Thursday, October 9, 2008

A broadcast from Team wis.dm

It's been a while since Team wis.dm last reached out on our blog, and it's high time we gave an update! In the past few months, wis.dm has been rolling along nicely and continuing to grow (albeit slowly). The level of participation of the core community continues to amaze us and for many we recognize that wis.dm has become a way of life.

We are proud of the product we have built and the community of core users- but unfortunately wis.dm’s not quite big enough to survive on an independent basis. There are many ways wis.dm can make money – but it requires a certain critical mass that, as yet, we have failed to reach.

Given sufficient time, we are confident we can get there- but in the meantime wis.dm (the business) needs to derive revenue to make a contribution to the costs of building and maintaining the site and we are thinking about and planning a range of initiatives which we’ll be telling you more about in coming weeks and months.

In fact, the first of these kicks in today with the introduction of of a new experimental wis.dm scene. "Broadcast You", a Television scene. Why Television? Well, some of the people most impressed with the discussions on wis.dm are big media companies. Traditionally, big media works one-way-only: broadcast. They pump great content into the void, and we all talk about it around the water cooler, over dinner, and on discussion sites like wis.dm. These companies are very interested in seeing how communities like wis.dm can close that loop, provide feedback, and improve the quality of entertainment, news, journalism, and opinion. (All the stuff we love talking about on wis.dm!)

As wis.dm focuses on driving revenue, we want your help. We want to prove to these big media companies that their model should include great commentary and question-powered discussions. We want to show them that news is more fun when it's being talked about. We're in close contact with a number of these organizations, and far from being evil corporate giants, they're actually quite intent on watching how social sites can play a role in their world. So show them! Start filling up the new Television scene with all sorts of content about current events, news, entertainment, media, and life. Stand Up + Air Your Views. Broadcast YOU.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The way I see it, many, if not most, users don't watch that much TV. I hope it workd out.

Anonymous said...

correction: workd = works

Anonymous said...

Since I love TV & Movies it will be like second nature for me to ask a great deal of TV related questions as my question history will see out. You can count on me to do my part and make the TV scene as active and buzzing that I can.
This is Kevin i.e. Kevisaurus

Anonymous said...

Martin:
I really appreciate you coming out and discussing the difficulties of making a web community like this profitable. Most people don't realize the costs involved in maintaining such a site or how unprofitable advertising online can be, especially with web-savvy users. This is something that I've been wondering about a great deal lately, and I've been hoping that the team would come to the community with your concerns about the business prospects for our little world. The fact that you did so shows, to me at least, that you do understand that this site is more community than business, and that we all have a stake in it. Please, don't give up on us, and please continue to come to us with ideas and for ideas for monetizing this venture enough to keep it active and viable. The idea of using the site as a feedback system for companies is a good one that I think, if used wisely, can become a part of our community.

I hope that you can stay connected to the community as much as possible, and that you will continue to try to pursue creative monetization methods, rather than just pushing for more usage to put us over the hump.

MichaleCS said...

If there's anything I can do, let me know! You get more payout from clicks than impressions right?

Anonymous said...

@Michale:
With most deals they get paid only for clicks, not for impressions. It would, however, be against the terms of service (and probably unethical) to ask you to click on ads that don't catch your interest. It's considered "click fraud" to do so.

Anonymous said...

You've got lots of dedicated users here, Martin, that are genuinely concerned about the future of your product. I for one am willing to try some new things in an attempt to make this brilliant site float.

We've gotten some press, but nothing like the Facebooks or Myspaces out there, and imo, as a user of both those sites, this is just far, far superior (although, somewhat different in purpose). I almost want to say it should be marketed as the best way to meet people on the net- but I'd hate for it to turn into a junky dating site filled with pervs and predators... This is some tricky water to walk, but thank you for keeping us current on it's status, and please let us know how we can help.

Anonymous said...

What a refreshing, unique community. I am impressed at the user participation and the wide choice of interactive possibilities here- not just another squalid adult clique

shell said...

Wis.dm is a lot of fun. Jump right on in, the water's fine!!!

All the users are quite nice, highly intelligent, and very pleasant.

There is never any meanness nor animosity and you are always sure to generate friendly discussions and find comraderie and warmth.

wis.dm, in short, is the Cat's Meow...

Anonymous said...

Three months later has proven me wrong. There are some low-life scummy members at wis.dm....lemsteve and failure mcshame to name 2...Insults and derogatory comments involving your mother spew forth from these two like it is normal conversation to do so...

And if you refuse to take their shit lying down you are abused by other members and banned by will and martin....yes, this is definitely an interesting experiment...

Shell

Sex-Rooter said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Acai said...

this is just far, far superior (although, somewhat different in purpose). I almost want to say it should be marketed as the best way to meet people on the net- but I'd hate for it to turn into a junky dating site filled with pervs and predators.

Acne Treatment said...

For one i am willing to try some new things in an attempt to make this brilliant site float.