Why The Blog Got Suspended and Important Changes
Mar 25th, 2008 by Mehdi Tags: StrongLifts.com
| New to StrongLifts.com? |
| Here are a few posts the other readers recommend you check out. |
Yesterday this message appeared on the blog & forum shortly after the post StrongLifts 5×5 Advanced went online.
What It Meant. StrongLifts.com is on a shared hosting. The blog & forum are on 1 server with other sites/blogs/forums. This is the cheapest form of hosting, and long-term readers know this worked great for now close to 1 year.
During the past days the blog went down several times per day. Yesterday the blog used +50% of the server resources. Contracts allows 10%. So host closed down StrongLifts.com for the 2nd time this month.
StrongLifts.com has outgrown shared hosting. More than half a million page views per month. 9500 subscribers. 890+ forum members. This is the blog’s subscribership growth during the past months.
How to Avoid This Happens Again. The solution is to switch hosting. Hosting company recommends VPS hosting. But this is only a short term solution. In the long term I need dedicated hosting. 1 server for StrongLifts.com alone.
Dedicated hosting is 200$/month vs. 7,95$/month for shared hosting. For now I’m switching to VPS hosting (50$/month) to avoid problems with the host. But during the next months I’ll have to switch to a dedicated server.
Where to Get The Money From? I sometimes get questions about how I make a full time income blogging. I don’t make a full time income blogging. It is my goal eventually, but it has never been my focus.
Blogging is a tough job: copywriting, marketing, analytics, customer service, usability, etc. You have to learn a lot of things before you earn the right to make money. Watch Shoemoney’s video to understand what I mean.
That’s why I always focused on building experience, increasing readership and tweaking. However things are different now. I need money to pay the blog’s bills. Jason echoes what I think. Here are some options.
- Products. Earn commissions when people buy products you recommend. Or sell your own products: books, ebooks, merchandise, …
- Ads. Google pays you when someone clicks on an ad. Or advertisers pay you to get their product on your blog.
- Paid subscriptions. Paid subscriptions for a product or service you offer.
Option 1 & 2 are bad business models. You drive readers away from your blog. You’re working for someone else. You need aggressive ad placement. And you need a lot of traffic before you can make decent money.
Merchandise is cheap offline marketing, so I don’t want to make money that way. Free gets you attention, so the eBook & articles will always remain free. And I don’t feel good asking you for donations.
Paid Membership Site. There are plenty of forums where you can ask questions for free. StrongLifts.com Forum will become a paid membership site with me as active participant. Only accessible to paid members.
You want no BS answers to your questions, I can give it in the forum. You put a training log and want tips on the way, I can give it in the forum. You want a review of your technique, I can give it in the forum. But not for free anymore.
You’ll get more details about this soon.
In The Meanwhile. StrongLifts.com will switch server during the next 48 hours. Expect additional down times. Once the switch is done, everything will run smoother. There will be no new articles until at least next week.
Tired of the way you look? You want to build muscle & lose fat while getting stronger? Click here to download my 52 pages 100% FREE eBook.
Articles You Might Also Like:
Subscribe with RSS
I like the idea, the people who are used on getting advice and support here will certainly pay. But how will you attract new people? As long as they don’t know what they are missing, they won’t join.
I think the articles will pique enough interest for people to validate paying for more personal support and advice through the forum. I for one certainly believe its worth it. And anyone who has searched around the net enough for advice of this caliber should know that Mehdi delivers the goods.
i agree with beer…you will need a page describing the benefits of paid membership, new members won’t know the benefits and good people on here. They may just move to another forum to ask their question.
also, if your going to be absent from writing new blogs, this could be a good time to bring back popular old blogs so that new readers can catch up on some of your best work!
I think also that the positive comments that we (the current forum members) leave here concerning the blog articles might help to lure other readers to the forum. In other words we could mention the forum and the help we receive from it in our comments here, that is if it applies. Also, not to be taken negatively, but a paid forum subscription would also “weed out” the not-so-serious would-be members that join, start a log, and then you never hear from them again after a month. Most folk have to be pretty serious about something before they are willing to pay for it.
Bittersweet news about the traffic indeed. Congrats on the growth! A great validation of the fantastic work that you do.
I think making the forum subscription-based is a good start. You can feel out the effects without worrying about crushing your blog readership.
My suggestion is to let all users view the forum topics, but require subscription to read the actual posts. Maybe also pick a couple of the particularly lengthy training logs and other interesting threads and make them available to read without a subscription. I think this would give people a better idea of what they’re missing and help raise the subscription rate.
As soon as you start charging people for information which is freely available elsewhere you are going to lose hits. I can tell you that for sure. Your best bet is going down the advert route, it’s what made most big sites their money - you keep them interested because of the amount of hits you’ll get, as soon as you charge, you’ll lose those hits.
But it’s entirely up to you… I sure has hell know which route I’d take. The readers are the most important people on this site, and what keep it going, as soon as you push something to them you’ll dwindle down the numbers.
At the end of the day, it’s your choice - but I sure know I wouldn’t pay.
I have to say, I’m disappointed. I respect that you need to be able to pay your costs and make some money, but I think changing the forum to membership-only is the wrong way to do it. Anybody can get Mark Rippetoe to answer questions on Strength Mill for free, so convincing people to pay for access to your forum seems like it’ll be hard.
It seems like plenty of bloggers make a decent amount of money through advertising and creating a “free” and a “premium” level of content, but I haven’t seen anybody make money or build a community by releasing all of their content for free while making people pay to be a part of the community.
I could be wrong. I hope I am. I wish you well.
Agreed 100% with Lucas!
As Lucas said, there are websites out there offering the same information, from people who are much more knowledgeable, for free.
I have to agree with Russ and Lucas. Paid fitness forums are a dime a dozen, and many (like Men’s Health Personal Trainer) just flat out suck. If, however, I’ve got a passion for strength training and have enough motivation to read books on my own and seek out websites devoted to the topic, I’ll certainly look into purchasing recommended products on that page. Advertising, if done correctly, is both cost-effective and can help build readership and loyalty.
And I know you know this, having read The Four Hour Work Week. And all of this said, I understand your dilemma, Mehdi. You’ve grown StrongLifts.com into an incredibly successful website so far, and I’m sure you’ll make the right moves to ensure it’s continued success. I’ll keep stopping by for the great articles, info, and inspiration. Keep up the great work, and congratulations — this is a pretty sweet problem to have
Why don’t you just ask your forum members for donations?
If you have 1,000 members, and they all donate $1 each, there’s your hosting for the year……even though you are getting ripped off at $50 a month. Much cheaper dedicated hosts out there.
If you are after making a few $$ for your knowledge, then i suggest you start building up your credentials. anybody can start a blog and give information from a book.
This is a difficult decision to take and a catch 22 situation but I think the subscription route is the best way forward - if there is a charge for the forum new members might be put off yet if there is no charge then how does the site continue to pay for itself especially as revenues from advertising are unpredictable and probably irregular? If all those who are currently members on the forum become paid members that should ensure that the site continues to operate succesfully. For new members there could be a short free period which would allow them to view the discussions etc. Advertising plus subscrptions would enable the site to develop further and become more professional.
How many times have you posted and seen Mehdi’s reply seconds later? He gives top notch advice very quickly - better and faster than everyone I’ve seen.
Sure, you can gather all the other free information off the internet, but that would take a lot of TIME. With Stronglifts, everything is here, and if it isn’t, you can post and get a good quality and speedy reply.
It’s about deciding what is more important to you, money or time. I can go all over the internet and get all the free information I need, but I don’t have time for that. I’d rather spend it doing the other things, like working out.
People who know their time is more important than their money know that the most expensive stuff in the world is free.
Plus, are there better places than this? Aren’t we at Stronglifts because it IS the best place?
Yes, there are BETTER places than StrongLifts, ran by people who know what they are talking about through experience!
Money may not be the most important thing in the world, but people who say that are ignorant in my opinion - if you don’t have money, you have nothing. You try and get by without it. You can quote as much as you want about the free things in life, but they won’t put food in your stomach - EVERYTHING, every decision, every idea will always be based on money.
Advertising is the BEST and probably ONLY route you should take Mehdi. You’re in a very difficult business with many many competitors. You won’t make a living from this site - fact.
Have to agree with Russ, Lucas, trev, and bob: although I understand and empathize with the need to support the site, a paid forum is unlikely to do it. I believe bob’s idea is a good (hopefully not temporary) one: add a PayPal (or similar) donation link. Most won’t donate, but enough will, I believe.
Beyond a cheaper dedicated host, there are ways to tweak ads so they are not what you want to avoid. Many of the personal finance sites do a similar thing to support their site. Check out these for ideas (BTW, I do not write any of them nor know who does — found them just like I found your site):
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/
http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/
http://allfinancialmatters.com/
They will, invariably, lead you to more. They have specific posts about making money off a website without ’selling out’ (I’m unable to search right now for them).
Most importantly, congratulations on reaching the level of having this ‘problem’! Shows your success in a very short time.
I’ve seen the forum and no sometimes i don’t see replies. and i also noticed that sometimes if someone with more experience answers a question that contradicts what he says he also has no response. Besides that, if i was at home all day with a blog site i would be able to answer questions all the time as well, but i prefer to have a job. Considering the forum was set up as a community of people that are about gaining strength, charging to be a part of a community seems ridiculous. dime a dozen.
This is very bittersweet. Sometimes growth can be a blessing or a curse. True it will weed out the undesirables, but it may also weed out the serious folk who just made a serious change in their life. Like spending near 500 bucks on weights and gear, a fat caliper and whey protein. Maybe a subscription to stronglifts is not possible for those same enthusiasts. Maybe this sucks. I support donations - I can donate at least once…but a monthly thing will be much harder to swing. I like the articles, but the forum is what keeps me going.
This is bittersweet. If you DO make the forums subscription based, it should only be upon registering. People still need to be able to read the topics, so they can understand exactly what it is they’re getting . Still, I think ads are the way to go. You can have small, relatively unobtrusive ads at the bottom or side of the page, even make them related ads, and you’ll get tons of money from it. I think you’ll lose a fair amount of traffic by using paid membership for your forums. Something Awful does it, but they are the exception rather than the rule. In my opinion the only real way to go is ads, and maybe a paypal button so we can donate.
Good news on the hits Mehdi - more power to your elbow.
I would prefer an advertising site over a subscription site mainly because I don’t like paying for things over the internet (no credit card or paypal account yet). What is the profile of a typical reader? If they are 14 year old boys it might be difficult to get them to part with their money too!
Whatever you decide I hope it works out. You’ve done an amazing job so far
Hey Mehdi,
I really appreciate your blog, it’s cleanly designed, loads quickly, and most importantly your content seems honest and bullshit-free. I especially appreciate that you don’t run “Add 2 inches to your arms in two hours” type workouts and don’t encourage me to buy the latest $100 supplements.
Your blog has _value_ and as such I wouldn’t mind donating a few bucks every now and then. I don’t think that you should ignore this as a possible income source. A simple “Found this post useful? Feel like donating a few bucks?” + a Paypal link on each article can do wonders. There’s another blogger named Steve Pavlina (used to be pretty good, stopped reading after he started hocking lame “PhotoReading” and “Paraliminals” stuff) who makes a significant amount of money from such donations.
If I found a post useful and there was an easy enough mechanism I wouldn’t hesitate to throw a few bucks your way.
Another source could be selling (for a reasonable price) certain well-researched reports such as the StrongLifts 5×5 PDF. That thing is quite large and probably took quite a bit of time to prepare, it definitely warrants $5 or something.
If you go the product direction I would recommend exercising as much discretion as possible with regards to what type of products appear on here. Sites lose credibility for me when I see adds for “Weight Gainer XXXXXL 3000″ with like 2000 calories per serving, 50 grams of fat and 75 grams of sugar.
Perhaps text-based Google ads might help, but again I worry at what type of ads might start appearing.
Get those donation buttons up ASAP and I’ll send a few bucks!
Keep up the good work, Mehdi.
Hi Mehdi,
I know you feel badly about taking donations from us, the readers. However, you really do need to get past this. If someone donates to you, it is something they do of their own free will in order to help you provide something to us that we obviously desire. It’s as simple as that. I would not be opposed to saving up for a little while to help you out. I don’t think it’s a good idea to charge to utilize the forum. It’s your decision, of course, but as a college student with very limited funding, I can barely afford food… just a tough situation overall.
Wish you the best of luck,
Sawyer
What about a subscription service like Fark.com uses? There are certain posts that are viewable on the public side, where all registered folks can comment, paid or not paid. Folks who have a paid subscription get a special icon next to their name when they post, and can add/view/comment on extra material not viewable to the public side. Might be an option to check out.
Mehdi, charging people for your advice is one thing, but forum subscriptions are tricky because they implicitly charge users for other users’ advice too. All forums, including StrongLifts’, have “star members” who provide information and feedback to other members. With the subscription model, these “star members” are not getting paid for adding this content/value to the site, and are actually paying a subscription to do this work. There could be arrangements for free subscriptions for those “star members,” or perhaps giving them a small slice of the subscription fees, but being the internet, that can get complicated and messy. Of course, it’s your site so the decision is 100% yours, but I just wanted to add my two cents.
Just a quick comment about VPSs vs Dedicated. Don’t assume that a dedicated is any better than a VPS. Most dedicated servers have weak CPUs, whereas a lot of VPS providers use fast CPUs (dual quad cores) and allow your site to “burst” to the full CPU power. You also can scale on a VPS easier - i.e. start out with small resources and as you grow, grow your VPS. Upgrading your VPS is usually a simple reboot, whereas upgrading your dedicated box will probably mean moving servers.
Just my .02 cents
Good Luck with your sites
I think you should work on a donation system.. don’t be too proud to use it either.. a lot of people that come here often would be glad to donate a small amount to you keep you going with your great info and site
Sponsorship. With your readership, there must be at least 10 products or businesses that you would approve being affiliated with. Having 9,000 plus subscribers is no small potatoes. Check out commission junction, affiliates for many products. I understand not wanting ads all over. You’ve done an amazing job and whatever you do it will be a success I am sure. Thanks again. As an alternative, you can always sell blood or a kidney, just in case….
I’m a paying member at another fitness site, and by comparison I must say the Medhi’s answers to questions are way, way better. But I must mention that the other site sells a product not a community and so I agree with some of the people above that a community isn’t enough. If I have a question concerning my strength training, this would definately be the place where I’d want to ask it..But if it means paying then I might as well google my answer somewhere else. And to be honest, how often does 1 person need advice or help? As soon as you, Medhi, help them get their form right, what else is there left for them to get here?
So in short, it’ll be hard to pay for membership without understanding the benefits that this would entail.
Hey, charging for the forum is a great idea until it proves itself wrong. This is the fun part of blogging, gotta make money somehow, and you’re one of the firsts who has to figure it out in this niche. It can’t hurt to charge for a while and see what happens. Try lots of things and see what sticks.
I’m going to jump on the donation train with this one. If I could donate I would, I would have a hard time paying “just to be a part of a forum.”
However, if I could donate I know that my money is going straight to your pocket to help keep the entire sight free for everyone. You could setup different tiers of donations, $6/year, $12/year, $24/yr, etc, etc…say if you donate $50 you get a *free* t-shirt and mug. Then you could denote members as silver donors, gold donors, platnium donors, diamond donors so that people on the forums can have status for donating…then its more a competition between members to see who has donated the most…just my 2 cents.
I would be honored to be a member of your site Mehdi, the information you have provided to me thus far has been invaluable.
I am certain that you will get the subscribership you are looking for as there are plenty of people around who will understand the value of quality information and advice that you have been and continue to provide - Please send the subcription information I look forward to subscribing.
Mehdi
you have an awesome blog. I don’t understand why you want to jump to a subscription service (even if its just for the forum) so quickly.
Have you tried optimizing ads *and* different affiliate programs? Amazon pays a meager 4%, there’s better programs out there that will generate *much* more money. E-mail me if you want more info.
Carl
Just a tip for hosting. nearlyfreespeech.com are unbelivably cheap and have a very nice attitude.
Doesn’t Mehdi already get a referral fee when people purchase items featured on the Amazon column on the side of the main blog page? It’s not intrusive. It doesn’t present a significant moral hazard. Google ads are even less intrusive. I think most intelligent people are aware that the presense of a text link in a google ad on a page doesn’t necessarily constitue an endorsement of the product or vendor. Why would such advertising be distasteful? Is that why Mehdi has discounted it as a main generator of revenue? Keeping the forums and blog content free to view (at least) would be the best way to retain and attract readers. Higher volume of readers would mean more clicks on revenue-generating ads and Mehdi-approved amazon items. That way making information worth reading and constantly improving the site would be the main way to gain revenue. But it may be a good idea to charge for strength training consulting, above and beyond short forum responses. Making money on the internet is about volume and promoting oneself as an expert to drum up other business, not limiting content.
Dear Mehdi,
I think you should go back to an 8-5 job so that you have enough money to keep this site going.
Sincerely,
jewboy
Why don’t you just leave the forum open and have an alert system so that when one of your ‘clients’ makes a post you will be notified. Or set up a private forum for them.
That way the community will continue to grow, and people will be able to help each other for free while your clients receive their deserved extra attention.
Donations could then be opened up to members who use the ‘free’ forum but do not wish (or can’t afford) to pay a monthly fee (ie me).
A lot more merchandise would be sold this way too.
Either way thanks for the site/forum/advice so far, much appreciated.
This is my opinion, so take it for whatever you think its worth.
I cringed when I read this. Facebook gives it away. Slashdot gives it away. Bodybuilding gives it away. Google gives it away. Yahoo gives it away. What do they all have in common? Aside from huge bankrolls, they have advertising.
As your site/community grows, the ad space becomes WAY more valuable than a meager subscription fee. A paid subscription will certainly reduce your workload, but so would assigning moderators. You know what else a paid subscription does? Sends people packing, especially people without credit.. which is probably the biggest piece of your demographic (ie, teens).
And please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Obviously your time/effort and knowledge is valuable but this doesn’t make sense to me.
I strongly advise against any sort of paid subscription. It will drive people away from your site, that’s guaranteed. Instead you should definetaly go with ads, google ads are great. And also ask for donations, many will be happy do donate money.
I’ve been in the website business for a long time, and everytime people have to pay for something, no matter how little, many will simply not take the time to do so.
I think the 100% subscription idea is probably not the best way to go.
I think a donation paypal button would generate you enough to cover your hosting minimally. Have you looked into bluewho hosting (http://bluewho.com/) at all? Or 1&1(http://tinyurl.com/3b9sgs)?
I use bluewho for my company site and also resell space on it to others. I have several colleagues that use 1&1 and are happy with them. Just some suggestions as I certainly can appreciate the challenges of starting a business as I have been running my own for the past 6 years. (www.plug-n-playpc.com)
I pay 20 bucks a month for my membership which , I know I have less bandwith than stronglifts but when we were looking to move out site they had the best bang and support for the buck (at the time of course )
But I agree with the other posters that there is an incredible amount of competition out there in this area and attracting new members if they cant see what they are missing upfront may be pretty tough. I wish you well.
It feels weird that you haven’t tried to tap other sources of income.
For example, why not try to put together a real ebook and sell that for a couple dollars. The current Stronglifts 5X5 program is great, but the ebook is just a collection of blog posts. The information could still be free on the site, but re-write it and format it to create a product that is worth selling. Even though I could get the info from the site, I’d pay to download a well-formatted ebook.
I honestly think you are making a mistake. You will drive away 95% off your readers if you start to charge. Face it, in the age of the internet we are all cheap bastards.
Charge for virtual training sessions if you must charge. Use ads. Get product placements. These don’t stop your community participating.
I will start by saying that if you make a subscription fee I will pay it. This site is great and has taught me a lot.
Now my two cents: Go with the ads. I would much rather have a bunch of crappy ads floating around than pay a fee. I understand that you want to keep the site clean, but you have to make sacrifices. People will understand. Also, don’t be ashamed to ask for donations. More people will donate than you think.
Hi!
Generally; If there was a subscription, I would probably pay - but it depends on the amount
If there was a way to donate, I would be willing to donate.
But I think that by and large, a paid for site would lose traffic.
I wouldn’t mind ads - If we did have paid access, I don’t think it is too much trouble to set up “mirror” versions of the site, so that there is a free version (including ads) and the members site, which is without ads. So people who want the clean look can pay for the privilege.
About the forums - I don’t mind paying if I was asking for advice from Mehdi. But I don’t think I should pay to read the forums, or to receive answers from others in the community… And perhaps people who do contribute to the community a lot can be given (at Mehdi’s discretion) free memberships.
Cheers
/Sifaan
Hi,
First off, I’ve had the site on Google Reader via Feedburner for a while, but I don’t get the updates in my e-mail, and thus can’t seem to download the eBook (I double checked last night, I am subscribed on the site, maybe it’s server issues).
Anyway, I might be willing to pay a small subscription fee, but if I find I’m not posting much on the forums (a possibility) I’d probably stop paying since there are other free forums around I use (just being honest). I would hope with your site traffic you could generate revenue on amazon.com clickthroughs on Rippetoe’s book etc and on google adsense or whatever their contextual ad program is. Google text ads are not visually intrusive at all to me as a user, neither are static (non video/audio) banner ads at the top/bottom of pages.
I agree you need to generate revenue to keep the site viable and I want to support, I just don’t know if forum subs will do it, but best of luck whichever path you choose, and thanks for all your hard work.
Hi Mehdi,
I can’t imagine how hard it must be to keep a site like this going, I only wish there was another way around this, do what you have to do.
Yoko.
“Option 1 & 2 are bad business models.”
When I read this I was like “WHAT?!”… Mehdi, option 3 is a bad business model.
It just doesn’t make any sense to me. There are dozens of other forums for free. No one needs to pay someone to have conversation in the era of Internet. Don’t get me wrong, but you’re not the only reason why people go to forums. Why should they pay to be able to talk to one person, if there are hundreds of others out there willing to talk for free. Furthermore, why should someone contribute to forum, to which he will not have access once his/her subscription runs out? Even worse, you cannot guarantee behavior, knowledge, and advice of other members on the site, so it is not a good idea to make this paid, and associate a poor service experience with your StrongLifts brand. This really makes no sense to me. If you want to do paid consultancy/advisory just do it. Bud not this way, unless you are willing to downplay the forum to you customer interface.
There will be a quite a few people willing to participate in your model, that’s ok. But if I were you, what would I do without much thinking is to keep the forum open, keep blogging, don’t participate in forums and provide your individual consultancy as a paid service. You can have several subscription options both in terms of subscription length and service scope, you can be more selective on how much work you want to do and what clients you want to serve, so you spend your time effectively generating income.
At the end of the day, it ultimately depends on what exactly do you want to do as your “job”. I am quite currious how will you work this out.
Mehdi, congratulations on the success but I also think that subscriptions will drive away many people. This is just my opinion but if these people don’t subscribe, the forum wont be anything like it is now and might not be as valuable. I think forums are about community. Getting and giving information from other who have a similar interest. I think that is the best part about forums. They are free and people are there because of a passion. Your responses are what is worth the money. Sell your service, sell products, increase ads, add donation buttons, but keep the forums open. The blog and forum will be great advertising for a paid service.
Good luck!
I’ll throw my opinion in and reckon that donation, ads and products like Stronglifts t-shirts - similar to Beastskills website but I wonder if its too late for Mehdi to change his decision/business model? Same with the fact that there are 50 odd comments which indicates 50 odd people who disagree out of 9500 (active?) subscribers. Enough to change Mehdi’s mind?
either way you go, I hope the best for you and this blog. Only time will tell if it was a good decision
I don’t like donating. Why? The free rider problem. I resent the idea of me contributing financially so that others can enjoy the benefits without bearing any cost. I think making the forum a paid membership site is a great idea!
I gotta agree with dasparky. A model like Farks where someone can get most of the site for free but then get all of the site for a price seems best.
For the current nature of the site though, a donation model seems probably the best. Yeah, some people will ride the site for free, that’s just the breaks with that kind of system. Not everybody donates to the Red Cross, but they benefit everyone equally when needed.
I come here for the articles and have only taken a cursory glance at the forums, they seem good. I will most likely join and pay the subscription fee simply because I love this site and want to support it. So basically I will be making a donation. That having been said, I think advertisements done properly (and I know they can be done properly because plenty of other sites do it) is by far the best way to go, assuming they can bring you enough cash.
@mehdi thanks for allowing your forums to be free and continue to be free at the time being. I can’t justify with my parents to get a paid subscription to your site when they don’t like the fact that I strength train. I had a good I’ll contact you in the forum if possible as of this moment thanks again.
“Option 1 & 2 are bad business models. You drive readers away from your blog. You’re working for someone else. You need aggressive ad placement. And you need a lot of traffic before you can make decent money.”
I’m an internet developer/consultant and here is my take…
The advice you received is poor. You will lose the majority of your audience by charging. You should go to an ad based model focusing on your target audience. Your problem is you have too much traffic requiring a new hosting plan. That is not a problem…its an opportunity! You start charging, you will have a real problem…no visitors are coming to the site anymore. Your advice is not that much different then other sites/blogs and they are not charging.
Just about everyone works for someone else..that’s a silly statement.
I subscribe to this blog to get free advice. I can pay a trainer at my fancy gym and get 1:1 advice. I don’t since I can come online and get advice from people. That is your core audience…people looking for free advice. Do you think you can truly give 1:1 advice that will be worth it to your subscribers. I doubt it. Personally, I would pay a trainer instead.
I’d think about this some more…in the mean time, place some ads on the site to pay your higher hosting charges.
My mom says, “No.” =(
I would like to give you a few words of caution. Starting, running, and maintaining a quality subscription based website is not an easy thing to do. I am a marketer of a subscription-based website of over 25,000 members. If you are willing to make this your full time job then by all means, go for it. You will have to make everything worth more than what it costs to be a member including quality forums and even better content. Also, be prepared to handle customer service. If you are going to require people to pay then eventually you are going to have someone who is not happy with the services provided. This may become more of a headache than it is actually worth.
Mehdi, you say ads are not a good option, and while I agree to an extent, I also feel that you will be driving away many people. There are so many paid services out there that nobody will have any real reason to come here to pay for access to a forum.
If you don’t want to do ads, why don’t you just offer personalized training plans for a price? In other words, if people want your advice, they pay for that specifically, while you stop answering questions in the forum. It doesn’t make any sense to charge for access to a forum.
I just read the details of the membership plan and I can assure you will not make money off memberships. $47 per month to access to a pathetic little forum on a blog? No way. No one would possibly pay that. $47 for a lifetime membership would pushing it. There are hundreds, if not thousands of sites like this one providing the same info. To pay for hosting, ads are your best choice. If you want to be compensated for your time, offer legitimate personal training packages that give people direct 1 on 1 interaction.
@Nick, $47 dollars a month?!?! For access to a forum?? Where are you reading that? I take it back, there is no way I’m paying that much and I think most people will say the same. I’ll stick to the articles.
After having read the forum post I understand that Medhi is trying to significantly cut down the number of members in the forum to make it more manageable, in addition to making money. In that sense, this is a really good idea. I’m disappointed because I used to see the site as haven for beginners getting into strength training, but hopefully at least the articles section will remain that way. Good luck Medhi!
Donations? Sure.
Ads? Comes with the territory.
Subscriptions? Terrible idea.
Use nearlyfreespeech.net
It’s the clear choice. You only pay for what you use, and it is very cheap. The guys there host many of the largest, most often “digged” sites on the net.
why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free…?
hard times right now…
1. $47 a month is too expensive for any website. This is the WEB 2.0 world. Collaboration leading to value for free is a hallmark. This cuts cost for all.
2. $47 a month is too expensive for your advice. Sorry. You’re not a phd in sports science and physiology. You don’t have a base of real world clients, or years of real world training numerous clients. Have you taken any training/education qualifications to be able to offer advice? Once people pay for your advice, you’re liable for the correctness of that advice.
3. I can get all the advice you offer out of a book. Rippletoe’s Starting Strength. It’s cheaper to buy it.
Advertising!!! People who don’t want look at it don’t have tpo but it’s could also be a good way to put people onto good stuff?
My 2 cents: Convert existing Forum to FAQ with no new postings, that will supplement the blog.
Have much lower monthly fee for the forum without Medhi input.
Charge whatever you want for online coaching.
Michael
I like your website and articles but charging for accessing the site is pretty weak. Expect your numbers to drop by at least 90% if you decide to charge. Advertising is a much better option
Hey Mehdi, you once asked me to help you out with your site integration but I was really busy at the time and you ended up not wanting it, sorry about that.
Being an Internet Enthusiast, I strongly, as do many others here, believe in freedom of information. Mehdi, what makes your site great is that you have wonderful information available for free, it’s a great place for people who really do know their stuff to commute. I must say that I am shocked that out of those three options you chose the third, being that forums are traditionally /always/ free. Just imagine this, you start charging, and by some miracle, thousands of your visitors pay for access. Where will you find the time to respond to each and every post /and/ create top quality posts like you have been doing ever since you started this wonderful site?
Great sites sell themselves Mehdi. I understand that it is difficult to make money online, but restricting information which is made available by your community (As is the case with the forums) I believe isn’t really fair. You have a wonderful site and I am sure many would agree, it’s one of the best if not the best on health and fitness, people respect and trust you. The products you have recommended, many have bought. If you had ads here, I’m sure many would ‘do our part’. Also, I understand how you uncomfortable about asking for donations, but perhaps making a widget for it in the sidebar (If you know how) and showing it whenever you’re running low on money would be a great idea. You can put a link saying something like “Why donate?” right next to it, as you do with “Why subscribe?”, stating what you have stated in this article. I /know/ and am really confident that many people would gladly donate whatever they can to keep this site running. This in my opinion would /always/ be better than restricting content and information, it would show how much your readers /really/ want your site. Try it, if it doesn’t work, then you can move to more drastic measures.
It’s just an idea Mehdi, I, and many others, would just like you to re-think your decision.
Yep, add my voice to the chorus. Charging for the forums is probably the worst move you could make. The forums are active and comprise your core community. If you start charging for it, expect your page views to also drop significantly. Many people will come here, get the information they find interesting from the blog, and never come back. The forum is probably your most valuable asset for continued growth. By charging for it, you will be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
I would reco exploring other options first. Your biggest asset is the community itself and if you take measures to hinder its growth, you will be making a big mistake.