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Should I Fork Over $60 to Adholes?

by Kaza Razat
Saturday, October 22, 2005. 09:03AM
692 Views 9 Comments

I remember clearly the first time I came across Adholes. I was happy to see new kids on the block in Ad blogosphere and contributed often until I got insanely busy in my never-ending quest to freelance for every agency in New York. Now several months later Adholes is huge and is asking people to pay $60 to be Insiders. Most of the people I enjoyed sharing comments with back then are Insiders already and I feel left out. But I have to ask myself is becoming and Insider worth the sixty bucks? I like networking as much as the next hack but when you’ve freelanced for 8 agencies in the last year networking is probably not your problem. I like Marc, although we still haven’t met and I want to see Adholes stay around for a long time because it’s a great forum. But sixty dollars? That’s more than a subscription to the NYTimes Select online editorial service (as if I would ever pay for that). I hope you guys are serving up some pretty damned informative blogs to be charging more than the Times. Now I have to say that when I first saw the push to get members to pay I was a bit turned off (hurling) and that’s mostly attributed to me thinking that content should be free. I don’t pay to read news, why should I pay to read opinion? With that said I turn my dilemma over to you the Adholes Community to sway me in the right direction. I’ll provide a few examples of what $60 could buy me and if anyone can come up with a compelling rational of how an Adholes membership is better than those things then I will promptly pony up the cash (*providing Firefox says it’s safe and not a Ukrainian Phishing site.)

What $60 buys in my world: 1. The latest Play Station 2 game so I feel connected to the video game demographic 2. The hottest new graphic design book from a hip shop in Soho 3. An outrageously expensive vinyl toy to be my desk mascot 4. Hot vintage sneakers to impress the account people at my latest gig 5. Dinner for two at a swank Thai Fusion eatery (alcohol and tax not included) 6. $60 gets me half a pair of designer denim in NYC. 7. Pays for 3 months of my VOip phone service. (Sticking it to the man)

I’m waiting to be compelled.

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Comments

 9 shown
Friday, October 28, 2005. 08:14AM by Marc Lefton
Yes, Tom, we charged you one cent per comment.
Friday, October 28, 2005. 12:22AM by Liam Strain
I treat adholes the way I do public radio. It keeps me informed and entertained. And I will pay for that privilege. Besides when the collection agencies finally come for me, they can't take this away.
Thursday, October 27, 2005. 10:48PM by EXIT3A .com
Adholes charged me $250.
Monday, October 24, 2005. 10:19AM by Marc Lefton
Thanks Kaza, we knew we could depend on you :)
Monday, October 24, 2005. 10:08AM by Kaza Razat
I'm reaching for my wallet.
Monday, October 24, 2005. 09:58AM by Marc Lefton
Thanks Mark and Bonnie. I don't think anyone realizes that we put up the expenses every month to run the site. In addition, we spend most of our time working on it, with some hours thrown in here and there to freelance to pay our bills. We've made sacrifices to our personal lifestyles that many of you high daterate people would find unacceptable. If I wasn't doing this, I'd be making a lot of money at some agency right now. Jeffrey Riman, who is devoting much of his time to biz dev would have a high 6 figures job and Jesse would be a scientist for Nasa or something.

It's great for you, Kaza, that you've worked at 8 agencies and have such a large network. Does everyone have that network? You're thinking only in terms of yourself, which is suprising considering a creatie should put himself in the shoes of the target market. Kaza, would Adweek let you freely speak your mind on just about anything? Would they let you write something critical of one of their advertisers? Some of you may have noticed that my presence on the site has diminished. That's because I spent much of my time helping Jeffrey develop the business side, because without shoring up that end of things, there is no future for Adholes. Without your support, some new initiatives might find us asking you not to criticize certain companies because they support us more than you do. Would you like that better? The choice is yours, and largely, it's already been made, right? Perhaps we could sell the site to Adweek and they could have their editors moderate your posts.

You list a bunch of things that cost $60, but we're really asking for 5 bucks a month. Which is one Latte a month. For you Kaza, with all your experience, it's probably 1/10th or 1/20th of your day rate. Supporting people who are trying to create an independent hub of communications to make the industry you work in better should be a no-brainer. In fact, there's no end to the list of people who say it's worth it, but figure so
Monday, October 24, 2005. 06:48AM by Bonnie Natko
There's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that go into keeping this community alive. For me, this isn't just a place for content - this is a place where real discussions take place and solid connections evolve. Adholes has grown so much since March, when I first joined the site, and I really want to contribute to the growth of this community. To be honest with you Marc is sticking it to the man by keeping it independent. I'd much rather be putting money into his pocket than to some huge corporation that won't put nearly as much dedication and time into such a community.
Sunday, October 23, 2005. 11:36AM by Mark Weills
I think that maybe the fact that there are a bunch of folks willing to put endless amounts of time, free of charge, to keep this site running. Sure, there are many things that I could spend $60 bucks on, but this is a once a year donation. It helps to pay for many things that keep this site running, ie.server space, bandwidth, software development, design, etc... Ads are a great revenue stream, but how many of us want to see more ads, when we are looking for a space to network, read up on industry trends, socialize (though I am not a big virtual social), or share our own work? That is the catch 22: How do we keep going, what many say is a great thing? It takes money and time to run this ship. That is why we are asked to contribute. Now try to get this from Adweek or Ad Age for $60 bucks a year.
Sunday, October 23, 2005. 12:10AM by Jesse Tayler
few a few lattes a month, you can help some good folks out -- but since you are such a fan and long time user of Adholes I'd say you should get a commercial sponsor or two to support the site with valuable Groups! Groups help schools, agencies and regional moderators reach their audience and they can use their own design style, URL/Domain and still use features like articles, events and RSVP as well as adding membership to their site! So -- ask the organizations you admire most to support Adholes and get a valuable Group in return!

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