kvrdave

$40 than my suggestion, so I'm in

Th0r S1mpson

When do I sign up? This is killing me.

edytwinky

My suggestion would be somewhere along the lines of $40-50 with nothing higher than 50. It seems like a safe round number that most people wouldn't be intimidated to pay for.

Tarantino

Can we pay with sexual favors?

DVDnut

I visit this board at least once every day. Paying $30 per year or $60 lifetime is more than reasonable. That’s only the price of a couple of DVDs. I get so much pleasure from this site I’m more than willing to support it. Count me in for lifetime membership!

Pharoh

What is going on with this? When can we expect it to roll out?

kilcher

I would imagine Geoff is going to wait until a stable version of the software is released. No one knows for sure when that will be. They have said that the beta that's available now will probably be the last before a release candidate. There's still a lot to be done between now and then though.

NCMojo

Can I put in one more request for a special feature for Premium Members? It would be cool to have a real-time chat section of the forum... sort of a permanent Keyser's Virtual Lounge. Any chance of this happening?

gcribbs

http://www.dvdtalk.com/chat.html
like this?

NCMojo

Wow... that's be-zarre.

twikoff

ask and ye shall receive

edytwinky

Hey Geoff, do you think the Premium stuff will be here by Christmas?

GeoffK

My hope was to have it by the end of september. Still seeing what we can do to make that a reality.

Cheddarmuff

Geoff, first let me say that I have no problem paying fur use of the site as it has been a source of great joy, laughter, information and obviously bargins over the past four years.

Just a question, assuming that half of the current DVD Talk members sign up for the annual membership we are talking about $500,000-$1.1 million depending upon which way people go (annual/lifetime). How long will this cover the costs of the site for? I have to believe that annual costs are not too out of control since if I understand the current model correctly, you are collecting cash exclusively from "click-through" revenue and other advertising revenue you receive. I have to believe that you aren't living in a million dollar mansion so the revenues are likely costs with a little extra on the side to make it worthwhile. Now to get to my point...if you lose that add revenue for the paying members, how long will the site be able to operate off of the one-time cash inflow?

If everyone buys the lifetime membership and no longer receives pop-ups, unders, and other advertisements then you will have effectively limited your revenue generating potential. Now I am sure the site will continue to attract new paying members, however, this revenue stream will likely pale in comparison to the initial revenue inflow. I just want to make sure that a lifetime membership won't turn into a four, five, pick a year membership that has to end or be ammended due to a lack of funds (i.e. putting back the ads, pop ups, etc. or charging a new fee).

In the end these are basically business case decisions you need to make and more than likely have considered.

Thanks again for all that you have done for me and the other DVD Talk members over the years!!

Th0r S1mpson

um... your estimate of $500,000 - $1,000,000 is a little off I'm afraid. Like, more than $490,000 - $990,000 off.

There are a lot of dead accounts and a lot who will not get the lifetime subscription. I mean... this place is great as it is.

I personally will be getting a subscription to nuke the ads, etc. and because I want to support the site.

But I would consider $10,000 from memberships an extremely good start. I hope I'm wrong of course and that Geoff rakes in millions upon millions of dollars and gives out an extra free dvd each year.

Cheddarmuff

Quote:

Originally posted by Thor Simpson
um... your estimate of $500,000 - $1,000,000 is a little off I'm afraid. Like, more than $490,000 - $990,000 off.

There are a lot of dead accounts and a lot who will not get the lifetime subscription. I mean... this place is great as it is.

I personally will be getting a subscription to nuke the ads, etc. and because I want to support the site.

But I would consider $10,000 from memberships an extremely good start. I hope I'm wrong of course and that Geoff rakes in millions upon millions of dollars and gives out an extra free dvd each year.

My numbers are based on 50% subscription of the "listed" registered members. My original estimate was $300k-$600k based on one half of a 25k member base, however, when I went back to check we were up to 35k members. Also, I would bet that those who are interested/willing to pay will likely go for the life time membership which would be only 166 people to get $10k. I would bet there will be a lot more than that to buy-in.

GeoffK

The funny thing is.... I haven't made ANY estimates on what we're going to earn from memberships. It think it's really too hard to predict how many people are going to plunk money down for a premium membership. So whatever the number, low or high It'll be a surprise.

Josh H

I'll start a poll, then you'll get at least some idea of the level of interest (though not a good measure as most members probably don't visit this forum).

Venusian

you migth want to check how many of those "listed" members are active.

I'm guessing that a members with fewer than 100 posts or so would not care to pay. Maybe a posts/day is a better measure of how active someone is rather than the total posts

Venusian

is that safe to do? what if a large portion of the active members sign up for lifetime? A few years down the road you might be out of money. If membership doesn't continue to grow, there could be trouble.

Josh H

He has a great point here. Those most likely to sign up for any kind of membership are the most active members, and they're most likely to opt for the lifetime membership as it will save them money in the long term.

It might be better financially to just offer yearly deals. Maybe offer cheaper 2 year plans, ala how magazines do, rather than a lifetime option.

Bushdog

DVDTalk will be lucky if 5% of regular posters sign up. No attack on the site, just my thoughts based on the industry and the value of what is being offered.

kilcher

I agree with BD. 5% of active posters is pretty optimistic.

I for one wouldn't pay $30 a year. I come here for maybe 20 minutes a night while I'm at work. $30 to not see ads (which I don't really notice anyway) seems a bit steep. PM's (if they're added) are of no use to me because there are too many people here and I can't really keep track of who's who anyway. I don't feel as though I know anyone well enough (and I know no one knows me well enough) to want to pm them. Avatars, as much as some of you hate them, would go a long way in building a sense of community because people (primarily those who visit less often) would be able to put a face with a name.

I run a board and for $12 a year people get - 7 color styles to choose from, no ads, larger avatar, 100 pm storage (vs. 25 for regular members), double storage in the photo album, and the quick reply box.

I just think for $30 a year more value needs to be added. Yes, DVDTalk is worth $30 a year but free DVDTalk vs. premium DVDTalk doesn't justify the cost for me.

Just my 2 cents.

Tom Banjo

Here's a possible idea I don't think I've seen mentioned here. A guy I know runs a similar but smaller board using the same software. He just set up an account with http://www.listen-to.com/
Users can set it up so that whenever they're online, a box pops up in the signature area that displays what that person is currently listening to through Winamp.
I just tried editing my sig to see if it might work here anyway, but it doesn't. Just showed up as a link. Are [img] tags allowed in sigs? If not, that's probably the problem.
It also tallies up a list of the entire group's top 5 album, artists, etc. Here, for example, is a random group page for a group called MagicNinjas:
http://www.listen-to.com/index.php?L...RGc19mcn1DW&s=

Bushdog

This isn't meant to be insulting or dense, but what is the value in letting everyone else know what you're listening to? And why is that worth $30?