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johnelms32 · 4 years

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Four Best Hosting Sites For Affiliate Marketers

A website is basically your affiliate marketing home.

You need a website to create and post your content while providing your potential customers with all the information they need—about you and your offers—to make sure they’re making the right purchase.

Running a website isn’t as simple as installing WordPress and starting to work, however. That doesn’t mean it’s difficult, either; you only need to consider that you need to host your website before you start doing anything else.

If you want to WordPress for your blog, it might be tempting to use WordPress.com for free hosting. You must remember that’s just a subdomain for your site, and having that “xxxx.wordpress.com” extension can really mess up your branding.

Hosting your website is only complicated if you want to buy your own servers and do everything yourself. The most common—and efficient—approach is just to pay for a hosting service.

That leaves us with only 2 steps: getting a domain and finding a good host. Today, I’ll help you with that, so if you’re hesitant about making a choice, you’re in good hands.

How exactly does hosting work?

Hosting is fairly self-explanatory. Traditionally, the concept of hosting is mostly synonymous with “housing”: keeping someone or something in your property. Hosting guests or a party if having them take place in your home, and parasites need organisms that can host them.

Well, web hosting is basically the same, but everything happens via data and communications. Hosting companies house websites and content in their own servers; this makes it possible for your content to exist on the internet.

Before hosting your website, you need to get a domain name. It’s an address that directs to your content, and by hosting this address, all the content related to the domain is hosted in the same server.

That doesn’t mean all hosting companies work in the same way. Some use better technologies than others, and not everyone offers the same customer service experience, and web security depends on company-specific practices.

Your web host also plays an important role when it comes to SEO for your website. Loading speed, responsiveness, and stability are very important for Google, and your web host is majorly responsible for ensuring these criteria is met.

With that in mind, let’s go into my personal recommendations for your own web hosting needs.

My 4 picks for the best web hosts

Now, everyone has their own needs. Maybe you prefer good speed over enterprise-level security, or perhaps you favor outstanding customer support over affordable prices. Then, we have how affiliate marketing has its own needs for a website.

You can definitely be an affiliate marketing and make money from it without using a website. I wouldn’t recommend you do that, and if you’re reading this, then you already made up your mind about creating a website.

With that in mind, you need to know what exactly you should expect from a web hosting service. Hosting your website is as easy as creating an account and paying a subscription, but that doesn’t mean you can pick the first option that comes up in Google and pay for it.

You want your hosting company to offer the most modern practices right now. That results in better stability and responsiveness, so you should always take a look at the information available about a host’s technologies.

Good criteria includes using SSD instead of HDD for storage, good bandwidth—unmetered if possible—and security measures against malware, spyware, bots, and similar attacks.

Finally, you want your hosting company to offer stellar customer support. Especially if it’s your first time, having someone to help you out in case anything goes wrong is a big lifesaver.

If you’re using WordPress, which is the most popular approach, then you also want to go for a WordPress hosting plan. This option is fairly different from other types of hosting; for instance, it means installing this CMS is a lot easier—like Bluehost, which offers a single-click WordPress installation.

All my recommendations below follow these criteria, and they’re services I—or people I know—have used to host their own affiliate websites.

Bluehost

Bluehost is the main recommendation for WordPress users, so it’s very likely you’ve already seen its name elsewhere. It mainly targets smaller businesses and individual entrepreneurs, and that’s what makes it amazing for beginner affiliate marketers as well as advanced ones.

With that aim, the company has ensured their service is as intuitive as possible for people who’ve never hired hosting before. Publishing your website is seamless, and the same goes for designing it, thanks to its free themes for WordPress.

You can get a Bluehost plan for just $2.95, and all of their other plans are still very affordable—even more so if you compare them to the competition. Making it even more cost-efficient, it comes with a free domain name for all plans.

Other great features include a website builder, unmetered bandwidth and storage, and support for all the email accounts you need. It’s also an extremely reliable service, and if anything goes wrong, you have full-time customer support ready to answer any question you have.

It’s its reliability what makes it my top recommendation for both newcomers and experienced entrepreneurs.

Click Here Visit Official Site

HostGator

HostGator is also an extremely famous hosting service, and this translates into several million domains currently being hosted in its servers. It’s also known as a very affordable solution for entrepreneurs.

Just like Bluehost, you can also get a free domain and unlimited storage and bandwidth. HostGator has its own website builder, too; it comes with thousands of templates for free, and it’s a very reliable platform guaranteeing almost 100% uptime as well as a refund period of 45 days.

Its main disadvantage is the fact that it’s not very intuitive; its cPanel is a lot better for experienced entrepreneurs, and beginners might have a tough time finding their way around the dashboard.

On the other hand, you have access to a powerful backend with lots more features than many of its competitors. This feature makes HostGator a surprisingly flexible solution for entrepreneurs with tech knowledge.

You can also install several marketing apps with a quick installer. Speaking of marketing, one of my favorite bonuses with HostGator is its $100 credit for both Google and Yahoo advertisement.

You can also become an affiliate for HostGator, making $50 for every person you refer to their service, so you can basically make HostGator pay for itself.

Click Here Visit Official Site

DreamHost

DreamHost is a hosting service focused on business ventures, and it offers better features that you’ll have a hard time finding in other services. These additions include SSL certificates, privacy security, and a domain name for free.

Granted, it’s a noticeably more expensive alternative to the other services in this list. Thankfully, it’s more than made up by still offering unlimited bandwidth and storage as well as 100% uptime guaranteed with free credit as compensation if you ever experience anything less than that.

Besides, the refund period for over 3 months is also a great incentive to try out the platform.

You just need to keep in mind that its backend doesn’t work via cPanel; it uses its own dashboard, but it’s optimized for entrepreneurs’ needs. You can install all the plugins and tools you need for either your website or your marketing, and it closes the deal with excellent analytics and reports for your website.

Just like HostGator, it also offers a $100 credit for Google marketing.

Click Here Visit Official Site

SiteGround

My last recommendation is another common one: SiteGround. It’s a perfect fit for WordPress users thanks to its WordPress-focused functionality, including single-click transfers for your domain from any other host.

With SiteGround, we’re back to the easily affordable side of this list. It starts off with slightly less than $4 for the cheapest plan, and you’re still getting a free domain and builder for your website. You also get your SSL certificate and email accounts for free.

Sadly, it’s also the only limited option in terms of storage space: capped at 10GB for the cheapest plan. Still, it’s more than enough if you run your website correctly, but it’s an important consideration.

SiteGround is another very friendly platform for beginners, so if you want something other than Bluehost that’s still intuitive, then SiteGround is a great choice. The backend panel works with a simple visual editor, and both customer support and onboarding is stellar as well.

While you don’t get any marketing credit like with HostGator and DreamHost, SiteGround offers amazing SEO features as well as in-depth analytics integrated right into your websites.

Click Here Visit Official Site

Hiring a hosting service

Once you’ve chosen a hosting company, the hardest part is essentially done. Hiring your service is easy, regardless of which one you’re going for.

You just need to choose a plan that fits your budget and needs. The rest is just creating your account: personal data, your address, and payment details to cancel for the service. After you’ve paid your hosting term, the rest is just editing your site with WordPress.

Depending on your hosting company, you’ll also get a nice visual builder and free themes to make your web design process a lot easier.

Conclusion

Choosing a hosting service isn’t something you should take lightly. Everyone has their own needs, and that’s why I made sure to offer a varied list with different feature sets to accommodate different goals.

The only universal rule I could recommend for choosing a hosting company is customer support. You might value some features more than others, but if something goes south, having a good helping hand is always a good thing.

