Well… now that the Chicago Reader has decided that the SDMB is going to have to get up off it’s lazy ass and get a job or get out of the house what can we do to make an honest living?
I suspect that as a matter of practicality the Reader is going to throw the towel in at some point in the near future as it appears that they really can’t make up their minds whether to make this a business or not as trying to do so may well destroy the nature of what they are trying to preserve and market. What advertiser is going to bite on the promise that you can deliver 10,000 suspicious and inquisitive smartasses day in and day out? In other words, what vendor of anything would pay for access to the messy dis-jointed morass that is the SDMB user base.
If the subscription program being discussed is the only way to survive and the reader expects to make this a viable enterprise they need to add value beyond the aspect of this simply being a fabulous place to hang out. Among the things people will pay for are sex, information and material goods.
Information: People will pay for access if there is something concretely useful to them. I have always thought there would be a market if someone could have an information resource that would answer (or attempt to answer) any question quickly and accurately. Homework help. Pointers to information resources. Database of literature etc etc. The content is out there in user’s brains and net databases. A useful way to systematically tap into this and market it would be a gold mine. I know there are services that do some of this out there (and profitably). What can the SDMB add to the mix?
Sex: Many dopers are often lonely people because they cannot find anyone to share their interests and lives in their communities. A meet and greet adjunct to the board that could deliver quality, purportedly non-crazy people might be a hot ticket. I know people prefer to have these conversations in private but possibly a personal profile index or something similar (verified in some manner) that men and women could access might be of interest.
Material goods: Ebay pretty much has this down but some folks selling (or giving away) the odd item might like to deal with fellow dopers and save the Ebay fee before putting it on Ebay. When I’m in cleanout mode there are lots of good and useful things I would rather give to a fellow doper than have the Salvation Army haul away.
Thar’s gold in them thar user bases but accessing this and making it a viable business enterprise is going to take a substantial investment and a brass plated set of cojones. It remains to be seen whether the Reader can pull this off and quite frankly at some point the Chicago Reader is really beside the point. If entity X shows up tomorrow and says to the teeming millions “I have a great new sandbox to play in with lots of new toys and the same user experience for 20- 50 per year if you want to participate (lurking free) please come see” they can potentially vacuum up the user base.
Any other ideas.
This seriously troubles me, especially in light of past threads where many, many dopers offered voluntary funds with no strings attached to keep the board running. all those were turned down, and now this?
Ah, I see. That funny “announcement” thing which I so often overlook because the same announcements stay there and my eyes just forget to look.
D’oh!
That seems like a reasonable fee, however, and I certainly would cough up the dough. I love this board too much. However, I love this board because of all the people on it… will they stay for such a fee? An economic quandry we have here.
I wish we could go the “anonamous donor” route, like PBS or something. SDMB fund drives instead of subscription fees. Ah, well. It ain’t my board to say.
I saw the vanity ads idea and looked into the ad charges.
:gasp:
Holy cow, no wonder nobody wants to advertise!! $20 per thousand?!?!? Thats like quadruple what a lot of other sites charge.
Have they considered loading some pay per click stuff into the banner system? If we all hit an ad once in a while just for giggles it would still generate some revenue.
You’re so uptight and judgemental baby. You need to relax in a group hot tub with flickering aromatic candles all around and just be groovy.
No. Just the glowing satisfaction of seeing another Star Trek collectible find a good and loving home.
No, no not “between”, you’re thinking too small DDG, we can deliver them all if the SDMB readership is willing to pay for these services. Pontificating, pimping and peddling. There’s no reason we can’t do them all!
If we don’t have a sizeable user base it’s probably going to have to be a big one.
