Recreating Value @ The Hive

[ryan]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been responding to the economic slump by digging in and just doing more work. Thus, my lack of presence at The Hive.

This got me thinking. Hive really could thrive best, not in virtue of its tips and advice, but in virtue of it's productivity value.

Let me explain.

Yes, tips and advice are nice. But the real gems occur about once per quarter. I mean, how many of us really encounter a great idea every day? If the value that Hive provides is in advice and tips, then the well dries quickly.

But what if we could all help each other out in concrete ways. You pat my back, I'll pat your back.

In my view, that's how social groups thrive. When people exchange favors.

So the tricky part is determining how we can systematize this and make it fair. How can we all make each other more productive and, at the end of the day, more wealthy?

I have some ideas, but first let me open it up to the floor.

[jangelo]

I'd love to hear your ideas, Ryan. I know folks like reading tips and how-tos, but these days I would say those are best published on public sites rather than a private group like ours. I'd rather read expert opinions on specific matters here than tips and how-tos.

And of course, it's the social interaction (the virtual kind, at least) that matters.

[everythingeverywhere]

The fact you have to pay seriously limits membership and limits the activity on the forum.

It is hard to justify the cost of being a member the forum with so little activity.

[davidg]

signal vs noise though. Would rather see 10 informative / quality posts a week or so rather than 100 "hi, how do I make money online" posts etc.

Before we switched (around the time it went to vbulletin) it used to be lots of that. It was then ok for a bit but slowly fizzled.

We need new ideas, not the same old and buzz pushing stuff.

Perhaps more focus on making real products and useful stuff rather than the usual fuzz.

I would chip in more if we came out with something like an iphone app, a unique product that we all have 'shares' in or rights to use etc. But there are so many problems with that (who pulls weight, gets what as a result etc). Perhaps a leader, a pot for money, and an agreed equal share and common goal. Who knows.

Perhaps a little look at startups.co.uk too for ideas about how to expand?

[sirjonathan]

I've been thinking over the same kinds of thoughts of late.

We're getting ready to open a membership site somewhere
in the range of $200 a month. We've challenged ourselves
to figure out how we can make sure we're providing
at least ten times that amount in value. A tall order, but
definitely something we want to make sure we've achieved.

So, the question to ask, whether we're paying for the hive
or not, what would make it worth us paying for access?

How could it make my life better?

Daniel recently opened the doors on OnlineProfits.com. I read
the copy and, within 30 seconds of hitting the page, I made
the decision to buy. It was worth at least that $48 a
month to me. Sure, the modules didn't all apply, but the scope
of what Daniel was offering and the networking that I knew
would come with it was more than worth it all to me.

So, to offer some ideas that may help lead to an answer,
I'll put myself in the same place.. What would make the Hive
worth my paying for?

Here's what I would personally be looking for:

• Peers - I've been blessed with quite a few years in the
  world of entrepreneurialism. I understand most of the basics
  and I'm working hard towards mastery. I'm beyond asking
  people how to make money online, have made more online
  than many people ever will, love to teach others, and am
  eager to learn much much more. I want to associate with
  the people who are where I want to be, are where I'm at
  now (and also want to go forward), and the people who
  are still "far behind", but have that sense of vision. That
  alone is worth my paying for.
  
  
• Resources - I've got questions that many of you have
  answers for. Google gives me most of the answers, but
  often, as I go deeper towards mastery, the answers aren't
  apparent. I'm a big believer in standing on the shoulders of
  giants. I'd appreciate "members only" resources where a lot
  of time and effort has gone into putting together some of
  the very best. That's worth my paying for.
  
  
• Opportunities - I'm an entrepreneur. I'm always open to new
  ideas and am eager to help others in anyway that I can. I'd love
  a way to encourage and facilitate the start of opportunities. Be
  it finding affiliates for a launch, experts to contribute to a project,
  business partners, etc., a matchmaking service, of sorts, could be
  a nice push in the right direction.

Just a couple of thoughts . Make me a good offer and
I'd pay and contribute a lot more than $10 worth a month.

Keep up the good work.

Jonathan Wold

[gerrybot]

I kind of agree with David - there's so much regurgitation on the metablogging scene that there's little point in reading problogger type blogs anymore. If you're like the majority of us and have been blogging for 4+ years, you'll not be able to learn anything new from reading blogs - you've just got to get out there and generate content and build backlinks and all that stuff.

I'm curious to hear what you're thinking of Ryan - I'm sure many of us have different goals in our online ventures: how do we reconcile those and make sure we get value between trades?

