Why TCI Is Charging A Fee.
Over this month, you will be receiving a notice that we are now charging for the website. Now as moderators, we will be giving you free ALL-Star access for as long as you want to moderate.
The fee is for the use of the website, not just for the board. We are inacting this fee just like a local club has a fee. We are not out to make a killing, just sustain the website from going under.
Our website, because we are running a database instead of some cheap hosting, our costs our higher than most of our competition. With this in mind, we also have a lot more power than our competitors. The website is more customized to you.
Because our costs are higher of running the site, we have to charge. We have held off charging our original 30,000 members as long as we can. But we are also giving everybody half off our yearly prices, just like we do new subscribers.
This subscription is also waived if you purchase a product from our Shopping Cart area. To look at what you receive with your subscriptions, you will need to take a look at our sign up page.
http://www.thecreativeinvestor.com/modules.php?name=SignUp
I understand that many of you are opposed to this. But as a business, this has been one of the toughest decisions we have had to make.
Thanks again for everybody's support.
Also, if you see any people on TCI really contributing to the website please let us know and we will add an additional year on for them. We aren't really sticklers on charging, but we do need to make a profit at having TCI running.
[ Edited by joel on Date 04/07/2004 ][ Edited by joel on Date 04/07/2004 ]
You may want to give them email accounts as well with there web page. It would help with advertising the name of the site with every email they send as well.
BTW, I am not opposed to charging for the site, I understand the costs, but I do expect our subscriber base to drop considerably. That worries me a little as it might drive them to our competition.
Thanks Kyle.
I wouldn't mind having email accounts for people, but that is too much support on our end. We can handle email accounts for people who have purchased a domain through us like http://www.KylesCrazyHouses.com. We could build something like that in.
Also, if we start generating enough revenue from some of our other features that we are going to be building in, we will drop the subscription down significantly.
We do want to charge something, as we have a lot of problems with advertisers, and posters that think they can do whatever they want on the site. With this, it will allow us to manage it better and cut down on the crap.[ Edited by joel on Date 04/08/2004 ]
So eventhough I see "Your All Star Access subscription will be ending on 2004-05-22 00:00:00" under MyTCI, does that mean I will be able log on after 5/22/04?
Yes, but you will have the FREE access level. As a moderator though Neb, we will bump you back up to the All Star Access.
Just remind me when your access level gets bumped down, and I will make the adjustment for you.
Everybodys ending date is different.
Quote:
On 2004-04-08 10:18, nebulousd wrote:
So eventhough I see "Your All Star Access subscription will be ending on 2004-05-22 00:00:00" under MyTCI, does that mean I will be able log on after 5/22/04?
[ Edited by joel on Date 04/08/2004 ]
Joel,
I understand the fee to a point, however, I think it'll create more problems than it helps. The reason is simple. Most of the people sign on here because of the forums. People ask questions and generally get good answers because at least one knowledgable user will answer or confirm answers to their questions. If you charge for access, many of the experienced investors probably will not sign on, so what you'll end up with is newbies answering newbies and the knowledge base will not be there anymore.
But this is just my opinion, and I hope I'm wrong.
Roger
Quote:
On 2004-04-08 09:56, joel wrote:
We do want to charge something, as we have a lot of problems with advertisers, and posters that think they can do whatever they want on the site. With this, it will allow us to manage it better and cut down on the crap.
Joel,
Instead of charging a subscription fee across the board, why not impose a fine on the people who violate the Rules through Forum posts, private messaging and emails?
First offense = warning. Thereafter for every offense (of whatever nature), slap a fine. The fine would be the amount you would have charged for subscription. Deny access until they pay the fine.[ Edited by NancyChadwick on Date 04/10/2004 ]
Nobody wants to give credit card info before they start using a board. I wouldn't.
If we start receving enough revenue from property advertisements (feature coming soon), we might just make the forum a free feature.
