[Case Study] pagalguy.com ka revenue model

[voodoochild]

some very interesting ideas here. well, as i see it the strength of PG is the dedicated community. we need to involve the communit to leverage that strength. also, a lot of the junta preparing for CAT is really looking for personalised mentoring and guidance. as far as content is concerned, there are a lot of coaching institutes which have decent content.. and that is something we probably don't want to compete with them. ...

1. now to leverage the communit, we can have a 'panel' of contributors a-la the mods.. and we have a 'members-only' forum which can be used for personalised counselling... [this could be stuff like, i posted a problem, the junta at PG was kind enough to solve it.. but how the hell do i go about tackling such problems in general, books resources? - as i see it there are a lot of queries which do not get answered or get lost in the crowd] the panel gets a fees and PG.com takes its cut....guarantee that there will be someone to respond to the queries in x-hours.
2. [stealing the idea from somewhere in this thread]... i believe there was a thread about printing PG shirts, and seeing the enthu of the junta, I believe there will be a lot of takers for souvenirs and memoralibia... PG can sell mugs, t-shirts, bags whatever..
3. have a listing of stuff that people want to exchange/sell and each transaction goes through PG.com, and retain a small percentage.
4. negotiate and offer deals for stuff like laptops/desktops/bikes/transportation for bikes/air tickets/loans for PG alumni and again retain a small percentage as fees
5. adverts for all free/general content

my 2 paise worth

vishal

[sumantakhan_]

for revenues one should be very careful 4 the following
1) accessability- ok we have a huge consumer base. but how we reach people in far off places . hence though we call make t shirts and stuff how do we really rach them.

2) preference-- most members of pg have there prefrences . if we choose a particlar revenue model we may end up loosing considerable chunk of members and the site will fail

question is why people spend money on something

the product fulfills a certain requirement to our desired level.
now at PG we all have been at receiving end at one time or the other. we have faith in PG and r willing to support its existence.

lets go to contributary model.
see iim , iit alumni pays hefty contribution. VINOD GUPTA made an entire b school 4 iit kgp

so rather than pay and get something we use the model " u use . feel great and then contribute to the cause" .
use pg meets as collection centres . and have a totally transparent audit sheet. u can generate more revenue 4m here

lets see if PAGALGUY agrees to me

sumanta

[mailtabrez]

we've got some really cool ideas here till now!!!

well acc to moi the site as a whole shud b free for members...this will let ppl register n use the site without inhibitions....
wat v can do is hav a donation section wher ppl out of their own will can come fwd n contribute.

another good idea some1 sugg was havin coaching insti corners...where ppl can go n ask their queries et al directly to the instis of their choice...n v hav a tie up wit the insti for a commission....a further addition wud be to make a deal wit these instis to give discounts for online registrations...so that ppl find registerin online a bettr proposition....makes sense cos the students r gettin discounts n r instis r gettin students without much hassle!!!

PG merchandise was an idea put forth many times n i had even volunteered for it...ppl have come up wit some designs but nuthin has been finalised as such!!as for distributin the stuff is concerned dont look any further v can leverage r NETWORK in a vry efficeint manner for this purpose...

my take on paid counsellin idea is that it shud b avoided!!!

[goofy]

hi guys,
my second post.(and PG has not responbded yet)

well i will continue my part two.
in my post one i had told about making,city wise advertisements.
one examole woulsd be say the scholars league wanted to advertise their mock cat (as they did recently) ,.hoe about giving a seperate section for that purpose for their seasonal advertisements,amnd following it with a link to a thread where we can post our quires,and the scholars league people itself will answer that..i think that makes much better as they get their targeted community to reach out easily and also answer our qu eries directly (thus no need of proxy) and they also get more value to their money..it also increases our credibility,as number 1 place for catreps .
again city specific institutes can advertise here.like say time may conducet a scholarship test only in say bangalore.etc...
thus we can become a link for all the cat .purpose.
i am against for charging for more personilized councelling etc.because our strength is that all th e members are ready to help out people anytime ,i mean u post any problem and there will be atleast a few people answering it .thats our strength.so i dont want to tinker with it
coming to the merchandise part ,though it is a good idea,i dont think we can make a good profit marginwith it
again waiting for comments.

prithvi

[muks]

hi,
this matter of revenue generation has spring again and again fr some time. but now it seem that pg is becoming serious fr 1.
i read all the post above but frankly liked none of the method(my personal opinion,so plz don't mind).
charging fees from ppl here will definately won't work as the main attraction and pull of the site will get lost.becides the ways of charging r not too good.fr example, if we take the case of forming a grp of ppl who r successful to give advice to janta who will pay. this idea is ,according to me,impractical.reasons:
1st,it will be difficult to match time as they will be very busy.
2nd,the cities where they r able to organise will be very limited.
3rd,it would be fair to pay the advisers fr their services.this will crop problems.also balancing this all will take a hell lot of time.
4th, it would be difficult to personise services and ppl will club to save money.
5th and the most imp., there will be no spirit in the forum of selflessness which prompt the ppl to help others even if they don't know them.

most of these pts will apply to other ideas given above.anyway this is my personal opinion.if i am wrong,plz do post.

[muks]

now fr my own ideas.
i think to find a good revenue model,we should frst look at our strengths.the things which we posses which will encourage other to give us a consideration.

1)frstly as everybody has said,we r an exclusive grp.we consist of ppl who r preparing fr cat.
2)we are all young ppl.the age grp we consist of is frm 20-26(mostly).this will again can be a target grp.
3)all are highly educated ppl as minimum qualification will be a graduate here.
4)most are motivated and has a dream to succeed in this world.
5)the ppl coming here r mostly middle or upper class ppl, who have some purchasing power.
6)there r a lot of ppl who r regular here.most sites will have a higher hit rate than us, but we have more dedicated guys out here who came almost daily here.
7)a recommendation here means lot fr others as we interact regularly.so, good things will be genuinly praised and tested.
we have varied interests as can be seen frm the chit-chat and interest sections.so we are lucrative fr many firms out there.
there may be others things which i may have missed out,but these r the main ones.

now,what this lead us to????according to me,we should stress mostly on advertising revenues. as our needs are not very much at present(no big staff,no shareholders,no extra expenditures),so we won't get in the quicksand witnessed by the free sites some time ago.we can sell at not very high rates and to few ppls.probably we have to make some adjustment in code of forum.

1)we can approach cl,ims,time etc as we are their only audience.they give ad in paper,tv etc.here they will address us directly.so, win-win.
2)i don't think that we can't approach others.we are after all a target grp after which so many companies run.we have money,aspirations,needs,an age grp which everybody wants to catch.we can market us to them.as we have lell nos.,so we can charge less.but if my pts above r rgt,then we r not ignorable.
if any investment advisor saw our equity markets thread, he will surely be tempted as he will see an potential costumer.and there r a lot of them out there.just see the variety of ads given by google and u will see the diversity.why need google?approach directly.we can approach advertisers.some will hear,some will not.but if a few agreed,our aim will be completed.

these r the pts fr which the hard work is done in the start,after which we can sit with ease.these may not be the best,but to me they r most appropriate.
comments invited.

muks

[sivarka]

It's a nice idea to invite coaching institutes. But will that be sufficient to run this
site in a long-term? How many such institutes are there? How long could
you run this site by depending on them? So, it would NOT be a good idea to invite
them here. They have to approach US. But how will they approach us?

Simple answer, Propagate the PG BRAND.


Say an XYZ B-School from UK or Singapore advertising today at The Hindu, Indian
Express, etc. Tommorrow they should advertise @ PG.COM.


Today ISB, Hyderabad comes to Taj Connemara, Chennai every year and conducts
a QA session, presentation. Tommorrow they should have some space at PG.COM
to conduct such seminars, and clear our doubts. So, what shall we do?


Today, IBM or Acer dealers at Mumbai would approach SP Jain to sell their Laptops
to B-Schoolers, tommorrow they should think of PG.COM to address a wider
audiance.


Today, Infosys or ICICI Bank goes to a B-School for recruiting an MBA graduate.
Tommorrow they should line up at PG.COM for their recruitment when our Alumini
base grows up.


When some B-School want's to sell their prospectus or bulletin they go for an ad-space
in the Newspapers. Tommorrow they should come to us.


When Raymonds wants to sell a formal wear for college students they should think
PG.COM , when Jindal Trust wants to give a scholarship, they must come here.


So, now tell me what should we do? How could we proceed?? Hope you got a wider
scope to think.... Think and come back Junta!

~Siva

[pswaroop]

Hey i've seen a comment saying many PGiets got calls and converts but the bottom line is many of those students are actually from some of the coaching institutes, me from TIME and many of my TIMEates have been PGiets, PG is prefered option to get in touch with other community ; and also u could see Time's AIMCAT's being discussed regulary on the forums projecting that many TIME studetns do discuss some bit here,; same vis-vis with IMS. CL etc ;;

[Jeyavar]

Great CASE STUDY approach


[glow=darkred:8a44e2d0ba]SWOT[/glow:8a44e2d0ba] model can be suggested

We can go for [glow=seagreen:8a44e2d0ba]Strength and opportunity [/glow:8a44e2d0ba]side !

1.Go for Ads to MBA coaching inst. When i was in MBA preparation i coudnt meet and MBA guy from TOP B-Schools. This is too good u see all top B-School students here !

Very few rank holders, all students who have applied for CAT and XAT and other exams are here

2.Prepare tough Mock CAT's and supply here, guys who contribute to Mock cat preparation should be given points, But we can cost for Answers !

3.Main advantage of this site is that its free ! i dont think charging for membership will help!

4. Many members will help this site as we have many contacts, we can also go fro ads from Noukri, Moster and other site

5.We can go for ads by companies which need students - all kinds of people are here Top to middle all Inst.


I liked this Topic : Cheers !!!

Thaks to Moderators and administrators too !!!

Jeyavarthanaraj

[pagalguy]

Sorry for being away from this thread for so long. I really appreciate the time and concern folks. Seriously.

There are a couple of ideas which won't work. These include charging membership, premium membership ( not yet ) , selling merchandise. Here selling won't work because I really have to get the merchandise in place if I have to .. and trust me..I have a job to do elsewhere too .. But whatever merchandise we sell, I doubt it would cover the costs of the server et al.

Premium membership is always based on more value added content, which I dont think can be provided for now. Why would people generate content for free and give it out on the site. Let me know what you guys think on this one.

Donations could be a way out, but again it won't be self sustaining. I have thought about this before and sivarka has brought the points up - which I & the mods have been thinking of.

Whenever I think of advertising any product, my concern is that it should be of 'some' help to the people on the forum. When it comes to coaching classes, we could try something out, but I am not sure if this is the time to approach them.

We guys in groups could get books on discounts, laptops on discounts et all .. But I am thinking that we would take atleast one more year to grow upto that level where the forum's name is synonymous with CAT/Related exams.

As sivarka said , spreading the brand. This is something we have never done. But if we had to actively go out and spread the name - what needs to be done ?