly the company’s Creator App with CRM and analytics specifically fit for creators’ needs. It would also bring a stable of 130,000 creators of all types to make Facebook the primary infrastructure through which they engage their core fans.

Facebook is prioritizing human relationships more and clickbait content less. A natural replacement for the flood of news articles and viral videos is deeper engagement with the creators that Facebook users care the most about.

Since the annual churn rate of Patreon creators who earn $500 per month or more is under 1%, the ~9,200 creators who fit that category would likely stick around as Patreon’s infrastructure integrates with Facebook’s; the vast majority probably already have Facebook pages and possibly use the Creator App.

Facebook’s data on who fans are, what they like, and who their friends are is unrivalled. The insights Facebook could provide Patreon’s creators on their fans could help them substantially grow their number of patrons and build stronger relationships with them.

Like all major social media platforms, Facebook has partnership teams vying to get major celebrities to use its products. Patreon could lock the mid-tail of smaller (but still established) creators into its ecosystem, which means more consumer engagement, more time well spent, and more revenue through both ads and fan-to-creator transactions. Owning and integrating Patreon could have a much bigger financial benefit than solely revenue from the core Patreon product.

As a Facebook subsidiary, Patreon would stick more closely to being a software solution; it wouldn’t develop as robust of a creator support staff and the vision that it may expand to offer business loans and health insurance to creators would almost surely be cut. Facebook would also probably discontinue supporting the roughly 23% of Patreon creators who make not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content.

Given Patreon’s mission to help creators get paid, it may make a bigger impact as part of Facebook nonetheless. Facebook’s ecosystem of apps is where creators and their fans already are. Tens of thousands of creators could start using Patreon’s CRM infrastructure overnight and activating fan memberships to earn stable income.

A Facebook-Patreon deal could happen at any point. I think a deal could just as likely happen in a few months as in a few years. The key will be Facebook’s business strategy: does it want to build serious infrastructure for creators? And does it believe paywalled access to some content and groups fits the future of Facebook? The company is experimenting with both of those right now, but doesn’t appear to be committed as of yet.

YouTube

The other most likely acquirer is Google-owned YouTube. Patreon was birthed by a YouTuber to support himself and fellow creators after their AdSense income dropped substantially. YouTube is becoming a direct competitor through YouTube Memberships and merchandise integrations.

If Patreon shows initial success in getting creators to adopt premium pricing tiers and YouTube sees a strong response to the membership functionality it has rolled out, it’s hard to imagine YouTube not making a play to acquire Patreon and make membership a priority in product development. This would create a whole new market for it to dominate, making money by selling business features to creators and encouraging fan-to-creator payments to happen through its platform.

In the meantime, it seems that YouTube is still searching for an answer to whether membership fits within its scope. It previously removed the ability for creators to paywall some videos and it could view fan-to-creator monetization efforts as a distraction from its dominance as an advertising platform and its growing strength in streaming TV online (through the popular $40/month YouTube TV subscription).

YouTube is also a less compelling acquirer than Facebook because the majority of Patreon’s creators don’t have a place on YouTube since they don’t produce video content (as least as their primary content type). Unless YouTube expands its platform to support podcasts and still images as well, it would be paying a premium to acquire the subset of Patreon creators that it wants. Moreover, as much as a quarter of those may be creators of NSFW content that YouTube prohibits.

YouTube is the potential Patreon acquirer people immediately point to, but it’s not as tight of a fit as Facebook would be…or as Endeavor would be.

Endeavor

The third scenario is that a major company in the entertainment and talent representation sphere sees acquiring Patreon as a strategic play to expand into a whole new category of talent representation with a technology-first approach. There is only one contender here: Endeavor, the $6.3 billion holding company led by Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell that is backed by Silver Lake, Softbank, Fidelity, and Singapore’s GIC and has been on an acquisition spree.

This pairing shows promise. Facebook and YouTube are the most likely companies to acquire Patreon, but Endeavor may be the company best fit to acquire it.

Endeavor is an ecosystem of companies — with the world’s top talent agency WME-IMG at the center — that can each integrate with each other in different ways to collectively become a driving force in global entertainment, sports and fashion. Among the 25+ companies it has bought are sports leagues like the UFC (for $4 billion) and the video streaming infrastructure startup NeuLion (for $250 million). In September, it launched a division, Endeavor Audio, to develop, finance and market podcasts.

