232 replies to this topic

[haggis]

Will@666Custom, on 04 March 2011 - 01:57 AM, said:

I think you should consider contacting the Admin at SXOC.com, I can put you in contact if need be ?

They have a very simple 'Guests' and 'Members' layout.

Keep the forum open for Guests, But deny the use of Buying and Selling.

Members get full access, With the addition of a 'Members Lounge' for example, Which would help bring regulars together into more of a Community.

Create some 'Member only Events'... A BBQ in the summer works wonders, And again creates more of a Community than a Forum.

As well as a bi-monthly meet up at a Restaurant with a large Car park would.

Naturally, You give Member Discounts to Traders, etc, It's another great incentive.

A simple Gift Pack would be easy and affordable to put together, But don't forget a Numbered Membership Card, It will help people feel part of something.

And I'm sure a mass Civic-Life Honda meet would be a good place to invite potential Trader/Investors ?

It seemed there were Cost's going on Third Party Maintenance of the site, Maybe some Moderators with the right experience, willing to dedicate a couple of hours a week, would help this ?

I'm one of the Newbie's mentioned, And I can see this is a Good Forum, that could be a Great Community.

But sometimes it's not about trying to find a few people to throw money at something.

I hope you don't mind me posting in this section.

SXOC memberbase isn't mostly chavvy wasters though, this place is

[SaintGrimm]

haggis, on 04 March 2011 - 01:48 PM, said:

SXOC memberbase isn't mostly chavvy wasters though, this place is

Hahaha, signature quote of the month for sure.

There's a lot of alright people on here though.

[haggis]

SaintGrimm, on 04 March 2011 - 02:43 PM, said:

haggis, on 04 March 2011 - 01:48 PM, said:

SXOC memberbase isn't mostly chavvy wasters though, this place is

Hahaha, signature quote of the month for sure.

There's a lot of alright people on here though.

lol

i'm not denying there's a lot of sound cats on here like...

[Will@666Custom]

haggis, on 04 March 2011 - 01:48 PM, said:

Will@666Custom, on 04 March 2011 - 01:57 AM, said:

I think you should consider contacting the Admin at SXOC.com, I can put you in contact if need be ?

They have a very simple 'Guests' and 'Members' layout.

Keep the forum open for Guests, But deny the use of Buying and Selling.

Members get full access, With the addition of a 'Members Lounge' for example, Which would help bring regulars together into more of a Community.

Create some 'Member only Events'... A BBQ in the summer works wonders, And again creates more of a Community than a Forum.

As well as a bi-monthly meet up at a Restaurant with a large Car park would.

Naturally, You give Member Discounts to Traders, etc, It's another great incentive.

A simple Gift Pack would be easy and affordable to put together, But don't forget a Numbered Membership Card, It will help people feel part of something.

And I'm sure a mass Civic-Life Honda meet would be a good place to invite potential Trader/Investors ?

It seemed there were Cost's going on Third Party Maintenance of the site, Maybe some Moderators with the right experience, willing to dedicate a couple of hours a week, would help this ?

I'm one of the Newbie's mentioned, And I can see this is a Good Forum, that could be a Great Community.

But sometimes it's not about trying to find a few people to throw money at something.

I hope you don't mind me posting in this section.

SXOC memberbase isn't mostly chavvy wasters though, this place is

SXOC is just a really good example of how a 'Free Guests' and 'Paid Members' setup works really well !

And you've just highlighted a good point, 'Chavy Wasters' are unlikely to pay for a membership, and likewise are the sort of people you probably Don't want Buying and Selling on the site, Advertising or Attending Meets and Events ?

Likewise, The genuine people on here, Who are involved in the Culture, and want to be part of a like minded Community will most likely be happy to pay a £10 per year Membership fee ?

Also if Guests could browse 80% of the Forum free of charge, Like they do now, They would be able to decide if it's something worth Paying for ?

I think the Structure of my Previous post, actually makes a lot of sense ?

[Azad_R]

BenjieCC, on 04 March 2011 - 12:42 PM, said:

captain_sl0w, on 04 March 2011 - 08:10 AM, said:

Everybody will pay 1 or 2 pounds a month to be a member, so just introduce that - make it paid for everyone and the pay cost per person will be dirt cheap.

