paid membership - would you?

[eFestivals]

It's been suggested to me that eFestivals should offer a paid membership, at around £3 per month or £30 a year.

(NOTE: they're the prices that were suggested to me, they might not be the price charged, tho they'd be likely to be around that I guess).

The money raised via this would go back into efestivals rather than into my pocket, to help pay for things such as faster servers.

Paid members would get something along these lines as a part of their paid membership:-

1. a [email protected] email address accessed via a hotmail-type interface.

2. access to a 'paid members' forum.

3. access to an eBay-style buy & sell forum.

4. automatic entry into a monthly competition where they'd stand a chance of winning a goodie-bag of some kind (likely to be one or more of: festie tickets; free CDs &/or band merchandise; efestivals merchandise; festival-relevant merchandise [tents, camping accessories, etc]).

Would this be something you'd consider doing?

If so, are there any other things that I should try and include as members benefits?

(realistic suggestions only please - no, you can't have a private jet as a prize ).

[ampersand]

think i use this site enough to pay a sub yeah, but if it went much more than £3 per month, perhaps not...

point3, i'm guessing that's for spare tickets at face value or you including anything in this like cd/dvd/games etc?

[Paul ™]

Would this be in addition to or along side the Gold Members subscription to have an Ad-Free forum?

[eFestivals]

think i use this site enough to pay a sub yeah, but if it went much more than £3 per month, perhaps not...

I'm thinking that the suggested £3 per month/£30per year would be the most that would be charged - ideally I'd like to do it cheaper, but it's impossible to say how much exactly until every aspect of the deal has been firmed up - it's no good me giving away more in goodies than paid membership brought in, for example.

point3, i'm guessing that's for spare tickets at face value or you including anything in this like cd/dvd/games etc?

Again, I've not fully settled on how exactly this would work, but I'm definitely thinking face-value tickets*, and very probably anything else that anyone was selling too.

(* with regard to selling tickets I'm also thinking of charging a small fee (say £1) for anyone [those who aren't paid members] to list a ticket for sale - this has the advantage of making fraudulent selling of tickets far less likely as they'd be an extra trail back to the seller than there is currently).

[eFestivals]

Would this be in addition to or along side the Gold Members subscription to have an Ad-Free forum?

it would be an entirely separate thing to that.

The ad-free forums thing was done because some people requested it as an option, and it was priced at a rate that I felt would cover the lost advertising revenue from those who took the option up.

This paid membership idea is something separate, designed to increase income for efests so that more beefy servers can be bought with that extra income, while giving some extra things back to those who paid for membership.

[benc]

Im unsure,

The email address thingy is something I wouldn't use, no point becuase i already have one and it would just be one more email account that i'd forget about.

what would be in the paid members forum? if member uptake is small, the forum will die quickly maybe

Access to a buy and sell forum would be ok, though personally i have never had the need to sell tickets. I would want non-member to have access to buy, to increase the chance of me selling an item.

Competitions are a great idea, and maybe a members option should be centred around this?

How about a small discount on efestivals merch? maybe just enough to cover p&p

[Chocscoffer]

I would happily pay around £3 a month. This site has been invaluable to me and I have made some very good friends from efests. Worth £3 a month just for info and advice alone.

[Alcatraz]

None of the extras would entice me to contribute to a subscription. However if it came to the point that we'd have to pay for the access we recieve for free at the moment, I'd certainly pay for it

[ampersand]

what would be in the paid members forum? if member uptake is small, the forum will die quickly maybe

[eFestivals]

Im unsure,

The email address thingy is something I wouldn't use, no point becuase i already have one and it would just be one more email account that i'd forget about.

what would be in the paid members forum? if member uptake is small, the forum will die quickly maybe

Access to a buy and sell forum would be ok, though personally i have never had the need to sell tickets. I would want non-member to have access to buy, to increase the chance of me selling an item.

Competitions are a great idea, and maybe a members option should be centred around this?

