Site Ideas for Change...

[Mopar1973Man]

24 minutes ago, 01cummins4ever said:

maybe keep it free to access the site and ask a few questions and reply’s to keep the traffic up but require a paid membership to upgrade Like posting pics, accessing articles and tunes and such, make it more appealing the more you donate.

 

This is why I stripped off everything currently on the free side. No uploads allowed, very small PM box, Can look and see most stuff but can't reach. Hopefully as a teaser.

 

24 minutes ago, 01cummins4ever said:

I frequent other forums a lot, not Cummins related, but they are free with all access but they do have a lot of advertising

 

That is one thing I don't want to do. I could add in even more advertising. But that just makes a mess of the site. Actually, most of the advertising is so slow to respond it adding huge amounts of time to painting pages. The actual site can render in mere 2 to 3 seconds easy but the advertisers are beyond my reach adding another 5 seconds to the render time. Google Adsense is trying to push for adding more ads on the mobile side but it just trashes the experience for mobile users. Like Cummins forum has a paid spot for a lifetime membership with no-ads. (Dead end one-time payment then never see income again - which I've done years ago.)

 

Currently, the platinum members (one year) 50.00 - 100.00 above donations are ad-free. 

 

Gold has few ads but fairly light. (one year) 20.00 - 49.99

 

Silver is nearly the same as free. (6-month) span for 10.00 - 19.99.

Edited May 8, 2019 by Mopar1973Man

[Mopar1973Man]

The only way I found to a limited amount of posting and keeping the site visible would be using a point system. Then registered member would be provided intro credits and once they burned up then you could prevent further posting.  Again another add-on program to purchase but it would provide an option like some are suggesting...

 

https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7911-points-economy/

 

 

[Me78569]

we need to move to a less complex system.  More "add ons" = more time invested to keep it running.  

locked down free account is a good start.  

[Mopar1973Man]

3 minutes ago, Me78569 said:

locked down free account is a good start. 

 

Pretty much there already. Got to double check some stuff.

 

3 minutes ago, Me78569 said:

we need to move to a less complex system.  More "add ons" = more time invested to keep it running.

 

Very true. But need to show to the rest that some of the ideas needs to be considered carefully. 

[Me78569]

Mike,

 

Can guests donate without signing up?  

[Mopar1973Man]

15 minutes ago, Me78569 said:

Mike,

 

Can guests donate without signing up?  

 

No. Not currently. Being there is nothing to bind the donation too. I could turn it on but there are no gains to that. 

[015point9]

"need to show to the rest that some of the ideas needs to be considered carefully."

 

in 2001 tdr printed over 10,000 copies "average number of copies each issue"

in 2012 they still printed over 10,000. 

10,000 X $35,00  adds up pretty good.

 

(I cant find more current numbers, maybe circulation numbers not required by law anymore?)

 

any thought about more in depth articles?  Myself sometimes when I read a posting, even the answers I dont understand sometimes.  And dont think I'm alone in not understanding such as elec.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mopar1973Man]

27 minutes ago, 015point9 said:

any thought about more in depth articles?

 

There is nothing stopping anyone from jumping in and writing an in-depth article for anything they wish. There are no restrictions on article posting other than moderation and checking if the article is worthy of being released. Anyone want to make any articles can at any time right now. 

 

Yeah TDR used the membership and magazines as a grab. Currently, they are hurting for quality SEO because of hanging on to vBulletin too long and then the limit view of posts. If you are a GUEST you can't read the full forum thread. This impacts SEO greatly this why they are behind us in ranking most of the time in searches. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=quadzilla+vs+edge+comp

TDR in the middle of the page. 

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=98-99+dodge+hd+steering

TDR at the bottom of the page.

 

I've got over 500 queries that all make it on the first page of Google... This is why we can't limit viewing of the site. Not to mention this why you have to keep up to date because like TDR is hurting to climb the SEO ladder and behind. They are a wonderful example of why you never limit the reading of any web information. Even their current software doesn't meet all the SEO requirement fully. 

 

Like our last update of the software to 4.4.0 Invision Power Board included a ton load of SEO optimations. 

https://invisioncommunity.com/release-notes/440-r81/

 

Edited May 8, 2019 by Mopar1973Man

[Me78569]

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

No. Not currently. Being there is nothing to bind the donation too. I could turn it on but there are no gains to that. 

If we could allow donations on guest accords we could do a message for guest vistors asking to donate a buck.  

 

 

I am betting %95 of the guests dont even know we operate on donations.

[dave110]

9 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Currently, the platinum members (one year) 50.00 - 100.00 above donations are ad-free. 

 

Gold has few ads but fairly light. (one year) 20.00 - 49.99

 

Silver is nearly the same as free. (6-month) span for 10.00 - 19.99.

OK, I'm gonna call myself out here. I have not donated in a while. I first put in $10 and became a silver member. A while later I added another $15. It was added to my previous 10 and made me a gold member even though I'm pretty sure the donations were not in the same year. I'm not sure when the last donation was but I'm pretty sure it's a couple years ago and I'm still a gold member. I'm pretty sure that will change now that I've brought it up and that's OK but shouldn't current members have to renew every year? For me my donation gained me eternal gold member status. Isn't there a membership due reminder that gets sent out or something like that? Should be if there's not.