My #1 Affiliate Marketing Advice

I have personally been doing affiliate marketing for a few years now, and I can tell you that I have done so many things wrong when I first started my affiliate marketing journey. I made so many mistakes and end up wasting time because you think you see a couple of youtube videos on affiliate marketing and think you have it down. Then you end up wasting time and money. Honestly, I am glad I didn’t do paid advertising because I know people who have just started out and started doing paid advertising. Guess what happened? They ended up losing A LOT of money. That’s why I highly recommend anyone starting out to get a proper course which guides you through everything. Now, the problem is there are a ton of fake gurus claiming to be experts and selling you their overpriced course. They do this by pitching you a dream lifestyle and kind of/sorta play around words making you think it will make you an overnight millionaire. And it really gets people because they show their Lamborghini’s. Now, I have gone through a lot of these garbage courses, and frankly, I don’t want more people to buy their garbage courses. So, I recommend not just beginners but, advanced affiliate marketers to get a course called Savage Affiliates. It’s by Franklin Hatchett and he has been doing affiliate marketing for 8 – 10 years now. If you look at the amount of information it has, you’ll be shocked because I don’t know if you know this or not but, most other courses don’t even have 1/3 the information this one has. And it’s one of the most affordable courses out there so, when you start out, you can pay for hosting, and other sorts of expenses instead of just spending all your money on guru courses. Keep in mind that, I am not saying this course will make you rich or anything, this is not some overhyped guru course, you’re simply paying for a really high-quality course which goes over A – Z of affiliate marketing. It has Paid Ads training like google ads, Facebook ads, free affiliate marketing training where you getting traffic from Pinterest, youtube, blog commenting, SEO and a ton more content. But, make sure you read my Savage Affiliates review so you know EXACTLY what your buying, no impulse buying.

The post Four Best Hosting Sites For Affiliate Marketers appeared first on Affiliate Business Hub.

from https://affiliatebusinesshub.com/four-best-hosting-sites-for-affiliate-marketers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=four-best-hosting-sites-for-affiliate-marketers

from Affiliate Business Hub - Blog https://affiliatebusinesshub.weebly.com/blog/four-best-hosting-sites-for-affiliate-marketers

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heidiwschultz31 · 4 years

Text

Four Best Hosting Sites For Affiliate Marketers

A website is basically your affiliate marketing home.

Hosting your website is only complicated if you want to buy your own servers and do everything yourself. The most common—and efficient—approach is just to pay for a hosting service.

That leaves us with only 2 steps: getting a domain and finding a good host. Today, I’ll help you with that, so if you’re hesitant about making a choice, you’re in good hands.

How exactly does hosting work?

With that in mind, let’s go into my personal recommendations for your own web hosting needs.

My 4 picks for the best web hosts

Good criteria includes using SSD instead of HDD for storage, good bandwidth—unmetered if possible—and security measures against malware, spyware, bots, and similar attacks.

Finally, you want your hosting company to offer stellar customer support. Especially if it’s your first time, having someone to help you out in case anything goes wrong is a big lifesaver.

All my recommendations below follow these criteria, and they’re services I—or people I know—have used to host their own affiliate websites.

Bluehost

It’s its reliability what makes it my top recommendation for both newcomers and experienced entrepreneurs.

Click Here Visit Official Site

HostGator

You can also install several marketing apps with a quick installer. Speaking of marketing, one of my favorite bonuses with HostGator is its $100 credit for both Google and Yahoo advertisement.

You can also become an affiliate for HostGator, making $50 for every person you refer to their service, so you can basically make HostGator pay for itself.

Click Here Visit Official Site

DreamHost

Besides, the refund period for over 3 months is also a great incentive to try out the platform.

Just like HostGator, it also offers a $100 credit for Google marketing.

Click Here Visit Official Site

SiteGround

While you don’t get any marketing credit like with HostGator and DreamHost, SiteGround offers amazing SEO features as well as in-depth analytics integrated right into your websites.

Click Here Visit Official Site

Hiring a hosting service

Once you’ve chosen a hosting company, the hardest part is essentially done. Hiring your service is easy, regardless of which one you’re going for.

Depending on your hosting company, you’ll also get a nice visual builder and free themes to make your web design process a lot easier.

Conclusion

My #1 Affiliate Marketing Advice

The post Four Best Hosting Sites For Affiliate Marketers appeared first on Affiliate Business Hub.

from Affiliate Business Hub https://affiliatebusinesshub.com/four-best-hosting-sites-for-affiliate-marketers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=four-best-hosting-sites-for-affiliate-marketers from Affiliate Business Hub https://affiliatebusinesshub.tumblr.com/post/629102607126921216

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affiliatebusinesshub · 4 years

Text

Four Best Hosting Sites For Affiliate Marketers

A website is basically your affiliate marketing home.

Hosting your website is only complicated if you want to buy your own servers and do everything yourself. The most common—and efficient—approach is just to pay for a hosting service.

That leaves us with only 2 steps: getting a domain and finding a good host. Today, I’ll help you with that, so if you’re hesitant about making a choice, you’re in good hands.

How exactly does hosting work?

With that in mind, let’s go into my personal recommendations for your own web hosting needs.

My 4 picks for the best web hosts

Good criteria includes using SSD instead of HDD for storage, good bandwidth—unmetered if possible—and security measures against malware, spyware, bots, and similar attacks.

Finally, you want your hosting company to offer stellar customer support. Especially if it’s your first time, having someone to help you out in case anything goes wrong is a big lifesaver.

All my recommendations below follow these criteria, and they’re services I—or people I know—have used to host their own affiliate websites.

Bluehost

It’s its reliability what makes it my top recommendation for both newcomers and experienced entrepreneurs.

Click Here Visit Official Site

HostGator

You can also install several marketing apps with a quick installer. Speaking of marketing, one of my favorite bonuses with HostGator is its $100 credit for both Google and Yahoo advertisement.

You can also become an affiliate for HostGator, making $50 for every person you refer to their service, so you can basically make HostGator pay for itself.

Click Here Visit Official Site

DreamHost

Besides, the refund period for over 3 months is also a great incentive to try out the platform.

Just like HostGator, it also offers a $100 credit for Google marketing.

Click Here Visit Official Site

SiteGround

While you don’t get any marketing credit like with HostGator and DreamHost, SiteGround offers amazing SEO features as well as in-depth analytics integrated right into your websites.

Click Here Visit Official Site

Hiring a hosting service

Once you’ve chosen a hosting company, the hardest part is essentially done. Hiring your service is easy, regardless of which one you’re going for.

Depending on your hosting company, you’ll also get a nice visual builder and free themes to make your web design process a lot easier.

Conclusion

My #1 Affiliate Marketing Advice

The post Four Best Hosting Sites For Affiliate Marketers appeared first on Affiliate Business Hub.

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rhondaeaton33 · 4 years

Text

Four Best Hosting Sites For Affiliate Marketers

A website is basically your affiliate marketing home.

Hosting your website is only complicated if you want to buy your own servers and do everything yourself. The most common—and efficient—approach is just to pay for a hosting service.

That leaves us with only 2 steps: getting a domain and finding a good host. Today, I’ll help you with that, so if you’re hesitant about making a choice, you’re in good hands.

How exactly does hosting work?

With that in mind, let’s go into my personal recommendations for your own web hosting needs.

My 4 picks for the best web hosts

Good criteria includes using SSD instead of HDD for storage, good bandwidth—unmetered if possible—and security measures against malware, spyware, bots, and similar attacks.

Finally, you want your hosting company to offer stellar customer support. Especially if it’s your first time, having someone to help you out in case anything goes wrong is a big lifesaver.

All my recommendations below follow these criteria, and they’re services I—or people I know—have used to host their own affiliate websites.

