I tho it was free to be come pro cuddler, seems to be 19.99 a month. Same for all?
No. The fee structure is different for men and women. This is not discriminatory because which structure ends up being more expensive depends on the number of clients.
Women pay 15% commission on each booking instead of a monthly fee. Men do not pay commission.
Read the stickies at the top of this board.
@CuddleDuncan Speak for yourself, lol. From my female perspective, it is absolutely discriminatory. It is taking advantage of our ability to make more money by giving us different rules in order to take more.
There should be a monthly option for all women who prefer it (usually that will be established pros with higher incomes who do a service for the site by staying on it, but I would always use the monthly no matter my income at the time, so I can do all bookings through my own website instead of having to orchestrate between the two). It's the only thing pushing me to do all I can to stop accepting clients here (and who does that help? No one). I've argued about this for four years. 😆
It's a marketing choice, which I believe contributes to the skew of pros here being more young in the industry, not established, not as serious about offering this service, and good pros eventually retiring from this site. I'm not a fan, not just because of the financial side, but the long-term effects it has on the site. But I'm biased. 😉 Lol.
It's definitely discriminatory though. Can you imagine women having to pay more taxes because they pay them using different rules than men do? That would never happen. 🤷♀️
On the other hand, men are paying $20/month whether they have clients or not and the vast majority don’t have clients, so they are paying more than the women pros who don’t pay anything if they don’t have any clients.
I’m told other sites charge 30% or more. I’m not sure what else is different on other sites, I’ve never checked them out.
@Babichev sites are all different classes. CC is the highest quality of the sites that fall under the commission strategy (but it's still low enough that very few of the legitimate professionals I know in the industry are on it). It's the only one I have ever been on, because the others all edge more on the casual / questionable vibe than I prefer. The only other site I was ever interested in joining is monthly based (so CC is the only commission I pay). There's nothing wrong with all the different classes. Different strokes for different folks. But it's misleading to act like perpetual commission is the only way to go about it and to act like they're the best game in town because other commission sites have higher commissions. I was just suggesting that this strategy pushes legitimate professionals away as soon as they can manage and have gained experience, which leaves people seeking professionals with less experienced (on average) options here, and new professionals with fewer experienced professionals to learn from. I just believe having a monthly option would encourage more to stay, which would be advantageous for the community as a whole. Like always, my opinion. 😇
Oh, I’m not suggesting it’s the only or the best way, it’s just what is done here.
That’s an interesting take on it - about pros going elsewhere once they have a clientele built - and I completely understand. When I started out as a self-employed massage therapist I worked in a situation where the rent was a percentage of my gross. That was great while I was building a practice and did not have a lot of clients, I did not have to come up with $500/month whether I had clients or not. However, once I had a practice built I was better off paying a flat rate.
This site was originally set up for enthusiasts to find each other. The pros came later. I think other sites were set up specifically for pro cuddlers and that accounts for some of the differences in how they are set up. I do recall one pro here who also had a profile on another site where payment was done through the site. A client gave her a tip and the site’s protocol was that they did not pay out the tips until they amounted to at least $50. I don’t know if the pro stopped using the site, her clients did not usually tip, or if they did they tipped in cash in person but she had a tip sit there for years and could not collect it. Doesn’t seem legal to me.
Do you think the pros get more traffic from other sites? Do you think they have more or less or the same amount of problems with sketchy clients on other sites? Are they better or worse or about the same regarding trying to rid the site of sketchy clients? I’m curious. Any other advantages or disadvantages?
@ubergigglefritz I only said it to head off any anxiety or anger in the head of the OP.
Technically, you could argue that it is not discriminatory because one gender does not pay more than the other. Who is better off depends only on the number of clients you get, not your gender.
In practice women pay far more, but then they receive far more.
15% is absurdly cheap for commission. I pay around 45% for my tutoring clients. (Mind you the agency does do a lot more.)
I doubt the site will ever do a monthly flat fee for established professionals. It effectively puts a cap on the amount the site can make from a professional.
@Babichev
I’m not sure what else is different on other sites, I’ve never checked them out.
Don't worry, you haven't missed anything.
