Why do you remain a blue subscriber?
- Thread starter Ask Mr. Religion
- Start date
heir
TOL Subscriber
Come on Ps82. You can do it! I'm rootin for ya! Either way you're going to be just fine. :thumb:
Hweila
New member
A few random thoughts here from a new poster...
The way things are currently structured, there is very little reason to upgrade from Registered Plus to the Bronze/Silver/Gold levels. When I initially registered, it was worth the three dollars not to have to wait two weeks in order to have an avatar and signature, but once you hit Registered Plus, the direct value of subscribing decreases immediately.
Now, that doesn't mean there isn't good reason to donate money to assist in keeping a site running that one is has invested their time and energy in and derives enjoyment from. On contrary, the ability of TOL to quickly raise $3.5k in less than 2 weeks shows that it has an enormous amount of goodwill from a very dedicated userbase. I've seen considerably larger forums unable to raise anywhere near that amount of money in such a short period of time.
What it might be considered that this means is that is that you would be able to maximize the income potential of the site by getting rid of the subscription concept entirely and moving to either semi-annual or quarterly drives for donations.
Conversely, if you want to push more people towards subscriptions, you might consider restricting more server intensive functions such as search and "who's online" to subscriber accounts.
At the same time, you might consider opening up certain things which are normally restricted for a fee. For example, you typically restrict the posting of links to another site or forum, but for a fee an additional field could be made available in the poster info for such links. This is a well-designed, optimized site that ranks quite highly compared to similar sites so it's understandable you don't want people trading off of that ranking for free, but leveraging that page ranking into a way to generate income would be something entirely different.
Another thing you might consider is that you have a handful of fairly active social groups. The activity generated by these groups is to some extent wasted as it doesn't increase your boards stats and will only be viewed by a handful of people, you might find that some of these groups would be willing to pay an decent sized annual fee for their own sub-forum. This would both put more money into TOL from that fee as well as making the topics more likely to be viewed and thereby increase ad revenue derived from them as well.
Of course, for all I know all of these things have previously been considered and rejected for perfectly good reasons. But I figured I'd throw my 2cents out there in case it might be of any help.
The way things are currently structured, there is very little reason to upgrade from Registered Plus to the Bronze/Silver/Gold levels. When I initially registered, it was worth the three dollars not to have to wait two weeks in order to have an avatar and signature, but once you hit Registered Plus, the direct value of subscribing decreases immediately.
Now, that doesn't mean there isn't good reason to donate money to assist in keeping a site running that one is has invested their time and energy in and derives enjoyment from. On contrary, the ability of TOL to quickly raise $3.5k in less than 2 weeks shows that it has an enormous amount of goodwill from a very dedicated userbase. I've seen considerably larger forums unable to raise anywhere near that amount of money in such a short period of time.
What it might be considered that this means is that is that you would be able to maximize the income potential of the site by getting rid of the subscription concept entirely and moving to either semi-annual or quarterly drives for donations.
Conversely, if you want to push more people towards subscriptions, you might consider restricting more server intensive functions such as search and "who's online" to subscriber accounts.
At the same time, you might consider opening up certain things which are normally restricted for a fee. For example, you typically restrict the posting of links to another site or forum, but for a fee an additional field could be made available in the poster info for such links. This is a well-designed, optimized site that ranks quite highly compared to similar sites so it's understandable you don't want people trading off of that ranking for free, but leveraging that page ranking into a way to generate income would be something entirely different.
Another thing you might consider is that you have a handful of fairly active social groups. The activity generated by these groups is to some extent wasted as it doesn't increase your boards stats and will only be viewed by a handful of people, you might find that some of these groups would be willing to pay an decent sized annual fee for their own sub-forum. This would both put more money into TOL from that fee as well as making the topics more likely to be viewed and thereby increase ad revenue derived from them as well.
Of course, for all I know all of these things have previously been considered and rejected for perfectly good reasons. But I figured I'd throw my 2cents out there in case it might be of any help.
freelight
Eclectic Theosophist
subscribing benefits all.....
subscribing benefits all.....
Indeed,....It comes down to appreciation of value,....and who cant afford $3 a mo? (pocket change). - Being a subscriber enables you to share a greater amount of personal info, a custom profile, websites, blog pages, signature links, and more importantly your own creative writing contributions (your art/craft!) among persons of various faiths, viewpoints, perspectives. The value of intelligent dialogue alone, plus the internet status and placing of TOL on the web,...enables a greater global network.
I also find the previous remarks about not supporting this forum because its "Christian" a cop-out.
I see it as "space"! and the value is what you do, share and contribute within that "space". If you value your ability to let your "voice" be heard,...why not do yourself a favor and become a subscriber? When you subscribe you're doing it for you - you benefit,....AND the forum benefits. Fringe benefits include the fruits of dialogue, enrichment and edification that can be had,...plus the expansion of consciousness - its what you creatively make of it.
pj
subscribing benefits all.....
Indeed,....It comes down to appreciation of value,....and who cant afford $3 a mo? (pocket change). - Being a subscriber enables you to share a greater amount of personal info, a custom profile, websites, blog pages, signature links, and more importantly your own creative writing contributions (your art/craft!) among persons of various faiths, viewpoints, perspectives. The value of intelligent dialogue alone, plus the internet status and placing of TOL on the web,...enables a greater global network.
I also find the previous remarks about not supporting this forum because its "Christian" a cop-out.
I see it as "space"! and the value is what you do, share and contribute within that "space". If you value your ability to let your "voice" be heard,...why not do yourself a favor and become a subscriber? When you subscribe you're doing it for you - you benefit,....AND the forum benefits. Fringe benefits include the fruits of dialogue, enrichment and edification that can be had,...plus the expansion of consciousness - its what you creatively make of it.pj
:chuckle: I think most of us who have been around here for awhile are more than aware of Allsmiles attitude toward us.....not much more can be revealed which hasn't been already.
I think you're missing the point.
:doh: When Knight said "any amount will be appreciated", I don't think this is what he had in mind.
Now, I really feel silly ... It was so duh simple. Next year will be a breeze.
How much does gold cost? And what are the perks?
These are the steps the way I remember them:
I clicked on HOME page in the tool bar. Went to section having to do with SITE NAVIGATION... and clicked on UPDATE YOUR TOL acct.
There I found the different levels of membership described ... I believe the cost showed up after I started the process of purchasing one of the choices.
Well, on my first infraction, I stomped my feet and :sozo2: a little, and it was reversed. That isn't the point of the subsription, but it is a perk of it.
Buzzword
New member
Meh. Nothing personal towards the management, but I'm perfectly fine with the features I have access to now.
Plus my wife and I are in college, and the only reason we have Internet access at home is because most of our professors require it for various assignments, and we're both working too much to use the computer labs at school.
Plus...I'm just not active on the site very much anymore.
Most of my time here is spent reading and giving out pos reps.
Plus my wife and I are in college, and the only reason we have Internet access at home is because most of our professors require it for various assignments, and we're both working too much to use the computer labs at school.
Plus...I'm just not active on the site very much anymore.
Most of my time here is spent reading and giving out pos reps.
Ask Mr. Religion
☞☞☞☞Presbyterian (PCA) 	
Gold Subscriber
LIFETIME MEMBER
Hall of Fame
Why do you remain a blue subscriber?
:think: Some people suffer from hormonal imbalances...but then, you've met Joey already.
:think: Some people suffer from hormonal imbalances...but then, you've met Joey already.
That isn't all he said.
The main purpose is minimal ads. Using server space costs money. It has to come from somewhere.