Bluehost

It’s its reliability what makes it my top recommendation for both newcomers and experienced entrepreneurs.

Click Here Visit Official Site

HostGator

You can also install several marketing apps with a quick installer. Speaking of marketing, one of my favorite bonuses with HostGator is its $100 credit for both Google and Yahoo advertisement.

You can also become an affiliate for HostGator, making $50 for every person you refer to their service, so you can basically make HostGator pay for itself.

Click Here Visit Official Site

DreamHost

Besides, the refund period for over 3 months is also a great incentive to try out the platform.

Just like HostGator, it also offers a $100 credit for Google marketing.

Click Here Visit Official Site

SiteGround

While you don’t get any marketing credit like with HostGator and DreamHost, SiteGround offers amazing SEO features as well as in-depth analytics integrated right into your websites.

Click Here Visit Official Site

Hiring a hosting service

Once you’ve chosen a hosting company, the hardest part is essentially done. Hiring your service is easy, regardless of which one you’re going for.

Depending on your hosting company, you’ll also get a nice visual builder and free themes to make your web design process a lot easier.

Conclusion

My #1 Affiliate Marketing Advice

The post Four Best Hosting Sites For Affiliate Marketers appeared first on Affiliate Business Hub.

Source: https://affiliatebusinesshub.com/four-best-hosting-sites-for-affiliate-marketers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=four-best-hosting-sites-for-affiliate-marketers from Affiliate Business Hub https://affiliatebusinesshub.wordpress.com/2020/09/13/four-best-hosting-sites-for-affiliate-marketers/

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readersforum · 6 years

Text

Patreon ups its revenue cut, but grandfathers in old creators

New Post has been published on http://www.readersforum.tk/patreon-ups-its-revenue-cut-but-grandfathers-in-old-creators/

Patreon ups its revenue cut, but grandfathers in old creators

Patreon couldn’t survive charging all creators just a 5 percent rake on the monthly subscriptions they earn from fans while building commerce tools like CRMs and merchandise to try to stay ahead of Twitch, YouTube and Google. But it also didn’t want to screw all its loyal early creators.

So today, Patreon is overhauling its pricing. Any creator can still get a 5 percent rate, but just for a Lite version without bonus tools or different fan tiers. All of Patreon’s extra features will now be in the Pro plan, with an 8 percent rate, but with existing creators grandfathered in at 5 percent. And the new Premium enterprise plan for 12 percent (9 percent for existing creators) will offer full-service merchandise sales, multi-user team accounts and dedicated customer support.

If you want the lower grandfathered rates, you’ll need to join Patreon in the next few weeks before the new rates go into effect in early May.

“With this change, Patreon is a long-term independent company that doesn’t need anyone else. That’s the move we’re making here,” says Patreon’s SVP of Product, Wyatt Jenkins. More sustainable pricing means creators won’t have to fear Patreon selling out in desperation to someone like Facebook that might neglect or exploit them.

Instead, Patreon CEO Jack Conte tells me he wants to balance powerful features with right-sized pricing for different creator types to become the platform-agnostic home for subscription patronage when tech giants are each trying to build their own. “To have a different membership for each distribution platform, that’s not going to work. You need a single place for the bottom of your distribution funnel,” Conte explains.

Balancing rates and resources

Patreon now has 3 million fans paying 100,000 creators more than half a billion dollars per year, and it will cross $1 billion in payouts in 2019 after six years in business. But Patreon was starving on its 5 percent rate, which some venture capitalists tell me is why they passed on its funding rounds totaling $105 million led by Thrive Capital and Index. Now it might make enough to keep the lights on, retain ownership and maybe even earn a profit one day.

Jenkins tells me Patreon spent a year talking to more than 1,000 creators to figure out how to re-price its offering. “People don’t like change. But I think in terms of change, we’re going to be able to invest in the different products in different ways. We can put a lot of horsepower into membership,” he explains. The company didn’t want to screw up like when it changed its payment processing rates a year ago, leading to creator backlash and some exodus. “We unilaterally did something that impacted creators’ patrons. That was the real landmine we stepped on.”

Patreon’s new rates

What Patreon discovered was some creators, especially individuals and hobbyists, didn’t care for bells and whistles. They wanted cheap and easy recurring payments so they can focus on their art, so Patreon made the 5 percent Lite plan that strips out the extra features but keeps the old rate.

More serious videographers, illustrators, comedians and pundits wanted to offer different price tiers for different levels of exclusive content. They need analytics, special offers, integrations with other productivity and commerce apps and priority customer support when things break. That’s what creators will get for 8 percent, unless they’re grandfathered in at 5 percent.

But Patreon also found there were whole media organizations with 50 employees built atop its patronage platform. They needed to be able to share accounts and get immediate support when necessary. Meanwhile, tons of creators see merchandise as a powerful way to lure in fans who want signed photos, stickers and other swag each month. “Eighty-five percent of our creators tell us we need merchandise. ‘We spend our days in the post office licking stamps. You can get great negotiation leverage since you have scale, so why aren’t you helping us with this?’ We can’t build that on 5 percent,” Jenkins tells me. They’ll all pay the 12 percent Premium plan price unless grandfathered in at 9 percent. Patreon will, in return, process, pack and ship all their merchandise.

Patreon is also changing its payment processing fees to make sure it doesn’t overpenalize smaller contributions, like creators’ popular $1 per month tiers. Now all transactions over $3 incur a 2.9 percent plus $0.30 fee similar to Stripe’s industry standard, while microtransactions under $3 cost 5 percent plus $0.10. Existing creators get the old rates, and people paying via PayPal from outside the U.S. get hit with an extra 1 percent fee.

The battle for fan subscriptions

Surprisingly, one of Patreon’s most popular creators told me they actually felt bad about being grandfathered in at a lower price, because why should they get special treatment compared to other artists who just might not be as tech savvy. That said, they weren’t going to voluntarily pay a higher rate. “I guess I’m not surprised,” Conte responds. “I’ve found that creators are really humble and selfless, always thinking about other people. I can imagine them saying ‘What about these people? Why am I paying less than them?”

If Patreon can power through the rate change without breaking momentum, it could have a bright future. It’s started a patronage trend, but leaked documents show Facebook plans to charge creators up to 30 percent like YouTube already does, and Twitch charges an astronomical 50 percent. But with far more restrictions on content and far more distrust accrued after years of forsaking creators and tense negotiations, Patreon’s neutral platform with the cheapest rate could remain the fan subscription leader at a time when ad revenue shares are proving inadequate to support turning one’s passion into their profession.

Patreon co-founder and CEO Jack Conte

When TechCrunch broke the news that Facebook planned to charge up to 30 percent, Conte said, “Honestly, it was relieving but really disappointing in some way. I think competition is good. I hope there are many membership products. I hope they’re successful and [give creators a choice]. Right now, it’s not a choice. Facebook’s product is not usable. The folks that have used Facebook’s product have turned it off. From a competitor standpoint, it confirmed my thought that Facebook doesn’t understand creators.”

That’s also why he hopes that one day the tech giants might just integrate Patreon rather than compete, and they could each get a cut of subscription revenue.

Looking forward, he says the toughest challenge for Patreon will be building three different products for three distinct types of creators without the infinite wallets of its rivals. “I think Patreon will be raising for a long time,” Conte says. That will fund Patreon’s plans for eventual international operations, where 40 percent of patrons and 75 percent of creators live. Right now Patreon is offered only in English and supports U.S. dollars. But if it can spin up local languages, currencies and payment processors, Patreon could be where creators around the world go to share with their biggest fans.

