CC Plans - Generating revenue from CC

[Shaun]

CC has grown beyond all my initial expectations, and over the past few years has slowly and steadily demanded more time and resources to keep it running.

As far back as 18 months ago I began a plan to wind down my web design company so I could put all my resources into CC. By the end of this month I will have moved all my previous web hosting clients off the CC server, leaving it free to serve-up CC to you lovely lot, and giving me the freedom to concentrate on adding more features and content to the site.

Now that CC has the resources it needs, it also needs to earn its keep so I'm also going to add CycleChat to the business account and begin to operate it as enterprise.

I've thought long and hard about how to generate revenue because we've always operated CC as a community site and I didn't want to do anything to change that.


I've come up with a number of schemes that I think will work alongside what we've already got without spoiling it or making CC seem too commercial:

• CC Extras - a paid annual subscription that adds extra features to your existing CC user account, such as extra large PM mailbox, larger avatar and profile picture, and a few other bits and bobs.
• Donations - an option for those who want to contribute on an as-and-when basis. No minimum, no schedule, just there if anyone wants to use it.
• CC Shop with affiliate links - for things like cycling books and DVDs, etc. You buy via the CC shop links and CC gets a small commission. There's no obligation to use it, but if you're planning on buying something and the price is right in the CC shop, you can do your bit for CC whilst getting what you want for yourself. We both win.
• Banner / text ads - these are currently in place for guests, and whilst I've considered also putting them in place for everyone, I've decided to hold off for now to see how the other options work out.

They aren't all in place yet, but once they are I'll add a new link to the navigation bar so everyone can access them. I'll also put periodic reminders across the site to give you all a gentle nudge now and again ...

Hopefully you won't find that it interferes with the day-to-day operation of CC and most of you won't even know they're there.

There are also other possibilities that are not practical whilst I'm still running CC in my spare time, but maybe in the long term that might change too ...

Thank you all for making CC into the site it is and for your continued support, it's much appreciated.

CycleChat - Powered by cyclists! (TM)

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[dellzeqq]

I wish you well with this...

have you (or would you) consider selling CTC memberships for a cut of the first year's subs?

 

[andyfromotley]

i personally wouldnt mind some moderate advertising on the members section shaun.
Additionally i think a beefed up properly organised bike review section would be a huge driver for traffic to the site (and i assume advertising revenues with it). Most people buying a first new bike want reviews and opinions about them, lots of them will use the net to find it, if you could tap into that then you could be onto a winner. I have had some thoughts on this which i can chat over with you if you wish. a donate facility would be good.

as with dell best wishes anyway.

 

[Shaun]

I wish you well with this...

have you (or would you) consider selling CTC memberships for a cut of the first year's subs?

Thanks for the positive feedback.

Si ... interesting idea. I'm not quite sure what format the shop is going to take at the moment so I'll get back to you once I've got the framework in place. Anything that offers value to members and puts a little into the CC pot sounds good to me.

Andy - I'm currently looking at installing a CMS to wrap around the forums to build a "site" where we can create sections for all sorts of things; reviews, knowledgebase, guides, rides and routes, etc. but with the difference being we all create the content ourselves.

I'll post more about these as I get them into place.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[marinyork]

I think 2 and 3 are good ideas and should have been done a little while ago, but there you go. I think I've said before I think that the problem about the donate feature in the past is not that some people are tight but that like we have with CC gear, some people just miss it or have better times than others under the narrow time window. A continuous donation engine sorts out this problem. I know some sites were earning a fair bit of their upkeep from things like amazon but I'd try and diversify a bit - I'm sure you will do this.

I wish you well with this too - although I hope more features means the return of the chat room one day . I think if it is regular user generated content for reviews and stuff this would likely rival anything out there.

 

[nigelb]

How about showing banner adverts etc to those not paying to subscribe?

That way, those who pop in occasionally for a hand can still get full access, but those who use the site frequently can opt out of adverts (for a small fee).

Donations are great - if nothing else it'll show you how much people care! - but I wouldn't bet the future security of the site on them ;-)
Related, but does anyone have surplus gear they wouldn't mind donating, for an online auction? Might not raise a huge amount of money, but would certainly raise the profile of the site needing to pay its way.

Nige

 

[Norm]

Related, but does anyone have surplus gear they wouldn't mind donating, for an online auction? Might not raise a huge amount of money, but would certainly raise the profile of the site needing to pay its way.

We do that in the Buell group, have a big auction at the Christmas dinner with the proceeds paying for the server space for the next year. Even though only 50-odd people attend the dinner, it makes over a grand.

We also, about 3 years ago, created a CMS site (through phpBB) which created a complete monster which is now only manageable by database geeks. Previously, anyone with a knowledge of HTML (like me!) could create, upload, amend or delete anything on the site. After implementing a CMS "solution", we were handcuffed into whatever the database developers thought was the right thing.

Turned out that our mistake was not realising that the developer's definition of "solution" was "something which creates problems".

Affiliate links might not work well. I've seen examples of posts and opinions being pulled because they didn't tie with the "message" which the corporate sponsors wanted to go with their products. As an extreme example, what would have to be changed to get Halfords to pay money to get their logo in a links page?

Unfortunately, I think that subscriptions will change the nature of the place. As soon as you create two classes, you create artificial divisions. I can't imagine that it would take long for someone to use the "you don't even pay for the place, WTF makes you think that you can comment" argument.

You could also see how people feel from the negative raft of comments about the "I'm a CC'er" banner. My sig line has a relevance here, many (most?) people don't want to brag about being a subscriber. You will also get some who can't pay, for whatever reason, who resent being considered an outsider.

However, whilst subs will change the nature of the place, it's down to the members (suitably directed by our benevolent dictator in the shape of Shaun the Admin ) whether that works out a good or a bad thing.

Brain dumps and personal experiences. Hope that it all works out right.

 

[Shaun]

Unfortunately, I think that subscriptions will change the nature of the place. As soon as you create two classes, you create artificial divisions. I can't imagine that it would take long for someone to use the "you don't even pay for the place, WTF makes you think that you can comment" argument.

You could also see how people feel from the negative raft of comments about the "I'm a CC'er" banner. My sig line has a relevance here, many (most?) people don't want to brag about being a subscriber. You will also get some who can't pay, for whatever reason, who resent being considered an outsider.

However, whilst subs will change the nature of the place, it's down to the members (suitably directed by our benevolent dictator in the shape of Shaun the Admin ) whether that works out a good or a bad thing.

This is why the subs are tied to account "features" rather than access to any specific areas.

I had thought about a forum specifically for subscribers, but that would create the us-and-them scenario you talk about above and that wouldn't fit with the community ethos we try to foster and maintain.

Everyone still has the same access rights, no one has to pay-to-view, and everyone who posts makes a contribution to the site. Without the posts, we simply wouldn't have a site, so they are by far the most valuable commodity we have.

Hopefully no one will feel in any way inferior because of the new revenue streams and since members are no longer identified as subscribers I would hope the methods I've chosen can sit within the forums without getting in anyone's way. There are no obligations on anyone to pay anything and everyone still has access to everything they had yesterday so I don't really see it being a problem.

At the same time, subscribers are moderated and treated the same as everyone else because their subscription is for account features and doesn't infer any special priviledges so there are no first/second class CC'ers - just plain old CC'ers ...

It's all still a big work in progress; some things will work, others won't, but hopefully we can fund CC in a way that doesn't make anyone feel bad.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Norm]

 

[HJ]

...

have you (or would you) consider selling CTC memberships for a cut of the first year's subs?

Have Shaun?

I am thinking of joining CTC and would sign up though CC, to help with the CC running costs.

 

[Shaun]

It's on the to-do list ... ... (which gets longer every week ... lol)

I'm hopefully going to get the donation plug-in sorted this week and then I'll look next week at building the affiliate links / shop thingy.

I'll post an announcement when I do finally get everything in place.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[MacB]

It's on the to-do list ... ... (which gets longer every week ... lol)

I'm hopefully going to get the donation plug-in sorted this week and then I'll look next week at building the affiliate links / shop thingy.

I'll post an announcement when I do finally get everything in place.

Cheers,
Shaun

Nah, just surprise us with another dramatic change, helps to keep the juices flowing

 

[redjedi]

Have you thought about using a website like Zazzle.co.uk to sell CC merchandise?

You wouldn't need to fork out for stock and you get commission on each sale. They aren't always the cheapest but you could have a range of items from postcards and stickers all the way up to t-shirts and shoes, so there would be something that most people could afford.

It wouldn't need to always be CC related but cycling related in general. There are always nice photos floating around which members could donate to the cause, or people could design stuff for you to sell.

Aperitif could have his own range of pun t-shirts

Quickly glancing at it, zazzle pay 10% of each sale to the shop owner, although the items aren't exactly cheap to start with. There may be a better site with cheaper items.

Cafe Press is another one

 

[andrew_s]

CC Shop with affiliate links - for things like cycling books and DVDs, etc. You buy via the CC shop links and CC gets a small commission. There's no obligation to use it, but if you're planning on buying something and the price is right in the CC shop, you can do your bit for CC whilst getting what you want for yourself. We both win.

Can I suggest you modify the intro text to suggest that people change their normal shop site bookmarks to the same URL as the CC Shop link? (i.e "http://www.wiggle.co.uk/?ReferID=CYCLECHAT" or whatever)

That way you automatically appear to come from CC even when you haven't. Saves remembering every time.

 

[Shaun]

Can I suggest you modify the intro text to suggest that people change their normal shop site bookmarks to the same URL as the CC Shop link? (i.e "http://www.wiggle.co.uk/?ReferID=CYCLECHAT" or whatever)

That way you automatically appear to come from CC even when you haven't. Saves remembering every time.

Done ... thanks.