Graf
Explorer
If there is another thread already dealing with this that I've missed please link and close....
I, like a lot of other folks, was a bit surprised by the post on the front page. I don't think there is any reason why the site cost Morrus anything out of his own pocket (above and beyond the lost opportunity cost). While 400* dollars a month is not a huge amount of money I think it would be good of us to think about ways that EnWorld can organize itself to ensure that it feeds itself, so to speak.
*=This number may change. If you're familiar with webhosting please check here see if you can help.
Full disclosure: This sounds closest to me like developing a business plan. I've never done that, so if anybody has real world experience and feels like chipping in that would be particularly welcome.
Note: This isn't meant to imply that Morrus, Pkitty and co haven't spent a lot of time and effort on this already. Nor is this an attempt to change EnWorld into some kind of money chasing machine or remove it from the control of Morrus. I think that everybody agrees he's done a tremendous job. But I don't like the idea that he has to pay for the site personally AND I think there is probably a way to generate cash flow in a way that respects what EnWorld is.
I see some possibilities
1. Raising the cost of memberships. Right now memberships are relatively cheap and last for a long time. Increasing the membership cost or decreasing the duration would generate more cash flow.
Cons: Members of the community have very different financial situations. Some of the functions, like Search, can be essential to participating. Would making multiple levels of membership be excessively elitiest? What are technical hurdles involved? In six months, or 2 years are enough people going to remember Oct. 28th and continue to be willing to contribute?
2. Generating more sales of EnWorld published products. My impression is that this would involve a lot of effort for a fairly small revenue stream.
3. Banner-ads. This would probably have to be banner ads that led to sales. Just clicking through a 100 times is just damaging people who are already giving Morrus money to run the site.
4. WotC just giving Morrus 400 dollars a month. (You know the site is worth it to them in terms of revenues, but they'd want something in return.)
In case it wasn't clear the above line is humorous. not serious. Everything else in this post is meant to be useful, though may not be.
5. Introduction of charges for previously free services or new services with charges
I think this is unlikely to be fruitful, but there may be something here I've missed.
The most valuable real estate that isn't being pimped on the site is the first page. A sponsored link inserted in the text might be worth a bit of money. I think this is contrary to the unbiased spirit that Eric and Morrus have always run the site in, but it's probably worth discussing.
Other possibilities a) pay by post (AKA the Crothian Tax) www.Salon.com does this. b) Pay to upload files (people have already donated their time and effort in creating files so I don't think taxing them is particularly a good idea) c) pay to post at a specific location like PbP games (this is unlikely to generate significant revnue).
6. Frequent raffles, games, giveaways, etc.
We've seen a lot of contests (Kai Lord's Todd Lockear art thing, Teflon Billy's haiku, etc.) which have been commendably non-profit oriented. I think we could probably do some kind of modified profit-oriented raffles too.
This could be one of the few win-win solutions. Companies benefit from positive publicity and enWorld continues to operate. The problem would be logistics, making sure the products would be things people are interested in purchasing etc. Maybe signed or otherwise unique or collectable books?
6a. The Ennie book raffle. Ennie judges currently can choose to keep a copy of all the books that are nominated for an Ennie (this could also be written as "just about every D&D book printed that year"). While a number of judges donate their books (Teflon Billy?) and others who are professional reviewers probably don't get a 2nd copy (I'm just assuming some like Psion doesn't get two copies I have no idea and apologize if I'm wrong) that's still hundreds of dollars worth of materials.
Cons. *Being a judge is already a lot of work, just having to bundle up all those books (even if they don't do anything else)is more work.
*Lots of shipping costs.
*Judges wouldn't be compensated -at all for their effort. From a strict economic theory standpoint that would lead to a tendency toward lower quality of judges.
*Possible book damage (might raise the value.... this bloodstain is from trying to commit suicide after reading the 1000th prestige class)
7. Lower bandwidth usage
The only real way I can see to lower bandwith usage would be to offer less content. Unfortunately the bandwidth drain seems to be related primarily to one part of the site: the front news page. It's updated frequently and gets a lot of visitors as a result. Removing that would effectively gut the site. But I don't know much about web stuff, so I could be confused. How much do functions like search require? Allowing people to post pictures?
Suggestions? Thoughts?