0 notes

sheminecrafts · 6 years

Text

Patreon ups its revenue cut, but grandfathers in old creators

Patreon couldn’t survive charging all creators just a 5 percent rake on the monthly subscriptions they earn from fans while building commerce tools like CRMs and merchandise to stay ahead of Twitch, YouTube, and Google. But it also didn’t want to screw all its loyal early creators.

So today, Patreon is overhauling its pricing. Any creator can still get a 5 percent rate, but just for a Lite version without bonus tools or different fan tiers. All of Patreon’s extra features will now be in the Pro plan with an 8 percent rate, but with existing creators grandfathered in at 5 percent. And the new Premium enterprise plan for 12 percent (9 percent for existing creators) will offer full-service merchandise sales, multi-user team accounts, and dedicated customer support.

If you want the lower grandfathered rates, you’ll need to join Patreon in the next few weeks before the new rates go into effect in early May.

“With this change, Patreon is a long-term independent company that doesn’t need anyone else. That’s the move we’re making here” says Patreon’s SVP of Product Wyatt Jenkins. More sustainable pricing means creators won’t have to fear Patreon selling out in desperation to someone like Facebook that might neglect or exploit them.

Instead, Patreon CEO Jack Conte tells me he wants to balance powerful features with right-sized pricing for different creator types to become the platform agnostic home for subscription patronage when tech giants are each trying to build their own. “To have a different membership for each distribution platform, that’s not going to work. You need a single place for the bottom of your distribution funnel” Conte explains.

Balancing Rates And Resources

Patreon now has 3 million fans paying 100,000 creators over half a billion dollars per year, and it will cross $1 billion in payouts in 2019 after six years in business. But Patreon was starving on its 5 percent rate which some venture capitalists tell me is why they passed on its funding rounds totaling $105 million led by Thrive Capital and Index. Now it might make enough to keep the lights on, retain ownership, and maybe even earn a profit one day.

Jenkins tells me Patreon spent a year talking to over 1000 creators to figure out how to re-price its offering. “People don’t like change. But I think in terms of change, we’re going to be able to invest in the different products in different ways. We can put a lot of horsepower into membership” he explains. The company didn’t want to screw up like when it changed its payment processing rates a year ago, leading to creator backlash and some exodus. “We unilaterally did something that impacted creators’ patrons. That was the real landmine we stepped on.”

Patreon’s New Rates

More serious videographers, illustrators, comedians, and pundits wanted to offer different price tiers for different levels of exclusive content. They need analytics, special offers, integrations with other productivity and commerce apps, and priority customer support when things break. That’s what creators will get for 8 percent, unless they they’re grandfathered in at 5 percent.

But Patreon also found there were whole media organizations with 50 employees built atop its patronage platform. They needed to be able to share accounts and get immediate support when necessary. Meanwhile, tons of creators see merchandise as a powerful way to lure in fans who want signed photos, stickers, and other swag each month. “85 percent of our creators tell us we need merchandise. ‘We spend our days in the post office licking stamps. You can get great negotiation leverage since you have scale, so why aren’t you helping us with this?’ We can’t build that on 5 percent” Jenkins tells me. They’ll all pay the 12 percent Premium plan price unless grandfathered in at 9 percent. Patreon will in return process, pack, and ship all their merchandise.

Patreon is also changing its payment processing fees to make sure it doesn’t overpenalize smaller contributions like creators’ popular $1 per month tiers. Now all transactions over $5 incur a 2.9 percent and $0.30 fee similar to Stripe’s industry standard, while microtransactions under $5 cost 5 percent plus $0.10. Existing creators get the old rates, and people paying via PayPal from outside the US get hit with an extra 1 percent fee.

The Battle For Fan Subscriptions

Surprisingly, one of Patreon’s most popular creators told me they actually felt bad about being grandfathered in at a lower price, because why should they get special treatment compared to other artists who just might not be as tech savvy. That said, they weren’t going to voluntarily pay a higher rate. “I guess I’m not surprised” Conte responds. “I’ve found that creators are really humble and selfless, always thinking about other people. I can imagine them saying ‘what about these people? Why am I paying less than them?”

If Patreon can power through the rate change without breaking momentum, it could have a bright future. It’s started a patronage trend, but leaked documents show Facebook plans to charge creators up to 30 percent like YouTube already does, and Twitch charges an astronomical 50 percent. But with far more restrictions on content and far more distrust accrued after years of forsaking creators and tense negotiations, Patreon’s neutral platform with the cheapest rate could remain the fan subscription leader at a time when ad revenue shares are proving an inadequate to support turning ones passion into their profession.

Patreon co-founder and CEO Jack Conte

When TechCrunch broke the news that Facebook planned to charge up to 30 percent, Conte says “Honestly, it was relieving but really disappointing in some way. I think competition is good. I hope there are many membership products. I hope they’re successful and [give creators a choice]. Right now, it’s not a choice. Facebook’s product is not usable. The folks that have used Facebook’s product have turned it off. From a competitor standpoint, it confirmed my thought that Facebook doesn’t understand creators.”

That’s also why he hopes that one day, the tech giants might just integrate Patreon rather than compete, and they could each get a cut of subscription revenue.

Looking forward, he says the toughest challenge for Patreon will be building three different products for three distinct types of creators without the infinite wallets of its rivals. “I think Patreon will be raising for a long time” Conte says. That will fund Patreon’s plans for eventual international operations where 40 percent of patrons and 75 percent of creators live. Right now Patreon is only in English and US dollars. But if it can spin up local languages, currencies, and payment processors, Patreon could be where creators around the world go to share with their biggest fans.

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technicalsolutions88 · 6 years

Link

So today, Patreon is overhauling its pricing. Any creator can still get a 5 percent rate, but just for a Lite version without bonus tools or different fan tiers. All of Patreon’s extra features will now be in the Pro plan with an 8 percent rate, but with existing creators grandfathered in at 5 percent. And the new Premium enterprise plan for 12 percent (9 percent for existing creators) will offer full-service merchandise sales, multi-user team accounts, and dedicated customer support.

If you want the lower grandfathered rates, you’ll need to join Patreon in the next few weeks before the new rates go into effect in early May.

Balancing Rates And Resources

Patreon’s New Rates

But Patreon also found there were whole media organizations with 50 employees built atop its patronage platform. They needed to be able to share accounts and get immediate support when necessary. Meanwhile, tons of creators see merchandise as a powerful way to lure in fans who want signed photos, stickers, and other swag each month. “85 percent of our creators tell us we need merchandise. ‘We spend our days in the post office licking stamps. You can get great negotiation leverage since you have scale, so why aren’t you helping us with this?’ We can’t build that on 5 percent” Jenkins tells me. They’ll all pay the 12 percent Premium plan price unless grandfathered in at 9 percent. Patreon will in return process, pack, and ship all their merchandise.

The Battle For Fan Subscriptions

Surprisingly, one of Patreon’s most popular creators told me they actually felt bad about being grandfathered in at a lower price, because why should they get special treatment compared to other artists who just might not be as tech savvy. That said, they weren’t going to voluntarily pay a higher rate. “I guess I’m not surprised” Conte responds. “I’ve found that creators are really humble and selfless, always thinking about other people. I can imagine them saying ‘what about these people? Why am I paying less than them?”

If Patreon can power through the rate change without breaking momentum, it could have a bright future. It’s started a patronage trend, but leaked documents show Facebook plans to charge creators up to 30 percent like YouTube already does, and Twitch charges an astronomical 50 percent. But with far more restrictions on content and far more distrust accrued after years of forsaking creators and tense negotiations, Patreon’s neutral platform with the cheapest rate could remain the fan subscription leader at a time when ad revenue shares are proving an inadequate to support turning ones passion into their profession.

Patreon co-founder and CEO Jack Conte

That’s also why he hopes that one day, the tech giants might just integrate Patreon rather than compete, and they could each get a cut of subscription revenue.

