1 Topic by Jon Lebensold

  • Jon Lebensold
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-06-27
  • Posts: 226

Topic: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

It's coming up to the one year anniversary for zendcasts.com and I'm starting to wonder how I can make zendcasts something I work on part or full time. This year has had some notable successes:
- Hitting 1300 podcast listeners across the iPhone and Desktop feeds
- A mention on the Zend Framework wikipedia page (don't know who did that but thanks!)
- A live zendcast in Boston featuring Google Wave and Intuit's QuickBase online database
- Almost 40 videos and more than 25 hours of content aiding intermediate and experienced developers grapple with the Zend Framework
- Over 20 working free code examples that are freely licensed
- Assistance from an international community for content sources as well as videos (Thanks Udo and Tawfek!)
- Being featured on PHPDeveloper.org, KillerPHP.org and the Zend Framework website.

For 2010, I'd like to find a way of making this website sustainable. In true web 2.0 fashion, I'd like to put the question out there of whether Zendcasts has helped you or your business and what you would be willing to pay for in the new year. I'm also hoping to make more links with industry in order to provide members with give-aways and a blog that monitors what's happening in the enterprise PHP community.

2 Reply by harri

  • harri
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Kristiansand, Norway
  • Registered: 2009-12-02
  • Posts: 22

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I set my vote for the monthly payment. I thought at once that it maybe was a little expensive, but its probably because I'm a student and then every thing seems expensive:P

harri's Website

3 Reply by Jon Lebensold

  • Jon Lebensold
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-06-27
  • Posts: 226

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

what do you think would be more reasonable? smile

4 Reply by harri

  • harri
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Kristiansand, Norway
  • Registered: 2009-12-02
  • Posts: 22

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

Well actually, paying $14/mo isn't that bad if its like a mounthly subscription, but when you need to pay it all at once its a little much for a student like me.
When I think about it $14/mo is not that bad, but it kinda depend on how much you need the resources.

Maybe my reaction came from my position that I maybe wouldn't want to pay that much because I develop ZF on the side of my studies.

I can't seem to be able to decide:P

But I would easily pay if it was like $8/mo, but may not be enough?

I don't know if I made any sense, but at least you got some of my thoughts:P

BTW, is it CAN$ or US$?

Last edited by harri (2009-12-02 20:59:40)

harri's Website

5 Reply by philwinkle

  • philwinkle
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-12-02
  • Posts: 1

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I would be more than willing to pay for ZC - it is a great resource.

However, I think that $14/month ($168/year) is excessive; look at Tutsplus as a great example of a community that pays for *some* premium content. It's around $20 every 3 months for access to premium content and there is a STEADY flow of content that is freely available, mostly by Jeffrey Way himself.

I think the greatest asset in Zendcasts is the video itself, code and examples/support are nice but I've never used them and I've been coming to ZC for 8 months now.

I would highly encourage you to be careful of fracturing your own following because once you start down the road of payment for services/content you will never be able to make people happy with how much content you're generating. Not to be the nay-sayer here, but you might be better off advertising on the site or in the videos themselves.

Just my $0.02.

Last edited by philwinkle (2009-12-02 21:16:40)

6 Reply by ryan.horn

  • ryan.horn
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Buffalo, NY
  • Registered: 2009-09-08
  • Posts: 41

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I personally wouldn't. I think the screen casts are a great service, but there are a ton of free resources out there that I would use if this was not freely available. That being said, I think that Jon goes above and beyond what the majority of knowledgeable ZF developers do, I'm sure most would agree. But I believe that the perceived value is not enough to warrant a subscription without significant additions. Have you approached companies for sponsorship? I could definitely see that working out better as a model (I could see tie ins with some of your video content if it's a company that has anything to do with ZF).

The other part is that the zend framework community in general is already small and quiet. I think it would take away value in that respect, unless you did some marketing or advertising. Just my observations though smile

ryan.horn's Website

7 Reply by Jon Lebensold

  • Jon Lebensold
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-06-27
  • Posts: 226

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I was imagining a 2-tier site, where the majority of the content would still remain free while premium content or some of the older videos would be part of a members only section.

I think an advertising / sponsorship model is a possibility, especially since we're talking about enterprise development here (Zend isn't marketed towards mom and pop shops). I tried putting ads on the site awhile back and they looked bad and cheapened the content. If I find quality advertisers that are relevant to us as developers, then I'd consider it.

@philwinkle: I think that a 3-month membership instead of every month makes a lot of sense since its still a regular contribution, while not making the annual price exorbitant. Ultimately, I'm interested in best practices in software engineering and web architecture. The site works because when I publish videos, I also learn what I can do better in my own development.

The impetus for monetizing zendcasts is to provide resources so the site can grow and also so I don't need to freelance in order to focus more on building ZC.

