Premium Members

I run a forum http://forum.jgblogging.com i was wondering whether or not to allow premium members, i just want to know whether i should and if so what do i offer them different than normal members?

Thanks

 

Better blogging of course! Special permissions and stuff.

 

I personally think you should wait till you get some more members, therefore it won't look like your just running the forum to make some $.

Good luck!

 

with that kind of stats probably not; unless you can offer something very useful to premium members.

if you take DP for example, they can afford to offer premium membership. they are offering a tons of special advantages for premium members. you may even take warrior forum as another example.

 

Thankyou everyone for your comments, i was planning in offering premium membership after like a year or something, does that sound about right?

 

It all depends on your member base and what you plan to offer i have been on DP 2 months and have yet to get a premium but thinking about it after reading Mr Dp's post i never knew have of those benefits. Maybe i missed it in Sign up. Anyways i also agree you will need to ask your self would you pay for the premium and if any doubts imagine people who most likley are on other forums. I thinkt he key is to be unique and offer a lot of differnt perks.

 

as long as you can offer something people would be willing to pay for.
one year does sound too early.

 

Really? Well ok, maybe i underestimated the length needed!

 

what mod do you use to offer permission levels for a fee with phpbb3?
Is that only for vbulletin?

 

Glad to see DP finally taking advantage of premium memberships. I still think you have a long way to go.

You would be surprised how many are willing to pay to stand out. You believe that premium membership is about features and addons but to be honest. It's just as much about standing out in the crowd. That can be achieved very easily with different color usernames, group images, custom usertitles, and a few minor abilities. I'd personally be happy to pay $10-$25 for that very simple upgrade. I believe your price points right now are too high for the average DP member. Not me personally but what you offer doesn't entice me. I don't need the tools and I don't value standing out over $25-$50. I hope you experiment more with memberships. I think you'd greatly increase your revenue with very minor adjustments.

As for OP. Don't bother until you have a strong membership base. You'll probably turn off members by adding premiums. There is always a rush to monetize forums and that's a bad move. At best have a donation link in footer but overall don't even bother monetizing till your traffic can make at least $50-$100 a month. Anything less is probably more harmful than it's helpful. You can go a year or even two making nothing but your real focus should be activity and traffic. Once you have these going monetizing comes easy.

 

Tiniest icon 24x24 would do it imho. And if you earn $10k-$25k a year from it you don't think it's worth it?

And exclusive isn't necessarily the same as premium account. One might have requirements while the other is just a paid upgrade.

I would just love to see your results from a $10-$25 per year membership with possibly the most bare minimum of features.

My guess is that your results from your higher memberships is doing well especially if you compare it to the time you had to put into the work. You'd see higher results from my suggestion. More would be willing to pay $10-$25 than $75 which is probably a months income for many Indian webmasters who are members here.

Looking at your Premium Member icon I think it's nice. Maybe have a simple one for "DP Donator" and require a $10 min to receive it. That one icon might earn you $1000 a month.

 

You're only looking at it from your own perspective. Many users imho would be thrilled to donate and have some way of standing out. Doubtful anyone would consider some option icon as some cheap method for you to monetize. I'd personally view it as an opportunity to donate and get something small in return. I'd consider it an incentive.

And one HUGE thing you could do is just have a $25 donator award and give them ad removal. I personally find the ads here intrusive especially when inside posts.

I do understand your perspective but respectfully I'm giving you an alternative.

Right now I have 3500 premium paid members on my site with hundreds per month upgrading. It's a respectable way imho to make substantial revenue.

 

anyone have experiences with this?