Thinking About Paid Memberships

[Jeffro]

I was going to announce this on Friday but decided to look more into it for more ideas and to get some more ideas regarding paid memberships on the forum. I need another stream of revenue and one of those streams could come from the forum which is why I've been thinking about paid memberships.

The questions I have though is what should I put together on this forum as something worth paying for? I could give them a special badge, special user title, create a new special forum for paid members only, etc. I'm not sure. I've also thought about just keeping the forum the same but lock down certain areas to paying members only.

On the one hand, I want to continue to build this community. On the other, I need revenue to keep going. This forum has value within it and a few other folks have told me that it would be worth paying for to have access here. If I did go with the paid accounts, it certainly would be a tiered program, nothing outrageously expensive.

One other option is implementing more advertising places throughout the forum and perhaps, removing most of them for registered members. But I wouldn't want to run into the same situation with a lack of ad buys.

There are so many different ways I could take this. For example, monthly subscription could be $7.50, 3 months $18.00, 6 months $30 and one year $50 with Lifetime being $75.00. Who would pay these prices, I have no idea. But these are just off the top of my head.

[hallsofmontezuma]

I think that it's a great idea for you to have paid memberships for WP Tavern. The forums here are already a great place for the community to come hang out, and having a paid section will only serve to enhance that.
I also like your idea about having a special badge or title for paid members. That should also help encourage more people to pay as well.
Removing ads for paid members isn't a bad idea either, but honestly, I don't really think that's necessary since your ads aren't intrusive or annoying in their present state.

[Jeffro]

I almost get the feeling that perhaps I could get away with turning the Tavern forum into a gated community with the only barrier to entry being money. A couple things added on to the account for paying but I wonder how that would work.

[Jeffro]

I've also thought about making the WordPress and Other section as the ones that require paid membership while leaving the rest of the forum open providing the best of both worlds. Lots of ingredients to choose from but I don't know which combination will work.

[DannyGSmith]

It does not bother me, I would definitely pay. I understand the need for revenue.

I like the fact that the signal to noise ratio is better than most sites. Has anybody seen the any-key?

I also prefer the vbulletin software, it has features that bbpress does not have, and should be easy to implement.

[andrea_r]

I'd pay for a private area.

[Jeffro]

As it stands, the WordPress and Other Projects forums will be locked down for paying members only. I do have a special discount lined up for all current members of the forum that will be available for one week. After that, the subscription will be discontinued and the normal price will take over. The discounted price is my thank you to everyone who has made this a rocking forum.

The payments/subscriptions will be made through paypal and recurring payments will not be enabled. Paid members will also get a custom user title called 'Paid Supporter Of WPT' I couldn't think of anything cooler. Right now, I'm aiming to launch the paid memberships next Sunday through Saturday. This will give me time to mess around, play with some things and perhaps I'll get an additional idea or two.

The WordPress Tavern forum will remain accessible to all members.

[andreasnrb]

Have you been inspired by problogger.com? =)

I think you need to ask yourself "Why would anyone pay to be here?".
How many regular users do you have?
What do they do here?
What do you offer them?
I only see like 3-4 of the same people participating.
Honestly I don't think you have enough to offer to begin charging money.

[Jeffro]

Well, the only way to find out if I'm making a mistake is to go through with it and see where I end up. Thankfully, I'm not a corporation so adjusting things based on feedback or performance won't be troublesome. I realize the risks I'm taking here but decided to go this route instead of the many others.

[wpmuguru]

We have a paid forum as well. We did it so we could provide quality discussion without alot of the noise that goes on in the official forums.