As we all now know that RIP.ie is now set to charge a 100 lids to get an ad on their site which gets millions of hits a month, we also know the Irish Times bought the family owned business and it was a matter of time they would introduce this and I seen it coming and now they are going to bastardise the site that most people loved, in fact it is a kind of social media for the elderly site keeping up with those who they once known especially those who left the country could look in and keep up to date with things back at home.
It is a simply made website and people will argue it costs to run which in fairness it will but unlike other platforms used today and like my own which costs to run an maintain each year with a few thousand views a day we do not have a paywall never will have one nor do we charge to review the tech products you see. It is not that much to maintain cost wise and not so much to charge the price they are now suggesting.
Not only this is you will notice we have no pop up banners or ads all over the shop interrupting the clean feed we provide and making the site look like the red tops online offerings but we have embedded ads which are part of the platforms deal and there is nothing we can do about that but again non intrusive or repetitive. We are not here to cash in full stop.
Death and funerals is a good business to be in so they say, the church and the priest even gets to cash in and we are fine with that we are all going to die like it or not but with how things are now with the cost of living and so on this is just a kick in the bollix especially for the older generation who would more inclined to use the website.
OK it costs to place an ad on the radio or in the paper this is down to you though the service is there and only you decide if you want to cough up the money to use them but the freemium model always wins right?.
Yes it does and there is ways to get money from websites other than charge and that is via advertising which the new owners of RIP.ie could easily do and not be scabby or intrusive about it.
I have already seen the usual suspects cash in on this for clicks supporting the move which is no surprise at all and these people simply have no morals and from what I hear and have interest in myself now is others setting up a new free model which I would fully support and if I had the time I would do it on my own.
We all get old but we can’t bring everything with us when we die life is not just about money. Ultimately here I think this is kite flying and the cost will be less if they had any morals after all it is a business and not a charity however the fee they ask for now stinks and many see it as another cash grab like when they bought MyHome back in 2006. RIP was making a profit now the Irish Times just want to cash in.