[Mopar1973Man]

Your right. Your last donation was 2015. 

 

(Sigh)

 

Another software bug to chase. 

[2000Ram2500]

5 hours ago, Me78569 said:

If we could allow donations on guest accords we could do a message for guest vistors asking to donate a buck.  

 

 

I am betting %95 of the guests dont even know we operate on donations.

 

This is pretty much exactly why i had suggested a popup similar to what wikipedia used to have. You can still access all of the info but they tell you they operate on donations and its appreciated. The next step to that would definitely be a teired membership with free members still being a thing but with limits and then strategically setting a price point to make it worth while and at the same time you also have to entice people to spend more.

 

I was reading a business article several months back and they used Dollar shave club as an example. Basically dollar shave club says yes you can have a clean shave all the time with new razors for a dollar a month and they hold up to there promise. But when you go and actually see what they're selling the dollar razors are just terrible looking compared to the $5 a month razors or whatever the price is and then even more so to the premium style and so on. Im sure you get the point.

 

Basically it comes down to a bit of psychology when you look at convincing people to spend money with you. I know theres even guidelines for prices not as far as markup goes but the price you advertise. Like $1.99 for example its really 2 dollars but people see the 1 and pay into it hopefully without realizing its actually 2 dollars. Im no psychologist im just sharing ideas of my own in hopes of helping keep this site up.

[Mopar1973Man]

Interesting concept. 

 

All I can say is consider the subscription idea but make it super low priced per month. Like you said with Dollar Shave Club. Do a subscription like $5 for a month. Etc. The free or non-pay members would be read only people and no posting allowed. Let me fiddle a bit I might be able to figure out a way to make a newbie demo time. Allows for say 20 free posts and then lock-out. I've got to play with features to see if I can do it. 

 

As for the tune downloads, I just had @Me78569 test the payout function and it works flawlessly. Website makes a cut of the profits, the author makes a cut of the pie too. Then you just withdraw your funds from the site and you are paid. 

 

 

 

---

 

I've done a bit of digging. Let's say we did the subscription plan idea. On a monthly thought X, Y, Z amount per month for tiered permissions etc. If we wanted to intro free month then you could run a coupon that 100% discount of the X price and then the subscription runs for the month then dumps back to non-paid status. That is something I could do without add-on software and using the existing main program. Then the donation program could possibly be removed. 

 

 

This would possibly pay for bandwidth and server bills with the subscriptions of members. 3,103 members last posted between April 8 and May 8, 2019 - Statistical information from the forum software. Using that and say using 1.99 ($6174.97), 2.99 ($9,277.97) and 5.99 ($18,586.97) subscription rates. This is just theory and crunching numbers.

 

Ideas, thoughts, suggestions? 

Edited May 9, 2019 by Mopar1973Man

[Me78569]

I think people are likely to subscribe for $1.99 /2.99 and 5.99 or something.

 

I think guest donation would be better to spent time figuring out though.    Even just a paypal button linked to your account that we can put in an annoncement.  I know paypal can give you an html button for that.

[dave110]

I would only ask that a yearly subscription be possible. It's hard enough for me to remember once a year let alone once a month . And I don't want it coming off my card automatically either.

[syndicateshop]

@Mopar1973Man the low cost subscription I think will appeal to the masses. Side note I did donate to 2 of the 3 funds, just wanted to make sure that the system was actually recognizing those now. As far as the pay per tune, I am definitely going to put my 4k box back in and start messing with it again. Just curious what your cut is? You don't have to divulge that if you don't want too. Can't wait to see the new subscription roll out!

[Mopar1973Man]

13 minutes ago, dave110 said:

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, dave110 said:

I would only ask that a yearly subscription be possible. It's hard enough for me to remember once a year let alone once a month . And I don't want it coming off my card automatically either.

 

Ok... How about this...

 

Monthly $1.99, $2.99 and $5.99

Yearly $23.64 (1% save), $35,16 (2% save), $68.29 (5% save)

 

tier 1 would be full advertising.

tier 2 would be half the ads

tier 3 would be ad free

 

Small fee tune downloads seem to be working out just fine.

 

3 minutes ago, syndicateshop said:

Just curious what your cut is?

 

The author takes 90% and M73M.com takes 10%.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Mopar1973Man

[dave110]

11 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Ok... How about this...

 

Monthly $1.99, $2.99 and $5.99

Yearly $23.64 (1% save), $35,16 (2% save), $68.29 (5% save)

 

tier 1 would be full advertising.

tier 2 would be half the ads

tier 3 would be ad free

 

Small fee tune downloads seem to be working out just fine.

 

 

The author takes 90% and M73M.com takes 10%.

Works for me. Now one more thought. If someone paid for a year and decided half way through they want to upgrade could that be worked out? Not a game changer just a thought I had.

[Mopar1973Man]

9 minutes ago, dave110 said:

Works for me. Now one more thought. If someone paid for a year and decided half way through they want to upgrade could that be worked out? Not a game changer just a thought I had.

 

How about this... Pro rata upgrade or downgrade.

 

For example, if this product has a renewal charge of $10 per month and a customer has had it for half a month, and upgrades to a product which has a renewal charge of $20 per month, they will be charged the difference ($10) for the remaining half month, $5.

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by Mopar1973Man

[dave110]

^^^