How about a small discount on efestivals merch? maybe just enough to cover p&p

I understand that lots of people will be unsure, and that things such as the mail address won't be of interest to many people for reasons such as you mention.

What I've attempted to do is put together a package of things where some if not all will be of interest, while not putting costs back onto efests which would make the whole thing pointless from the angle of raising extra income for efests.

I realise that the buy/sell forum would need to have buyers to make it worthwhile for the sellers - quite how I achieve it within what the forums software allows me to do I'm not sure at the moment, but I'd certainly be aiming to make it workable.

Discount on efests merch is a difficult one - the profit levels are very low anyway. For example, the 'profit' on a calendar is exactly 64p - tho that's before factoring in the time it took to design, to order and receive [both the cals & envelopes], to pay for, to pack each order, to drive to the post office every few days and then join a long and time-consuming queue, and then to email the recipients to say it's on its way. Some of those things take almost no time, but others take quite a bit - and the result is that there's probably a loss on them in reality.

But yes, I could aim to give a discount on efests merch, but it might not be possible in reality - I guess it would ultimately depend on how many people went for the paid membership, and of those how many went for a year. I don't think it would really be possible to offer a discount to those who only signed up for a month, tho it definitely gets nearer being possible for those who paid for a year.

While efests is still very much financially sound, the main point of the paid membership idea is to attempt to get those who use this site all the time to help better financially support it, and by doing so get a benefit back via the paid membership package as well as increased server capacity, so it copes better at the busiest times - the upgrades needed to cover those busier times are beyond what efests is able to afford at the moment and probably into the future too.

[eFestivals]

I would happily pay around £3 a month. This site has been invaluable to me and I have made some very good friends from efests. Worth £3 a month just for info and advice alone.

thanks - please add your vote to the poll above.

[eFestivals]

that's a point. i'm actually not too keen on this. what would happen that's different to what goes on just now? and based on the poll so far, i'd be there nattering to myself.

Obviously, if its something where the take-up is tiny, then it wouldn't work.

As for the usefulness of the 'paid members forum', I'd say it'd be as useful (or not) as the current groups forums - and they seem to have been pretty popular!

[eFestivals]

None of the extras would entice me to contribute to a subscription. However if it came to the point that we'd have to pay for the access we recieve for free at the moment, I'd certainly pay for it

As you clearly feel these forums are worth something to you, then you could always make a donation towards the site - the better financially supported it is, the longer it'll be here.

You can donate if you wish via this page:-

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/shop

(just look for the 'donate' bit on that page).

[rexclark]

Obviously at this moment in time details are a bit vague but from what has been said I would probably be happy to pay £3 a month.

[eFestivals]

Obviously at this moment in time details are a bit vague but from what has been said I would probably be happy to pay £3 a month.

yep, things are a bit vague because it's impossible to know the exact details right now (am waiting to hear back over a number of things that are needed to give solid details), but the things I've outlined above should, I hope, be pretty close to what the solid offer is likely to be, so hopefully it's enough for people to know if it's something they'd go for, or not.

[Steve P]

I'd pay if needed but as Al said, none of the proposed additional features would appeal to me. If it's something you need to do to keep the site going though then fair enough

[pehaw]

Some points...

Do you own your own servers or do you rent server space?

I assume if it's the former that you have fully investigated the latter?

I would be willing to contribute an amount.

I would be concerned about the exclusivity/cliqueiness of a paid-members-only forum.

If you have a buy/sell forum then i'd recommend using a subset of the rules and regulations in use at avforums (see http://www.avforums.com/forums/view_trading_rules.htm)

Re discounts on efests merch - consider the model where you offer an increasing percentage discount based on the number of paying members - eg 1% if 100 people pay, 2% if 200, etc etc (obviously i've made the numbers up).

[rachbon]

i voted yes, if paid members got more benefits from the website then i'd pay, but only if those things would be of use to me.

the suggestions so far don't really interest me.. i don't need another email address and i don't really buy or sell tickets, i don't see the point in a paid members forum. the competition one sounds good though.

also, if it ever reached a point where you had to charge people to use the site, i'd rather pay a few pounds a month than see it go bust and not be able to use it.

while the paid membership is just an optional extra though, i would only use it if it would benefit me.

