Canceled plans to charge for Gixen

[mario]

Today I made an announcement to make Gixen Mirror mandatory for snipes over 100$. I was exhausted after fixing Gixen the whole night after the software changes ebay introduced, and was not thinking clearly.

While nobody complained, I changed my mind, as for the rest of the day I felt defeated, at the end doing the same thing my competition does. Anyway, I realized I was not being patient enough, and decided to wait a bit longer. It's been less than a year since Gixen launched, and having 13,000 users is a success after all.

No matter what do you look at - Gixen is way better than any competition. It's free. It offers the only fault-tolerant sniping service for a small fee (6$). It has the best customer support. So how come Gixen signups are not ahead of competition?

Part of it is Google. Their ranking algorithm really sucks, and is totally inconsistent. The second problem is marketing. Gixen can't afford any marketing, as it makes very little money, barely enough to cover expenses. I see how services that charge 50$ a year subscription can afford 1$ a click. Gixen simply can't.

So let's see what happens in the next several months.

[the3coopers]

Just remember that you [ quote ] DO IT FOR THE GLORY !

[mario]

Right, right...

[paddy]

Ultimately, if it is a great service people will pay for it. The mirror service is great and Im very happy to pay for it. Having the payment system as it is now maintains gixens status as a community service which people can "donate" to (and they definately should). A change to the pricing structure you briefly considered would change the entire ethos of gixen from being a service to being a buisness. Both can be as profitable as each other, however, one has a community and the other has (exploited) customers. You made the right choice.

Your hard work is appreciated. Thank-you.

[Cupid]

I absolutely agree with you paddy...

I think we must accept that the service must ultimately be profitable for Mario. If we do not support it then it will not be possible, and we should not expect, for Mario to continue to invest his time, effort and money in this venture and it will not continue forever.

I'm sure we are not at that stage yet but I thought it was worth highlighting when Mario is obviously in the process of investing more to increase the capacity.
_________________
Mark

[GaryKyle]

Hi Mario,

I'd really like to see a Donate button, and then you might be able to make a few more dollars to help support all the effort you put into this site. I couldn't live without Gixen - it's worth far more to me than the $6 I pay!

[mario]

Thank you GaryKyle... Just extend your subscription - you can buy more than one year in advance...

[Michelle]

[quote="GaryKyle"]Hi Mario,

I'd really like to see a Donate button, and then you might be able to make a few more dollars to help support all the effort you put into this site. I couldn't live without Gixen - it's worth far more to me than the $6 I pay![/quote]

Seconded all the way around -- I'm one hell of a cheapskate, and I'd periodically hit a "Donate" button or gladly pay more for mirror. (I do think the free basic service is very smart, though, so that people are willing to stick a toe in the water and realize what a boon Gixen is to any active eBay buyer!)

I just visited the web site of Marsha Collier (author of "eBay for Dummies" and about half a dozen similar iterations), who encourages readers to try BidRobot. I figured hey, why not, and emailed to suggest that she check out Gixen as another alternative. I can't imagine you'll be news to her (though I suppose weirder things do occasionally happen).

Anyway, Gixen is a great service executed beautifully, and like everyone else here I think Mario is ultimately going to prosper mightily -- and MOST deservedly!

-- Michelle

[Haroon]

I know I'm cheap, but I'm new here

If I purchase a 1-year membership, and then the fees later increase or something in the paid membership changes, will I continue to get everything I signed up for when I paid?

[mario]