bryant 02/02/20 1:21 pm That's basically it. I saw the Megagames
emails. Not sure where you want to go with
that. Sub-net contract still seems to be
missing.
bryant 02/02/20 1:21 pm Somewhere in there, yes. We've looked at it
closely too and it all seems legit.
sam 02/02/20 1:21 pm megagames.. well i dunno.. good email huh :)
well imnot sure.. i just wanted to set the
tone and give you leverage
bryant 02/02/20 1:22 pm Expected some form of cheating, but there are
no signs.
bryant 02/02/20 1:22 pm Good ratios, no indication of placing banners
on other sites, etc.
sam 02/02/20 1:22 pm of course those are non-payable pageviews
since he doesnt have webguide, but that was
for january.. moving forward, anyway we can
cap mame.dk to 10k?
sam 02/02/20 1:22 pm of course, his ctr% suck
bryant 02/02/20 1:23 pm They claim that doesn't cover the hosting.
Then again, they say they're under an NDA on
what they pay for hosting and can't tell us.
bryant 02/02/20 1:23 pm We can get them to 10k or even less if we host
them.
bryant 02/02/20 1:23 pm But that's more than we want.
sam 02/02/20 1:23 pm they OWN their own isp haha
sam 02/02/20 1:23 pm so its free
sam 02/02/20 1:24 pm we can host them.. but they cant putillegal
roms as downloads on our servers:)
sam 02/02/20 1:24 pm its better for us to put the html on our
servers.. so we have control
sam 02/02/20 1:24 pm so make a deal.. 10k tops.. we host it.. of
course, we're not goign to allow rom downloads
on our servers.. so they have to link off
sam 02/02/20 1:24 pm and we got our 10k
sam 02/02/20 1:24 pm hows that sound.. is that too sneaky :)
bryant 02/02/20 1:25 pm Might work, certainly no harm in trying.
sam 02/02/20 1:26 pm if they agree to wipe the past payments as
well.. and make it a one year contract, we
vest more shares
sam 02/02/20 1:26 pm does that work
bryant 02/02/20 1:26 pm It may, I'll take it to them. We willing to
let them go?
sam 02/02/20 1:27 pm sure.. but tell them sponsors suck out there..
noone is accepting anything..worst case, we'll
have to let them go.. or we'll be filing
chapter 11.. they're welcome to try to hunt
for sponsors themselves
(also all paymetns will be net 60)
bryant 02/02/20 1:27 pm OK, we'll see what they say. Have a call
already set up with them.
sam 02/02/20 1:28 pm this is fun huh :)
bryant 02/02/20 1:28 pm Heh, not sure fun is the word. It's
interesting and necessary at the least.
sam 02/02/20 1:28 pm next?
bryant 02/02/20 1:29 pm That's all the action at present more or less.
Any idea where sub-net contract might be?
sam 02/02/20 1:29 pm ill find it.. it might be under 'seekmp3'
sam 02/02/20 1:29 pm i renegotiated poor Johan twice alread
bryant 02/02/20 1:29 pm Ah, ok. I'll drop Kevin a line about that.
sam 02/02/20 1:29 pm it was @ 3cpm first (chris howard deal)
bryant 02/02/20 1:29 pm Oh yeah - that one.
bryant 02/02/20 1:29 pm Want to leave him alone then?
sam 02/02/20 1:30 pm my plan was to take all the other 1 year mp3
site deals
sam 02/02/20 1:30 pm and give them to johan to mantain
sam 02/02/20 1:30 pm and tell him he has to maintain the traffic
level
sam 02/02/20 1:30 pm so all mp3 sites are under him
bryant 02/02/20 1:30 pm Sounds like a decent plan. Still doing it?
sam 02/02/20 1:30 pm yup.. just need to work the other mp3
sites..buy'em out or whatever
sam 02/02/20 1:31 pm he is 'on our team' meaning one of our
emploees then..and he puts srunner or anything
sam 02/02/20 1:31 pm my ultimate plan to have like 10
super-webmasters..that run our sites and
deploy whatever we need easy and fast
bryant 02/02/20 1:31 pm Brian asked if we're comfortable trading
equity on some ratio for cash on some of these
deals, thoughts?
sam 02/02/20 1:31 pm yes of course
bryant 02/02/20 1:31 pm Figured.
sam 02/02/20 1:32 pm but we want to shorten the timeframe, reduce
the cash, net 60, etc.
sam 02/02/20 1:32 pm trying to cram it all together
bryant 02/02/20 1:32 pm Right.