Looking forward, he says the toughest challenge for Patreon will be building three different products for three distinct types of creators without the infinite wallets of its rivals. “I think Patreon will be raising for a long time” Conte says. That will fund Patreon’s plans for eventual international operations where 40 percent of patrons and 75 percent of creators live. Right now Patreon is only in English and US dollars. But if it can spin up local languages, currencies, and payment processors, Patreon could be where creators around the world go to share with their biggest fans.

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2Og8DFA Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

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toomanysinks · 6 years

Text

Patreon ups its revenue cut, but grandfathers in old creators

So today, Patreon is overhauling its pricing. Any creator can still get a 5 percent rate, but just for a Lite version without bonus tools or different fan tiers. All of Patreon’s extra features will now be in the Pro plan with an 8 percent rate, but with existing creators grandfathered in at 5 percent. And the new Premium enterprise plan for 12 percent (9 percent for existing creators) will offer full-service merchandise sales, multi-user team accounts, and dedicated customer support.

If you want the lower grandfathered rates, you’ll need to join Patreon in the next few weeks before the new rates go into effect in early May.

Balancing Rates And Resources

Patreon’s New Rates

But Patreon also found there were whole media organizations with 50 employees built atop its patronage platform. They needed to be able to share accounts and get immediate support when necessary. Meanwhile, tons of creators see merchandise as a powerful way to lure in fans who want signed photos, stickers, and other swag each month. “85 percent of our creators tell us we need merchandise. ‘We spend our days in the post office licking stamps. You can get great negotiation leverage since you have scale, so why aren’t you helping us with this?’ We can’t build that on 5 percent” Jenkins tells me. They’ll all pay the 12 percent Premium plan price unless grandfathered in at 9 percent. Patreon will in return process, pack, and ship all their merchandise.

The Battle For Fan Subscriptions

Surprisingly, one of Patreon’s most popular creators told me they actually felt bad about being grandfathered in at a lower price, because why should they get special treatment compared to other artists who just might not be as tech savvy. That said, they weren’t going to voluntarily pay a higher rate. “I guess I’m not surprised” Conte responds. “I’ve found that creators are really humble and selfless, always thinking about other people. I can imagine them saying ‘what about these people? Why am I paying less than them?”

If Patreon can power through the rate change without breaking momentum, it could have a bright future. It’s started a patronage trend, but leaked documents show Facebook plans to charge creators up to 30 percent like YouTube already does, and Twitch charges an astronomical 50 percent. But with far more restrictions on content and far more distrust accrued after years of forsaking creators and tense negotiations, Patreon’s neutral platform with the cheapest rate could remain the fan subscription leader at a time when ad revenue shares are proving an inadequate to support turning ones passion into their profession.

Patreon co-founder and CEO Jack Conte

That’s also why he hopes that one day, the tech giants might just integrate Patreon rather than compete, and they could each get a cut of subscription revenue.

Looking forward, he says the toughest challenge for Patreon will be building three different products for three distinct types of creators without the infinite wallets of its rivals. “I think Patreon will be raising for a long time” Conte says. That will fund Patreon’s plans for eventual international operations where 40 percent of patrons and 75 percent of creators live. Right now Patreon is only in English and US dollars. But if it can spin up local languages, currencies, and payment processors, Patreon could be where creators around the world go to share with their biggest fans.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/19/patreon-ups-its-revenue-cut-but-grandfathers-in-old-creators/

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jamieclawhorn · 6 years

Text

Time to buy or sell this FTSE 250 growth stock after today’s share price fall?

The last few months have seen the share prices of many travel-related firms plummet on renewed fears about the manner of our exit from the EU. One exception to all this — until today — has been global food and beverage concessions business SSP Group (LSE: SSPG).

Although news that its highly-rated CEO will be leaving the business has seen some investors flee this morning, I still think the latest set of hugely positive full-year numbers are reason enough for existing holders to retain the FTSE 250 constituent in their portfolios.

Profits take off

The company achieved revenue of a little under £2.57bn in the year to the end of September — a 9.5% rise when exchange rate fluctuations are taken into account. Underlying pre-tax profit advanced 24% to £184.4m, also at constant currency. Thanks to a growth in the number of people flying (many of SSP’s outlets are located at airports), like-for-like sales rose 2.8%.

While unlikely to feature on most income investors’ radars, SSP also announced a final dividend of 5.4p per share. When added to its interim payout, this brings the total cash return for the year to 10.2p — up almost 26% on the previous year. Based on yesterday’s closing price of 685p, this equates to a yield of 1.49%. Yes, that’s hardly massive compared to some returns offered by firms in the FTSE 100, but a payout ratio of just 40% does mean there’s ample room for dividends to grow.

In addition to this, the company also announced a £150m special dividend and share consolidation this morning, highlighting just how confident management is on SSP’s future prospects. Indeed, outgoing CEO Kate Swann stated that trading in the new financial year had been in line with expectations so far, even if “a degree of uncertainty always exists around passenger numbers in the short term.” She added that SSP had an “encouraging” new business pipeline, which includes sites at airports in Brazil, India and the US.

Already priced at frothy 26 times forecast earnings for the next financial year, I’d probably be disinclined to begin building a position at the current time. But the fact that Brexit is unlikely to impact significantly on business over the long term (SSP’s captive customers won’t suddenly disappear) suggests that existing owners shouldn’t be panic-selling either.

Back on the watchlist

While SSP’s share price has remained relatively resilient up until now, the same can’t be said for budget holiday operator On the Beach (LSE: OTB). The mid-cap has lost 40% of its value over the last six months.

This isn’t all the fault of Brexit. In its most recent update, the business blamed the football World Cup and a surprisingly sizzling UK summer for reducing demand for holidays abroad.

Nevertheless, I feel On the Beach is being unfairly dragged down alongside other operators despite having a far more flexible business model and drastically lower fixed costs. As the company itself stated, the aforementioned fall in demand has been resolved through a reduction in marketing spend — thus meaning that revenue growth has actually “remained strong.”

Trading on 15 times earnings for the new financial year (which commenced in October), On the Beach could still have further to fall if Theresa May’s draft deal with the EU is rejected by parliament. For now, however, it’s earned a place on my watchlist.

Are You Prepared For Brexit?

Following Brexit, fear and indecision could hurt share prices in the coming months. That’s why the analysts at the Motley Fool have written a free guide called “Brexit: Your 5-Step Investor’s Survival Guide”. To get your copy of the guide, click here now!

More reading

This is the cheapest growth stock in the FTSE 250. But is it worth buying?

Why I’d invest £2,000 in this stock with millionaire-maker potential

Is the Royal Mail share price or this falling FTSE 250 knife the brighter bargain today?

Which is better, the Kingfisher or Tesco share price?

2 FTSE 250 dividend stocks I’d happily buy today and hold forever (like this 11% yielder)

Paul Summers has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK owns shares of SSP Group. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

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berliozthesecond · 6 years

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1947 Saab 92001 (Atlas Editions 1:43)

The origins of the Saab car company were in 1937 when the Swedish government aided the foundation of the Svenska Aeroplan AB, whose express intention was to produce aircraft for the Swedish Royal Air Force. This became particularly important as war was looming over Europe and the country intending on staying neutral from it all needed the means to protect that neutrality. But once the war ended in 1945, demand for aircrafts also declined and, in order to maintain their solvency, the company looked forth to diversifying their products. Thus, managers Ragnar Wahrgren and Sven Otterbäck decided, given the expertise involved within the company, that going into automotive manufacture was the best course of action since aircraft technology and construction wasn't greatly removed from the another. Plus, the only company at the time into industrial car manufacture in Sweden was Volvo, whose cars were aimed much more toward the luxurious end of the scale. Therefore Saab decided to create a car that would be both rational and moderately priced to set it apart from the competition.

