New Policy re Ketch's Prem Plus Updates
- Thread starter Hooked
- Start date
KingGeorge
< 25 Posts
Sorry, but I am the greatest believer in capitalism and loyalty. If someone is going to repeatedly supply me with something that I value, then I will be willing to repeatedly give this enterprise my money to keep them in business.
The point of my post is that am really worried that Rivals will eventually have to go out of business and we will lose all of the great info that David and Geoff provide us. It does not take a stock market guru to see that the market for add revenue-based Internet companies has imploded and Rivals planned exit strategy of going public is a fading dream. Rivals needs to generate cash quickly or die. For those of you who think it is your unalienable right to have people provide you with valuable information for free, you better realize that these "Premium Plus" sites may be the only way that we will be able to still get info from the likes of David and Geoff in the future. $30 per year is not much to pay even if you know that the info will be just passed along to you for free on Hornfans.
I have subscribed to David's premium site and will subscribe to Geoff's site for this reason alone. Recruitaholics are not that large of a population, so we need a high percentage of us to sign up for the premium plus sites to make Rivals business model work.
What we should ask Geoff and David to do in order to make the premium sites really worth while is to include (high bandwidth) video and pictures of recruits so that we can get product that is not easily passed onto the free sites. What would really be valuable is pay per view live web broadcasts of highschool and UT games (Kansas football game was not televised) where there is no television available. I would have loved to have seen the Baylor basketball game or any of the highschool All-star games on my computer. Wasn't this Mark Cuban's goal (to watch non-televised Indiana basketball games) which made him a billionaire by founding and later selling Broadcast.com? The goal has not been reached, but Rivals could fill the void.
The point of my post is that am really worried that Rivals will eventually have to go out of business and we will lose all of the great info that David and Geoff provide us. It does not take a stock market guru to see that the market for add revenue-based Internet companies has imploded and Rivals planned exit strategy of going public is a fading dream. Rivals needs to generate cash quickly or die. For those of you who think it is your unalienable right to have people provide you with valuable information for free, you better realize that these "Premium Plus" sites may be the only way that we will be able to still get info from the likes of David and Geoff in the future. $30 per year is not much to pay even if you know that the info will be just passed along to you for free on Hornfans.
I have subscribed to David's premium site and will subscribe to Geoff's site for this reason alone. Recruitaholics are not that large of a population, so we need a high percentage of us to sign up for the premium plus sites to make Rivals business model work.
What we should ask Geoff and David to do in order to make the premium sites really worth while is to include (high bandwidth) video and pictures of recruits so that we can get product that is not easily passed onto the free sites. What would really be valuable is pay per view live web broadcasts of highschool and UT games (Kansas football game was not televised) where there is no television available. I would have loved to have seen the Baylor basketball game or any of the highschool All-star games on my computer. Wasn't this Mark Cuban's goal (to watch non-televised Indiana basketball games) which made him a billionaire by founding and later selling Broadcast.com? The goal has not been reached, but Rivals could fill the void.
As long as there is a market, the Garvins and Ketch's will find a way to make money servicing it. I do not think there is or ever was enough of a market for their services to support a publicly-traded company. It is just too damn specialized.
The Orange Conspiracy--from the outside, you can't see it, from the inside you can't talk about it.
The Orange Conspiracy--from the outside, you can't see it, from the inside you can't talk about it.
KingGeorge
< 25 Posts
Rivals' business plan was to add hundreds of Garvin's together and generate revenues off of sportsfans from every D1 school. Rivals did plan to go public and pulled its offering. Other sports-based public Internet companies' share prices have tanked (see Sportsline). The business model may indeed be to specialized for the public markets. But fulfilling Cuban's dream of providing pay-per-view live webcasts for non-televised events could be a cash cow IMO.
J
jnecakes
Guest
George, if RIVALS does go out of business and if there is truly a demand for Geoff's and David's services and if the information they provide cannot be gained in any other way, then they will succeed.
Cakes
"I was not aware that we had ever quarreled." ---- Thoreau, nearing death, when asked if had made his peace with God.
Cakes
"I was not aware that we had ever quarreled." ---- Thoreau, nearing death, when asked if had made his peace with God.
King George, you are a sick communist %^$&#. I enjoy not paying for things. The market for PP is for those who do not want to wait for the diffusion of info second hand....i.e. if this crap is really important to you, then so is the depth and timliness of the knowledge. That is how PP differentiated itself. the free sites will make money the way they always do...by drawing moths to the Ubid, and phoenix community college ads.
S
Samanai Horn
Guest
I don't care if Garvin goes under, but Ketch is worth a few bucks a month to keep around.
There are 14 links to pay sites on the first two Recruiting pages here. This board is slow enough without the pimping and whoring for these Premium pay sites. Make them buy ad banners or advertise.
It is foolish to think that anyone who subscribes does not already check the postings daily, if not hourly or every ten minutes. Why pimp for them, why use up the bandwidth? If the subscrbers already check in, what is the point of posting a link? To say "I saw it first"? It sure as hell isn't to inform the masses.
While I subscribe to numerous pay sites on the web, I also enjoy the free information that is available. News sites or Napster being good examples of free sites. This is like going onto Napster and having people list their new album they purchased but say you can't download it. Or clicking to CNBC and them saying we have some big news but you can't see it. What is the point?
