Appeal to Support EN World!

[Mark]

Where do we check how much time is left on our accounts?

[Jack99]

Originally Posted by Mark

Where do we check how much time is left on our accounts?

My Account (upper left corner) then go all the way to the bottom in the left column and look for *paid subscriptions*. Click that and it should say so in the box called *active subscriptions*.

[El Mahdi]

Just a couple of quick questions and an idea:

For those who already have CS accounts (whether 12 months or more) will they automatically renew or when the account expires will we have to do a new 1 month subscription? If it won't auto renew, is there a way to set this up for existing CS accounts?


A good incentive for CS acount purchases could maybe be increased rep power, or the ability to give out XP to more people per day. Also, how about a one time XP award for new CS accounts?

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by El Mahdi

Just a couple of quick questions and an idea:

For those who already have CS accounts (whether 12 months or more) will they automatically renew or when the account expires will we have to do a new 1 month subscription? If it won't auto renew, is there a way to set this up for existing CS accounts?

No. Yikes, imagine what people would say if I took money from people without their permission!

No, it's not technically (or, in fact, legally) possible without express permission to renew at the time of subscription.

Best I can do is put that status thing in the top right as a reminder. I can fancy it up and make it more blatant, maybe.

A good incentive for CS acount purchases could maybe be increased rep power, or the ability to give out XP to more people per day. Also, how about a one time XP award for new CS accounts?

An interesting idea. That hadn't even occured to me. Good thinking, Batman!

[El Mahdi]

Originally Posted by Morrus

...Best I can do is put that status thing in the top right as a reminder. I can fancy it up and make it more blatant, maybe.

I noticed that status thing right off so I think it's obviousl enough (at least for me). But hey, if you want to go fancy it up I won't complain.

I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on my status. I don't want to lose my cool little user title (well, cool to me anyways).

Originally Posted by Morrus

An interesting idea. That hadn't even occured to me. Good thinking, Batman!

Thanks, and you're welcome.

[Jack7]

I think in the future I'm also gonna buy all my .pdf's from here. I don't think I've ever got a .pdf from somewhere else that I probably couldn't have gotten from here. Maybe one or two form particular game companies. Maybe not, haven't researched it. Course, I didn't know about this place all that long ago either.

Maybe after I get back from assignment I'll try and help out other ways as well.

[Oryan77]

I don't mean to sound ignorant, but how much does it cost on average to run a forum site with thousands of users? I never would have thought it would require $3000 a month for a website to comfortably operate. It costs $36,000 a year to pay for a server and bandwidth for a website the size of this? Wow.

Do people hire programmers to maintain the sites? I just assumed the webmaster did it, or had friends volunteer to maintain it.

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by Oryan77

I don't mean to sound ignorant, but how much does it cost on average to run a forum site with thousands of users?

I have no idea. The only statistic relevant to me is how much this site costs. I'm sure it varies massively.

I never would have thought it would require $3000 a month for a website to comfortably operate. It costs $36,000 a year to pay for a server and bandwidth for a website the size of this? Wow.

You missed some important points in this thread. I've been doing this for free for ten years. I get married next year; I have responsibliities. Given that it's pretty much full-time, if it doesn't pay my half of the marriage, it goes. It's OK if I go hungry; it's not OK if that means my future wife goes hungry, too.

Do people hire programmers to maintain the sites?

Of course. I've hired all sorts of people over the years.

I just assumed the webmaster did it, or had friends volunteer to maintain it.

We've been using volunteers until now. That's not fair on the volunteers.

Better that we pay a real tech admin who is accountable for site performance.

I can't spend another ten years depserately pleading with people who can only spare an hour two weeks on Thursday to fix a problem which crops up!

Essentially, the server and bandwidth costs are not important; it's the thousands of dollars in people costs which matters.

[samursus]

First time Community supporter here.... great idea with the $3/month!

Good luck with the fundraising... great forum site.

[Quantarum]

I consider $3 a month a huge bargain.

-Q.

[Oryan77]

Originally Posted by Morrus

You missed some important points in this thread.