Internally called the X9248 when project development began in 1945, the formal name for the car solidified into “Project 92” in accordance to their preceding two aircraft projects being numbered “90” and “91.” The development team consisted of 16 people under project manager Gunnar Ljungström and designer Sixten Sason, with the ensuing car aimed as competition for small German cars like the Opel Kadett and Sweden's best-selling pre-war car DKW. However, nobody in the team really had any idea about car manufacture, and in fact only two in the team even had driver's licences. Thus the engineers had to pretty much learn everything from scratch, with pointers derived from the cars they bought from a local junkyard, and which also provided parts and building material that was in short supply following the war.

The body was designed with a very low drag coefficiency in mind, with Sason using an airplane wing as his starting point, and extensive testing was carried out in the wind tunnel (unusual at the time) to achieve the 0,32 drag coefficiency that is impressive even to this day. The design further incorporated a front-wheel drive that was more useful for Swedish winters and the wheel arches were wide to allow for snow accumulation without obstructing the wheels. The body itself was a monocoque affair that was familiar from airplane designs where loads are supported through the body's external shell rather than the car being a simple body-on-frame construction. Indicative of the lack of automotive knowledge, the engineers responsible for the structural integrity of the body decided to strengthen it through the implementation of a very small split rear window and eliminating a boot lid entirely since the same physics didn't entirely translate from planes to cars.

The mockup of the body was made out of wood in 1946 by carpenters from Motala, with 1.2 mm thick steel sheets handcrafted onto it by steel workers from Linköping. The colour selected was black (since that is what paint had already been purchased) and the spraying was carried out by a railroad works in Arlöv since the Saab works didn't have the capacity to handle a paint job. The engine was an 18 hp two-cylinder two-stroke unit with a three-speed manual transmission taken straight out of a junker DKW that underwent much testing and improvements until it was entirely replaced by one designed by Ljungström. The engine was placed transversely at the very front of the car, with the battery placed as far back as possible for the sake of balance. To test the car's functionality, it was put through vigorous testing on muddy wilderness roads, traversing a staggering 530,000 kilometres to ensure everything was working the way it was planned.

The original 92001 was followed by a further three prototypes that differed from the first car primarily due to its redesigned front end to ease access and possible removal of the engine during maintenance that would have been too complicated in the original configuration. These later prototypes would effectively not differ much from the eventual production Saab 92 of 1949 and its basic shape was to carry on all the way to 1980 when the Saab 96 was discontinued. As for the original 001 car, it also received a slight change of its own with the replacement of the original headlights with more roadworthy ones and a cleaner-looking chrome grille over the mesh grate one it had originally. Today, the first Saab ever resides in the Saab Museum in Trollhättan and is still maintained in good driving condition.

The Ursaab (as it is also called) has been represented in three different scale model offerings as far as I can tell, all in 1:43 scale. One is by Provence Moulage that is quite bad, another one comes from Premium X that is much better, and what to my eyes is the best (and cheapest) of the three, the above model by Atlas. This was an introductory model for the Saab Museum Collection under the Swiss-based trinket collection company Atlas, who specifically offer collectibles from model cars and trains to watches and statuettes on a subscription basis. I took on the initial sampler model, but decided not to start collecting any further than this. But for what experience I have with these collections, they are generally of good quality with their basic licensing sources coming from the De Agostini line-up, which platform is also shared by Whitebox and IXO (with various small differences between the different labels they travel under).

The model in question is said to be approved of by the Saab Car Museum and the resultant model is overall quite an excellent one, particularly considering I got it for just €5 as an introduction. The body shape is well realised, with gleaming black paint work and all details hitting just the right spots when compared to the actual car. The windshield wipers are stockier than on the Premium X alternative, but actually look much closer to how they're really supposed to be, while the detail work washes out the Provence version right out the door. This being such a simple car in its overall design, there aren't really a whole lot of intricate details to comment on. The door handles are nice to have as separate pieces, the revised headlights have a good level of opacity to them to not look that unrealistic, and the clear identifier as to which model version this is comes from the licence plate being grey on black as opposed to black on white. The interior with its large central speedometer looks good, particularly with those little bars attached to the top of the front seats, and the beige seat colours look nicely fabricky instead of artificially plastic.

The bottom is really not much to look at, though the exhaust pipe has at least been coloured, even with the gaps in between to accommodate the holes for the screws that would attach the model to its base. Tires roll surprisingly well, though there is a slight amount of chafing against the fenders. In comparison to the more expensive Premium X version, there's no real major quality difference, so I'd say the Atlas one is about as good, but do stay away from the Provence one as that is just rife with inaccuracies. As a beginning to the venerable Saab brand, which sadly met its end in 2012, this unassuming little bug of a car with its carefully researched aerodynamic shape may not yield the most stand out car in your model collection, but as a translation of the Ursaab into the 1:43 scale, there's really not much to improve upon. Definitely worth the recommendation.

Final score: 4/5

#saab #scalemodel #review #atlas #car

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ntrending · 6 years

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The Lighthouse security camera uses AI to recognize your family and your pets

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/the-lighthouse-security-camera-uses-ai-to-recognize-your-family-and-your-pets/

The Lighthouse security camera uses AI to recognize your family and your pets

Security cameras have come a long way from the dumb, unblinking eyes that looked out over our homes just a few years ago. Now, AI tech is increasingly important for things like face and behavior recognition so your camera can alert you when something is up without bombarding you with unnecessary alerts. Lighthouse isn’t a big name like Ring or Amazon, but its stand-alone security camera has a lot of smart features, even if the video quality won’t blow you away with its fidelity.

Setting it up

The initial setup is incredibly simple. You download the app, connect to the camera, bring it onto your home network and then you’re pretty much good to go. It uses a powered connection, so if you’re looking for something to keep outside or in a place without an outlet, this isn’t the camera for you.

Once you have the hardware setup, however, you do have a bit of work to do within the app to teach the Light House how it should work. It uses location services to tell when you’re home so it knows to stay in passive mode and not record you loafing around on the couch all weekend. That means you have to get the other people in your house to use the app as well, otherwise, the camera will stay active when they’re home and you aren’t.

You also have to teach the camera what people it should recognize. The app will show you faces it sees and you’ll have to confirm that those people live in the house so it can recognize them during regular operations.

Using it

At a system level, the entire Lighthouse ecosystem seems well put together. It has smart features like the ability to recognize both pets and dogs by their appearance—it outlines people in blue and pets in orange when it’s showing you clips of movement. The camera itself keeps track of notable things that happen during the day and condenses it into a quick-play video timeline. So, you can see all the trouble your pets get into, or if something bad happens in the camera’s view.

While the camera is learning, you can expect to get a bunch of alerts, especially if you don’t get everyone in the house set up with the app right away. It also takes some time to dig into the sheer number of features that are available. For instance, you can get an alert when your kids get home, or an alert if they were to come home with someone unfamiliar. You can set it up so someone can wave to the camera and intentionally send an alert to the users. This comes in handy sometimes with kids, and gets annoying at others.

Quality

The 1080p video quality won’t blow you away, especially when you compare it to other high-end models like the Nest models, especially the ones that have 4K. When it gets dark, the true night vision sensor kicks in, which is a nice feature if you’re using this primarily for security purposes.

The sound quality is also just so-so, but that may have something to do with the fact that I mostly used it to listen to my dogs bark and that’s not a very pleasant sound to begin with.

It has a two-way audio feature, so you can tune into your house and make an announcement or scare the heck out of your housemates when they’re watching a scary movie. The quality is OK, but you won’t want to communicate through it beyond, “Hey, find your phone and call me.”

