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Signs 101 Business Model

Would you prefer to pay membership dues for a smaller, higher quality forum?

  • Yes

    Votes: 78 28.9%

  • No

    Votes: 192 71.1%
  • Total voters
    270
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Fred Weiss

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
isag said:
Fred ................

Here is what I was refering to .... would this work? You could still advertise merchant members below so they can get traffic?

http://www.docsboard.com/forums/index.php
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. I don't think, however, that it would be a way for us to go. Doing that would effectively reduce our traffic to about 20% of current. This is out of sync with our business model.

Either unregistered can read the forum posts as it is in our advertiser's model or we go to a paid member business model which would take at least 500 members actually joining on that basis to have any chance. That model would very likely lead to a gradual reduction in activity at Signs 101 and could possibly result in its dwindling down to nothing.
 
D

DARLAK

Guest
and could possibly result in its dwindling down to nothing
Click to expand...

then we finally agree to agree on something....

so, then why was it introduced????

it seems like a losing proposal

i like - pay up cuz were going LIVE!!!!

LIVEsigns101CHAT!!!!
 
Pro Image

Pro Image

New Member
Fred Weiss said:
Thanks for the link. I don't think, however, that it would be a way for us to go. Doing that would effectively reduce our traffic to about 20% of current. This is out of sync with our business model.

Either unregistered can read the forum posts as it is in our advertiser's model or we go to a paid member business model which would take at least 500 members actually joining on that basis to have any chance. That model would very likely lead to a gradual reduction in activity at Signs 101 and could possibly result in its dwindling down to nothing.
Click to expand...

Why not have both.........Signs 101 and Signs 201...........The latter for the professional and have it on a pay to view site.........
 
D

DARLAK

Guest
Why not have both.........Signs 101 and Signs 201...........The latter for the professional and have it on a pay to view site.........
Click to expand...

ding ding ding -- we have a winner
 
Sign_Boy

Sign_Boy

New Member
Darlak - this place is almost live as it is.
Think about how fast people get back to each other on this baby.

What if pricing and other important stuff was treated like the no holds barred area??
 
Fred Weiss

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
Pro Image said:
Why not have both.........Signs 101 and Signs 201...........The latter for the professional and have it on a pay to view site.........
Click to expand...

That's something I am currently considering although if the result was that the traffic and quality participation diminished at Signs 101, then it would be a negative.
 
Pro Image

Pro Image

New Member
Fred Weiss said:
That's something I am currently considering although if the result was that the traffic and quality participation diminished at Signs 101, then it would be a negative.
Click to expand...

Make it only accessable by loging on to 101 so that all the members of 201 have to come here first......

I dont know alot about the functionality of the boars so forgive me if the questions I ask are really stupid.......
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
Fred, I think it would be a mistake to go down the road you're considering. For one thing, if you dropped S101 from search engines, I thing your membership would suffer from that alone, I know I found this site from Google, I'm sure many others have. Yes, with that comes the possibility that our clients or other people who shouldn't be on a trade-only website will find this, but I guess that's business. If you're somewhat discrete as some have suggested it's less likely to occur.

Going to dues-only membership will also probably backfire. I contribute to the site happily, but as many have already pointed out, most won't. I think part of what makes this site better than the others is the often exciting uproars that occur here. They's usually a good read for everyone, and I can only think of a couple that I didn't learn something from. Excluding the masses with a paid subscription requirement will probably all but eliminate the "soul" of this site.

I do agree, however, that detemining a way for non registered users to be limited in what they are able to view here will probably put an end to alot of the real issues people currently have. I know of quite a few forums that require you to register before you can access the majority of the content, and it's not at all an unreasonable request for a trade forum like this, it's almost necessary to weed out the outsiders who shouldn't be here in the first place.

I guess I'm saying that a little more exclusivity wouldn't hurt, but too much will kill this place.
 
particleman

particleman

New Member
I think closing viewing of forums completely for non members would be devastating to your site. Massive forum communities can pull this off, but only with a few certain areas that are member only viewing ("off topic" general chit chat is a common member only type forum). You block the search engines you are all but going to stop growing. I would go so far to say that would be the beginning of the end of your site. Users here are creating the content people find by searching the net; it is what makes a place like this useful. You can probably come up with a happy medium. I would consider a subscription model for your off topic forums and keep viewing enabled, but only subscribers can post. I would also suggest keeping ads, if you asked you would probably find out alot of people don't see ads related to their business all that intrusive.
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
I agree with what Particleman said about ads on here. We're all in the advertising business, I suspect if someone has a problem seeing an ad on this or any other forum that person may need to start paying a bit closer attention to their own business. This forum is a business, it takes money to make it run, that money has to come from somewhere and unfortunately most of the people who benefit from it the most aren't willing to cough up a few bucks in support. So be it, but that money must be replaced somehow. I say sell all the advertising you can, just keep it somewhat related to our business and don't allow annoying popups.

Otherwise Fred, I think you run a fine website here and it's by far one of the better ones I've ever seen or been a part of. Don't be too quick to pull the trigger on such significant changes to please a small minority, if there were really the problems on here that would justify such action, i doubt this place would be as busy and active as it is. The number of active members online at any given time and number and frequency of new posts is really staggering, those numbers speak louder than anything.
 
P

Poconopete

New Member
Don't we already have a paid area? Contributing member forum that few use?
The action is out in the open. The fun happens when the newbs show up. That's how this started. Send the cabinet maker to a MM and get back to reality. If you don't want to be found use an alias and don't give up to much personal info.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
I think you’re reacting a little too hasty, Fred. Why not brainstorm this thing and take in many ideas in the next couple of days or week or two and then form some sort of poll ?? Unless the poll you have posted is the only two possibilities. I would like to explore the possibilities of these problems and see if there are any other alternatives that won’t interfere with your or Bigdawg’s running things here or adding more headaches to your day.

Basically, I’m for helping most people… especially if they ask for help from within our trade. This place is about the best place I’ve found in years to do that. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how many people can be ‘lurking’ around and taking this information to hurt our industry. If someone comes here asking for help and they get 25 or 35 posts explaining everything down to how many nails or where to get the vinyl…. it’s only a matter of time until we’re giving away the whole deal. And more will follow. If anyone doesn’t see this as something serious, then you’re not dealing with a full deck. If anyone thinks you can forget about this and it will go away, then you’re truly not a business person. Having a livelihood is not something to take lightly. It’s not the same as going to the office and doing your job and going home at the end of the day. You’re responsible for you and your job alone. You fail… you get fired. It’s you’re fault. Having your own business is all about having the upper hand and making money. Sure, your family depends on you, but so do your employees, vendors and customers. You fail now and you’re letting down quite a few people and in some cases…. many families. That’s what I have to deal with when potential customers have access to this site. I could care less about the newbies…. they’re easy to handle, but the people that are here…. purposely to hurt or take away from us… are the ones I don’t like… AT ALL. There should be a way to control this better or at least make us feel safer. Afterall, it is called signs101… not signshop 101.

It’s a double edged sword….. if you shut down the search engines and make it harder for people to enter the ranks… less traffic, less new people, less attraction, less interest. BAD !!

If you let the flood gates open….. less information will pour into this place. Everyone so far has said… change your name, your avatar and give less informative information. This will put a damper on the quality of knowledge and all will suffer including the site. Why would anyone want to give away trade information to their customers ??

I don’t have an answer, but I think we really need to look into this much closer…………
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