However, as time came and went, Issuu.com would compromise tha product that made them so useful in tha marketplace. I'm not sure who was behind all tha decisons to up the price and rule out features for free plan accounts. But, everything that Issuu.com has done in regards to "leveling up" has only led publishers to abandon tha service altogether! You see, as a publisher, we became keenly aware of how companies would create a quality product only to sell out to a larger corporation who doesn't share tha same values and aspirations as those who actually use tha service. I can only imagine how it must've sounded in tha boardroom when Issuu.com plans and features were going to push smaller publishers out of tha way.
They basically said screw us as if everybody and they mama are out here launching magazines and newspapers. Simply put, tha restrictions and downgrades Issuu.com has applied to their service has only hurt them! The first time they switched up their plans, I forsaw future changes against my wishes. And sure enough, they came! First, they took away website embeds smh. That was tha single most stupidest idea they implemented. As a publisher, if you're going to take away something as integral as embeds, then that told us there was no limit to how much Issuu would take away in tha name of capital gains. These decisions they made are just not smart.
In a day and age where companies like to sell data instead of selling us on tha cool features their product would allow their customers to do, we made peace with ditching Issuu early on. We refused to accept that our publishing platform could just change tha game up whenever they're ready as if we started a magazine just because we were dying to be on their platform. The only reason we were on their platform to begin with was because they provided a solution in tha marketplace. That solution has evolved into nickel and diming their customers. Forcing publishers on tha platform to alter their business models if they want to continue using tha Issuu service.
In tha words of Devin Da Dude, you don't get player points for taking away. In light of tha cost of doing business, it isn't advisable for companies to mess with tha things that made them successful in tha first place. Companies need to remember: your customers don't pay you because they're dying to pay you. They pay you because you offer something they need. And it is not any company's place to tell prospective customers what they should want or need. It just doesn't work that way.
Issuu was such a great platform. We loved it! But, we can't afford to be on a platform that is constantly changing its plans. They've changed their plans so much that many of our archive isn't even available anymore. C'mon now they're just PDF documents. And speaking of PDF documents, PDF has been our solution since turning away from Issuu. Why would we pay a company who continuously upcharges for basic services when our PDF is free and interactive? It's like, why would I listen to music on streaming services when I can just download tha mp3 and skip all tha useless commercials. If anyone from Issuu.com is reading this, I hope you walk away with this: you shouldn't be trying to control how people read magazines, much less streaming services and how people listen to music. We don't want corporations to have power over our projects. We want tha freedom to express our creative engines without being hustled and upsold on products and services no one asked for.
Here's what we think happened: Issuu.com hired a new director of whatever who had experiences making other digital products and services successful and their strategy was to simply "up tha price" and "take things away". What sense does it make to pay for things that were once free of charge? Why should we settle for a company who does that only for them to continue doing it thus pushing publishers off tha platform. I mean, if taking embeds away wasn't enough, now you're limiting publication pages and issues cannot even be accessed unless publishers are paying Issuu.com. But, here at ThaWilsonBlock Magazine, we look for cost-effective solutions to run our platform on in spite of tha unrelenting changes of tha market. Tha only way we will ever return to Issuu.com is if they restore embeds and unlimited publications for free accounts. If facebook is free to use but you gotta pay to advertise, I don't see why Issuu can't thrive on that same model. To outright say that our readers can no longer access our publications because we didn't pay YOU is not a business model we want to rely on.
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