Dont mind paying for tokens if the Members contacted at least had the decency to respond - either positive Or negative - Not let one hanging. Shows lack of commitment and not serious about membership or the Exchange process.
Also - Serious lack of promotion to attract Females and other diverse genders on this platform

MassageExchange Comment

We already do considerable promotional advertising. In fact, the greatest expense of our company is advertising.

Over priced for people in my atea

MassageExchange Comment

Tokens are most practical when members have a low number of matches near them.

Most others said it all

Well as many have said the Gold is far too expensive based on the number of members in my area. I am interested in the turnover of members plus the overall profitability of the site. It sounds like you have a small crew but are looking to maximize profits. Also I note you are only answering a very few comments. It would be nice to see the tally of positive comments v. not so positive. Also how do you look for new members to make it more of a pool of people.?

MassageExchange Comment

Tokens were intended to be the more cost effective solution for those members with few matches in their area.

Well, the system is somewhat unfair, but that’s the way life is. What does surprise me is the general lack of promotion for this site in the media. I can’t remember how I originally found the site and have never seen it promoted anywhere!

MassageExchange Comment

We have tried to offer several payment models to be fair to everyone. We do considerable promotional advertising - such is very expensive for a site such as ours.

it all feels like complete BS And a scam. You’re basically trying to get the males to pay for a membership or tokens because stereotypically we are perceived as being more “horny” and more willing to pay for things like this than females.
You address this specifically and accept it as the norm and stated as the norm. So, thinking about equal rights, I find it very misleading to expect males to pay for additional features of the website versus anyone and everyone who uses the website. Why does my desire to have a legitimate therapeutic massage have less legitimacy than a female wishing for the same as I?

MassageExchange Comment

It's neither BS nor a scam. But it reflects reality. We agree with your inequity comments. However, when we first opened the site, we discovered women were simply not paying. That meant men-seeking-women were paying (for Silver, the only choice at the time) and getting the shaft ... paying + no replies = bad news. We then added Gold for men-seeking-women alone. It worked. The decision was not without qualms.

It is not broken, so there is no need to fix it. I like tokens. The cost of gold and silver is too expensive for the small number of potential partners in my region. If tokens are eliminated, I would likely leave the site.

Leave as is

Add a free trial period so I know what I would be paying for

MassageExchange Comment

Free members can already read/reply to Gold and Token messages for free. That's our trial. That 'trial', lasts the life of the account.

I agree with Bronco. Make the first exchange, maybe the whole first year free. You will see your numbers sky rocket. If someone proves to be an effective attractant, you might reward them with free tokens and you will see the gifts move faster. Train before charging is a great model for success.

MassageExchange Comment

Making the first year free has been considered. However members would likely close their account after a year and create a new one every year. Income drops to zero. Oops.

Make it more affordable.

Members with Silver/Gold status should be able to receive email from non-paying members. At least answering an email they receive from us. They can read the message but they cannot answer. which is impeding the Silver/Gold members of the results they are intitled to.

as to the "Tokens are not recommended for Males seeking Females" policy this is plain discrimination. Why would a subgroup be favored. In my large city, these members are in minority (on both sides).

Most of the non-paying members are not professionnal RMT/LMT and are expressing their wanting to improve their techniques. Most of the times to impress their "other sex" dates, but they come to a "same sex" member to get those lessons.

As to a free/ad-based... try contacting manufacturers of products to sponsor you! Anything related to massage (furniture, oils... )

MassageExchange Comment

Your understanding of our SIlver vs Gold seems to be in error. See the table at Help > Pricing (top menu).

Having varied pay walls discourages me from fully engaging, especially considering how many inactive profiles exist in my area. Why pay more to message people with no gurantee of a response? In some ways this has turned into an OKCupid style of service. Which is not appealing to me.

MassageExchange Comment

Wd don't know what you mean by "OKCupid style of service". Perhaps you can revise your comments to explain.

Silver is pointless, confusing and a waste of money. On average I contact 1 member a month so tokens are the best value option for me. I like that I can buy them in bulk and then use them as the need arises, when a new and interesting member joins. I disagree with the official advice that males seeking females should not use tokens. In my large city there might be one new female member join each month if you're lucky so buying tokens to contact them costs half as much and if there is a month or two when no new members sign up then you haven't paid your membership for nothing. Perhaps try harder to attract and retain female members by not allowing them to be exposed to the creeps on the site.

MassageExchange Comment

The majority of Males-seeking-Males use Silver and it works well for the vast majority of Males-seeking-Males. But based on your current profile, that's not you. So indeed Gold or Tokens are a better choice for you.

