Complete Control for All Publishers, Large and Small
KickApps is known for powering rich social media experiences for some of the world’s most recognizable brands, tier-one web publishers, and Fortune 1,000 enterprises. Over the last few years the market has shown that the social media experiences we provide are becoming baseline for any website in the world and it’s our commitment to service all publishers and businesses no matter how large or small.
Based on feedback from our growing network of customers, we’ve made a few changes to our service that I’d like to bring to your attention. From today onward, we will be offering a Free 30 day trial for all new KickApps accounts. You’ll be able to design, build, integrate and test your KickApps website during this time and will have complete access to the entire KickApps platform.
As part of this change, we will be replacing the KickApps ad network advertising offering with a new series of subscription offers that provides the publisher with complete control of all ad slots (including video advertising slots). Current KickApps ad network accounts can choose to stay ad supported and receive advertisements from the KickApps ad network or switch over to one of our subscription packages that provides the publisher complete control of all ad slots.
We started testing three new self-service monthly subscription packages that provide complete control six months ago resulting in the following offers:
Basic = $39.95/mo.
Small Business = $99.95/mo.
Small Business Plus = $299.95/mo.
The response has been very positive which is encouraging because it signifies the maturing of the industry as a whole. The Basic to Small Business Plus packages are available on a self-service basis in the Affiliate Center where you’ll find all the details necessary to pick the offering that meets your needs. Payment for the new subscription offers can be made via PayPal account or major credit card.
For publishers that expect traffic to exceed 30,000 page or video (outside of a KickApps hosted page) views per month, please contact our sales team and we’ll walk you through an enterprise licensing package tailored specifically to your needs.
With today’s KickApps, that includes; Widget & Video Player Studio, a robust API Developer Kit, complete content, media & member management, community and customer insight solutions and so much more, nothing stands in the way of any publisher from taking advantage of how social media can transform your web site.
Thank you for your support of KickApps over the last four years. We’re very excited about continuing to deliver the best social media solutions to you.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Is there still a free service option?
June 18th, 2009 at 11:45 am
John —
We have discontinued the Ad Network supported offering for all new accounts starting today.
There’s a 30 day Free Trial for all new accounts starting today. After the 30 days, you’ll be asked to purchase a monthly subscription (packages start at $39.95/month).
Accounts that were created prior to today can choose to remain on the ad network at no cost or purchase a monthly subscription and take complete control of ad inventory.
June 21st, 2009 at 10:48 am
I am an educator who loved 2.0 apps and plan to teach my students about Kickapps and how they could upload projects and create their own classroom educational videos etc. Is there any way I could still get the ad supported type of plan? I see you discontinued on 6/18, and I signed up on 6/19. If I cannot receive the ad supported plan, I will have to drop at the end of the trial period. Teachers can hardly afford 40 dollars a month.
Thanks.
Dr. P
July 3rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I’m switching to ning, i had dozens of networks to start for various clients, and i prefer kickapps but if YOU can’t make money off of millions of ads on this platform, why should i expect to make money off of my little corner of your service?
July 5th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Cool!
July 21st, 2009 at 6:02 pm
@Dr. P — Thanks for your comment. Yes, we’ve discontinued our ad supported plan. We’ve been test different options and packages and have found that the majority of our customers are very interested in complete control of their KickApps powered websites. We spent the last 8 or so months testing various packages and have developed several packages for small businesses or independent publishers, starting at $39.95/month. Your feedback is very helpful and we’ll continue to use it to inform our product and go-to-market approaches.
@anon – Thanks for your feedback. As with Dr. P, it’s very helpful to us. We’re sorry that we can help meet your needs better at this point. We do think that you’ll find that if you’re looking to build out a socially enabled website with the highest degree of flexibility, complete ownership of data and membership, and a very aggressive path of product innovation, we’re a good choice. Hope that we get the opportunity to work together in the future.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:13 am
i think 40 usd/month is little high for small publishers like us,kickapps should think of starting plans of 20 usd/month,that will be better for small publishers.