8 Reply by abtris

  • abtris
  • New member
  • Offline
  • From: Prague
  • Registered: 2009-11-13
  • Posts: 5

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I have experience with http://peepcode.com/. Their price is $9/video and screencasts are more professional than zendcasts.

For zendcasts $4 per video or make better content. Your screencasts are useful but not have proffesional education quality.

abtris's Website

9 Reply by Jon Lebensold

  • Jon Lebensold
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-06-27
  • Posts: 226

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I looked at the samples on the peepcode site and they look really polished!

I'm curious about what you mean when you suggest it should be better content.

Do you mean titling & music (a more polished look'n'feel) or more of a powerpoint driven education style?

10 Reply by ryan.horn

  • ryan.horn
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Buffalo, NY
  • Registered: 2009-09-08
  • Posts: 41

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

Straight up display ads will definitely cheapen the content, I was thinking more along the lines of advertising that adds value to the content. More like product placement than a commercial. Or screen casts that are even driven by the advertiser's product domain. That's where I was going when talking about video tie ins (I could imagine an Adobe sponsored Zend_Amf tutorial).

And the tiered approach makes a lot more sense than a 100% paid subscription model smile

ryan.horn's Website

11 Reply by Manuel

  • Manuel
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-12-09
  • Posts: 12

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I think for free content the quality of ZC is really good. I'm not sure if it's enough for making a lot of money.

If you want to charge people, you HAVE TO integrate a system where people can decide which episodes will be produced next. Either, you can give everybody some credit points to vote for different ideas, or you charge per episode and people can decide whether they want to view it or not.

A system with 14$ (CA or USD?)-a-month-subscriptions won't work if the content is not interesting to me; which is pretty likely in some periods. Plus, you will have to publish zendcasts on a more regular base, like 1 cast every week.

Please, make sure european customers can buy your services. Idk, doesn't PayPal swap EUR to USD/CA$ automatically ?

14$ would be about 9 - 9.5 Euros.

12 Reply by rpsimao

  • rpsimao
  • New member
  • Offline
  • From: Lisbon, Portugal
  • Registered: 2009-12-13
  • Posts: 5

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I vote for per episode. I agree with Manuel, you should have some user input for your screencasts, if we are going to pay.
BTW, Doctrine screencasts got me a good kickstart. I was willing to try it sometime in the future, but you made it sooner than later.
Anyway, thank you very much for your effort, ZC rules.

Last edited by rpsimao (2009-12-13 21:34:54)

13 Reply by Jon Lebensold

  • Jon Lebensold
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-06-27
  • Posts: 226

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

First I'd like to say I'm really appreciating all the feedback everyone's provided. For the short term, I think I'm going to focus my energies into fixing up the main site to make it easier to navigate and more user friendly. I think a per-pay model or a ranking system for videos would be great and a worthwhile goal in the longterm.

14 Reply by Holmen

  • Holmen
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-12-18
  • Posts: 2

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I would say that a monthly payment and a per-view payment is what is needed. Some prefer the monthly and some prefer to pay for just a single view.

I voted for a 14$/month. The problem today is that only a few ZendCasts are really instresting, I would be more intrested in ZendCasts that described more design patterns...with Zend Framework.

And if you were to introduce somekind of payment you need to increase the quality of the videos...technically speaking (Audio and Video quality).

15 Reply by jsuggs

  • jsuggs
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-01-18
  • Posts: 4

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I'm also going to vote No.  To be honest, the actual "webcast" isn't the reason that I come here, its the underlying content.  Meaning, I find it more useful to just browse the repositories (final output) rather than watching you type it in.  Yes, the discussion of what/why you are doing something is helpful, but I'm mainly interested in the final outcome.

That said, I'm not against the idea of paying for the content but what I am against is paying more for it simply because it comes in a video format.

If I were to pay, then I would want it on a per episode basis because not all of the topics are of interest to me.

16 Reply by einsteinsboi

  • einsteinsboi
  • New member
  • Offline
  • From: East Coast, USA
  • Registered: 2009-08-15
  • Posts: 6

Re: [POLL] Would you pay for zendcasts and how much?

I absolutely vote yes.  I think that the quality and content of these screencasts is definitely worth paying for, and if the revenue will make it possible for you to keep consistently producing these screencasts, then it's absolutely worth it. The question should not be if you should, but rather how much.  While I agree there's lots of free info out there, I honestly haven't found anything as useful as these zendcasts.

We all love getting stuff for free, but it takes time and effort to put this kind of resource up and keep it running, and I appreciate that.  So I would definitely vote yes and let those who decide it's worth it hang around. 

That's my 2c.

PS: I like your idea of having free content and premium content.  I think a lot of the older stuff should remain free.

Last edited by einsteinsboi (2010-01-24 05:25:50)

The Coding Pad

einsteinsboi's Website