Raising funds - how should we?

viz · December 2016

EricTheWeary said:

Let's assume there was £300 cleared profit from the calendars. I have no idea whether that covers a day, month, year, whatever.

I think they were all January - December 2017.

rlw · December 2016

Adamski said:

I think that's all a bad idea and is setting up for some bum hurt along the way!

Why not something like a yearly fee to the classifieds? Maybe when you join you can use it for 90 days for free, then to have access you pay something like £5 a year. That way you get to use it and see what it's like for selling stuff, then you can choose to have access for a nominal fee.

I dunno. Whatever is done it's gonna be a sore subject with some....

This. Perfectly happy to pay £5 or £10 to use it for a year, or an annual sub to cover costs and giving access to the classifieds.

Strat_a_tat_tat · December 2016

Sporky said:

Maybe there could be fines for making logical fallacies.

... what about fines for using phrases like 'plays like butter'?

Bridgehouse · December 2016

rlw said:

Adamski said:

I think that's all a bad idea and is setting up for some bum hurt along the way!

Why not something like a yearly fee to the classifieds? Maybe when you join you can use it for 90 days for free, then to have access you pay something like £5 a year. That way you get to use it and see what it's like for selling stuff, then you can choose to have access for a nominal fee.

I dunno. Whatever is done it's gonna be a sore subject with some....

This. Perfectly happy to pay £5 or £10 to use it for a year, or an annual sub to cover costs and giving access to the classifieds.

I guess the disadvantage is the admin time required. @TTony has said many times that this place requires a lot of time from a few people.

Having to allow/deny people access after donations would be quite a lot of work. Just doing the calendars this year was probably 8 hours of my time in total.

Having said aid that in the sort of funny bugger that would volunteer to administer it just because I feel strongly about keeping this place going and it being fair to those who very kindly give up their time to run it..

TTony · December 2016

Banner ads;
Most people use adblockers nowadays, so they're not as effective as they were. Plus, the challenge of making them work on mobile devices without completely screwing up the appearance of the site gives another challenge.
But, more importantly, we've always said that we'd be ad-free. It's one of our USPs that we'd all prefer to retain if poss.

Charging for FS threads;
I don't want to put any obstacle in the way of people placing FS ads as that it a large part of our traffic and (via Google) brings in a lot of new members who are looking to buy something that's just been advertised. Plus there are conflicting accounts of the impact on Basschat when they introduced charges to place ads.

Hence the suggestion that anyone can put up a FS thread, but they have to have paid to be able to buy, which also tackles it from the perspective of the freeloaders who only join up to grab a bargain and never contribute anything else to the site.

Our costs;
Are minimal, because we don't run this as a business. If we paid commercial rates for hosting (given our traffic levels) and for the admin support, we'd never have got this off the ground. I'd guesstimate commercial costs at c£100k/yr. We raise about £1k/yr!

But because we don't run it commercially, we've got no funds to pay for development and are largely dependent on Nick's freetime to do stuff. If we had dev time available, we could add more content/functionality and bring in more members/value for all. Nick's got a few things that he wants to do to build the functionality (some of which, ironically, would also generate revenue, but just doesn't have the bandwidth to do that without risking divorce!

So this isn't about raising funds of "x" to cover our costs of "x", it's more about generating whatever revenue we can so that we can consider paying for some professional development, AND counteracting the freeloaders who just join up to buy stuff (which is often at mates' rates).

ewal · December 2016

I think adverts are the obvious route. Everything else sounds a bit complicated and a ball-ache to administer.

holnrew · December 2016

How about charging for early access to ads, say people who've paid a subscription see them 3 days before the free users. I don't use the classifieds so I have no idea if that's a reasonable amount of time. I don't like the idea of restricting anything completely behind a pay wall.

I also don't like the idea of paying for badges, as somebody on a low income it would make be feel bad

Or what about premium ads like gumtree, pay to show up first in the section

A donate button on the home page seems logical, maybe even have a counter showing donations against costs.

No idea how technically feasible they are.

TheBlueWolf · December 2016

I've never used this site to buy or sell but I'll happily donate a few quid to help out with costs. In fact I probably should have already.

My idea is having a 'sticky' thread in the busier categories on the forum with a link to the PayPal account and a polite request for a donation.

monofin · December 2016

I feel all guilty now cos I've never bought a t shirt, mug or calendar....... Happy with a subscription though

RobDavies · December 2016

TheBlueWolf said:

I've never used this site to buy or sell but I'll happily donate a few quid to help out with costs. In fact I probably should have already.

