Hi all, I just did the survey that David sent to subscribers and I wanted to share some afterthoughts.
First off, I want to say thank you to David and all DYWM staff for their wonderful work. Being able to do DYWM classes is very important to me personally, so it pains me to see DYWM in hard times.
I had two afterthoughts:
I was wondering where the biggest costs are coming from. I would guess paying teachers would not be a problem as their are a lot of students in comparison to teachers. So maybe data costs of streaming video to so many people?
Iām asking because maybe the community might be able to chip in (volunteers, opensource code).
To keep the site accessible to everyone, you could maybe introduce a āpay what you likeā payment plan with a certain minimum amount. You could suggest mutliple priceplans to let the user know what DYWM needs.
I would be curious to any other thoughts and suggestions. We as a community can help!
Hey all, I also wanted to comment on Davidās mail and survey. First of all thank you David and everyone at DYWM for having made my life this much better in the past few years! The classes have become part of my daily routine and feel absolutely indispensable to me by this point. I also feel very moved that you are so careful and considerate in how you approach this situation and the question of raising prices. I was also wondering, like Aron, if a āpay what you canā or some kind of system with differently priced memberships would be an option. Could there be a āregularā membership (covering cost), a subsidised membership for those on lower income, and a supporting membership for those who can and would like to support the subsidised memberships? For me having options and being able to switch between them would work well, as my income is a bit unpredictable, which makes me a bit wary to commit to a fixed higher rate. But my main priority would be to keep DYWM sustainable especially for all those involved in making it what it is.
Best wishes from Berlin, Germany, Elske
Hi! I am a long-time paying user of DYWM. Indeed, I echo the sentiments of my fellow yogis. I like the idea of making a call for some qualified volunteers in the community to help with the load of running the site. Another possible solution could be to offer different plan levels depending on how active one wants to be. For example, I mostly use the site for the standalone videos and challenges. Something like this could form the basic monthly plan at the current price. For those who are more active and want to use more features (for example, more direct interaction with the teachers, teacher training, live feeds, etcā¦), the monthly costs could be increased relative to the number of features one may want to use.
Iāve checked my emails, no survey for me either.
Maybe it could be sent again as any replies would not be representative of all members.
Best wishes to everyone from a stormy UK!
Thank you so much for your care and consideration! We have grown a lot in the past decade and are still so dedicated to providing high quality yoga to people everywhere. Streaming costs are significant especially with so many free users streaming classes daily. We are working on new ways to allow for more customized subscription plans that would add perks for those who are helping sustain our mission!
Paid subscriber here, and no survey from David. Not even in my Spamā¦
If the question is on how to better support the site, some good suggestions givenā¦
I would definitely echo the possibility of asking subscribers for help with the site: for example you could have released a Beta version for us to help wth the testing and the UX during your past development.
And maybe keeping just some Beginner classes free, introducing a new payment level for access to classes that are currently free (but lower than the full subscription ) ?
I received the survey and answered the question. I too have been a paying subscriber since the start of Covid in March 2020 and am also someone who has made DYWM an indispensable part of my daily routine now.
I agree that perhaps a tiered pricing plan could be a way to offset some of your streaming costs, and cutting back on the number of free classes could also help to reduce the strain on data costs.
In the survey you had put some suggestion dollar amounts for pricing increases, but have you also looked at what some of the other Yoga subscriptions charge? I had done some comparison shopping a while back and found DYWMās pricing to be on the low side relative to what is out there.
I understand youāve got a wide range of members. Do you have any data on the frequency of usage? If you do have that data, you should take a look and segment who your heaviest users are (Iām probably one of them). And ask that segment what they would be willing to pay to keep it going. These heavy users will miss DYWM the most if it were gone, so they are your biggest advocates.
For those who donāt use it as often, what they are willing to pay may be less, so this is where a tiered pricing plan could come into play.
Interesting feedback. Wonderful we are all on the same level how satisfied we are with our DYWM team. I am a senior and one of the āheavyā users. The idea to offer packages or different levels of membership sounds fair.
And absolutely, the āheavyā users will go for Unlimited Access and pay for it.
Thanks for the sending out a questionnaire. Most clubs and groups just notify about a monthly increase in membership feesš
I agree, there may be those who would benefit from a subsidised membership. I would also hazard a guess that a large number of users would be accessing the free classes only. I also agree different levels of membership would also be helpful.
Coming to my use of this platform - I pay 99CAD for approximately 52 weeks of use. I practice 4 to 5 times a week with this website, and attend a live class once a week in my home city - Sydney, Australia.
So I get 208 to 260 classes per year from DYWM, at a few cents per class. A casual drop in class where I live is 25AUD to 29AUD.
DYWM already has procedures in place for those with financial hardship.
So in my perspective, feel free to raise the prices. You deserve it. I am confident that your decision will be rational and thoughtful. Thank you for involving us in this decision, and thank you for the best online yoga teacher community I have found.
I also responded to Davidās survey. I am no longer working due to COVID. It would be a hardship for me to pay the prices David mentioned in the survey. Well, not just a hardship. I literally do not have the money. I also suggested a tiered membership idea. I am not a heavy user, and I would be fine continuing to pay the current fee for access to what is already there. Iām sure I wonāt live long enough to go through all the content that is already on the site! So I donāt need more āextrasā; heck, I donāt even need any more new content. Iād be happy with just using whatās already there.
hey folks, good to hear all this and feel a part of a conversation, hope solutions can be found. An observation from my experience, is that the place I spend most of my time on DYWM, is on the page of a class, when I jump out of bed and straight onto the mat, and not so much in a forum or in subscription or comments sectionsā¦ so perhaps this is the best place to reach me as a userā¦ ie. if a condensed dashboard was visible every time I did a class, not only when I make several clicks in various menus, then I could stay more engaged with my subscription. A dashboard could show gold/ silver/ bronze level of access? stats on classes done? a āfuel gaugeā of how full my funds tank is, a gauge on how much funds DYWM needs/ global usage etcā¦ a way for me to feel aware of where I am and where DYWM isā¦ anyway, Iām not going anywhere, just some ideasā¦ thanks so much