Pleben.com

I am starting a website called Pleben.com. Pleben comes from the Latin term for the common citizenry with an –n tacked on the end (like American). I took a little liberty with the spelling since many domains had already been taken. Pleben.com will be on-line March 1, 2008 and is a social network with a slightly different business model than most, if not all, other social networks.

First, we will charge an annual subscription fee of $25. There are several reasons I selected a fee based social network. First of all, there will be no advertising on Pleben.com so subscriptions will be the only source of revenue for quite some time. We may, from time to time, enter into partnerships or sponsorships for some of our contests, which I will discuss later. I also feel that a subscription will increase the quality of the network. I think it will be unlikely that many will sign up just to have an account without being an active participant. I would also like to think that a subscription will leave a paper trail related to billing and might actually increase security for the site’s users, which might be a concern with free networks.

Secondly, I would like to give back to the users and society to make the virtual world and physical world a better place. I plan on giving between 10 and 20% of revenues to charity. If I can keep costs down, 20% will be the ideal. I would like the members of Pleben.com to become actively involved in philanthropy in their own communities as well. I look forward to being able to discuss these efforts on the site. I plan to give back to the users through contests. A similar portion of revenues, 10 to 20%, will be used as prizes in contests. These contests will be initiated once certain membership levels have been obtained. Of course, not everyone will win, and this isn’t an easy way to make passive income like I am seeing in these “ponzi” social networks. These will be contests like the McDonald’s Monopoly game.

Finally, if Pleben.com eventually attracts enough attention to warrant private investors or an IPO, I will take 50% of the proceeds over $50 million and begin giving away $1 million prizes at regular intervals. Of course, as subscriptions are renewed or added, additional prize money and charitable contributions will be available.

I am posting this to get the name of the website out prior to the official launch. The website itself is still being developed but should be finished on time and ready on March 1st. I would also appreciate any comments or insight that anybody might have and would be pleased to answer any questions.