I've been thinking about the Minds Pro and how to talk about it. Originally I favored it but after I saw the price and the exact features I'm no longer so sure about it. On top of that the market in general has changed.
I think we need to have a talk about using subscriptions as an economic model because there are problems with it that needs addressing.
I did mention this but it's a lot. The option to use Tokens is nice but it's more tokens than the average user would ever have and 40 dollars is at the point where people start hesitating with their spending (less than 20 dollars is the point where people make impulse purchases).
This may cover the cost of the services on offer but it's not a good deal for the consumer. There is a reason why Netflix is actually quite affordable for the services they offer and if it was more expensive than their competitor (rentals) then they wouldn't have beaten Blockbuster. Cable companies have slightly less competition but will still offer flexible pay options and give consumers a way to lower the basic price for when a consumer just wants one thing but not the other.
If Minds Pro is a practical service that people will use it require the price be affordable. The success of Patreon is due to people being able to lower the cost of admission to something as low as a dollar and even adjust when a payout specifically happens.
Not having that means that Minds Pro is now pitted against the pragmatism of the consumer and they will more than likely lose that trade.
There is currently an over saturation of subscription services. It's mostly happening with streaming services but with the combination of streaming, the bills you have to pay, and people charging money for access (or early access) to content, you are basically entering a scenario where people are spending a lot of money at the end of a month. My understanding is that any one person is only going to have a few subscriptions aside from their monthly bills.
This is a very delicate system where a few dollars make the difference between a service being put up with and it being dropped completely. Minds Pro is dependent on people having nothing better to subscribe to than Minds Pro and I don't think that demographic exists.
If Minds Pro offered more and for less (and it works right out the gate) then it would be good but it doesn't so it's going to lose out to all the other subscription services out there.
Some of the most successful subscription based services are typically based on supporting someone for whom you've developed a strong para social relationship for or it's because they are offering something very unique and valuable and the best way to design a subscription service is typically walling off the exact content that people want and giving a low price point to access it. There is no unique service being offered on Minds Pro. It is either a service that the site already offers for free or it's something another site offers at a more affordable price (I wouldn't even recommend that the average person launch a website without a very specific series of reasons) so that needs more modification because if it is an important way for the site to make money it needs a better design. I would recommend looking at top Patreon channels to get a better feel on how to design something like this.
I wouldn't buy this at the price it's offered now and I wouldn't recommend that anyone else do that and I would prefer if that rectified.
#minds #mindspro #subscriptions