Last month, I promised to provide a monthly update on the site. Well, here it is.
1. Update to the Site – I wish I had good news to share. The coders are now almost 2 months behind and no firm end date. I talk to the project manager once a week. The latest target is early October. I will keep you updated.
We still plan on a careful roll out of the new site. If possible, we may have both sites up at the same time. We plan on upgrading the server, with the new code. It would not be a big deal to run both for a short period of time to make sure everything works before turning off the old site.
2. Photos – I updated the primary photo requirements and tweaked some of the language. Hopefully, the requirements are clear. Why is this a big deal? There are a couple of reasons.
First, we are a site for adults, but not an “adult” site. I am not a prude, but there are lots of places on the web to find porn, URNA does not need to be one of those. Photo Requirements HERE!
Second, there is a huge financial impact of having “adult” pixs on your site. Master Card /Visa levy very high fees for processing credit transactions for sites that they consider to be adult content. If you are classified as an “adult” site, there is a $500/yr upfront fee for both MC and V. In addition, the transaction fee is close to 15%. There are other classifications with lower fees – dating site (5% fee on transaction, no yearly) and regular merchant (3% fee on transaction, no yearly).
Right now we are still classified as an “adult” site. You ask why? We have yet to pass an audit of our 40,000 pixs. The last audit was a few months ago and still had pixs that did not meet the requirements.
Hardly, a day goes by without someone submitting an overtly “adult” pix. Trust me, I probably see more male genitals than many urologists. We also have a few members try to sneak in an adult pix. For example, dangly bits that are visible if you enlarge the photo, pixs with lacy panties showing the jewels, etc. I would love to share some of these, but I can’t. Ha!
3. AOL – For the past several weeks we have been inundated with anti spam warnings from AOL. Basically, anytime we send a member with an AOL email address AOL blocks it as spam and then sends our ISP a complaint about us. We have about 1000 members with AOL emails (hopefully, they are not still on dial up, ha).
We only send out emails if you have requested to receive emails in your profile with the exception that we send you an email to verify your email address when you first joined URNA. If you do not wish to receive emails from us, please go to you profile and deselect Receive Mail. The link to do this is HERE! Be sure and click on “save” after setting your preference.
I am trying to get us re white listed. We are not sure why we are blacklisted, but according to AOL’s mail rules, if anyone marks us as spam, then we could be put on the blacklist automatically. This has happened several times before according to Jon.
4. Finances – I get questions asking about our finances. We are a frugal operation with most of our revenues coming from Gold subscriptions (still $41.95/yr and unchanged for many years). We do get some ad revenues, but they are minor. I take no salary unlike owners of other sites. If we have no issues that require outside IT/programming help, we break even.
Our monthly server costs are $700 which includes all hardware costs, ISP fees, and server management services. From what I have seen mentioned on other sites, this seems average or maybe a little less for server costs. Also, I recently noticed postings on two other sites on finances. Their goals were $5000/month in costs/revenue goals. We look like a bargain by comparison.
I have also gotten questions along the line of “how much did it cost to buy URNA? I have not shared the purchase price since it involves the finances of someone else (Jon). I will share that the update/upgrade to the site will exceed $50,000. There have been a few much appreciated Angels who have contributed toward the upgrade, but 95% of the cost will likely come from me.
I never expected to make money on URNA, but my hope is someday pay back my retirement savings. That said, I want to thank all of the people who contribute to the site. Financial support is needed and very much appreciated. However, there are other ways everyone can support. For example, being welcoming to new and existing members in chat, leaving encouraging comments on profiles, submitting articles or information on local events, etc.
Be nice to each other, for some we are the only support system, and have a great October!