We will also have to have good forum controlls, and lots of help from the moderators, as the forum does get out of hand because of it being free.
Quote:
On 2004-04-10 10:14, NancyChadwick wrote:
Quote:
On 2004-04-08 09:56, joel wrote:
We do want to charge something, as we have a lot of problems with advertisers, and posters that think they can do whatever they want on the site. With this, it will allow us to manage it better and cut down on the crap.
Joel,
Instead of charging a subscription fee across the board, why not impose a fine on the people who violate the Rules through Forum posts, private messaging and emails?
First offense = warning. Thereafter for every offense (of whatever nature), slap a fine. The fine would be the amount you would have charged for subscription. Deny access until they pay the fine.
<font size=-1>[ Edited by NancyChadwick on Date 04/10/2004 ]</font>
On 2004-04-10 10:22, joel wrote:
"Nobody wants to give credit card info before they start using a board. I wouldn't."
Joel,
I'm not suggesting that you get credit card info before people start using the board.
What I'm suggesting is that for every violation after the first one, you "lock them out" of the site until the violator pays the fine. If they choose to pay the fine by credit card, then at that point you get their credit card info.[ Edited by NancyChadwick on Date 04/10/2004 ]
That is a good suggestion. The propblem is that some
offenses are worse than others, and I don't want to punish somebody for honestly overlooking the rules.
I know I skim a lot rather than reading.
I am thinking of making the Forums free to keep up our traffic to the website, but all the other features would be a paid service. ie Private Messaging, Searches, Favorite Thread Saving (new feature we haven't put in yet.
Joel,
Insofar as someone honestly overlooking the Rules, that's what the notice is for on the first offense. The notice will also remind them to look at the Rules as well as the Notice included in the Rules that every violation after the first carries the penalty of a fine. If they're genuine, that should be enough to raise their "awareness level".
Insofar as some violations being worse than others, a violation is a violation and should have the same penalty attached to it. The net result should be people will think twice before "shooting off their keyboards" by advertising, hustling or bashing on the site. I think that would be a definite improvement.[ Edited by NancyChadwick on Date 04/10/2004 ]
So what do you think with the Forums being free for all users except for the search stuff?? Do you think this would make more of a nusance to the moderators??[ Edited by joel on Date 04/10/2004 ]
Joel,
I don't know how many real estate investor websites there are out there that have Forums or boards that allow people to post, but I have to think that there's a lot of competition.
I think that charging people will only drive people to competing sites. If there are "bells & whistles" that cost money and aren't really features that bring people to TCI, why not cut them out?
I think Roger's point is well taken. You don't want to have newbies constituting most of the posting population. Quality of information will decline and the numbers of members and visitors will decline.[ Edited by NancyChadwick on Date 04/10/2004 ]
Quote:
On 2004-04-10 14:35, NancyChadwick wrote:
If there are "bells & whistles" that cost money and aren't really features that bring people to TCI, why not cut them out?
<font size=-1>[ Edited by NancyChadwick on Date 04/10/2004 ]</font>
Huh?? We can't give away everything on our website for free. Like I said before, we really need to be making a profit on the website.
Joel,
What I meant is this:
If you are maintaining or developing features that cost money but are not really contributing to increasing the number of members or visitors, why not get rid of these features and save the money rather than keep the features but have to charge people to be able to access, search and post in the Forums?
We are adding in features that I would like, to explore more of not only my RE career but others.
But generally, most of the features, have been requested by users using the website.
If we have to develop it, we have to get paid for our time.
Also, some of the features I am building in, is so that I can manage MY stuff easier. A one stop shop so that we can advertise our rentals, purchase more properties, interact with other investors, and manage our tenants (upcoming feature). That basically sums it up.
Hibby76 was saying that I should build in an email portal as well so people can check their email from here. But we would have to do some serious things in order for us to do that. We might do that for SUPER-STAR access and up. I don't know.
Anyway, go to go. I have to mow the lawn.
