Membership fees for Forum access

[Cynthia Daniel]

Most of the savings were derived not from eliminating usage, but from eliminating storage - which for you would mean archiving most of the information that's already here.

I pay for bandwidth, not storage. However, if it became large enough the isp would ask me to buy my own hard drive.

Additional costs crept in, like the need to advertise the service. Also, we had seriously undermined the trust relationship we had with our customers, and over time, though usage was initially high, a large percentage of them did eventually drop off.

Overall, it was a good thing for Freedrive, despite the trauma, which was significant. It extended the life of the company by about 8 months or so, and the company did not fail because of the fee structure. Eventually I think the usage would have crept back up, but in all probably we would have sought an outside partnership anyway and tried to integrate the service with similar businesses.

I consulted for 2 other businesses who wanted to take their memberships to fee-based. Part of the analysis and research included indentifying all the assets of having the free structure, and what the probable outcome would be if the structure would change. It doesn't sound as though you feel this Forum is actually netting you a benefit, and that's an important thing to consider.

Prospective members expect an exchange-for-value. In other words, the Forum would have to get better in some way - more services, deeper conversations, artistic promotion, something - and that would involve more work.

So, you're saying that as it is, that it has no value?

Your storage bill would not change - if you archived all the messages why would people stay?

I wouldn't archive the messages.

Your ad budget would increase - if you wanted to sustain membership you'll have to have new people.

All of the current members have come from the visibility of my main site, some promotion by supporters like Karin Wells and Chris Saper. I don't do any advertising, nor would I. The Forum is only a part of the main Stroke of Genius site and not my main business.

Free access for moderators is not much of a draw to get people to work for you.

Most people who become moderators do so because they have teacher inclinations or have derived a lot from the Forum and want to contribute back.

The 30 day trial will bring in about 70% of people who never return, diluting the conversation and value further.

The 30 day trial would only be for viewing and would take no interaction on my part.

Of the 50-75 members (less? more?) who have posted in the last 30 days,

I don't know. Looking at what statistics there are, there are something like 1400 unique visitors a month and anywhere from 20-150 posts a day.

I also believe that people often tend to not appreciate or take for granted that which is free.