Cycle-Chat Donations - How About Subscriptions?

[John the Monkey]

As title really - Rick Smith has one of these for the Yehuda Moon strip (I think his is something like $3 a month).

I think it works via paypal, and is basically a set up and forget thing (good for forgetful people like me). The subscriber can cancel at any time, and the method has the plus of a regular amount going into the pot each month.

(Rick's content is still free to view, subscribers just get the happy feeling of supporting him on an ongoing basis).

 

[Shaun]

Of the various revenue generating ideas that were discussed, subscriptions and donations were the two front runners. Firstly, because they kept the funding in-house (we power ourselves and are not at the mercy or control of outside sources), and secondly because they allow us better control over the revenues generated.

Subscriptions is still on the cards as a fall-back if the voluntary donations thing doesn't work out, but I thought we could try the "what you can, when you can, if you want to" approach initially.

As and when my business picks back up (I'm confident it will) we may well be able to suspend fund raising altogether, but it's not such a bad idea for CC to have a pot of its own and be self-funding; it makes for more secure foundations for the site and the community that's built up around it, and could, depending on how we grow, allow us to do other things.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Danny]

It would be helpful to know how much money you need to raise to keep CC going.

Also, to build on the them of "owned and operated by cyclists" you could consider establishing CC as some form of mutual enterprise and sell "shares" or annual memberships.

 

[Shaun]

It would be helpful to know how much money you need to raise to keep CC going.

Ta da ... http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=36107

 

[oxbob]

£5 per yr from 1500 members(that is approx 1/4 of total members here) would raise £7500, more than enough to keep the site running and leave funds over for etc, freebie t shirt/calander blah blah for subscribers, advertising of site, hire of beer marquee for get togethers blah blah.You get the idea tho

 

[Danny]

Ta da ... http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=36107

When I first looked at it you had received no donations so I could not derive what the total might be.

According to my maths, the total target is £6k.

 

[Crackle]

This has not attracted much debate, perhaps a link from the caff might do the trick.

For myself I've seen a forum move over to a membership subscription, total war broke out. It's survived and is doing well but it spawned a few other fora from pee'd off members. It too went down the route of voluntary subscriptions first and it was many of the voluntary people who vehmently opposed membership.

All that said this is not the same kind of forum, membership on the other forum generated discounts and access to various databases, there's less of that here so I think a voluntary donation is the way to go. For myself I have no issue with this, I derive a great deal of pleasure from this forum and have no objection to making a donation (just as soon as I can wring some blood from this stone).

Now the one thing I would say from watching what happened on the other forum, is that once you start paying money you feel as though you should own a slice of the action. This became pretty evident when the forum owner pressed ahead with his plans in the face of some vociferous objections.

Like I said before, can't see that happening here but it is a can of worms.

 

[Crackle]

Oh. I should point out that I don't use the other forum anymore. I paid for a year and then never went back as there were others free that did the same thing and this is the risk of membership.

 

[Arch]

When I first looked at it you had received no donations so I could not derive what the total might be.

According to my maths, the total target is £6k.

Um...

"Our current CycleChat donation drive total is £1200."

 

[oxbob]

When I first looked at it you had received no donations so I could not derive what the total might be.

According to my maths, the total target is £6k.

We are not paying for his Bahamas holiday are we

 

[oxbob]

I doubt he'd get a P&O minitrip to Zeebrugge!

PMSL!!

 

[HelenD123]

It's definitely worth a donation for what I've got out of it!

 

[Dayvo]

I might be in England soon, so I'll send a cash donation to Shaun!

Got plenty out of this site!

 

[Sittingduck]

I don't like the idea of subs myself (unless they are the 12 inchers from that sandwhich shop). Voluntary donations are the way to go IMHO and you may be surprised how much will be collected via this method

Cheers
SD

 

[palinurus]

Well I hadn't even seen the donation totaliser thingy until I read this thread.

Worth a punt, it helps me get through lunchtime. And the afternoon slump.