What would you pay for if you were totally new to investing?
What would you pay for if you were the experienced investor?
Your trying to make TCI the investor's Wal-Mart....why? Is that what YOU want or is that what the user wants?
You need to establish the purpose of TCI and understand why people come here. Is it because of the features they hope you will add? Is it because of the information on this site? Or is it because people like Cash, Roger, DaveT, Nancy, and Omega1/DealerJo/and the like.
You are planning on adding all these different features in, and then charging for a subscription for the use of these features….okay
Lets say someone wants to buy a cell phone.
Now, you can get a cell phone that takes pictures, faxes, emails, text messages, 3-way, caller ID, call forwarding, connect to the internet, instant message, play games, does your taxes, acts as a remote control for you television, opens your garage, starts your car, and even mows the lawn. Are you going to pay for all of that if you just want the damn thing ring, work, and not drop calls? If the thing doesn't hold a call and the battery goes dead after 10 min's of use, it's pointless.(sorry about that, it got personal for a min)
My point, do you really need all these things on TCI if the user doesn’t really care for them? A good, and some might say a vast majority, of the people on this site are new and would never have a reason to use your features. They’ve done 0-2 deals and are still trying to figure out what they need to get signed. And for the experienced investor, if they have X units and Y houses, obviously they already have a system in place and switching to TCI to manage everything is probably unlikely. For one, they will be dependent upon on you staying up and running and the server being up all the time. Imagine if QuickBooks could only be accessed via the Internet?
I'm pretty sure people won't mind you upgrading TCI, but will they pay for all of the things YOU want.
For one, I wouldn't use TCI as a one-stop shop because it doesn't appear like that is the purpose of this site. I really don't want people who I sell houses or rent to coming to the site where I learned how to invest either. It's like going to KFC and picking up some chicken and "accidentally" finding the secret recipe attached to the box of chicken.
Why not create a completely different site to do all the things you are talking about? Why not charge per feature? If someone comes to the site and all they want to do is read and post, make them pay for that.
$2 to post for the month
$2 to search for the month
$2 to do this.
$2 to do that.
It may sound like a lot, I don’t know, I don’t design websites, but putting this feature and that feature under this umbrella and that umbrella, along with a bunch of other features I would never use, I feel like I’m wasting my money. Just have people pay for exactly what it is they want to use and charge them monthly and set up an automated draft from their checking account.
And this is my cheap way of getting this in, but if you want to help the mods moderate, please respond to what we say. I know you probably read the posts in this forum, but it seems you hardly respond. I feel you respond quicker if I PM you. I know you are a busy guy and have a lot on your plate, but if you want us to help you out, help us help you. And yes, I am referring to my post entitled “Revote in Florida”. I know you can’t please everyone all the time, but let me/us know something. Changing that feature would help me out a ton though….or give us the option of changing it. And I’m only saying this because anything that is sent to my inbox regarding a post, I don’t respond to because I figure someone else already has handled it and I’m too lazy to jump through the hoops to check it. But it seems like I am not the only one.
Everyone is different and want and do things differently. Setting up this site to cater to everyone is never going to happen. However, allowing the user to customize their TCI experience will do wonders. The forums should be free because that is what keeps people here. The other features should have a price tag….and the pay per use idea may work the best.
I don’t know….I’m still trying to get a revote in Florida.
And please don’t take this personal, it was never intended that way.
I appreciate the feedback. Over this weekend, we have made the forums free with the free access account.
I don't know about your post that your talking about.
The pay per use thing would get too cumbersome. As John Locke put it to me, "if you give people too many choices, they don't choose."
Quote:
On 2004-04-12 12:22, nebulousd wrote:
Everyone is different and want and do things differently. Setting up this site to cater to everyone is never going to happen. However, allowing the user to customize their TCI experience will do wonders. The forums should be free because that is what keeps people here. The other features should have a price tag….and the pay per use idea