JMO.
It is foolish to think that anyone who subscribes does not already check the postings daily, if not hourly or every ten minutes. Why pimp for them, why use up the bandwidth? If the subscrbers already check in, what is the point of posting a link? To say "I saw it first"? It sure as hell isn't to inform the masses.
While I subscribe to numerous pay sites on the web, I also enjoy the free information that is available. News sites or Napster being good examples of free sites. This is like going onto Napster and having people list their new album they purchased but say you can't download it. Or clicking to CNBC and them saying we have some big news but you can't see it. What is the point?
JMO.
LonghornGirlie
500+ Posts
eggroll, et. al., posting links to Garvin's and Ketchum's sites is hardly pimping for their websites. I do have a strong policy against owners or the agents of owners posting "advertising" type links to other websites. That is totally not the case when it comes to Garvin's and Ketch's sites.
They provide real information (at least as real as it gets when it comes to recruiting). We discuss that information. If anything, we are leeching off of them, but thankfully I know those guys well enough and they don't mind it. Its actually a rather symbiotic relationship. They get traffic out of it, we get traffic out of it. Everybody's happy.
You should all understand that the dot-coms are all hurting. The banner ad industry has completely crashed. Websites that have depended on this stream as their primary source of revenue have been closing by the hundreds. If we actually depended on HornFans revenue to feed us and the dogs, we'd be eating Purina.
I don't know what will happen with Rivals. They had an untested business plan (that of aggregating highly niche websites into a coherent whole). They had their major revenue stream drop out from under them. They must have gotten some more venture money to keep them going for a while. They are exploring other revenue streams, such as premium "for-pay" content.
Internet users have gotten very, very spoiled. We are used to getting everything for free. Its VERY hard to convince an internet user that anything is worth paying for. And they may be right... they can probably get the same thing for free elsewhere (at least for now). I suspect that may change drastically in the next 1-3 years.
Whether Rivals succeeds or fails, I do believe that there will always be a market for the Garvins/Ketchums of the world. Its a matter of getting the guys with the industry expertise hooked up with the right technical people and the right business people.
In the meantime, I strongly recommend prying that wallet open with a crowbar and ponying up for their for-pay services if you find their content worthwhile.
--
Hook 'em Horns
They provide real information (at least as real as it gets when it comes to recruiting). We discuss that information. If anything, we are leeching off of them, but thankfully I know those guys well enough and they don't mind it. Its actually a rather symbiotic relationship. They get traffic out of it, we get traffic out of it. Everybody's happy.
You should all understand that the dot-coms are all hurting. The banner ad industry has completely crashed. Websites that have depended on this stream as their primary source of revenue have been closing by the hundreds. If we actually depended on HornFans revenue to feed us and the dogs, we'd be eating Purina.
I don't know what will happen with Rivals. They had an untested business plan (that of aggregating highly niche websites into a coherent whole). They had their major revenue stream drop out from under them. They must have gotten some more venture money to keep them going for a while. They are exploring other revenue streams, such as premium "for-pay" content.
Internet users have gotten very, very spoiled. We are used to getting everything for free. Its VERY hard to convince an internet user that anything is worth paying for. And they may be right... they can probably get the same thing for free elsewhere (at least for now). I suspect that may change drastically in the next 1-3 years.
Whether Rivals succeeds or fails, I do believe that there will always be a market for the Garvins/Ketchums of the world. Its a matter of getting the guys with the industry expertise hooked up with the right technical people and the right business people.
In the meantime, I strongly recommend prying that wallet open with a crowbar and ponying up for their for-pay services if you find their content worthwhile.
--
Hook 'em Horns
HoustoNole
25+ Posts
Does this mean TexAgs will eventually become kaput? (fingers crossed)
"I want to eat your children."
Mike Tyson
"I want to eat your children."
Mike Tyson
Whatever is good for Hornfans works for me.
I at least hope that we get a hint as to what the pay link says. I have been there and done that before, paying for newsletters, hotlines and fax services. I guess with all the free information I can't bring myself to do so again. That, and maybe I'm getting too old.
Paying for something isn't the issue. If it came down to it I would pay monthly to post here. Of course, you would make much more money off those who would pay to keep me from posting here.
I at least hope that we get a hint as to what the pay link says. I have been there and done that before, paying for newsletters, hotlines and fax services. I guess with all the free information I can't bring myself to do so again. That, and maybe I'm getting too old.
Paying for something isn't the issue. If it came down to it I would pay monthly to post here. Of course, you would make much more money off those who would pay to keep me from posting here.
KingGeorge
< 25 Posts
Sponge is a football neophyte. He picks fantasy football players b/c their asses look cute in their uniforms.
Let me know if its a boy or a girl sponge. It sounds like Hayley is going to have a girlfriend.
Edited by LonghornGirlie on 1/22/01 10:24 PM.
Let me know if its a boy or a girl sponge. It sounds like Hayley is going to have a girlfriend.
Edited by LonghornGirlie on 1/22/01 10:24 PM.
LonghornGirlie
500+ Posts
Sponge, I'll tell Ketch that he'll get your 30 bucks.... I'm sure he'll run right down to the local BMW dealership and plop down a down payment.
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Hook 'em Horns
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Hook 'em Horns
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