Oh of course...I read up to page 3 of this thread over the last 2 days and it was mostly people saying they bought an account or whatever. So I skipped page 4 and replied to the thread. Sure enough I skip over the posts that actually answered my question. That always happens to me

I might figure out how I can pay for some advertising here then. I've never paid for a banner ad so I'll have to figure that out. I was a little confused on how it works when I browsed over that section, but I'll see if I can figure it out and set something up soon.

[Remathilis]

Took the plunge. 3/month was too hard to pass up.

Doing my part for Enworld!

[Jack99]

Originally Posted by Morrus

lots of even more interesting stuff

I must admit that I am surprised. Even considering I spend a fair amount of time on this site, I never understood that you were unemployed and that all you were doing was this.

Not that it changes anything for me. I was just surprised, that's all.

[caudor]

Count me in. The 3/month is an excellent idea! And it was too good to pass up.

I hope to EN World sees 1000 community supporters soon!

[jeffh]

The new subscription model is smart. I was wondering if something like this was on the way as soon as I saw Morrus' comment the other day that steady income was needed, just before the new appeal first appeared on the front page.

[Jack7]

Given that it's pretty much full-time, if it doesn't pay my half of the marriage, it goes. It's OK if I go hungry; it's not OK if that means my future wife goes hungry, too.

It's certainly not okay for you to go hungry, nor for your wife or potential children to go hungry. Those points are well made, as far as I'm concerned.

Essentially, the server and bandwidth costs are not important; it's the thousands of dollars in people costs which matters.

Yeah they are. Both are very imprtant if you're gonna succeed as primarily an internet operation.

With those things in mind I'm gonna make some business suggestions to ya. Maybe you've thought of these already, maybe you haven't. Use what you find useful and take them for what they are worth.


1. Develop a business operating budget for this website, including a profit take. As a percentage of earnings. No matter the percentage, and it has to be a livable percentage, keep strict account of all expenses, for tax purposes, and all earnings. Reinvest what earnings you can towards expanding your operation with such expansion geared towards profitable aspects, sections, or divisions of your overall operation. Businesses either expand, or they die. It's that simple. But expand profitably, not recklessly. Reckless expansion is sometimes just as deadly as no expansion. Sometimes it's worse from a debt generation perspective.

2. Develop as good and as stable a base of advertising support as you can generate, sell, and market.

3. Run this operation like a true business. I am not speaking about the professionalism of your website presentation, which is already quite high and in my opinion exceeds in usefulness (and I suspect devoted user popularity) that of say, much of the WOTC website. I am saying however run this place like a professional enterprise (if that is what you intend to do, live off the place), not just a labor of love. A labor of love definitely has advantages for the owner over that of a business that is disliked, but a profitable and thriving enterprise that is also loved and enjoyed is far better than merely a labor of love. At some point love must display a profitable course of returns to be worthwhile. In business unrequited love is an expensive and dangerous affair.

4. Develop a good, stable, and reliable base of high quality and reasonable contacts and networks upon which you can rely to service and assist your operation when necessary.

5. Network heavily in all areas. Especially any area that will seem to lead towards more profitable ventures. As you seek to gain new supporters, remember supporters are not customers. Or advertisers. supporters are a thin and basically unreliable (in a business sense) baseline upon which to build business operations, or upon which to rely for future earnings. You want customers, new and repeat customers (however that is defined according to your particular business model). And you want to continuously build upon such a customer base. Just as you've set an initial goal for 1000 supporters I would suggest you also simultaneously set a goal for a certain number of (expanding) profitable customers and paying advertisers per month. I would also suggest that you consider developing a set number of profitable ventures. Personally I would probably set an initial goal of trying to enter into profitable venture partnerships about once every two to three months. Analyze your risks properly, of course, but don't fail to exploit acceptable and potentially profitable risks.

6. Develop a good Business Plan (operational), and a good Marketing Plan (part of your marketing plan should be an effective advertising strategy). (It also wouldn't hurt at all to have a good Tax and Investment Strategy.) Then work them consistently. Also improve both plans at any available opportunity so that you are in a state of constant and continual progress.

