semi-regular business Q&A session

[mark]

It's been a while since the last one, so denise suggested that we do another Dreamwidth-the-Business Q&A session.

But first, some data. One of the things that we promised when we started this site - and still do! - is that we will be open with the details of how the business is run, how it's doing, where your money is going, etc. Given that, here's the breakdown of our first few months of operations (discounting May):

June: $7,500 income
July: $5,000 income
August (thus far): $2,500 income

This is pretty much what we expected. More people buying accounts towards the beginning of the site, tapering off as we come up towards the various renewal periods. We're comfortable with these numbers and trends so far.

Our current monthly expenses come to about $6,000. This breaks down roughly 50/50 into "server costs" ($3k/month) and "people costs" ($3k/month). We are presently paying a few people as contractors to do time-sensitive and business-critical work for us. (Systems administrators, ToS enforcement, and some development time.)

We are not, currently, paying any salary to Denise or myself. (Which is one thing we really hope to fix...but stay tuned for today's news post.)

Summary:

Dreamwidth is running slightly in the red, but has enough money in the bank to keep the site running for several years at the current run rate. We have a few things in the pipeline which we hope will allow for us to increase the attractiveness of the site to paying customers (features) as well as give us more sources of revenue (credits, virtual gifts, etc).

There will be more data about our next-6-months plan in the upcoming news post. But for now, if you have any particular questions about the business, things you want clarified, or anything, please comment. Denise and I will be happy to answer!

Comments

[chris]

When we were doing the original feature polls over a year ago in Denise's LiveJournal account, virtual gifts got ranked as a positive feature in the list.

Well, that surprises me. I recall that reaction when they were added to (e.g.) LiveJournal being overwhelmingly negative, but I am prepared to believe that I may be superimposing my own opinion upon my memory.

Denise's original poll is convincing evidence that I could be out of line with the view of the masses on this one; I frequently am. If I'm really not the only person who thinks they would be contentious then - at the risk of keeping requesting polls until you get one whose result I like - might it be worth another poll to judge the mood among actual users rather than just among respondents at the time?

[mark]

I'd be happy to! I'll bring it up in today's news post, and we'll get some discussion going.

[azurelunatic]

I also seem to recall a lot of dislike in the news post, mostly related to the concept that it was being spun as something new and unique and awesome, but they were really nothing special, and if you wanted, you could just copy the image and use it as an icon or something. (I always saw them as a little like the fundraising flowers/candy sold around holidays in a lot of US schools -- you can get it cheaper somewhere else, but it's to support whatever school organization, and there's a certain amount of status in being seen to receive them.)

After the major parts of the grumbling died down, the Support crew started playing around with them some. The current use in Support is a little like greeting cards -- reach a milestone? Get vgifts from your friends. Have a birthday? Vgifts. See someone do something awesome? Vgifts. See someone do something that deserves a certain amount of public teasing? Vgifts. (Say, if someone broke the build...) There is a significant overlap between Support and Support's larger circle of non-Support friends, and the group that would have been exposed to the original poll.

[phoenixsong]

I didn't mind the concept of vgifts in general; it was the "free" vgifts that were sponsored that I had a bigger problem with. I hated those right along with sponsored communities.