DISCUSSION - 2 tier membership system (paid members!).

joebob, castel and others......

All of my registered members only have access to about 50% of the entire forums. Subscription fee is $22.00 a year. That's less than $2 a month.

I created another user group for the subscribers that gives them full access. I placed a "+" symbol at the end of each subscribers name. This tell me and them , who has subscribed to the forums and who has not.

The default theme/template has my banner code, so non-subscribers still generate revenue for me through their page views while they read the board.

No Merchant acccount, I'm running it throught PayPal and taking payments via snail mail at my PO Box.

I started this on July 1st , 2001. In 20 days I have made a little under $500 dollars. Now let me see if my banners can generate that kind of income in 12 months. I have been using Virual Marketing to generate new members.

Donations are fine and I have the Virutal Tip jar on the main site, but I felt that my forums were niche/special enough to warrant subscription. I think we all feel this way about out forums...don't we? Besides, only a few folks would ever donate to the site and www.thewell.com has been charging their members since 1985.

Heck, when you go to their page, you will not see a thing (No free tour) until you get your credit card out.

Gentlemen...let's all face it! The " Internet Free Lunch Program" is now over. All of the Free things on the web are now changing to cost money. ListBot, just emailed me telling me to pay $149. a year if I wanted to keep my email list with them. I moved it with the quickness.

Sites like:Ebay have been charging for years and no one has protested.

Napster
Yahoo
Netzero
AOL
Earthlink
Juno

Have ALL had to change their business plans and either raise prices or add services that cost, to stay afloat. Look at Webvan...great company, great service.....now bankrupt!! Wow!

ToraTora!
I do have a prize vault for subscribers only! These prizes are donated by record companies and other organizations. I do not have the purchase the prizes, but only subscribers can win them...so that is incentive right there.

Downside: Yes, I did loose about 50% of my members, but I made the announcement 45 days before D-Day. In other words, they were ALL well informed. Some members felt that I betrayed them, others understand that the Hosting company bills me each month and that only I pay the bills and work for the site. they also undertand that I have no VC in my life.......just the black wallet in my back pocket.

So, if any of you have any questions about how this is working? Please email me at: helpdesk@dailydiva.com and I will be sure to answer your questions.