I know you get this a lot, but the pay-for-messaging thing might be a mistake. I know it's supposed to be a draw to subscribe, but all it does in effect is send traffic offsite. Every account has a kik or access via another messaging service.
But, imho, there are several viable and lucrative paths forward!
The most important thing is to keep as much traffic here as possible.
The most obvious solution is advertising in messaging, though I understand that is difficult given the nature of this site.
Another option is to make an LLC messaging service that ostensibly anyone could use, but is used directly by this site, and recruit advertisers from that side instead. In fact, it surprises me this isn't already a business model, seems like a very lucrative and relatively simple middle-man business, call it hosted advertising, where sites that can't recruit advertising themselves instead send there traffic through this company for messaging services and the company in turn recruits advertisers that would otherwise be nervous about doing business directly with these sites / shares advertising revenue with the site that sent the traffic to them. Lol. This is actually a decent business idea and I should probably delete it. Anyway...
Another option is vary the way in which the social/dating subscriptions function with respect to messaging, such as expanding messaging to allow contact with twenty accounts maybe five times in a day, and then have the social subscription give unlimited contacts while the dating subscription gives unlimited messaging per individual contact. Or some other version of this.
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, the worst thing you can do, imho, from a business perspective, is keep the current messaging model. Driving traffic consistently and constantly away from your site is the worst thing you can do for a business, and, if you need to choose a lost leader, messaging is almost always the best choice, since there an unlimited number of free messaging services on the internet.
TL;DR: The current messaging policy only harms FF.
But, imho, there are several viable and lucrative paths forward!
The most important thing is to keep as much traffic here as possible.
The most obvious solution is advertising in messaging, though I understand that is difficult given the nature of this site.
Another option is to make an LLC messaging service that ostensibly anyone could use, but is used directly by this site, and recruit advertisers from that side instead. In fact, it surprises me this isn't already a business model, seems like a very lucrative and relatively simple middle-man business, call it hosted advertising, where sites that can't recruit advertising themselves instead send there traffic through this company for messaging services and the company in turn recruits advertisers that would otherwise be nervous about doing business directly with these sites / shares advertising revenue with the site that sent the traffic to them. Lol. This is actually a decent business idea and I should probably delete it. Anyway...
Another option is vary the way in which the social/dating subscriptions function with respect to messaging, such as expanding messaging to allow contact with twenty accounts maybe five times in a day, and then have the social subscription give unlimited contacts while the dating subscription gives unlimited messaging per individual contact. Or some other version of this.
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, the worst thing you can do, imho, from a business perspective, is keep the current messaging model. Driving traffic consistently and constantly away from your site is the worst thing you can do for a business, and, if you need to choose a lost leader, messaging is almost always the best choice, since there an unlimited number of free messaging services on the internet.
TL;DR: The current messaging policy only harms FF.
2 years