Opps, I spilled the beans! Mike and Brian are going to ban me now. Wait, I have premier member status, I am inmune to being ban!!!

Joking aside, i didn't know what the fee was going toward, but if you guys don't get a salary, then I really feel bad for you and less worth for my payment.

 

Not I.

 

For me, moderating is a way of giving back to the boards. I would imagine that the admins get some type of re-imbursement, as they should, but moderating is a privilege, not a job.

 

 

Didnt bother reading the rest of this, I know where its going.

I own a forum, and Ive been on forums since '99 and I think this is crazy talk. Does anyone here, yea thats you, understand what goes into build a site like my350z.com? I put my heart and soul into Clubscion.com and it has so far failed miserably. It rips deep to say that, cause these sites take months of prep and alot of headaches. These sites take an assload of work and I give it up to the big heads around here for what they've done.

Premium Memberships are perks. What are you losing by NOT opting for Premium Membership? Here you are leeching off of someone elses toil and suffering FOR FREE and you're going to complain about how rough you have it? Bite me. Your missing out on a, A SINGLE, forum and a raffle apparently, wtf do you care? Theres like 80 other forums to post on that 99% of the members here frequent. Your not losing anything, your not missing out on some big freaking deal. Ive been in these "Premium Member" sections (weidstyles on Zilvia.net) and frankly... its bull****. I think Ive posted in there a whole lot of seven times out of my 700+ post.

Ill explain how this all works...
Members (you guys, the free ones) show up in the members list. You also are tracked via IP for monthly statistics. And your tracked everytime you click through a link. All this is tracked so the staff here can show advertisers all these pretty statistics and that they have a large base of people to advertise too. This allows the staff to justify their asking price for an advertisment spot.

Now these advertisers want their moneys worth. So they pay, and expect something in return. Meaningfuly every month they want to see on phpAdNews (the banner program here) that XXX members clicked from my350z.com to their site.

Now all is fine and dandy until these members start bookmarking the site. When that happens, the traffic no longer comes through my350z.com and the staff can show a pretty report with tall charts and what have you.

SOOOOOOOO the staff here has to now take the money they earned in advertising and first pay hosting bills for XXX GBs of webspace and bandwidth THEN they have to pay upwards of 1.50 per click on advertising programs JUST to bring new blood in who are going to click my350z.com's advertising banners....

So, wheres the profit? There isnt one, Ive spent over $300 in ONE day from ad clicks (unintentionaly) on big name advertising software. So, now the staff needs more income whether that be Premium Member ship or sellilng stickers, I give them big props. For a site like this, Id charge a $50 Dontaion so I didnt have to register with the local state as a business (which you should watch out for) and call it a day.

note: This is JERZ33, I cant find my PW for JERZ33 and my domain w/email is down for a few days

 

I posted some of this in another thread, but thought I should give my 2 cents in here too. I run 3 forums and 3 fan sites myself [have my own dedicated server], so I personally know that it costs $$$ to keep them running smoothly. Especially if you have the extreme amount of members and posts that this forum has. I love coming here and would hate to see it go, it's worth it to me to keep this forum running.

 

And you can tell that by that shiny thing below your name...

wonder if someone (admin) can switch my Premium Membership from Bee Zee to this account....

edit: Servers back up for my site, got my email address.

 

One point i would like to counter.. the staff here did not build the site.. Another person built the site, then made a crapload of money by screwing alot of people over. The site got so big so fast because really it was the only option at the time and typically first to market in a situation like this will thrive (for a while at least )

Another point that is important is this site would be dead if Kyle had not shown up to rescue it. For that I salute him.

You are also missing the big picture. The Premier Membership was supposed to come with perks. Apparently it didnt. I would be pretty pissed if i purchased something and never got it.

I run a forum too, but i do it for the love of the car and not for money. I think you can tell the difference in the atmosphere and the content.

 

Got to agree 100% with 'killa. The PM was supposed to come with perks and it hasn't.

The other recent arguments from those who 'run other sites' do not apply. If those are the issues, then instead offering a "premier membership", my350z should just charge every member a nominal fee to keep the site running efficiently. It would make far more sense to have everyone who gains the benefits of the site to pay $1 or $2 each than to hope a select few will subsidize the site by paying $30 a pop.

 

Yep and they would probably recollect more money this way too. I would pay the $1 - $2 dollars, even per year.

 

hey, Kelly.. if this idea takes off, I expect a commission on each membership. Either that or you can refund me my PM fee.

 

This would also significantly cut down on trolls, multi-account users and, scammers. Its great, but it would also be the first reason I would go to another Z forum, Scion forum, Honda forum or what have you. I became a premium member, on Bee Zee, just because I know what goes into a forum. I would gladly pay NOW that I have an understanding of this forum and what it has to offer, however opon arrival I would have simply clicked away.

Put a poll on the front page, who would pay $2 a year for membership to my350z.com, options:

Yes
No
Only with 90 day trial

After the poll is complete and there is a resounding yes, switch to the new $2 system and watch new membership (>1 post & active within the last thirty days) and see how adversly your new membership is shot to crap.

Premium Membership has been around for ever. Its not going anywheres (throughout the internet) and will continue to offer little to those who sign up. I sign up because I want to help...

 

I second that!!! @ 2$ per user the site would generate more $$$ or so I would think!

 

Why not have both? Have a $2/year fee, and if ppl want more, have a $10 premier member. I don't think most ppl will be scare of the fee, its only $2. Talking about that, if you charge $2, credit card companies already charge a fee for using their service, by taking a $2 payment via credit card, the vendor might acutally lose money.

 

I actually agree with Jerz on this one, if it was conditional, it would probably make some people go to other Z sites instead. But if it was optional with some kind of small insentive, many more people would pay...

I aslo like the idea of the monthly rafles charging... like mentioned before. That would be a nice way of getting some money...

 

3rd...
I know I would become a premier member already!

 

yes and make it pay to post while ur at it make everyone pay like 25 cents to post a message yea that would be awesome unforutanly i must say im not trying to be a jackass but if you do decide to charge for a basic membership everyone will just find another site to visit.

 

Get me a spell check program ASAP!!!lol!!!

 

Its acutally "A.S.A.P." You outta type your response in Microsoft Word, once all the spell check is done, just cut an paste

Yes, some ppl would turn away at the idea of paying a fee but for most such a small fee would not be push them away, especially when they own a Z.

 

This conversation continues to veer away from the "what good is a Premier Membership?" discussion, but your last statement sums it up. Unless you are doing it just to support the site, you really don't gain anything from Premier membership and aside from kcobean and few other moderators desire to improve that, it doesn't look like it will change.

I think a **limited** feature one month membership would be enough for someone to decide if they want to join the site. Any time during the 30-day trial, that member could opt to become a full member at the $2/year fee. This way everyone supports the site for (not to sound cliche) the cost of a cup of coffee. And as, BeeZee/JerZ33 points out, it would help weed out trolls, spammers, multiple account holders, etc.