Subscription

As with almost all connected security cameras, there is a subscription option that gives you more features and recording time. However, the Lighthouse offers a surprisingly robust set of features for free. That’s at least in part due to its high $299 price tag.

You can pay $10 per month or a one-time fee of $200 and it gets you some advanced AI features like the ability to tell kids apart from adults, but most importantly, you get access to a 30 day archive of your videos.

Who should buy it? At $300, this is certainly not the cheapest way to get into connected security. In fact, you can get nearly 10 of Amazon’s basic camera for the same price. However, if the AI functions appeal to you, then this camera is hard to beat. You can do things like asking it what your cat did during the day in plain talk rather than having to scrub through all your footage to see what feline shenanigans take place.

If you’re already bought into a platform like Nest or Ring, then it’s probably best to stick with what you’re already using, but if you’re just looking for a single (or a couple) stand-alone cameras, this is a very solid performer.

Written By Stan Horaczek

#Technology

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optometrist0 · 7 years

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Cost Of Contact Lenses

Contents

Monthly contact lenses

Purchased. for those

Free 365 day its name implies

Enjoy hassle- free

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jeremyau · 7 years

Link

Amazon’s Earnings, Amazon Logistics Services?, Netflix’s Earnings

Good morning,

One thing I didn’t get into in yesterday’s interview with The Athletic CEO Alex Mather was an actual evaluation of the site’s prospects; I simply said the company was “one of the more fascinating stories in media”, and I definitely think that!

For example, I generally believe that subscription-based publications should not take venture capital investment: the best subscription-based publications will win by having a superior cost structure and superior coverage of a relatively narrow niche, and those aren’t typically VC-scale businesses. Surprisingly, though — at least it’s a surprise to me! — I think The Athletic is right to go all-in with venture capital funding. The Athletic isn’t really similar to, say, Stratechery; it is clearly a bundle play, and bundles are like networks: you either have one or you don’t. That is exactly the sort of opportunity where venture funding is critical, because you can’t bootstrap into a bundle anymore than you can a network.

By the same token, that raises the risks for The Athletic considerably: not only does it have all of the pressure that comes with venture capital, it has the bloated cost structure (relative to revenue) that comes from spending to create a viable business model (as opposed to building it slowly). Plus, while networks reduce their customer acquisition costs over time (because the network becomes more valuable and thus more attractive to marginal users the more users there are), The Athletic will run in the opposite direction: not only will the hardest core fans sign-up first, they will also be the fans most likely to be interested in the other non-local sports that make the bundle attractive; acquiring customers cheaply will be a challenge that will only increase over time.

And, of course, there is execution risk; subscriptions are ultimately about quality, not quantity, and those two factors often work in opposite directions. In the case of The Athletic, the more writers they hire the harder it will be to ensure they are of a consistently high quality standard; worse, quality is often judged by a publication’s worst pieces, not its best.

All that said, if ever this model were to work it would work in sports. Sports lends itself to bundles, and there is always something interesting to write about. And, I’d add, while I still favor Faceless Publishers, I was struck by Mather’s argument that many writers wanted to be affiliated with The Athletic; I could see where my own personal desire for independence could lead me to underestimate the attractiveness of being attached to a brand instead of building my own. I’m biased in a second way: I started Stratechery as a side project, but that was only possible because my day job didn’t involve writing publicly; by definition established writers can’t build up a personal site on the side, and for them jumping to a startup like The Athletic is perhaps a bigger leap of faith than I give them credit for.

On to the update:

Amazon’s Earnings

From the Wall Street Journal:

Amazon.com Inc. said quarterly profit fell 77% even as sales jumped, a sign of the high cost of its increasing dominance of retail. The Seattle-based retailer eked out its smallest quarterly profit in nearly two years. The company reported $197 million in profit on $38 billion in sales in the second quarter as it spent on new warehouses and delivery capacity for its retail business and data centers for its cloud services business. The company also poured funds into hiring engineers to work on its artificial intelligence Alexa service as well as warehouse workers…

Amazon’s 25% sales growth comes at the expense of traditional retailers, which are struggling with declining foot traffic and the shift of consumer spending online. At a time when Amazon is investing heavily and expanding, other retailers are saddled with high debt loads and falling sales, forcing them to close stores and cut jobs—and extending Amazon’s advantage.

One of the big takeaways from this quarter goes back to a piece I wrote in 2015 entitled The AWS IPO. As I explained in that piece:

Amazon is not a monolithic operation, but rather a collection of businesses sharing resources, including a channel (Amazon.com), logistics, and a common technological foundation. These businesses range from bookshops to video game stores to home furniture to clothes to shoes to consumer electronics to auto accessories…the list is quite extensive at this point! True, consumers experience all of these different businesses as a unified Amazon.com, but inside the company some of these businesses are mature and (theoretically) throwing off cash, while others are reliant on investment as they work to get off the ground.

The concern for Amazon is that the business that had been throwing off cash for 20 years — Media, i.e. books, CDs, DVDs, and video games — was a dying one; the general e-commerce business was growing revenue dramatically, but was much less profitable (probably significantly unprofitable). That is why the revelation that AWS was extremely profitable was so important:

The profitability of AWS is a big deal in-and-of itself, particularly given the sentiment that cloud computing will ultimately be a commodity won by the companies with the deepest pockets. It turns out that all the reasons to believe in AWS were spot on: Amazon is clearly reaping the benefits of scale from being the largest player, and their determination to have both the most complete and cheapest offering echoes their prior strategies in e-commerce…

Perhaps the biggest implication of AWS, though, is its impact on Amazon.com…the sky is the limit for AWS, and if the service is profitable at its current scale, what expectations should we have for five years from now, or ten? More importantly, that profitability can over time replace the role of ‘Media’ in the Amazon engine: cash to build new e-commerce businesses, or to explore what is next (a la AWS), or both of the above. Or, in the fantasy of Amazon’s investors, to actually provide a return to shareholders.

Over the next several earnings periods it was clear that AWS was throwing off more cash than CEO Jeff Bezos and team knew what to do with; the company started to turn a consistent profit and some investors started to expect a new normal.

Consider expectations dashed.

First, AWS is, more than ever, the key to making Amazon go. While growth continues to slow — 42% this quarter, compared to 42.67% last quarter, and 58.22% a year ago — the division continues to throw off huge amounts of cash; AWS had $916 million in operating income last quarter, as compared to Amazon’s overall profit of only $197 million.

UPDATE: Well, this is a painful update to write — and also an easy one. In short, I totally messed up this section.

The missing money in “Investing Activities”, as a couple of readers gently pointed out, is the purchase of marketable securities. For some reason I had it stuck in my head that that was a financing activity and I just totally overlooked it. I honestly have no excuse: I built a big part of this update on something that was totally wrong, and I’m very sorry about that.

That point aside, the broader takeaway remains that Amazon is pouring money back into the business. International margins in particular have gone even more negative — from -1.4% to -6.3%, and North American margins have slipped from 4.0% to 1.9%; it is, as noted in the update, funded by AWS.

Moreover, I do believe Amazon Logistics Service is a real thing; it would, however, show up under Purchases of property and equipment (it likely already is there, just called “Fulfillment”) or in capital leases, which I have covered previously.

Anyhow, this was a big screw-up, and I’m sorry.

Back to tomorrow, where I plan to do better!

