Hi Wammerz.

I'm happy to announce that we've just added new pricing options for UMD Premium. It's still $10 per month, but I've added a new 3-day trial option for $5. There are other new options as well. Check them out at https://umd.net/umd_premium

What is UMD Premium? It's basically for the UMD power user. Unrestricted access to the Pic and Vid archives, high-quality playback and downloads from the Videos page, ads are blocked, zip image downloads, 5% off all downloads, and more. List of features here: https://umd.net/umd_premium

Peace!
Messmaster

Thanks!

People are paying UMD $10 per month for access to the material we all upload and to have all the ads blocked?

Yes.

Or that UMD is making money off of material I post and then not showing any ads for my stuff.

I guess the 5% off being sucked up by UMD could encourage a few sales to balance out...

Dunno. Will have to think it through. First time I have looked at it like this. It's the ad blocking that bothers me. I get that archiving the pictures that deep costs money; but I also get UMD is making 30% off each video sale as well as affiliate links. To turn off ads to producers... hmmm.

What's the thinking?

Has this conversation not been had, or did I not get the memo?

It's always been that way here. We let producers plug their stuff all they want for free, and then we run ads and convenience features against that content, and everybody's happy.

I get that... it's turning off the ads that, as I said... I don't quite understand.

This horse has been beat dead several times, but it's always a fair topic to discuss.

Our ads are pay per click, not pay per time. That means you're not paying for some time allotment and then not getting your money's worth because we're not showing it on every page load. Ads are randomized and not shown on every page load anyway. Also, there are only a handful of Premium members who won't see the ads. (Featured Sites is always shown.)

There are a lot of producers who post freebies to plug their sites, and we allow that on a pretty much unlimited basis here on the forums. The picture aggregator is a convenience feature that puts all those great pics in one place (and links back to the posts, too). People love it but it was prohibitively expensive to allow everyone complete access to, so that's how UMD Premium got started back in '09. Anyone can still go through all the old forum messages to find the pics, but the archive brings a reverse way to discover them and their corresponding posts/plugs. Everyone can see the past 5 days regardless; All webmasters automatically have complete access, and can always remove their content. Hit me with any questions!

Sorry, that response was to GGG. The ad removal is just an extra little perk to Premium members. Honestly I found it kind of weird to show them ads when they are paying for a premium service, so I took them off. It's only a few dozen people and we get about 200,000 page views a day, so you won't notice.

Yeah, I get that. It's actually why I refuse to go near HULU.

But then, I don't advertise on HULU

I do take your point though.

Well, to be fair... at what point do you draw the line? You pay UMD 30% per video with a DL store, or pay for advertising a site... or a percentage for affiliate linking.

I'm not complaining too hard, but just nodding heads because someone provides a platform without asking some questions... I dunno. I don't get that.

I'm not saying Derek isn't trustworthy by a loooooong shot. I've dealt with him for years and very much trust him, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to ask questions about decisions that either do, or potentially do, effect my business.

Also, bear in mind the platform wouldn't carry on without the producers. We're all pretty much in it together to a point.

You guys don't make a lot of the content. You make ALL of the content. I only run the platform which would be nothing at all without it, and I'm always humble to that. The platform pays for itself by monetizing the content that you are putting up as advertisements, and it seems to work out for us all... especially since that's the alternative to plastering the entire site with pop-ups and junk like that.

Given the ads are pay-per-click, fair enough, none of us are losing out by Premium members not seeing ads. The only thing I'd suggest is that instead of removing all ads, how about only showing Premium members the ones that have linked URLs - so Premium members get a better ad experience by weeding out the "you don't get to what you click" ones? Or possibly an option to see "no ads / content matched ads / all ads" so they can chose their experience?