[RandyG]

Hi All!

It's been discussed a little in other threads, and Mulder's Bad Boy thread has definitely sparked a round of never-before seen donation runs, but I'd like to see if we've got any minds in here that can help Mike, and us, in finding a better way to get revenue in for the site, rather than relying on Banners, links, donations, or whatever.

I have no recommendations that would be useful, per se, but would make a judgemental point.

I haven't seen ads on this site for about 2 1/2 years cause I donate. i donate cause I believe in this site. ads begone was a surprise when Mike instituted it.

i have signed up for Affero, because it has the potential to help Mike pay for the site. that's the only reason I signed up for it. I would much rather see folks donate straight to Mike, as it would cost less. I also don't care very much whether or not I have a popularity rating that is high. That is about all Affero offers. I don't think it needs to be here on this site, but if Mike wants it, I'm gonna do what I can to support him.

What I'm looking for is ideas that can help Mike generate some money to fund this site.

we want to stay away from popups, porn ads, warez ads, and anything else that is just not good, but if any of y'all have ideas, please post them.

thanx!

[TechGuy]

Obviously, the "dunk Mulder" thing went over in a bigger way than anyone could ever have imagined. I believe we received more donations in 7 hours than we had during the entire life of the site. Maybe other ideas like this would be possible... any creative ideas?

[angelize56]

It did work out great, the <b>Mulderthon</b>! But don't listen to him about charging me a $1 for every thread I start!

Maybe once or twice a year you could have a "Donation Day" thread.

Take care. angel

[RandyG]

I know it worked very well, but I think we need to try to come up with a long term strategy for this.

I was sort of thinking along the lines of that paid support thing you used to have, but I keep getting bogged odwn on the issues.

Since I volunteer my services, I have no compunction about my lack of knowledge in certain araes. I use my skills of searching to help where I do not know the answers myself. If someone were paying for that, I don't know if I could step up to the plate or not. I mean, if you pay for a service, you expect a certain level of competency.

The folks I think would be great at this, might find it offensive to have their brains utilised in this blatant way, and have all the money go to you, however . . .

these brains could get different status on the board, adfree browsing, i don't some other perks . . . all for "donating" their time to answering paid support questions.

they would have to be vetted, but we all know plenty of folks in our forums who are always there to help, and have a high level of know-how. Maybe they would go for something like this???

a few folks in specialist areas like the forums are broken down. maybe utilise that listserver that isn't being used, I don't think!!

Hhhmmm, it's actually sounding like a pretty good idea.

Whaddaya think?

[Deke40]

This suggestion will probably cause an uproar. I am sure a lot of people here pay some kind of fee for some of their most used sites.

To me the easiest solution would be to have a yearly fee to be a full member with posting privileges.

Members 62,959 x $10=$629,590 a year.

Even if you have only 50% join that is still $314,795 a year.

If a person can't come up with $10 a year for the best Help site on the www they need to re-examine their priorities.

[TechGuy]

Just to give some basis here for any thoughts --

There are 11681 members who have *visited* the site between March 1 2003 and June 7 2003. Of those, 5477 of them have posted a total of 1 or fewer times and 641 have posted 100 or more times.

I think that a great deal of our resources go to those doing a search for a specific problem who are lead to a thread, hopefully with helpful information. Between April 5 2003 and June 7 2003, we have had more than 4 million page views. At least 400,000 hits have been confirmed as directly from Google. Another 100,000 are from Yahoo and another 75,000 from MSN.

[shortnpretty]

Just my 2 cents worth, which is about all I can afford.. I'm pretty sure most come here because it is free and continue because of it. Something like the "mulderthon" just reminded a lot of people of the importance of donations, etc. Besides this, I'm not sure what we could do, but that being said, I'm sure someone can come up with an attention getting solution at least 1-2 times a year for donations. Most of us just need to be reminded how important donations are. Until Mike finally admitted what it costs, I had no idea. People like me come here for help because we don't know about stuff like you all do and the Random situation opened my eyes on a lot of things..... Just an "average Joe" opinion here....

[TechGuy]

I forget which thread it was, maybe do a search, but I stated earlier that we're currently running around $450 a month for the line and bandwidth, after some discounts. Naturally, that doesn't include our vB license, but it's only like $100 a year (or something like that), but also doesn't include hardware costs (but that's rarely necessary).

[RandyG]

did you buy that Chat outright withe Chat donations, or is there a yearly charge involved?

[TechGuy]

Chat is purchased, not leased. No additional fees to be incurred there, as far as I know.

[TechGuy]

FYI -- speaking of costs, we're going to need some RAM after another 3 months, I'd guess. The database server only has two DDR PC2100 slots, and they both have 512 in them now. Maybe we can convince some retailer to give us two 1GB chips when that time comes.

[angelize56]

Mike: Do you get many orders for your TSG merchandise?

For those unaware of the merchandise, you can view it <a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=techguy"> here.</a>

[RandyG]

The New Sponsor Bar Brendan asked you how much it costs, and you answered about $500/month after discounts.

As to Ram, http://www.pricewatch.com/1/33/4005-1.htm is listing it at around $120. My how memory prices have fallen!!

on Randy's original question/suggestion
... I am very curious if there is a way to bring in money as well.
(also for selfish reasons - my own biz )

Would there be any benefit to yearly subscription amounts? ... this may be way out there, but if we donate a certain amount, you will reward us with a mousepad ... ?

On my websites I post a link to the TechGuy with glowing praise - but I think I made a mistake about saying it was fabulous FREE advice. I am going to adjust my description to spell out my positive views on donation as well as the "free" statement.

curious TG - do you have stats on how many member visits/posts before donation? ... what compels them? no biggy, just curious.

note TG - one of the most enjoyable things for me is searching for answers to topics I am familiar with or slightly familiar with. It has encouraged me to hunt down more knowledge for me as well as help out the poster - you just never know what you need to know until you need to know!

cheers
MDM

[Shadow Bea]

Posted this in the wrong thread so am re-posting here

Most of the regulars_ get a lot of enjoyment from this site .. shooting the breeze, expounding on views, discussing everything from marriage problems to the price of rice in what ever country rice is currently coming from. It is a simple concept really .. nothing in life is free ... it is all costing someone,somewhere, something! When I first stumbled into random I was a novice at the whole forum thing... as I came to the site for tech help initially.. I couldn't give much by way of tech help myself.. but gratitude alone is what motivated me to want to help.. didn't really care about the adds.. at first I ordered a clock from the Cafe Shops store ... then later donated and will again whenever I can... out of gratitude and the understanding that .. It costs money to run things.. By the way.._ My math works this way even if one can't donate much ... $20.00__ works out to just under_ 5.5 cents a day for the year now come on people .. Who among us can't afford that!! The other thing I have to say is this .. Even if Mike were making a profit which I know/think he's not.. So what!
What would be wrong with that._