Just making small request again :-)
Some sites I participate in have an optional annual subscription option. Ever think of going that route?
May be. But it needs some thought.
There are plenty of people in this world that are happy to have everything they want for free, even if it means being constantly bombarded by advertisements and giving away their privacy. Luckily for you, there are plenty of other people that value sites such as Personal-View. Aside from a donation link at the top, I'm looking at NOTHING on this page right now other than a valuable forum. The only ads here are threads full of great deals on products that we may want. In other words, if I can speak for the geeks, you're doing things right. And, maybe it's a small percentage of people, but people like to reward those that do things right (i.e. not just to get rich).
I'm a big MotoGP fan, and I pay for an annual subscription to a MotoGP news blog. I do it because the author does it right: It's optional, it gives me a chance to visit without ads, and the site is informative enough that I feel the author deserves to be paid for his contribution to my life. When you subscribe to his site, you're identified as a "site supporter" in all of your posts. I could care less about that, but maybe some do. Your site already covers all three of these bases (value-added, ad-free, and payment-voluntary), so all it's lacking is a link to subscribe. I'd be on it in a heartbeat. Maybe if paying subscribers were labeled as such next to their posts, more people might join in as well. Who knows.
Another site I've supported in the past is HomestarRunner.com. Not only is it a site featuring hilarious cartoons (particularly the Strong Bad emails), but I was drawn to the free nature of the site. It hasn't been updated in several years, but, in its heyday, homestarrunner.com was an oasis of freedom in an internet that was becoming increasingly commercialized. In spite of the hours of entertainment the site authors donated to the world, there has never been a banner or pop-up ad on the site, and Ghostery registers zero trackers. Because of this, I've made sure to support their store OFTEN. I've probably bought a dozen T-shirts from that site, and countless other things as well. If I'd gone a couple of months of enjoying their site, I'd eventually migrate over to the store to support them with some random purchase or another.
What I'm getting at is that you could probably do the same. You post weekend catch-it deals, but how about P-V merchandise to support the site? Get some T-shirts or coffee mugs or whatever made, post them on the site at a markup. I'd buy one. Hell, you've got hundreds of thousands of visitors per month here, so I'm sure other people would feel the same way.
Just some suggestions. You're already "doing the right thing" in the geeky internet sense, so I'd like to think that you'd have no problem getting readers to voluntarily pay to keep the site going. It might just take a little bit of merchandising or creative thinking.
Thanks guys.
but how about P-V merchandise to support the site? Get some T-shirts or coffee mugs or whatever made, post them on the site at a markup. I'd buy one. Hell, you've got hundreds of thousands of visitors per month here, so I'm sure other people would feel the same way.
Good thing to remember that it requires very big time for logistics. Someone need to make it, stock and ship.
Done
Done.
"Good thing to remember that it requires very big time for logistics. Someone need to make it, stock and ship."
@Vitaliy_Kiselev Shouldn't be that hard actually. Cafe Press and other online companies let you upload a design and then the customers can purchase that design on a t-shirt, a coffee mug, or whatever they want. I think the design used for the top of this website is great. You could probably upload and get it all set in less than an hour. Then make it a regular sticky at top of page, like the deals, and I bet you'd get a lot of people buying stuff to support the website. Here's link: http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/
In fact we made few not long ago
http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/photokina/coverage/t-shirts
Just want to remind that small but regular support is very important.
This month had been tough, spent timedigging deep into server admin tasks. Writing necessary small things. Plus ordering some things required for GH3 project.
Done :-) thanks!
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