^^ This. To be honest, I would be happy to pay to stay a member. Really good community.

+1 i will be happy to pay this 1 or 2 pounds a month

[chrizzlephaa]

Im a new member and even I think this sucks!

I know what I'm about to say might be an unpopular suggestion but hear me out..

Would there be no way of adding adverts to the site to gain a revenue? To build on this idea having paid memberships could pay towards getting rid of the adverts and other perks..

Just an idea like

[Andy]

Surprised this hasn't been locked tbh, the suggestions are good, but they're already being taken into consideration after being posted/discussed elsewhere on the site. Whether or not they'll ever get put into place is another matter...

Adverts have been on here for the past month or so in various forms, although they seem to have disappeared now. Probably because adverts made fook all money unless people buy stuff from the site they're advertising.

You need more than a few pence per month to keep the site going. The only realistic way to do it would be to have paid memberships, but obviously do as many have suggested and open much of the site to normal members still. Membership packs are a must in order to make it work though IMO.

And lol, anyone would think I was a member of staff or something

Edited by Andy, 05 March 2011 - 12:40 AM.

[Olly-W]

What about a small percentage paid from the selling / buying side of the forum? As others have mentioned a lot gets sold an bought on here. I have several parts from my civic which I'd happily sell on here but because I don't have the post count I can't. I know I am only a noob compared to most on here but I have found this forum the best source of help, purely because of the amount of members. I ask a ( normally daft question ) and I get well founded answer which all ways help.

Forgive a noob speaking out but I only want to help keep this place going

[Andy]

It's great that n00bs are so verbal about it tbh.

Paying for adverts was also something that was very close to being put up, before receiving criticism from people about how much to charge. 50p an advert would be perfectly acceptable though, and perhaps £1 or £2 per car listing.

But then you could argue that it should be one or the other. Paid memberships with access to the for sale sections would be a much better way around it, as it'd also help towards event costs as well as paying for the server. The site will easily grow that way, and the membership packs with stickers and key-rings, etc would be cool as!

Edited by Andy, 05 March 2011 - 01:19 AM.

[glenda@fastcar]

When me and two mates relaunched AXOC we did a simple £5 a year membership.

Non members got restricted access to areas of the site and were not allowed to ask any techical questions or use the for sale sections etc. If they asked a tech question,it would get locked by a mod.

Memebers got access all areas, could ask tech questions, and we bunged in a couple of club stickers.

We also made extra money from a club shop, stickers, laynards and t shirts etc. Stickers are a great money maker, buy a huge batch do a few different sizes.

Needs to be simple to adminstrate, that's the key!

[glenda@fastcar]

I'd also bin off image hosting for starters, everyone had a photbucket, flickr etc.

Also whats the deal with running ads on the forum? How many impressions and uniques does the forum do a month? Making decent revenue from websites is hard at times, trust me I know lol.

[Chris_EK4]

The same things are just getting repeated over and over, this thread has been dragged out long enough now IMO, there's not really much more than can be said, I'd say it's bout time the people in charge came to a decision about the future of CL, hopefully incorperating some of the ideas suggested here.

If a premium membership scheme is the way forward then let's get the ball rolling

[PooM]

Hi guys

Apologies for not writing back to this, been so busy lately!

Thank you for all your input on the matter, we have taken all ideas into consideration and will be launching a premium membership very soon. We are just finalising costs for the included membership pack, once that is done we will let you know costs etc.

As for charging for classifieds we are still pondering this idea, and coming up with alternatives to suit everyone. We don't want to drive people away just because they need to pay, etc. (as some peoples morals are different to others, even though its a small amount, some people have the view of "why advertise here, when I can do it for free on another site")

Banner advertising will be for resident traders only as display campaign networks dont really offer much money, as we have found when testing in the trial period. Instead we have been using Skimlinks (http://skimlinks.com/) and are currently making quite a nice monthly sum from this system.

So to sum up, everything is looking on the up again. Thank you to everyone that donated and offered help, you don't understand how much I appreciate the help

Will keep you updated guys!

Cheers

Steve