[hart]

I think everybody has been trying to respond to the economic slump by digging in and doing more work, or trying to make their efforts more meaningful. I know that I have been looking at restructuring or another reorganization to help things off in 2009 and beyond in ways to reduce costs and increase revenues.

Since this is not my forum or site, I felt in the past that it wasn't my place to suggest the option to charge people money like the $10 or not. I do feel for those who come at a "slump" time that posting has slowed down and those who come with lots of posting and these new people expect high expectations and are either disappointed or do not give this a chance.

I liked the FUZZ philosophy that was the predecessor for the HIVE. It was supposed to be more of a secret group of those to help the others succeed. We would share good news (and sincerely be happy for those having good news) we would ask each other questions (and get a wide variety of brainstorming ideas), with our reach out in the www and social circles, we would bring back new and interesting stuff (evaluate new things before it was widespread around the 'net and twitter for instance). There were no general admissions. Ryan invited the people. If you want to invite people, you asked Ryan (or Chris) and they got the invite.

I think it was a good idea at the time, to keep FUZZ closed and open HIVE to the general public. The core group would write articles based on ours (and their) experience and such articles would justify the new membership - which, indeed is valuable. But, I apologize if I'm more of a forum 'talker' than a forum 'article writer' and most articles that are from Ryan and a small core of HIVERs that make up the core content in here. I can see why they would want to delete or remove their content if things change other than was intended and we all lose.

Honestly - I like the idea of a 'closed' forum and no outside eyes peaking into our business (or rather unknown eyes - being people that I don't know who just come and lurk and/or try it for a few months and then go etc).

Case in point with my recent forum thread about possible reorganization strategies. There's some part of my network and financial being that I don't want the general blogging public and general HIVE really wanting to know. Not because I don't want them to know, but rather I would rather be the one telling people I know that people I know plus lurkers. Granted - I didn't get many responses .. but I probably wasn't too clear in what type of brainstorming I was looking for. Oh well.

So - back to Ryan's question ...

What gerrybot said - is something that we should try to achieve - but let's keep it in the FUZZ group. If there are non-fuzzers / Hivers in here that you want in or can contribute - let them in. If there are current Fuzzers you don't want participating - let 'em know or lock them out. I know I would love to participate and create some thing that we can all benefit, but I would have to contribute in other ways than a financial investment - and hope you guys recognize that I could do something like that .. I'm just tapped these days - maybe in the summer.

I would be part of the group that if I pat your back you pat mine .. to exchange favors among members here that are productive to both of us .. and yes - let this social group thrive .. as we do.

[jdarney]

The problems with Hive as I can see them:

- There aren't enough members
- There aren't enough members who have experienced huge online success (this one is unfortunate, just calling it like I see it). How many people here are making a living online? I don't know the answer but just from reading the forum it feels like 10 or less.
- There's not enough diversity of how people make their money - everyone seems to be a blogger / content producer / etc., no one seems to be using PPC on the advertiser side, not a lot of affiliate marketing apart from sidebar banners and the like (and Teenormous which is a great idea). Without more diversity there's not as much to learn since most everyone is coming at the whole "make money online" thing from the same angle. Or maybe this is completely intended to simply be a blog tips forum, I could be out of line with this bullet point.

At the same time I'm listing what I think is wrong, on the other side of the coin I realize I don't post here enough myself, and I'm trying to think of why that is. Not sure exactly, but I do think if there were more conversations going on I'd be more likely to post. Chicken and egg thing there though.

[everythingeverywhere]

Here is what I would suggest:

1) Keeping the forums limited in membership is a good idea. Too many forums are noobs asking the same question over and over.

2) Offer free membership to bloggers who have achieved some sort of success. How you measure that is up to you. 1000, 5000, 10000 RSS subscribers? Get people in various niches, not just MMO and blogs about blogging, who usually have advice that doesn't apply outside of their niche. Maybe give them a small stipend each month for participation.

3) This would provide a greater incentive for everyone else to pay for membership if they know there are real pros who hang out here.

[ryan]

Seems to me that there are different visions here. I personally no longer need tips. I need cooperation from social partners. There's very little motivation for me to offer advice/tips at Hive without getting something in return (this is the way societies work, you give and you get and it's not a zero sum game... everyone needs to benefit).

Since I don't get paid for participating at Hive, my participation will depend on getting something out of the participation.

I guess that's the dynamic we need to work out. If Hive is going to continue, then there needs to be a self-reinforcing social dynamic of back patting.

Hive was never created to make a profit, like Daniel's forum. It was really created as a place where people could help each other in a safer environment than a public forum. So I think the key is recreating a dynamic in which people can help each other.

HART might be right - perhaps the pay method is not best. Perhaps the best method was the invitation only model. Not sure.