Make it Free. No enough people in my area to justify this site. Its a great idea to exchange massage with someone like minded. Have to figure out a way to get more people on this site. Free is the answer. Once built charge advertisers

MassageExchange Comment

Running our company for free means we could not advertise, we could not pay our employees, we could not pay our utilities, and could not pay our web hosting company. That does not appear to be a viable plan for business longevity.

Reduce costs please

Ad based, free emails

MassageExchange Comment

Ads over the years have provided meager income; insufficient to make even a dent in our operating costs. We've tried!

tokens are quite expensive can you adjust either the price or amount required

MassageExchange Comment

Tokens are not recommended for Males-seeking-Females such as yourself unless there a few matches near you. See your pricing page (https://www.massageexchange.com/membership/pricelist.asp) to learn why this recommendation is in place.

Create a members only search function, please. May on the site seem not to be members but I find it difficult to discern when sending a message...or I'm missing something!

Also consider a rolling monthly subscription option

MassageExchange Comment

If you only contact subscribers you'll miss all the token users.

Reduce the cost of tokens so there's more interactions

MassageExchange Comment

You'll have more interactions with a subscription.

Make it ad based/free so it can grow only a few females on here from my area. Not paying to send a message that might lead to nothing. Members go months without login in

MassageExchange Comment

Regarding "Make it ad-based/free": We tried for many years to garner income from ads, but it never reached even 1% of the income necessary to operate our business. Sad but true.

simplify; I don't understand it at all.

MassageExchange Comment

Males-seeking-Males: Buy Silver. That's all you likely need.

Should offer a little free membership to be able to send a message

MassageExchange Comment

We actually already do. Free members can read and reply to Gold and Token senders for free.

Eliminate the current system. Suggestions;
- One off payment lifetime subscription. Introduce e.g. anonymity features or unrestricted photo views etc
- One free message monthly, no other benefits for non paying members. May help encourage membership.
- View ads for non-paying members to send more messages, and still help fund site costs.

MassageExchange Comment

- We've tried LIFETIME memberships in the past but they never caught on so it was removed.

- We already have suggestion #2. Free members can already read and reply to Gold and Token senders for free for the life of their account. That's usually far more than one free message per month.

- Ads historically have generated meager income. Sadly, we're no Facebook and we can't charge Facebook advertising rates.

Free members should get one free email per month to try and engage someone.

MassageExchange Comment

Free members can already read and reply to Gold and Token senders for free. (That's quite often more than one per month.)

Silver is confusing as silver members don't always understand their messages cannot even be read by free members. Only being able to communicate with other silver members is a pointlessly restrictive system.

I recently joined and cannot believe how complicated this is - just have a free membership with limited messages and a premium paid membership with all the functionality

MassageExchange Comment

Male-seeking-Male: Silver. That's all!

Create a one-time payment option, like a lifetime membership. Or just make it all free for everyone.

MassageExchange Comment

Free is not possible since we have people and bills to pay. We receive meager income from other sources such as advertising.

Create a one-time payment option, like a lifetime membership. Or just make it all free for everyone

MassageExchange Comment

Free is not possible since we have people and bills to pay. We receive meager income from other sources such as advertising.

I never really understood Silver. Choice should really be a subscription model (e.g the current Gold) with an alternative also available of tokens for those one-off messages, which permit, say 5 messages back and forth.

MassageExchange Comment

Silver works well for Males-seeking-Males. Since that's not you, you may safely ignore it.

Having three types is silly. Having just tokens feels like video game microtransactions and those are just too easy to get out of hand.

MassageExchange Comment

Tokens are the first choice for members who have few matches near them.

Should make Silver the basic membership. Maybe with a paid commitment people would be more active.

Not much can be done with silver

MassageExchange Comment

A majority of our Male seeking males members are Silver and it works out well.

The benefit of gold tokens for us is we can be selective who we can communicate with and allowing a response without the other party having to pay also. The Silver membership has little or no value for us and sadly a wasted token from the sender.

Make it all free

MassageExchange Comment

Free is not possible since we have people and bills to pay. We receive meager income from other sources such as advertising.

I like the tokens since there's not a lot of matches near me.

I'm ok with the current system. I've used Gold membership and tokens.  Gold was good when I was trying to reach a lot of people.  Tokens are more economical for reaching out to smaller groups of people, especially given that memberships expire but tokens do not.  If I were to suggest any change it would probably be to redefine membership so that current membership is required to contact a user for the first time but once contact is made, the ability to contact again never expires.

Better yet, eliminate both memberships and reduce the price of tokens.

Gives me a choice.

Choise is good.

I find it well worth it to subscribe annually, and avoid confusion that way myself. Simplicity is always good.

Make the rules clearer and simpler. Too much clutter and confusion.

MassageExchange Comment

We've re-written the pricing page to use a table format with features of each level. It should provide better clarity.

The current levels of membership are good, tokens distract from the silver and gold