Endeavor wants to leverage its talent and evolve its revenue model toward scalable businesses. In 2015, Emanuel said revenue was 60% from representation and 40% from “the ownership of assets” but quickly shifting; last year Variety noted the revenue split as 50/50.

In alignment with Patreon, Endeavor is a big company centered on guiding the business activities of all types of artists and helping them build out (and maximize) new revenue streams. When you hear Emanuel and Whitesell, they reiterate the same talking points that Patreon CEO Jack Conte does: artists are now multifaceted, and not stuck to one activity. They are building their own businesses and don’t want to be beholden to distribution platforms. Patreon could thrive under Endeavor given their alignment of values and mission. Endeavor would want Patreon to grow in line with Conte’s vision, without fearing that it would cannibalize ad revenue (a concern Facebook and YouTube would both have).

In a June interview, Whitesell noted that Endeavor’s M&A is targeted at companies that either expand their existing businesses or ones where they can uniquely leverage their existing businesses to grow much faster than they otherwise could. Patreon fits both conditions.

Patreon would be the scalable asset that plugs the mid-tail of creators into the Endeavor ecosystem. Whereas WME-IMG is high-touch relationship management with a little bit of tech, Patreon is a tech company with a layer of talent relationship management. Patreon can serve tens of thousands of money-making creators at scale. Endeavor can bring its talent expertise to help Patreon provide better service to creators; Patreon would bring technology expertise to help Endeavor’s traditional talent representation businesses better analyze clients’ fanbases and build direct fan-to-creator revenue streams for clients.

If there’s opportunity to eventually expand the membership business model among the top tiers of creators using Patreon.com or Memberful (which Conte hinted at in our interviews), Endeavor could facilitate the initial experiments with major VIPs. If memberships are shown to make more money for top artists, that means more money in the pockets of their agents at WME-IMG and for Endeavor overall, so incentives are aligned.

Endeavor would also rid Patreon of the “starving artist” brand that still accompanies it and could open a lot of doors in for Patreon creators whose careers are gaining momentum. Perhaps other Endeavor companies could access Patreon data to identify specific creators fit for other opportunities.

An Endeavor-Patreon deal would need to occur before Patreon’s valuation gets too high. Endeavor doesn’t have tens of billions in cash sitting on its balance sheet like Google and Facebook do. Endeavor can’t use much debt to buy Patreon either: its leverage ratio is already high, resulting in Moody’s putting its credit rating under review for downgrade in December. Endeavor has repeatedly raised more equity funding though and is likely to do so again; it canceled a $400M investment from the Saudi government at the last minute in October due to political concerns but is likely pitching other investors to take its place.

Patreon has strong revenue growth and the opportunity to retain dominant market share in providing business infrastructure for creators — a market that seems to be growing. Whether it stays independent and can thrive in the public markets sometime or whether it will find more success under the umbrella of a strategic acquirer remains to be seen. Right now the latter path is the more compelling one.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/23/patreons-future-and-potential-exits/

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fmservers · 6 years ago

Text

Patreon’s future and potential exits

As a conclusion to my report, I have three core takeaways and some predictions on the possibility of an IPO or acquisition in the company’s future.

The future is bright for creators

First, the future is promising for independent content creators who are building engaged, passionate fanbases.

Membership is a niche market and it’s unclear how big the opportunity is

Patreon faces serious competition but is evolving in the right direction

What’s next for Patreon?

Having raised over $100 million in funding over the last six years, what is the path to a liquidity event for investors and employees?

Path to IPO?

According to a summary by Spark Capital’s Alex Clayton, SaaS companies who went public in 2018 typically:

had $100-200 million in revenue over the prior twelve months,

were 14 years old,

had an average year-over-year revenue growth rate of ~40%,

earned 90% of revenue from subscriptions,

had a median gross margin of 73%,

ranged from roughly 500 to 2500 employees,

had a raised a median of $300 million in VC funding,

and IPO’d with a median market cap of $2 billion

The acquisition route

Facebook

YouTube

YouTube is the potential Patreon acquirer people immediately point to, but it’s not as tight of a fit as Facebook would be…or as Endeavor would be.

Endeavor

This pairing shows promise. Facebook and YouTube are the most likely companies to acquire Patreon, but Endeavor may be the company best fit to acquire it.

Via Eric Peckham https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes