Fwd: A MESSAGE FROM REDFLAGSDAILY.COM, FEBRUARY 23, 2003

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Sun, 23 Feb 2003 16:13:50 -0800

A MESSAGE FROM REDFLAGSDAILY.COM, FEBRUARY 23, 2003

 

 

REDFLAGSDAILY.COM

 

FROM: EDITOR’S NOTES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2003

 

THIS PROBABLY MEANS YOU

 

A MESSAGE FROM RFD PUBLISHER AND EDITOR, NICHOLAS REGUSH

 

Because we feel that it is extremely important that you read this message, we

are sending it apart from our regular MONDAY EDITION

 

We are sending this out to everyone on our Free Newsletter list and our Free

Extra! list. If you receive this message twice tonight (Sunday), we humbly

apologize.

 

The Monday Edition Free Newsletter will be issued later this evening.

 

After a very mixed week — reasonable momentum at RFD, significant illness

(mine), my mother’s first spoken words in almost three months (after heart

surgery complications), answering a battering ram of email, some of which was

inspiring and heartfelt and some of which was irritating (I’m not a violent

person but I was already reading the mercenary ads) — I realized that I had left

my Editor’s Notes column alone for a bit and that you might be curious to know

how RFD is actually doing, roughly one month after it went daily and launched a

membership drive at an introductory cost of $12.77 for an entire year.

 

Again thanks to all those who joined. You helped us do better than expected, and

made us certain that we had a viable website on our hands. That’s always a good

sign for a launch. For this, we shall find ways to reward you, more and more, in

good time, and you can certainly see yourselves as " charter members " of what we

feel is a small revolution in Internet health information. (By the way, if you

are already a member, or one waiting to be processed, you may want to skip the

rest of this because it focuses attention on NON-MEMBERS; on the other hand,

you’ll get some inkling of what is going on behind the scenes.)

 

So that’s the good news — people have responded in an encouraging fashion to our

membership drive. The Red Flag on the horizon — pardon the expression — is that,

according to our rough calculations, there are still many among the

approximately 8,000 to 10,000 people who regularly visit redflagsdaily.com and

who have decided, so far, for one reason or another not to fork over the $12.77

via credit card or check. I’m not talking here about people who only pop in now

and then. No, I’m referring here to visitors to RFD who often write to us and

ask a wide range of questions, and people whom we suspect, given our newsletter

numbers, are clicking regularly, and probably daily, on our abundance of free

material, either via the Free newsletter, or from the home page itself.

 

If some of the huge volumes of email we have received to date can be seen as a

reasonable reflection of why so many have resisted, here is a guestimate of how

we think these regular visitors break down.

 

People who have decided that the Internet should be free and in no way are

they going to even pay a low price of $12.77 for material that costs someone

(us) a lot of money to produce, day in and day out. We feel that this group

represents the majority of those who are resisting membership.

People who think that they receive enough material to suit their needs from

the Free section.

People who genuinely have difficulty paying $12.77, although we think this

represents a tiny portion of the no-goers.

People who haven’t bothered to sign up — either due to lack of strong

motivation or they keep putting it off for another day.

 

If you are among those who have decided that the Internet should be a Free Zone,

we can only tell you that you are deluding yourself. Increasingly, there are

demands for registration, sites offering only a tiny fraction of content for

free, and sites moving to an almost exclusive pay-to-read system. You must keep

in mind that the vast majority of Internet ad dollars go to the top 20 Internet

sites and for this reason, advertising, for most sites, is not a viable business

model.

 

For websites, without original content such as is available at RFD, which we use

to fuel our membership services, one of the only other routes to a viable

business is to sell as many products as possible. We strongly believe that many

health sites, still running for free, will gradually become junk sites, unless,

of course, there is some foundation backing or the site owner has very deep

pockets.

 

Without wide support from those who use our site, it will be difficult for RFD

to grow at a pace that will enable it to become strong and innovative enough to

compete successfully on the Internet for public attention. The quality

information may still be there, but growth requires a lot of money, and believe

me, you do not get rich quickly by charging people $12.77 for an entire year for

an extensive content package.

 

We went the route of charging only a little because we felt that this was the

best way to crack through the huge anti-payment resistance there is on the

Internet.

 

There are also people who do not want more information. They are pleased to have

the free information the site offers — particularly the provocative work of our

columnists. We understand, but you might consider paying the $12.77 as a small

token of support for the site that pleases you so much. We hear from many people

who say they are pleased, but do not show this in a practical, supportive

fashion.

 

As for those who cannot pay, as I mentioned, we think this represents a small

minority of visitors because our membership cost is so low. In any event, this

is why we hope to continue having a large and wide-ranging Free section at RFD.

Review the home page at the end of the week, and you’ll see that we usually

offer more original free content than other health sites, and combined with the

stories we link to on the Internet, the overall package of Free material is hard

to beat.

 

As for all those " later " people out there, this is not good. Signing now would

be better.

 

My concern, primarily as Publisher of RFD, is that the strong resistance of

those 8-10,000 regulars out there signals that we may have to think seriously

about altering our overall plans considerably in the foreseeable future, market

ourselves very differently, and focus more attention on our membership, as well

as redesign access to RFD.

 

We hope this will not happen. But, you see, it’s really up to you. Join us and

reap the benefits. We shall do everything we can to provide you with the best

content on health that is available.

 

We’d like to see at least 5,000 more signups at $12.77 in the next two weeks. So

this probably means you!

 

-Nicholas Regush

 

REDFLAGS MEMBERSHIP

 

REDFLAGS CLUB MEMBERSHIP

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

 

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