@ubergigglefritz
it is absolutely discriminatory. It is taking advantage of our ability to make more money
Not that yours is a completely invalid point of view, but I've always seen it as, if anything, discriminatory against men. As far as I can tell the large majority of male pros would pay the site less under the commission model (because they'd pay $0). In fact, one could argue that the entire male pro side of the site is a way to take advantage of clueless men - there seems to be a regular stream of male pros who sign up, pay the site $20/month for a few months, and never get a single client.
But, at the end of the day, they're just using with each gender the way to make the most money out of that gender. I guarantee you if somehow the cuddle market magically transformed and male pros were suddenly booking tons of clients, they'd change to a commission model for men too.
@CuddleWho absolutely correct. There are so many factors and things to consider on the subject. But I know this site will never change and I've said enough of a piece on it I guess haha. In summary, when I am looking at how to operate my business, I consider what it encourages, what it discourages, and whether those things are in line with what I want for my business. If I were running cuddle comfort, I would want to encourage people to stay, which both builds the community and increases safety. In order to encourage people to stay rather than allow professionals to graduate from the site and leave, there needs to be a space that accommodates them as they grow. I recognize this site started as enthusiasts only, so this isn't of concern to Mark. I understand, but can still disagree. 😉
@Babichev and @CuddleDuncan I could answer more in detail at my computer, but the site with the monthly fee does WAY more to assist their professionals in training, safety, marketing, etc. I don't take near enough advantage of all the resources they provide. CC wins with the forum and community interactions with the non-professionals, which I enjoy, and a big reason I'm here. @Babichev , I'll add that it's not a matter of building enough clients, but building your own inquiry funnel, since we need to continue paying the commission perpetually forever. The goal is to build intake through other forums. This makes any client I find elsewhere WAY more preferable to any found here (again, something I would not want if this were my business, go back to my summary statement above). 🤷♀️
How did this site intend to generate an income before pros came into the picture since nobody was paying?
@Mike403 - I have no idea. There’s no advertising.
Re: men paying a monthly fee whether they have clients or not - I could be wrong, but I think the reason for it is to discourage boatloads of men from casually making pro accounts.
I think the reason for it is to discourage boatloads of men from casually making pro accounts.
What would be the motivation to discourage that?
@Cuddlewho they have to be assessed and approved. Processing the admin of the credit card. It's a lot of work which doesn't produce any return.
Processing the admin of the credit card
Surely this is automated?
@CuddleDuncan @CuddleWho - Females get bookings. Men don't in most cases. They just want all members with the Pro status to pay the site something.
@CuddleWho for the routine stuff I would assume so, but you still have to do accounting, reconciliations, replying to the credit card company when they ask why you've processed a thousand cards but haven't billed anything, and who knows what. Having a thousand accounts that don't do anything is much more hassle than having no accounts.
I think @Mike403 is spot on.
I think @Mike403 is spot on also.
Mark answered in depth about the site’s rational for charging male cuddlers a monthly fee back in 2019:
Why do male professionals pay a monthly subscription? https://www.cuddlecomfort.com/forum/discussion/5967/why-do-male-professionals-pay-a-monthly-subscription
To quote a small portion:
The quality of interest in being a male professional is significantly lower than that of their female counterpart. It’s fraught with seemingly non-serious and frivolous candidates. A subscription model is a psychological barrier to entry, which is one reason why marketplace platforms tend to go with commision based models. In the case of male professionals, this financial commitment and psychological barrier acts as a net positive by effectively filtering out much of the unsuitable candidates.
The quality of interest in being a male professional is significantly lower than that of their female counterpart. It’s fraught with seemingly non-serious and frivolous candidates.
A subscription model is a psychological barrier to entry, which is one reason why marketplace platforms tend to go with commision based models.
In the case of male professionals, this financial commitment and psychological barrier acts as a net positive by effectively filtering out much of the unsuitable candidates.
@AintMisbehavin - Thank you
@ubergigglefritz Thank you, felt the same way.. no idea why its like that in the year 2022.
Just out of curiosity, since the OP put the phrase "all sexes" [or, shall we say, "all genders"] in their question, what about pros who are nonbinary (or agender, androgynous, bigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, hijra, intersex, pangender, two spirit)? Do they pay the men's flat rate or the women's 15%?
@nurturingman interesting question! 👍