January numbers:
Income (this period) from all AvMans
Subscriptions: $14,010
TB Sales: $19,518 (avg $23.34/purchase, $629.61/day)
Gross Income: $33,528
February numbers:
Income (this period) from all AvMans
Subscriptions: $13,440
TB Sales: $17,526 (avg $21.26/purchase, $625.92/day)
Gross Income: $30,966
I’m also very happy to report that a long overdue bill was paid (to Makena) this month, to the tune of $65,650.
Trials
We’re very happy to report that “Low Cost Trials” have been on for some time now, and we’re seeing very nice numbers – a 35% conversion rate no less. Of course, we’re sure this is due to some “start up” niceness from former members, but it’s still nice to see.
Now, and this is the topic for a later post, we have to figure out how best to use it.
Comment of the Day
I had to share this:
Listen Michael, although I doubt I will get a reply, you really need to consider selling the game, it’s obvious you have no true devotion to the revival or upbringing of the ‘game’ and it’s honestly quite sad, the ‘game has so much potential, honestly though, what is the point in camping the URL and letting the games value rot? You need to either put an investment into this game and bring it back, sell it, or close it, because honestly as of right now- it’s a haven for 40+ with an average number of about 20 people online, with the direction you’re headed the future is grim, you either need to invest into advertisements or SELL IT,or you could always take the ladder and close it rather than giving people false hope. Stop being the most unprofessional CEO in the history of buisness, calling people out because it’s your ‘personal blog’, oh because that excuses you acting out like you’re 14, I’m just being honest with you though- the whole situation of There is quite pathetic, if you put any type of viable effort into the thing- let alone some sort of non-initial (other than the re-creation) this game would be back on its feet in a reasonable amount of time, but so far- it’s only been down hill. It’s nice to drive around in my buggy like the old days but as of right now- I can only guess it won’t last for long, you really need to make some kind-of major decision in the near future, because right now, you’re failing as CEO.
I’m re-ordering my business cards to read “the most unprofessional CEO in the history of buisness (sic)”. Kind of catchy, no?
I am so There 
#1 by T. Shawn Johnson on 2013.03.28 - 7:56 pm
Others have pointed out the fellow’s excessive use of “game”. Seems like he doesn’t get it, and this might be the real root of his problem with the new There. Or, it could be a nice little trash talk from a competitor who feels threatened? Who knows. The only thing I’m sure of is that it is a he – being laced with mispent testosterone. I have it, so I can smell it a mile away 🙂
#2 by martin71a on 2013.03.06 - 3:47 pm
if i could shake MW and sam`s hand i would. to say thank you both for bringin back there.com and most of us are back and happy once again to have fun and do there games and much more
#3 by BerkleyHummer on 2013.03.05 - 7:22 am
“You need to take the ladder”, this guy sounds like a lawyer, ami right?
#4 by RK_Falagar on 2013.03.04 - 11:58 pm
I wonder if that person realizes… There is not a game
#5 by Jonathan on 2013.03.04 - 11:37 am
I’m in by no means educated in this, but I’ve been thinking of this for a while, and just wondered your thoughts.
I’ve noticed for the majority of the months, ‘ThereBucks’ sales are over half the income you gather… and I know more people = more servers required, but lets say there was no subscription — wouldn’t the perhaps increase in ‘ThereBucks’ sales outweigh the money generated by subscriptions?
This didn’t work in the past because you weren’t using Amazon’s EC2 etc, but paying for your own servers and a vast number of staff.
It’s just something that crosses my mind from time to time… Suppose it’s a risk trying it, and having it not work out.
Anyway, just an uneducated thought.
#6 by Andrew Almeida on 2013.03.05 - 4:02 am
I used There when it was free to use Jonathan. I never paid the ten dollars so I could have voice. I never bought a single bit of tbux. I wasn’t a cheap ass or anything, but at the time I used There I spent my online budget on crap like mafia wars & mobsters. I guess what I’m getting at, is Makena isn’t interested in the “Freebie” crowd. Those willing to pay 10 dollars to use the service are more inclined to spend $ on tbux, as opposed to someone using a free site. And using the new servers are cheaper, not free. So they still pay for more servers per the amount of users they have. And the more members There ends up with, the more staff they likely will end up hiring. A movie theater makes over half of their money in concessions, so tell me…..can you go watch a movie free as long as you buy a large popcorn and some candy?
#7 by avatar name was Robynn on 2013.03.05 - 8:32 am
There is not a game because Real money is spent,,,,,other then that fact,,,,it is just a game LOL
#8 by Thalen on 2013.03.06 - 1:16 pm
If there was no subscription, the number of people would (likely) skyrocket, easily 5X or much more (what were the numbers before?) But most of those people would be there *because* it was free, and not buy anything. I’m sure there would be some additional income, but I’d bet it would be seriously overshadowed by the extra costs.
Sadly, I’m in that boat, I can’t commit to another fee-based hobby right now, so even though I loved There was back in the day, I won’t be rejoining (I think I got into it when it wasn’t really open yet…it was about the time I was doing beta tests as a hobby, but I can’t recall for certain). As much as I’d love it if There went free again, I don’t think it’s the right choice right now.
-Thalen
#9 by Swimgood on 2013.03.04 - 9:15 am
Hey MW, I think you and your team are doing a great job so far. I just have one issue with There, and that is designer costs. The developer program is a huge component to There and the auctions is what really keeps people coming back and also it is a stream of revenue. As There continues to grow, more people want to start designing and aspire to become successful and profitable within the game. And with costs such as whole sale, or front page as high as they are, its really a turn off for users to continue to design unless they have already established a foundation (of designing) prior to There’s closing. What I’m asking on behalf of the community is, can you take the time and consider adjusting some of the designer costs, more so the wholesale price of items and perhaps the front page fee.
Even the There economy is struggling and sales are not as high as they once were. The auctions is beginning to lack new content because there are only a handful of users who can afford to design and produce new product. As for new designers, we face a lot of expenses and most of the time don’t make any kind of profit which really discourages us from designing. Please consider what has been said and thanks for your dedication to this world.
#10 by Indylou on 2013.03.04 - 8:51 am
Michael, the picture posted here is just amazing and beautiful. How about a little background info of the shot?
#11 by BillyShears on 2013.03.04 - 7:07 am
Your baby. You raise it. You put it to bed.
#12 by avatar name was Robynn on 2013.03.04 - 6:17 am
I agree with anne,,,,I’m not even in the game anymore but I was before long enough to believe what that other person said about the 40 plus LOL Other games allow kids to play as long as they have their parents permission and who else plays paintball ? I play Halo on Xbox 360 Live now with our 9 year old son but he’s been playing already for over a year. I’m just throwing that in as an example:) Peace Michael Wilson 🙂
#13 by Michael Wilson on 2013.03.04 - 6:40 am
Here’s the difference:
1. XBox has hardware and software revenue to…
2. Pay Moderators
3. Pay a Legal staff for those time parents feel like suing Microsoft because they or their child were harassed by griefers.
4. Xbox also has an expectation of “<18" behavior, and it's easy for you to …"isolate" yourself from it. Even though There is as big as a World, it's not as easy because we offer some things Xbox Does. That leads to #3…
#14 by Phil Reinsmith on 2013.03.04 - 1:27 am
Compared to most of CEO’s in the business world today, Michael, I would consider “the most unprofessional CEO in the history of business”. to be a compliment. Keep up the GREAT work. “Rockinsurfer_Boy”
#15 by avatar name was Robynn on 2013.03.04 - 4:19 pm
True and that’s why your the expert and I’m just another player 🙂
#16 by kalufrax on 2013.03.03 - 10:04 pm
The writer of the quoted comment obviously lacks relevant perspective (namely, familiarity with the histories and peculiarities of niche MMOs, closed MMOs, and revived MMOs). There’s revival is a success and Michael Wilson is something like a sassier, more resilient version of Stewart Butterfield.
#17 by Jonathan on 2013.03.04 - 2:04 am
Reminded me of Brian Butterfield. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtF3_ybJJ50
#18 by Hoverbiker on 2013.03.03 - 9:47 pm
“I’m re-ordering my business cards to read “the most unprofessional CEO in the history of buisness (sic)”. Kind of catchy, no?”
I think Mark Zuckerberg’s are/were better, if there’s any truth to the book and movie . . . “I’m CEO . . . bitch!”
#19 by pHluid13 on 2013.03.03 - 8:24 pm
And thank you to those members on the welcome walkway making the trial member experience a memorable one. Lets not forget about them too. 🙂
#20 by Michael Wilson on 2013.03.03 - 10:19 pm
Yes! Very much so!
#21 by Mimi There on 2013.03.04 - 4:24 am
Altho few right now Ph, the ones that land seem to like what they see and hear. Here’s to many more trials!! yay. PS. Can I plug “Messy Closet” here? rofl if you dont know what that is check my profile. (mimi06) 😀
#22 by RRTT on 2013.03.03 - 7:02 pm
While I wouldn’t agree with everything the person said in the letter, I find it frustrating that you brush these letters off as nothing, but don’t address the reason they are being sent at all. Revenues have fallen significantly, and once again, there is not profitable. What if any plans are being made to correct this moving forward? These revenue numbers are bad, I hope the company is making an effort to increase the user base.
#23 by Michael Wilson on 2013.03.03 - 7:20 pm
Unlike the “old” There, the only income which is coming in is coming from the members. If we weren’t overall in the Black, either someone (like me) would be writing checks, or we wouldn’t be paying the bills. Neither one of these is happening.
I only “brush” these off if they (a) are unintelligible rants, (b) are laced with ad hominem attacks, or (c) are obviously a troll or are hiding behind a fake name or email address.
Seriously, after investing hundreds of thousands of $ to re-open There, not to mention my prior investment in There, not to mention the time I (and mostly SamSyn and Bruce) spend, how could anyone expect me to take seriously a post which begins “it’s obvious you have no true devotion to the revival or upbringing of the ‘game’ “?.
Not to mention the fact that we are now PROFITABLE, and just today finished a completely Community organized and executed There Games?
No, if someone asks something in a civil fashion, I certainly won’t “brush them off”. But, OTOH, I’m also not going to let some coward show up and anonymously insult There, our work to date, or me.
As for what we’re doing, we’re doing exactly what we said we’d do: Some time ago we said we would do “Trials” next, and that’s what we did. Once we’re convinced that’s working, we will move on to the next thing we promised, which is a way for developers to make real US $ for their work (which is NOT the same as a BuyBack program).
And, along the way, we need to figure out how to make advertising (if that’s what we do) effective, instead of just putting up ads so people can see them.
#24 by Mimi There on 2013.03.03 - 6:19 pm
rofl rather catchy yes. Question. I notice that the trials I help have old join dates. Or am I seeing it wrong? lol
#25 by Dan Samuel on 2013.03.04 - 2:06 pm
Resurrected avatars can also have a low cost trial, in which case they will still have their original legacy start date
#26 by Mimi There on 2013.03.05 - 5:08 am
Thanks Samsyn. I have a habit of looking at profiles when they land. Just wondered. 🙂
#27 by anne on 2013.03.03 - 6:05 pm
I think the post is the absolute truth. I thank that person for putting it all together so well. I miss the old THERE . I’ve given it some time but I never saw more than a few people. Maybe that was good advice Michael. Rather than a sarcastic remark, maybe consider what they are saying. I write this because I want THERE to survive.
#28 by Michael Wilson on 2013.03.03 - 7:32 pm
I’m sorry that the new There isn’t what you expected. I can tell you the “Old” There isn’t coming back – the “Old” There, the one that closed – had lots more people in it since it was “Free”. And, frankly, not only did this make us (There) lose money, those people treated There for what they paid for it: Nothing, which led to, well I’ll let others fill in the blanks.
As for the other post, not only was it posted anonymously, it started out and was laced with ad hominem attacks which weren’t advice at all. The only “advice” was to “Buy Advertising”, which I’ve discussed many times before here.
#29 by Ox64 on 2013.03.15 - 1:40 pm
Hi anne, don’t think we’ve met in world. I am Ox64 in There. I can’t help but notice your comment about never seeing more than a few people as I’ve also seen others mention the same thing. I just wanted to share that almost a year ago I had found out about the revival of There. I had came back and gave it shot even though I was not using windows operating system regularly anymore. I tried several times throughout 2012 to come back and find people and like you I did not see anyone or sometimes one or two. About two months ago, I came back and gave it more effort. What I discovered is the majority of the people that are on There now are not in the same hangouts as I once thought were popular in old There. I also found that the hotspots on the site really doesn’t tell you much of anything where people are. This is what really misled me to believing that There was dead. I’m sure some others had/have that impression as well. But with a little time spent and effort, I not only learned that there are LOTS of people in There, there’s really a lot of things going on.
I don’t mean to pick you out of the group, because there’s several I’ve seen mention that there’s hardly anyone in There as well. I’m responding in hopes Michael will see this as well and consider having the There Central site fine tuned at some point in time. There’s tons of people back in There, maybe not like in old There, but I can easily find 50-60 people in all the popular hangouts on any given night if I make the attempt. I’m sure there’s many many more than that since I hardly do much exploring (and based on the subscription incomes being reported..woohoo!). I’ve found most of the places and people through networking and making friends and not the There Central site. It’s just that you don’t see this activity on the hotspots page (since those hotspots have actually shifted) and the events page doesn’t always accurately show the number of people participating either with the people icons. I’m guessing this is partly due to the delay in data to update the site for some technical reason, and/or guessing the icons (one, two, or three people icon) was geared more towards triggering off larger numbers since Old there had a whole lot more online users. Same with hosted events listings.
With that being said, if anyone does not believe people are in There, just IM me in world when I’m online, and I’ll be glad to introduce to a bunch of awesome people and places 🙂
#30 by Juls Tessmer on 2013.03.03 - 5:38 pm
LOL and I had 3 pages of avies who did the quests for There Winter Games! 😛
#31 by Musicmom Henry on 2013.03.04 - 1:40 am
3 pages, sweet! and great quests they were, Challanging but Great!
#32 by Andrew Almeida on 2013.03.03 - 5:26 pm
“it’s obvious you have no true devotion to the revival or upbringing of the ‘game’” Didn’t the man still spend more $ out of his pocket just to revive There? I’d rather see a slow process that works in the long run than a faster process that epically fails.
#33 by Truck on 2013.03.03 - 4:56 pm
MW ur doing a fine job.. 1 day you need to post who is sending these letters rofl (maybe a 14 yr old?) I like it the way it is.. some of the Thereians dont have the money to upgrade there computer every 6 months like some do… I personaly think its going great! ppl want it to look like an open sim then go to 2** L*** if u dont like the way there is.. Just my 2 cents.. oh sorry IRS came knocking 1 cent lol… MW we chatted before There closed and as well with Sonny. When and if There would reopen I will be THERE. Great People and loads of fun! Tell the Team Thanks Fer there hard work.
#34 by Arbata on 2013.03.03 - 4:42 pm
Michael, you’re doing just fine! Nevermind that person who wrote this. Maybe he’s a sad ex CEO LOL who didn’t make it in the business world I guess. But anyways HI5 to ya michael!!!
#35 by NathanAvis on 2013.03.11 - 10:21 am
You mean the one from that other world who had a real life lobotomy?
#36 by coolnet560 on 2013.03.03 - 4:41 pm
Thank you for the report. :). I hoped There Games helped you. Do you have the numbers for January?