sam 02/02/20 1:32 pm u know what happend to snowbball today right
sam 02/02/20 1:32 pm blank ads
bryant 02/02/20 1:32 pm Yeah, saw the PR.
sam 02/02/20 1:32 pm all that goes to help us
bryant 02/02/20 1:32 pm Makes us look a little more friendly to our
webmasters. That's some nasty stuff over
there.
sam 02/02/20 1:33 pm yeah.. we do some weak stuff too because of
the market.. but our webmastrs are all
sticking it out..
sam 02/02/20 1:33 pm so we must not be that bad
bryant 02/02/20 1:33 pm BN wants to know how were handling our
payables to the law firm, CAIS, etc. She's
worried about sticking around only to have us
sued and BK. Thoughts?
bryant 02/02/20 1:33 pm What we're doing is better than what most of
those other groups are.
bryant 02/02/20 1:34 pm Only area I hear complaints about is lack of
communication.
sam 02/02/20 1:34 pm thats a tough one.. actually we're going to be
suing CAIs ourselves..
sam 02/02/20 1:34 pm pillsubury has equity in efront and works with
us
sam 02/02/20 1:34 pm good relationship
bryant 02/02/20 1:34 pm OK, that will help appease her.
sam 02/02/20 1:34 pm CAIS provided no service to us whatsoeve.r.and
we're drafting documents to sue them right nw
bryant 02/02/20 1:34 pm Wouldn't be in their best interests to hurt
what they have equity in.
sam 02/02/20 1:35 pm yeah exactky
bryant 02/02/20 1:35 pm Cool, actually that will help a lot.
sam 02/02/20 1:35 pm if you can reduce the monthly payments
sam 02/02/20 1:35 pm and get rid of the 2 ml etc
bryant 02/02/20 1:35 pm She seems willing to address all the issues.
Her out, her value guarantee, and her pay.
sam 02/02/20 1:35 pm offer them their site back against BK
protection
bryant 02/02/20 1:35 pm Still talking with her team though.
sam 02/02/20 1:35 pm i would give their site back to them ni a
heartbeat
sam 02/02/20 1:35 pm if something happens
sam 02/02/20 1:35 pm to us
bryant 02/02/20 1:36 pm Right, np. I told her that our previous offer
to walk should be a good enough indication
that we always work with people even if it
sometimes goes outside the contract. She
seemed to accept that.
sam 02/02/20 1:37 pm any idea on how you would do megagames?
bryant 02/02/20 1:37 pm Brian is going to approach a battery of
mid-range sites tomorrow and over the weekend
btw.
sam 02/02/20 1:38 pm information gathering and tsuff would be great
sam 02/02/20 1:38 pm then we can talk about deal terms, points,
offers
sam 02/02/20 1:38 pm and go back and make them
sam 02/02/20 1:38 pm that builds rapports and stuff ,..and seems
like we're doing it slowly.. the 3 G's:
Gather Info
Go over Offer
Get it done
bryant 02/02/20 1:38 pm Same as the rest. The approach we've been
using a bit is basically establishing the
obvious elements - poor market, banners dead,
competitors dying, etc. etc. - and letting
them find their own way to what we want to do.
SA offered to drop his pay without me ever
directly bringing it up.
sam 02/02/20 1:39 pm really? :)
bryant 02/02/20 1:39 pm Seems to be working this way, also serves to
make them feel like they're more part of the
team by getting involved.
sam 02/02/20 1:39 pm i think realistically, we shouldnt pay anyone
more than what they can make as a good salary
bryant 02/02/20 1:39 pm We're definitely channeling them towards the
goals, but letting them work towards it in
their own heads.
sam 02/02/20 1:39 pm i mean a real nice comfy slaary
bryant 02/02/20 1:40 pm Right. Most so far seem completely on board
with that.
sam 02/02/20 1:40 pm tlel them that.. hey you're doing this, you're
not struggling.. comfy lifestyle
sam 02/02/20 1:40 pm any thougts on megagames?
bryant 02/02/20 1:41 pm Was just rebrowsing the emails. I think a
very similar approach. "Things you can do to
not just help yourself, but all the other
webmasters."
sam 02/02/20 1:41 pm Megagames goals:
No outclause.