[ampersand]

if i was to pay for the year, would i be immune from being called nasty names?

and when i mentioned the £3, i'd be happy to pay for the year, but i woulnd't want to pay £30 in one whack. a direct debit of £3 a month for 12 months would suit me better. paying more but less of a hit.

[BlackHole2006]

If you were going to do it then I think that when people pay for it you should give them the option of either paying the £30.00 in full wack or the £3.00 a month.

Personally I would be happy paying the £3.00 a month

Edited November 23, 2010 by BlackHole2006

[Steve P]

Thinking about it, has Oaf hacked your account Neil? Weeding out the poor

[gratedenini]

Interesting. Theres obviously a need to rake in brass from somewhere, but whether this is it I`m not sure (not that I`m capable of providing an alternative).

A straw poll on here with limited (and biased) replies might not be the best barometer.

But what else can you do?

None of the list of extra features appeal to me at all.

Theres no doubt--the info provided about the fests is a great thing..but I`m not sure I`d pay £3 a month for it.

There is info out there...it depends how much you want.

Would i pay £3 a month for the forum..... hmmmmnnnn... well, I`d miss it..but I think paying for it would somehow alter the dynamics is such a way as to alter the whole balance of it ... I think.

Would it mean you are more "accountable" to the punters as they would then be customers, or would you just f**k em off lie you do now?

The trouble, I think when Paid For Services are offered... a club is formed and it becomes an us and them situation and looking at your propsed list of goodies.. I dont think there would be many takers.

All that said... I cant think of one sensible way for you to drum up some income.

More ads perhaps?

(coughs/splutters and loks for me coat....)

den

[saratink]

I would pay £3 a month for it, knowing how much i have gotten from this website in terms of information and friendships, but if you had asked me before i had joined as a member, even though i still used and read the wedsite/forums then i probably would have said no.

I also wouldn't use the @efestivals email, as i like to keep all my emails together..

Also, the trouble with charging is people may just go to a different website that offers a simular thing but for free..

Edited November 23, 2010 by saratink

[LondonTom]

£3 a month or around that seems fairly reasonable to me, I am not sure if anyone would get much out of the features aside from the lucky draw?

The email address is cool and all, but I have everything set up with my gmail account. (Mhmm actually could you have the email address set up to forward to another inbox? this might interest a few more people.)

Maybe some of your news articles or something could be given out before the rest? I've noticed in online games a change to a store mode, where you buy little extras every now again(currently with STO this as well as a sub). Maybe stuff like extra emotions? Maybe image signatures for those who pay? (Just thinking of little cosmetic things that wouldn't bother whose who don't want it and create an elitist attitude of I am better than you.) Maybe a new forum skin? Maybe an exclusive room in the chat room? (if thats possible).

I'd say I'd go for £3 a month if I had a job, I'd pay more than if I was to buy a daily newspaper and its sort of a similar service at its heart

Just had another thought on the membership thing, is there anyway you could have a few slots on efests radio where those who subed could request tracks from your library that are then put in a que to be played with autodj kicking in when no tracks are requested. (I am thinking of way to automate it, I've seen it done before )

Edited November 23, 2010 by LondonTom

[Snufflebutt]

I would probably pay it, but I would imagine it might severely limit how many new users you could get onto the site. If the forums became rubbish as a result of it - which lets face it, is a big possibility considering how much quieter they have become recently, when its available for free, then I might think twice about paying up. I'll vote yes to the question but I'm not sure its the way you should go.

I've often wondered about paywalls and about how much they can make websites that use them. I read somewhere that the Times' web traffic has fallen to a tenth of what it was before the paywall went up - users are paying £2 a week IIRC. And TBH, I would be wary about making decisions based on a poll on here, though I'm not sure what you could do instead???