My idea is having a 'sticky' thread in the busier categories on the forum with a link to the PayPal account and a polite request for a donation.

The only problem with that is that it will be the same people that contribute each time.

Without stitching myself up, you could start with some of the 'small business' types who populate the board and subsequently get business from the board....

I'd be happy to contribute a small amount every time I get a 'sale' through the board. Not sure how you'd regulate this, but worth a thought.

thisisguitar · December 2016

Maybe the Wikipedia approach... I get an email every year or two asking if I would consider making a small donation through PayPal. People who respect the resource that this place is (and it's current freedom from ads) would likely chip in if asked. I wouldn't buy a t-shirt or a calendar/mug/mousemat/spice rack etc, but I'd happily chip in occasionally.

thisisguitar · December 2016

Also a 'call to action' at the top of the individual Classifieds pages, asking people to consider a small donation if they make a sale through the board could work. Sometimes a small prompt is all that's needed to remind people that this place isn't free and requires funding.

richardhomer · December 2016

I didn't buy a calendar because I particularly wanted one (though it's very nice) - but given the opportunity the forum gives me to spout nonesense, I felt I should.

It seems to me that the people who gain business income 'should' pay something - and that includes heavy 'private' users of the classifieds. Apart from selling a pedal to someone who was looking for one I was happy to sell, I've never used the classifieds.

Would it be reasonable to charge 'dealers' (say) £50 a year, or restrict their access to none-classified sections? Perhaps there could be published criteria as to how many ads would be considered 'business' users.

It's a difficult one as some people who 'gain' financially also contribute a lot in terms of advice and knowledge, so I'm sure none of us would want to lose that.

The other option might be a swear box - but since Drew's gone, that might not raise much

Nomad · December 2016

[ [ [ BANNER ADS SUCK DONKEY BALLS ] ] ]

Tenner a year paywall to give access to PMs and posting in the classifieds. Maybe also Off Topic and SC (posting rights only, or maybe reading as well?). Nice badge to say you're a contributing/supporting/donating member. I have specifically seen conversations where relatively new joiners ask about the "I paid" badges that other users have, appreciated that the resource they're using costs money, and have happily stumped up.

[ [ [ BUY MY PRE-SUCKED DONKEY BALLS ] ] ]

A low yearly PayPal sub to gain access to a reasonable range of features works very well on other forums. Don't restrict it to just classifieds - I don't use them and I'm sure there are others that don't. But I might want to use the PM system. Or I might want to join in the OT/SC stuff. Or I might just like the warm, fuzzy glow of having contributed a bit to help things along.

[ [ [ INSERT ATTENTION-GRABBING SHITE HERE ] ] ]

guitarfishbay · December 2016

Maybe encourage a low monthly direct debit option (if this is doable via PayPal?).

I'm sure there are people who'd sign up for £1 or £2 a month.

Nomad · December 2016

guitarfishbay said:

Maybe encourage a low monthly direct debit option (if this is doable via PayPal?).

I'm sure there are people who'd sign up for £1 or £2 a month.

Too much potential admin hassle - once a year is fine.

ThePrettyDamned · December 2016

TTony said:

Deadman said:

I'm up for whatever comes and still vote for something like 'buying' stars for your profile similar to what the FDP does.

Does anyone see any downside to the "donor badge" type approach?

The other option that appealed (not least because I'd suggested it elsewhere!) is putting the Classifieds behind some sort of paywall.

Free to view so everyone can still see what's being advertised, but we might remove the option for someone to send PMs and to post replies on Classifieds threads until they'd made the donation ....

I don't like donor badge - there is the potential for pandering to those who pay more.

I like this forum. I think everyone here does - how successful would a simple fundraiser be?

BRISTOL86 · December 2016

How about a 'quota' of classified threads each year per user and once it's reached you need to pay to continue? Should seperate the keen hobbyist from the bedroom traders and if they're having enough success to hit the quota presumably a tenner or so for an 'classifieds unlimited' account would be no drama.

monofin · December 2016

How about a gear auction. We've all got unused stuff lying about. I could throw a guitar in to start it off

PolarityMan · December 2016

Why not drop the classifieds? Reduces you traffic costs, reduces chance the mods will be entangled in sorting out scams and tbh the classifieds haven't had the feel of the old days where people were passing on bargains etc for a long time?

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Raising funds - how should we?

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