20k/month fixed
Help us on revenue projects.
what do ut hink
sam 02/02/20 1:41 pm yeah
bryant 02/02/20 1:41 pm Part of that of course being 100% and instant
compliance.
bryant 02/02/20 1:42 pm Going to suggest that the struggle we're
having now could have been prevented or at
least lessened had people knuckled down and
participated instead of standing around
whining.
bryant 02/02/20 1:42 pm They know what it's like to not see money now
- that should be a strong motivator to help
make sure it doesn't happen again.
sam 02/02/20 1:43 pm yeah.. and that its not too late.. but we need
to streamling and cut costs as the market
doesnt support this
bryant 02/02/20 1:43 pm It's like Jerry Maguire - "Help me, help you".
sam 02/02/20 1:43 pm yeah
were u surprised by megagames's reply
bryant 02/02/20 1:43 pm I was actually.
bryant 02/02/20 1:43 pm Rolled over with his tail between his legs
quickly.
sam 02/02/20 1:44 pm well most of the things we said was true, hows
he going to argue bout that :)
bryant 02/02/20 1:44 pm Which is good, he's on weak ground to argue
on.
sam 02/02/20 1:44 pm he did actually work rpetty hard
bryant 02/02/20 1:44 pm He didn't comply period. Helped dig this hole
we're in. No defense for that.
sam 02/02/20 1:44 pm i believehim on that
bryant 02/02/20 1:44 pm Oh I know - I think he's going to be easier
than we thought to be honest.
sam 02/02/20 1:44 pm yeah.. the trick for him would be to kill the
past payables or somethign
sam 02/02/20 1:45 pm tell him he's already getting it with the ipo
sam 02/02/20 1:45 pm or add it to the end of the contract
bryant 02/02/20 1:45 pm Or at least defer all or most till a liquidity
event.
bryant 02/02/20 1:45 pm Right.
sam 02/02/20 1:45 pm and pay him 20 or 25k/month.. that we can
afford that on a consistent basis
sam 02/02/20 1:45 pm every penny saved helps :)
sam 02/02/20 1:45 pm our goal is 150k/month payable
bryant 02/02/20 1:45 pm I think he'll be fine on that front. We'll
see.
bryant 02/02/20 1:46 pm Getting him down on $ that is.
sam 02/02/20 1:46 pm 25/150 = 16%
sam 02/02/20 1:46 pm 50/300 = 16%
bryant 02/02/20 1:46 pm Does someone have a breakdown of what we owe
every site for Jan?
bryant 02/02/20 1:47 pm Bill S. maybe?
sam 02/02/20 1:47 pm yeah jonathan has to put the traffic stuff
together and get matt's help in coutning the
webguides per site
sam 02/02/20 1:47 pm no.. it starts from traffic first
sam 02/02/20 1:47 pm traffic calculates web guide impressions per
site
sam 02/02/20 1:47 pm then gives to bill s. and he plugs it into his
spreadsheet
bryant 02/02/20 1:47 pm OK cool - I'll touch base with Jon then. It
will be a big help to see exactly how it's all
going to add up and where best to come down
more.
sam 02/02/20 1:47 pm yup
sam 02/02/20 1:48 pm im actively driving the sales guys
bryant 02/02/20 1:48 pm That spreadsheet will be the biggest help I
think. Time frame on that?
sam 02/02/20 1:48 pm on the direct marketing
bryant 02/02/20 1:48 pm Yeah, we've given EFG some really solid leads.
Sounds like they're panning out but hard to
tell.
sam 02/02/20 1:48 pm hmm.. ask jonathan to get the right ppl
involved and give us a timeframe.. hopefully
by next mon/tues?
sam 02/02/20 1:48 pm yeah .. efg is the most shakiest one
bryant 02/02/20 1:48 pm OK, will do and will let you know.
sam 02/02/20 1:48 pm not really sure on that
sam 02/02/20 1:48 pm we're cutting more payroll too
sam 02/02/20 1:49 pm 200 right now
sam 02/02/20 1:49 pm we're out sourcing accounting & hr
bryant 02/02/20 1:49 pm Mike heading out then? I know his name has
come up before.
sam 02/02/20 1:49 pm nad i told bill s. to keep the core ppl,
accounting, and take 150k and deduct it.. then
tell me how much we have to cut
sam 02/02/20 1:50 pm basiclaly, i want bill s. to say ok we need to
cut 30k or whatever to come up to 150k in
payroll
sam 02/02/20 1:50 pm then we'll go through and try to make cuts
bryant 02/02/20 1:50 pm Right.
sam 02/02/20 1:50 pm probably mike, rad, chris h. maybe, maybe
brad,
sam 02/02/20 1:50 pm people who arent producing/contributing
sam 02/02/20 1:50 pm as much as they could
bryant 02/02/20 1:51 pm What's our plan on the next payout to
webmasters?