[edit=spelling, a sentence about the profit oriented raffle for clarity, another about judges and economic tendencies, formating the core sentence]
I, like a lot of other folks, was a bit surprised by the post on the front page. I don't think there is any reason why the site cost Morrus anything out of his own pocket (above and beyond the lost opportunity cost). While 400* dollars a month is not a huge amount of money I think it would be good of us to think about ways that EnWorld can organize itself to ensure that it feeds itself, so to speak.
*=This number may change. If you're familiar with webhosting please check here see if you can help.
Full disclosure: This sounds closest to me like developing a business plan. I've never done that, so if anybody has real world experience and feels like chipping in that would be particularly welcome.
Note: This isn't meant to imply that Morrus, Pkitty and co haven't spent a lot of time and effort on this already. Nor is this an attempt to change EnWorld into some kind of money chasing machine or remove it from the control of Morrus. I think that everybody agrees he's done a tremendous job. But I don't like the idea that he has to pay for the site personally AND I think there is probably a way to generate cash flow in a way that respects what EnWorld is.
I see some possibilities
1. Raising the cost of memberships. Right now memberships are relatively cheap and last for a long time. Increasing the membership cost or decreasing the duration would generate more cash flow.
Cons: Members of the community have very different financial situations. Some of the functions, like Search, can be essential to participating. Would making multiple levels of membership be excessively elitiest? What are technical hurdles involved? In six months, or 2 years are enough people going to remember Oct. 28th and continue to be willing to contribute?
2. Generating more sales of EnWorld published products. My impression is that this would involve a lot of effort for a fairly small revenue stream.
3. Banner-ads. This would probably have to be banner ads that led to sales. Just clicking through a 100 times is just damaging people who are already giving Morrus money to run the site.
4. WotC just giving Morrus 400 dollars a month. (You know the site is worth it to them in terms of revenues, but they'd want something in return.)
In case it wasn't clear the above line is humorous. not serious. Everything else in this post is meant to be useful, though may not be.
5. Introduction of charges for previously free services or new services with charges
I think this is unlikely to be fruitful, but there may be something here I've missed.
The most valuable real estate that isn't being pimped on the site is the first page. A sponsored link inserted in the text might be worth a bit of money. I think this is contrary to the unbiased spirit that Eric and Morrus have always run the site in, but it's probably worth discussing.
Other possibilities a) pay by post (AKA the Crothian Tax) www.Salon.com does this. b) Pay to upload files (people have already donated their time and effort in creating files so I don't think taxing them is particularly a good idea) c) pay to post at a specific location like PbP games (this is unlikely to generate significant revnue).
6. Frequent raffles, games, giveaways, etc.
We've seen a lot of contests (Kai Lord's Todd Lockear art thing, Teflon Billy's haiku, etc.) which have been commendably non-profit oriented. I think we could probably do some kind of modified profit-oriented raffles too.
This could be one of the few win-win solutions. Companies benefit from positive publicity and enWorld continues to operate. The problem would be logistics, making sure the products would be things people are interested in purchasing etc. Maybe signed or otherwise unique or collectable books?
6a. The Ennie book raffle. Ennie judges currently can choose to keep a copy of all the books that are nominated for an Ennie (this could also be written as "just about every D&D book printed that year"). While a number of judges donate their books (Teflon Billy?) and others who are professional reviewers probably don't get a 2nd copy (I'm just assuming some like Psion doesn't get two copies I have no idea and apologize if I'm wrong) that's still hundreds of dollars worth of materials.
Cons. *Being a judge is already a lot of work, just having to bundle up all those books (even if they don't do anything else)is more work.
*Lots of shipping costs.
*Judges wouldn't be compensated -at all for their effort. From a strict economic theory standpoint that would lead to a tendency toward lower quality of judges.
*Possible book damage (might raise the value.... this bloodstain is from trying to commit suicide after reading the 1000th prestige class)
7. Lower bandwidth usage
The only real way I can see to lower bandwith usage would be to offer less content. Unfortunately the bandwidth drain seems to be related primarily to one part of the site: the front news page. It's updated frequently and gets a lot of visitors as a result. Removing that would effectively gut the site. But I don't know much about web stuff, so I could be confused. How much do functions like search require? Allowing people to post pictures?
Suggestions? Thoughts?
[edit=spelling, a sentence about the profit oriented raffle for clarity, another about judges and economic tendencies, formating the core sentence]
Last edited:
