Private (Paid membership) areas?

Yes, although we may disallow the buying, selling or trading of dreams in the BST sections of the forum

 

Can I offer them in freebie section??

 

It won't happen. Most members would just leave and go to free forums.

 

I paid hundreds of dollars for my DNF Exclusive membership and it was worth every penny. IMHO this place could use a paid membership system in order to seperate the noobs from the players.

Shawn would make buttloads of money, scams would be easier to steer away from, and paid members could have extra benefits. Everyone wins.

 

yes. premium packages are rubbish!

 

Dude, we are talking about a "section" being paid, NOT the whole 2 million thread forum

Hehe - ok cool !

Well said, and I also have a PAID membership at Adam's place ( noobs won't know who Adam is.. )

But yea, so does wickedfire and most of the other big ones,

In fact isn't seo moz, webmaster world all paid places as well?

Doesn't seem that Adam, or Rand are worried..

In fact it made them more respected.

I think ONE paid area would be cool

Don't worry folks , you can have the other 3 million "google banned me from adsense " threads all to yourself,

I don't mind !

 

I agree with the idea.

$100/year is nothing for peace of (online) mind

 

I also agree with the OP

It is an interesting idea and I'm sure that more than 500 members would join (imagine $100 per year, its $50,000)

We just need a word from Shawn in this thread so many doubts would be clarified !

 

My thoughts exactly.

It would be interesting to hear reasons why this wouldn't be a good idea?

 

It should be a one-time fee imho. Subscriptions might turn people away from the idea imho. A one time membership fee of $20-$50 would suffice imho to weed out the non-players. If it was successful another tier could be added but I don't think it would be needed.

 

think about what happened at sitepoint. they started charging users, and people started to leave. where did they go? digital point.

 

There's a lot less scum at SitePoint though... .

And I don't think the OP was advocating all forums be paid - just a couple sections

 

well, how about the BST section becomes a pay-through the site place. to buy/sell anything you have to use a pay processor directly on the site. the site gets 5% comission on anything over £10.

and, if theres a problem with scamming, that person gets their account forzen.

thats my idea

 

And now we're stuck with repetitive threads. x]

 

Yea, and they are starting "pr update " , "what is seo", "help I have been banned from google", threads all day long..........You like that ?

Yes, Even just one forum, where the REAL serious people could converse....

"repetitive " is being nice and an understatement

The forum is flooded with noobs NOT using the search function...............

 

I don't think any of the existing forums should be made private or start charging for their use. I think the paid membership area should be IN ADDITION to the existing forums. At least some new private forums would be more than enough.

 

Yea, thats what I was saying, sorry if my response was confusing

I meant add an additional NEW paid forum, even if it was only one additional forum , is what I meant

 

Uh, yes - I got the point was just trying to confirm that was exactly what I thought as well

 

Just curious, why do you folks think charging $20 - $100 for admission would mean people would be any more "serious"? If money is some sort of indicator of a person's professionalism or commitment then we should make it $5,000

 

Well, thats a HUGE question and I am sure that I and many other people have answers,

But lets keep it simple ands say "

• look how good Adam Dickers private areas work

• Seomoz.org Premium content

• There is a HUGE difference in paid membership people VS non paid.

• One thing is for sure the "bottom feeders" would NEVER pay $300 for a membership ....

• The kids here would have to ask mom for money and that could take a bunch of chores that they don't want to do.

• Someone who is just "dabbling" in the webmaster area would never spend $300

AND FOR THE #1 FOR ME at least

• If you have 50k for a bmw, and your heart and soul was set on a bmw, and there is no other car you would buy , Would you pay $300 for the test drive , if the dealer would credit the $300 when you bought?

I am sure you would

Same Principle

OH YEA .

WE ARE also SHORT 20k for the SERVER fund

That alone should be good