sam 02/02/20 1:51 pm im pretty sure we can come upto 150k..and we
have to pay everyone something.. otherwise,
things build up
bryant 02/02/20 1:51 pm Not 2/19 - whatever's after.
sam 02/02/20 1:51 pm well im gonig to settle w/ about.com and get
that out to the webmasters
sam 02/02/20 1:52 pm oh u mean after
bryant 02/02/20 1:52 pm Yeah.
sam 02/02/20 1:52 pm i want to make it net 60
bryant 02/02/20 1:52 pm One of the most common questions.
sam 02/02/20 1:52 pm and the goal is to get past payment lumped
elsewhere
sam 02/02/20 1:52 pm and we're building up our nonbanner revnues
right nw
sam 02/02/20 1:52 pm so the a/r should take care of it when the net
60 kicks in
sam 02/02/20 1:52 pm so our timing would work well
sam 02/02/20 1:53 pm and we dont have the baggage of the hit we
dtook with killing our banner business
sam 02/02/20 1:53 pm and we turned things around fast
bryant 02/02/20 1:53 pm Yeah, I've basically benn telling them that a
lot of that depends on webmaster willingness
to make some relatively minor changes for the
good of both their peers and the company (thus
their own checks).
sam 02/02/20 1:53 pm makes for a good spin and story on why we need
net 60 and why we need to lump it at the end
sam 02/02/20 1:53 pm everything has to flow..and ppl have to see a
light at the end of the tunnel
bryant 02/02/20 1:53 pm benn=been.
sam 02/02/20 1:53 pm if february payments arent due until april 30
sam 02/02/20 1:54 pm and 150k
sam 02/02/20 1:54 pm we'd be in awesome shape
sam 02/02/20 1:54 pm awesome awesome
sam 02/02/20 1:54 pm dont u think
bryant 02/02/20 1:54 pm Absolutely. Clearly that's what we'll shoot
for.
sam 02/02/20 1:54 pm i'd like to be able to renegotiate w/ everyone
and pay them
sam 02/02/20 1:54 pm after we negotiate
sam 02/02/20 1:54 pm so that brings them to the table
bryant 02/02/20 1:55 pm Right
sam 02/02/20 1:55 pm in terms of negotiating with us :)
sam 02/02/20 1:55 pm this could work real nicely
sam 02/02/20 1:55 pm pretty good plan huh?
bryant 02/02/20 1:55 pm Good opportunity to clean a little house too.
bryant 02/02/20 1:55 pm Some sites can just plain go.
sam 02/02/20 1:55 pm yup exactly.. and i want to kill our websites
to like 125
sam 02/02/20 1:55 pm from all
sam 02/02/20 1:55 pm i put a good list together
sam 02/02/20 1:55 pm in my proposal to about.. ill fwd to u
sam 02/02/20 1:55 pm just a sec
sam 02/02/20 1:56 pm i spent 4 hours doing that yesterday
bryant 02/02/20 1:56 pm Wow. Great though, all the extra vision we
get helps.
sam 02/02/20 1:56 pm check your email.. interesting
sam 02/02/20 1:59 pm i took our 125 best sites and categorized
them..and added a description to each site :)
bryant 02/02/20 1:59 pm Yeah, that's a great list. I'll
cross-reference that with the other data I
have to give a better idea of who gets a
litlle more rope, or a little less.
bryant 02/02/20 2:00 pm The sites that can go are going to be simple.
We'll simply make whatever offer suits us
best. They can take it or leave it. Little
to no dialog needed.
bryant 02/02/20 2:03 pm Anyway, time for more pills. Going to get
running. We should be talking with Megagames
tomorrow (going to pull Jon in since he closed
him). Will let you know how that goes, and
when we should see the traffic data pulled
into the spreadsheet.
bryant 02/02/20 2:03 pm 'night.
sam 02/02/20 2:06 pm sounds good..thanks!
sam 02/02/20 2:06 pm feel free to msg me if u need anything. ..
this is priority stuff..cya
sam 04/02/20 7:03 am hey Will hows it going..any update?
sam 04/02/20 7:05 am i'd like to offer $1cpm per daily unique user
bryant 04/02/20 7:07 am Nothing of any real significance to report
yet. Progress on BN and SA. Brian's working
with IndianMasala but they aren't happy. Put
together a list of sites for him to jump on,
going to go over everything in greater detail
with him this weekend when he's back online.
bryant 04/02/20 7:08 am $1cpm per unique translates to $0.17cpm on PVs
for most of our sites. I'd like to get them
for that too but we probably can't.
