- Sun Jul 23, 2017 4:08 pm
#91292
Hi Kristin,
If you mean the discrepancy between the $25,000 advertised and the actual prize money offered, it is really pretty stunning.
After the 2012 site schism, they did offer nearly $25,000 per month for all contest sections and bimonthly special prizes. There was a small reduction at some point, but in mid-2016 they started cutting significantly every six months, including this month. For instance, HomeClips had a top prize of $1,500 until 2014 and now gives only $700. All HomeClips prizes were $3,550, now $1,775. Total prizes for all sections are now down to $10,600, which amounts to a drop of nearly 60% from what they offered in 2012.
I have been surprised to see no discussion among contributors or viewers of the steadily falling prize money. Maybe contributors fear seeming greedy, but I have a different perspective on this. VoyeurWeb is a business that makes a profit. Contributors provide their content for free. As an amateur site I think this is for the best, but I also think the site's income should be shared somehow with those who create the content, particularly the more popular ones, who by definition are the ones attracting the paying audience. That is what prizes do.
So a 60% reduction in prizes must mean one of two things:
Either the site owners are keeping much more of the proceeds and sharing less (a difference of ca. $150,000 per year)
Or the site's profitability has been declining pretty steeply over the past several years
I strongly suspect it's the latter, judging from steadily declining contribution quality on HomeClips, which is the only section I pay attention to.
Rug Rollers