ecademy.com remember them?
There was a time when ecademy was on your short list of business networks and forums to join, especially for new business owners.
But it's focus seemed to be on paid membership, and the level of spam and constant sales promo's seemed to increase. With the rise and dominance of Facebook, and even Linked In, ecademy seemed poor value compared to the free and large social networks.
Now you can include Google+ and a multitude of Business Forums like this one. I'm a paid up member of a few forums, but I'm not a fan generally of subscription based networking groups, and the content has to be really compelling to consider it.
There are so many free and pretty good quality options around, networking groups need and should find otherways to monetize, rather than relying on outdated subscriptions.
Ecademy members seem to feel the same and their revenue has plummeted, to the point that the company was sold in November 2011 for a token sum to triumphant events, run by an Australian entrepreneur Daniel Priestley who has taken over as MD of Ecademy.
He has responded to some fascinating blog posts, and been quite frank and honest about Ecademy, admitting there are serious problems, but is determined to rebuild it.
"In Autumn last year I was appointed as MD. This was because Ecademy was in urgent need of technology and funding solutions...
...Revenue from subscriptions, sponsorship and advertising has diminished over the last 3 years. At present, no one draws a wage from Ecademy, no one has any support staff (which makes it hard to stay on top of the dozens and dozens of messages) and many expenses are absorbed personally by the team. So it's important that we focus on the issue of funding.
When I put it like that, it might seem that things are pretty bad however that isn't the case either.
Ecademy has a rich 14 year history. It has exuberant and passionate fans. Ecademy plays host to 500,000 member profiles and 130,000 blogs. It has 3 million unique visitors a year who visit our profiles and blogs..."
Full post from Ecademy
Any company that can't afford to pay the wage bill is in trouble, and the current climate will make it tough to convince business owners to pay for something they think they can get for free elsewhere. But they do seem to still have an impressive following, or at least on paper.
I guess time will tell.
What does anyone else think, have you or are you a member of Ecademy? Do you think he can pull it off?