sam 04/02/20 7:08 am im talking to Tim eckel right now
sam 04/02/20 7:08 am he said valueclick is not accepting any more
members either
sam 04/02/20 7:08 am nonags wants back in
sam 04/02/20 7:09 am i think the market rate out there is about 10
cent cpm
sam 04/02/20 7:09 am what do you estimte
bryant 04/02/20 7:09 am For RON stuff I think it is too.
sam 04/02/20 7:11 am so anything above that we'd be losing out :)
bryant 04/02/20 7:21 am I guess it depends on the site. RON levels
don't represent what an average level is for
sites with RON + placed sales. PA for example
will likely be close to a 2cpm in Feb despite
a .10cpm (or so) RON level.
sam 04/02/20 7:21 am really? how will PA make 2cp
bryant 04/02/20 7:21 am Direct sales.
sam 04/02/20 7:21 am will they be able to do it every month on a
long term basis
bryant 04/02/20 7:22 am Certainly not. Or at least I don't believe
so. They of course do, but time will prove
otherwise.
sam 04/02/20 7:22 am they're still running our banners.. weird
bryant 04/02/20 7:22 am Then again, market should start to readjust
to. We're as low as it's going to get right
now IMO.
sam 04/02/20 7:23 am never mind.. that was my cache
bryant 04/02/20 7:23 am I think they're completely down right now.
sam 04/02/20 7:24 am you think? i think wwe're going to get even
lower.. that banner advertising wont even
exist for indepdant sites
sam 04/02/20 7:24 am i just cant see how :)
bryant 04/02/20 7:24 am Even the ad networks are going to have to go
beyond the banner. Much below .10cpm though
and it's not worth anyones bother.
bryant 04/02/20 7:25 am But independants can't survive on their own
for long, totally agree with you there.
sam 04/02/20 7:25 am yeah.. u know if we have to lose some of the
sites, so be it
sam 04/02/20 7:25 am we can pick them up cheaply
sam 04/02/20 7:25 am after they leave and teest the market
sam 04/02/20 7:25 am and see that its bad
bryant 04/02/20 7:25 am Yep.
sam 04/02/20 7:25 am nonags already emailed me
sam 04/02/20 7:25 am ill fwd to u.. its funny
bryant 04/02/20 7:27 am Heh, how was he inflating?
sam 04/02/20 7:27 am he wasnt
sam 04/02/20 7:27 am probably refrsh rates
sam 04/02/20 7:28 am that he was used to when he was with us
sam 04/02/20 7:28 am we sent jennifer money friday
sam 04/02/20 7:29 am jerry called and said she was going to
cooperate in everyway
bryant 04/02/20 7:29 am Yeah, Jerry told me. I think she's going to
really come through. We'll see.
sam 04/02/20 7:29 am and reduce the payments too
bryant 04/02/20 7:29 am Yep.
sam 04/02/20 7:29 am hope she does..
sam 04/02/20 7:29 am have u had a chance to analyze the sites and
come up w/ a game plan.. like what we want
sam 04/02/20 7:29 am i think we can add 3 more resources.. to cover
all the site
sam 04/02/20 7:29 am tim, myself, and scott p.
sam 04/02/20 7:30 am what i'd like to do is go through the
spreadsheet..and enter a column as to the
different scenarios.. and what we want.. and
send that to everyone .. and assign the sites
to everyone's names
bryant 04/02/20 7:30 am I think it's just a matter of trying to go
through all of the special cases one by one
and get them to come down. Once we do that we
probably want to deal witht he bulk sites in
batch.
sam 04/02/20 7:30 am so everyone has a global idea of everything
bryant 04/02/20 7:31 am Right now our focus is simply to reduce money
and as a secondary, get nonworkable clauses
off of the contracts.
sam 04/02/20 7:31 am ya
sam 04/02/20 7:36 am $1 cpm per daily unique = $50k/month in
webmaster expenses
sam 04/02/20 7:36 am our goal is 150k/month webmaster expenses tops
sam 04/02/20 7:36 am so we could go as high as $3cpm
sam 04/02/20 7:37 am per daily unique
sam 04/02/20 7:37 am and if there are some higher than $3cpm.. than
we'd have to get some lower
sam 04/02/20 7:38 am 2 mil daily visitors * 30 days = 60 mil/month
* $2.5 cpm = 150k
sam 04/02/20 7:38 am hows that sound
sam 04/02/20 7:38 am thats at least logical
sam 04/02/20 7:38 am and can work with our model.. otherwise we
wont be able to make payments on a consistent
basis
bryant 04/02/20 7:38 am We're better served just to deal with everyone
all at once in that case.