Second, Amazon is spending on something big. Take a look at the company’s cash flows over the last five years:

Note the investment line: ‘Investing Activities’ had negative cash flow of over $5 billion, by far the most in the last five years. Moreover, a look at cash flows on a trailing twelve-month basis shows this is a trend that has been picking up since early 2015 — which, as I just noted, is when Amazon started breaking out AWS in the first place:

So what is this money being used for? According to Amazon’s 10-Q:

Cash provided by (used in) investing activities corresponds with cash capital expenditures, including leasehold improvements, internal-use software and website development costs, cash outlays for acquisitions, investments in other companies and intellectual property rights, and purchases, sales, and maturities of marketable securities.

Amazon actually breaks out most of these individually, and comparing this quarter’s numbers to Q2 2015, when the outflow in investing activities started to accelerate reveals…something (as an aside, the numbers are rounded to reflect the numbers reported in the ‘Liquidity and Capital Resources’ commentary from which the numbers are taken, even though more exact numbers for total Investing Activities are available):

Q2 2015 Q2 2017 Change Total Investing Activities 1400 5100 264% Cash Capital Expenditures 1200 2500 108% Internal-use software and website development 150 90 -40% Acquisitions 8 633 7813% Missing 42 1877 4369%

The acquisitions part is easy: last quarter Amazon paid $580 million in cash for Souq.com, which reflects most of the difference there. ‘Cash Capital Expenditures’, meanwhile, “primarily reflect additional capacity to support [Amazon’s] fulfillment operations and additional investments in support of continued business growth due to investments in technology infrastructure (the majority of which is to support AWS)”, and a doubling in two years seems reasonable and reflective of Amazon’s revenue increase over the same time period.

That, though, leaves $1.8 billion in this quarter alone: what is Amazon investing in that is not AWS, not fulfillment centers, and not an acquisition?

Amazon Logistics Services?

My best guess is the company’s burgeoning logistics business. We already know the company has leased airplanes, bought thousands of truck trailers, is registered as an ocean freight forwarder, and is building a $1.5 billion logistics hub. Moreover, all of that activity started in, you guessed it, mid-2015.

The end game here — call it Amazon Logistics Services — has been clear for a long time, and if fits right in with the Amazon playbook. From a 2016 Daily Update:

It seems likely that Amazon will build out this network from the inside out, by first connecting its fulfillment centers with each other and with suppliers, leaving the more logistically challenging and expensive last mile delivery to whomever wants to fight for it. That doesn’t sound great for UPS’ already low e-commerce margins.

One more thing: a persistent myth about AWS was that Amazon was selling excess server capacity that resulted from the need to ramp up for the holidays; this never made sense, because what would happen when the holidays came around in the future? Would Amazon kick everyone off? Interestingly, it seems like a similar myth is developing around this logistics effort. Namely, most reports suggest Amazon wants to bring on extra capacity to avoid the 2013 Christmas disaster when many packages were not delivered in time.

This, though, also makes no sense: are Amazon’s planes going to twiddle their thumbs the rest of the year? I’d think about their efforts from the opposite perspective: the company is building a baseline logistics capacity and will use UPS et al to handle peak demand. Until, of course, the company gets such scale [by offering the service to 3rd parties a la AWS and fulfillment] that their static volume drowns out dynamic peaks and valleys, and then the existing logistics providers will really be in trouble.

Presuming this is true, I suspect that, once again, Amazon’s investors will be quite alright with forgoing profits in the short-term.

Netflix’s Earnings

From Bloomberg:

Netflix Inc. shares soared after the streaming-video provider scored a record second quarter, surpassing forecasts for subscriber growth and boosting its international audience past the domestic total for the first time. Investors continue to forgive minuscule profit for growth in subscribers, which soared to almost 104 million in the period. The company’s stock price jumped as much as 9.7 percent to $177 Tuesday in New York, its biggest increase since October. Netflix shares have risen 78 percent in the past year.

I’ve explained previously why investors care more about Netflix subscriber numbers than profits: like any good SaaS customer, Netflix customers will pay back the cost to acquire them (which in the case of Netflix is the investment in evergreen content) over time. What is particularly noteworthy about the Netflix strategy, though, is that those customer acquisition costs are funded by debt.

This gets at why I’ve long considered Amazon Netflix’s most problematic competitor (and Apple a potential acquirer): not only is Amazon offering a far more comprehensive bundle (Prime) for less money than Netflix, the former has a massive capital advantage. The only cost to using AWS profits to fund, say, original video are opportunity costs. That means no default risk and, thanks to Amazon’s track record, permission from the market to set whatever hurdle rate management deems prudent. Netflix, meanwhile, has to take a riskier route and pay for said risk with actual cash (in the form of interest), and then endure the roller coaster that is to what extent their quarterly subscriber numbers exceed or fall short of the company’s expectations (and by extent, ability to pay back said debt).

It is to the company’s credit that it has withstood Amazon’s onslaught to date, and a reminder that Netflix is very much a company built with Internet assumptions; Amazon’s competitors that were built for a world before the Internet are in decidedly worse shape, and it’s only going to get worse.

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jamieclawhorn · 6 years

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These small-cap investment trusts have been crushing the FTSE 100

A standout performer in the UK small-cap space is the Rights & Issues Investment Trust (LSE: RIII). Over the past five years, the fund has delivered a net asset value (NAV) total return of 172%. This compares favourably to its FTSE All-Share benchmark’s gain of 80% and the FTSE 100’s performance of 37% over the same period.

Picking winners

With more than 30 years service as the fund’s investment manager, Simon Knott has a long track record for picking winners. He uses a bottom-up investing approach to seek out small-cap companies that are trading at a discount to their fundamental value.

Knott likes to maintain a very concentrated portfolio of his high-conviction picks. The fund’s five biggest holdings in its portfolio account for 60.6% of its investments, and they include Colefax Group (23.9%), Titon Holdings (11.6%), Macfarlane Group (11.0%), Treatt (8.3%) and Elecosoft (5.8%).

Although a concentrated portfolio gives investors greater exposure to Knott’s best ideas, with the objective of generating outperformance against its benchmark, a concentrated approach can also lead to more volatile returns.

Shareholder-friendly

Surprisingly for a fund focused on small-caps, Rights & Issues comes into its own in terms of costs. With an ongoing charges figure of just 0.41% last year, it is one of the cheapest funds to own, not just for small-caps but across all markets.

The fund’s shareholder-friendly approach is likely due to its self-managed structure, which means the trust doesn’t incur unnecessary costs, like having to pay a lot of third-party advisors. Another reason is that board members own substantial stakes in the investment company itself, aligning their interests with those of external shareholders.

To demonstrate, the fund has consistently kept portfolio turnover very low, incurring just over £30,000 in transaction costs over the past two years.

Moreover, the trust has been proactive in addressing its discount to NAV — the extent to which its share price is lower than its NAV per share — by aggressively buying back its own shares. Share buybacks at a price below NAV create value for continuing shareholders, by increasing its NAV per share and potentially causing the discount to narrow.

High income

Another highly-rated fund is the Chelverton Small Companies Dividend Trust (LSE: SDV). The diversified small-cap fund aims to deliver a high and growing income through investing in high-yielding companies capitalised at less than £500m.

It only invests in a company for the first time if it yields at least 4% on a 12-month horizon. This is a cast iron rule to which there are no exceptions. Aside from a high dividend yield, the fund managers look for companies with strong management teams and which generate cash on a sustainable basis, to avoid buying into value traps. This means that although the fund employs a strict screening process, it doesn’t invest in a stock just because of its high yield.

Optimistic

Notwithstanding the recent stock market sell-off, fund managers David Horner and David Taylor are optimistic on the outlook for UK corporate earnings. Additionally, they reckon current valuations are broadly supportive, with dividend growth for its portfolio looking set to remain strong.

In terms of its past performance, the trust sits in the top quartile position in the UK equity income sector, with a NAV total returns of 118% over the past five years. Shares in the trust currently yield 3.6%.

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