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How to monetize?  

349 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you prefer to monetize?

    • Purely donation based
      160
    • Light ad support with no monetization after covering costs
      151
    • Heavy monetization and investing back into the community
      38
  2. 2. Would you commit to donating, if so for how much?

    • $2/mo or $24/yr
      135
    • $5/mo or $60/yr
      98
    • $10/mo or $120/yr
      25
    • Big daddy club over $20/mo
      9
    • No, fuck you, you pandering cunt.
      82


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Posted

I kinda know this guy, Kelvin Grogan or Morton or something.  Went to WT and owns some chain of snow cone stands or daiquiri shops or some such.  He's invested in sites like this in the past.  I'll give  him a call and see if wants to give it another shot.  From listening to him talk, he makes high six figs so he must have tons and tons of cash.

He must be a good dude.  He tells everyone he talks to how good he is

Posted
8 hours ago, TXs said:

Who will partake in the profits after expenses are covered. 

Don't know if this is a joke, but I'm willing to be completely transparent. If we get up to our goal for runrate + 6 months I'm going to be using the rest for community based events, swag that goes out to members etc. 

 

The first rule of fight club is...

 

9 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Will some of the donations get squirreled away in a secret location

  • Like 1
Posted
6 minutes ago, Dark Horse said:

$3.50/mo.

Is there any way to make Blacklab whole again?

I can't talk about BL personal circumstances for pretty obvious reasons, but he's currently doing fine. He is still accepting donations if you are interested I would suggest sending him a DM. 

 

 

Posted

when help was needed on the old site, I donated, I had few problems with the ads- except those occasionally ones that would either hijack my computer, or have sounds automatically turn on with the add at full blast- but that was like a once eveyr 3 month thing that BL needed about 20 mins to fix. 

 

I think ads are fair,  I know the old site showed ads for the lurkers, so thats a good idea.   You just have to make sure U in her B is behind a login firewall to make sure those posts arent seen by the google ad people.

Posted (edited)

I would rather subscribe than have the ads.  Good lawdy they would bork things up on TOS.

 

We could save overages for Surly happy hours, a pork chop on a FRiday( in the Wootlands, no less) or banners. Not much of a fan for the tailgating thingy, for obvious reasons, but just wanted to say-

It's something pretty damned unique about this community that so many non-Horns are made to feel welcome.

Stay Surly, my friends.

Edited by slorch
Posted (edited)

I think donations make the most sense with what happened with shaggy.  It sounds like you have a good plan to avoid that being a problem again.

Edited by kevwun
Posted

I'll donate.

 

I'd even pay if we had a "shagslist" type deal where I could pimp my company's services. Like "here is what I sell, PM me and I'll waive the up front fees and give you a free bird rub or some scentsy. Sorta like a surly business network.

 

Kinda like LinkedIn without the bullshit.

 

 

 

  • Like 3
Posted

Send people a free T-shirt or coffee mug after one year of donating.  That will give you some time to come up with an actual corporate logo to replace the lame ass heading you use now.  We all know someone who likes MSPaint.

Posted
11 minutes ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

Send people a free T-shirt or coffee mug after one year of donating.  That will give you some time to come up with an actual corporate logo to replace the lame ass heading you use now.  We all know someone who likes MSPaint.

Have a Surly latte...

enhanced-25282-1463673082-7.png?downsize

Posted

+1 for treefiddy donation, or even the "about tree fiddy" donation which is a random number around 3.50, give or take 5%. Also would be in for any Surly tailgates when back in town for a game. Live in Denver now, but have made a number of Shaggy OU tailgates when I lived in Austin.

Posted

I donated on the last site and will on this one.  I inquired about it when this site first got going, so anytime you guys are ready let us know.  Come football season the poors are going to get going again and I don't know how I am going to handle it.

  • Like 1
Posted

I would donate, but don't really like a monthly charge.  I would say do a donation drive every year to cover projected yearly expenses. 

If there's going to be ads, then go full blown ads 100% of the time.   Spend it on wreaths, banners,  a beer for derka, legal expenses, whatever.

Posted

I am in. Prefer donations to a monthly fee. Where else are you going to find this many smart assholes with such broad interests? 

Love the Shaglist idea. I think we should take 10% and bet a long shot vs. aggy every year. You know they are going to lose at least 1. 

 

Posted

Unrelated to funding, but I can't imagine you wouldn't have some cost savings moving to cloud rather than physically hosted servers. And you'll have better durability and availability for the site. 

Also, in for $5/mo. I dig the idea of reinvesting any extra cash back into the site/community but not going full sellout mode. 

Definitely make some surly merch though. Good way for people to support the site and get something tangible. 

Posted
9 minutes ago, Orca of Peace said:

what is the monthly operational cost of this place? 

The moose out front said $1k/ month

Posted
12 hours ago, txhorns said:

If Blacklab still has any legal fees I think it should be monetized as much as possible until they are paid off, assuming that wouldn't violate any court orders.  After that turn the ads down as needed to where the site is making enough to pay the bills and maybe a basdass tailgate once a year.

Seconded and amended.... everyone who can needs to drop $100 today to get the costs covered for the first 10 months.

Then turn on the ads, until Lab is covered.  Everyone should be prepared, that this is going to take awhile.

At the end of the rainbow, we go back to donations reinvested in to community "fun and games".

But none of that until Lab is made whole.

  • Like 2
Posted

Disclaimer: I have never run a message board, though I have used about a dozen since the late 90s.

Going to ads if the motivation isn’t to quit your day job is always the wrong move. It always costs as least some traffic, and if the mobile experience sucks some subscriber traffic, and that ultimately harms the product. I’m not a Texas fan (though do live in Austin)...I spend so much time here, because it’s among the best off-topic forum ties to sports on the internet. The fact that I live in the town and my team shares a conference helps, but I’d frequent the non-sports boards here regardless. So, ads feel (historical experience) like a damage to the product and an unnecessary one if the goal is covering expenses and throwing a righteous tailgate every year, targeting the Kansas game in odd numbered years no doubt...you don’t schedule fucking homecoming in a game you could lose.

In for subscription if we go that route. I do think it should be 3.49 or 3.51 a month to carry forward “about tree fiddy”.

If somebody is serious about trying to meaningfully help BL get whole, I’m in for that too.

 

  • Like 2
Posted
1 hour ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Wait a minute ... does 'investing back into the community"  involve large amounts of brisket?  If so, can I change my vote?

If I donate extra can I get some frozen and mailed?

Posted

To complicate this may I suggest another approach?  If community integrity is the goal and differentiation from $9.95's is the unique value prop for Surly, have you considered modeling your financial goals on The Slicing Pie model?

Slicing Pie would have you take the costs you incur at a 4X valuation and your risk (that is your market value for the time it takes to do the work) at a 2X valuation and derive at the number you should aim for.

In this instance it would be $4K for the costs (because it's easier to save money than to spend it, it has a higher valuation) + whatever your market value is (for whatever job you could be doing other than this) X 2  - then divide that by the number of Users and then either try to raise that amount by a monthly fee or by donation.

This way the community integrity remains intact - you're charging a fair price and getting value at the same time - and won't have to resort to the methods which introduce variables that dilute the community integrity.

By the by, I'm all for you making money, and if that's the goal then you should charge as much as you can while maintaining a paying user base.

Posted (edited)

Only read the first page...

There exists a community of exceptional minds that compose the majority of our bullshit. There is an even larger group of rapier wit geniuses jerking off in the shadows that only come out to flash their skills when it moves them. Then there is the majority of dickheads, dolts, drama queens, and potential darlings that give this message board it's strength...numbers, new ideas, and turnover.

If you go to an exclusive community it will become stale. A lot of shtick is already stale. Many of the current contributors are originally from other school's message boards who stumbled on the old board and stuck around because of the laughs, content, and the fuck-you egalitarianism. There just needs to be a way to quickly dispense of the trolls through preemptive loopholes and software, some moderation, and community banning.

 

Your timing is correct with the upcoming football season

1) Very public heart wrenching go-fund-me fundraiser

2) Another fundraiser with the promise of getting laid

3) minimal and light ads

4) nominal fee for a members only jacket

Extra goes towards a flying banner for the USC game and a troll aggy billboard at a rival sec school

Edited by JohnnyRage
  • Like 2
Posted
17 hours ago, pyrohornIII said:

I also think that it would be good to delineate those who are financial contributors and those who aren't.  I would think it would help to recognize trolls and socks. 

sure thing rocko

Posted
1 hour ago, caliHORNia said:

To complicate this may I suggest another approach?  If community integrity is the goal and differentiation from $9.95's is the unique value prop for Surly, have you considered modeling your financial goals on The Slicing Pie model?

Slicing Pie would have you take the costs you incur at a 4X valuation and your risk (that is your market value for the time it takes to do the work) at a 2X valuation and derive at the number you should aim for.

In this instance it would be $4K for the costs (because it's easier to save money than to spend it, it has a higher valuation) + whatever your market value is (for whatever job you could be doing other than this) X 2  - then divide that by the number of Users and then either try to raise that amount by a monthly fee or by donation.

This way the community integrity remains intact - you're charging a fair price and getting value at the same time - and won't have to resort to the methods which introduce variables that dilute the community integrity.

By the by, I'm all for you making money, and if that's the goal then you should charge as much as you can while maintaining a paying user base.

look at the big brain on caliHORNia.

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