7. I would study various On-line Business Models (which will vary from other types of enterprises and business models) and start to adapt my operations to the best model(s) available. I would also experiment some with various ideas to see if they can be made to work profitably, or not (set a time frame for concept testing). I would also study those websites that actually do make money, as in actually profit, (both within the gaming industry, and perhaps even more importantly, those successful websites outside of the gaming industry) and see how they operate, and what they do to profit, and expand. And just as importantly notice what they do not do, or seek to avoid doing.

8. Eventually though you're gonna have to approach this as a professional business enterprise (if I'm reading what you're saying right), or it will be a future financial loss to you (been there), or at best an inconsistent and unreliable source of earnings (been there too). You don't want that with a wife and possible family, so plan and act as soon as possible in your best interest. And save yourself time and money. Better yet spend your time making money, not just saving it.

9. Talk to professionals, get their advice, and see if you can't get them to help you develop good, sound Business and Marketing and Advertising and Tax plans and strategies.

10. Have a really good idea of exactly what you want to achieve, both immediately, and in the more distant future with this website. Set specific goals and time-frames for the achievements of those goals. If you don't have a good, clear idea of what you want to achieve (your goals are always open to future modification anyway, so don't think of them as set in stone, but rather as waymarks - believe me, if you're paying attention you'll get better as you go along) then let me just say this, I've never seen a business succeed without a clear understanding of the real and necessary objectives of the enterprise. I've seen a lot fail by not knowing, none succeed by not knowing. In case i didn't make myself clear, you wanna succeed at this. Meaning you want it to make you a profit, if not a gigantic one then at least a comfortable and reliable one. So if i have one best piece of advice, it's this: avoid the mistakes I made in my early business ventures, and instead find out up-front what works best and do that. And find out what doesn't work well and avoid fooling around with that very much. Or for very long.

So if you've already thought of these suggestions, then ignore them. If you haven't, then you might want to consider them for the near to mid-term future. If anyone else though has any suggestions, expertise, or experience that might be helpful, personally I'd say, help the man out all you can. Well, I'm tired now so I'm going to bed.

I think you've already made some important steps in the right direction. Keep at that kinda thing.

In any case good luck and Godspeed with your venture.
Be praying for your success.

[wedgeski]

I have the remainder of a 12-month sub to play out, then I'll switch to the new system. I have to say though, that I think unless you find some way for the subscription to recur, you're going to *lose* a lot of supporters in the medium term. Not because they make a decision to opt out, but because it'll be a PITA to have to renew it every month, and many people won't do so until they find themselves actually needing a feature which they only get as a CS.

I'm certain you can set up recurring payments on PayPal, for example, so I've probably got the wrong end of the stick.

Otherwise, I think ENW can be turned into a successful business but your relationship with us lot will have to change. I know I won't be inclined to "donate" to a for-profit enterprise, but that won't stop me having a supporter account and enjoying the features that come with it.

In any case, I very much look forward to the adventure ahead, and good luck.

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by wedgeski

I have the remainder of a 12-month sub to play out, then I'll switch to the new system. I have to say though, that I think unless you find some way for the subscription to recur, you're going to *lose* a lot of supporters in the medium term. Not because they make a decision to opt out, but because it'll be a PITA to have to renew it every month, and many people won't do so until they find themselves actually needing a feature which they only get as a CS.

I'm certain you can set up recurring payments on PayPal, for example, so I've probably got the wrong end of the stick.

Hmmm? The monthly one does recur.

[wedgeski]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Hmmm? The monthly one does recur.

Then I definitely got the wrong end of the stick.

[Henrix]

Originally Posted by BLACKDIRGE

I don't know if that has been brought up, but there is a very simple thing that publishers can do to support the site. Whenever you post an RPGNOW link to a product in your post, make sure that link goes through the EN World PDF store. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, it doesn't affect your sales at all, but EN World gets a percentage of the sale.

Doesn't it detract from the publisher's profit at all? I thought it did!