Bball and money over the internet .

[Ballstorm]

In another thread , a question was asked about what you guys think of Eurobasket . Either you like it or not , this site has the particularity to contain a profitable section : You want to search for a player ? Pay first ! .

There was a free basketball site here in france that was extremely popular a few years ago , and who took the decison to charge money . Someday they announced that it would cost you 1.5 euros ( or something like that) to read their stuff , each month .

Do you have bball sites like that in your country that charge money ?

[stuart]

There are a couple here in the US that charge money directly for special information - NbaDraft.net comes to mind.

I think many sites are created with the idea of basketball and the behind-the-scenes thoughts of somehow making it profitable. The problem for a lot of the sites that do this is they do it in the wrong way. The right way is to slowly build a following by creating unique content and information that people covet, then gravitating to a payscale... it sucks that it eventually comes to this, but there comes a time for some sites when even advertisements won't pay the bill anymore.

DraftExpress for example, is a great site which was started last year and has already made a name for itself. The owner, Jonathon Givony, used to have an membership account here before the blackout as "JonathanG"... This is a site that I can see eventually turning to a pay method for specific information because it can afford to offer unique information. If he has it in mind, he should wait a 3-4 years to develop more credibility and loyal followers.

Whats better than being able to talk basketball and make a living. I think the way Eurobasket.com does it is wrong and does more to push people away.

Stuart

[Fripp_Moe]

Here we have a hockey website NHL.ru which started as free but is now charging money for part of content. Say, they have an analysis article which you have an option to read right now -- and pay just for that, say, using cell phone -- or wait until it becomes free to read it later. The website was among most popular Russian sports websites and now its ratings plummeted. But it's getting some money.. I don't know if the move was worth it.

As for Eurobasket, I always viewed their pay part as a resource for professionals -- scouts, agents, club staff. The free part is for fans who only need game results and news and for journalists who can't read in every language of the world.