New Membership Options

The problem had nothing to do with anyone gaining on anyone.. like I said... but whatever gets you gears grinding.

Sounds like an extremely generous offer. Maybe an added requirement could be a minimum number of pics to the gallery.

Re. the p.m storage problem maybe we can help by voluntarily deleting pms we don't want (or need) to keep and transferring the ones we do offsite (via the above suggested methods).

It was suggested to have two e-mail accounts earlier. If for some reason you want two e-mail accounts that is fine, but on both hotmail and yahoo, you can send an e-maiol to the same address that you will receive it from as in send it to yourself.

Sounds good because as I understand it I'd automatically get Gold Membership, however my conscience forces me to say that's going to lose you money, rather than buy a gold membership people will just bang a load of fake pics on and drivel on endlessly in the threads rather than part with money.

Hello Rob E, thanks very much for asking us all these questions.

I'm a gold member, and I love this site.

HOWEVER, I'm worried about a few things with the proposed changes...

-- people posting inane or stupid posts in order to meet the volume requirement (this would make the forums less enjoyable for everyone else)

-- I wish that new/unpaid people wouldn't have so much PM access -- I'm sick of all the "hi, great tits, do you c2c" pm's that I get) (people can cruise along on "20" pm's for a long time if they keep deleting their in/sent messages)

-- Being an exhibitionist, I would love it if more people could view my pics in "large" format... I just wish it wasn't so easy for them to send me stupid pm's

I've only been a member for a month but already have 800+ forum posts and over 12,000 views of my gallery pics. This makes me a strange mixture of "newbie" and "experienced user" -- and I'd like to make some suggestions in case they're useful:

A) This web site is addictive. If you "Market" it like an addictive property, the revenues might go up.

B) As an owner of a web site business (for KIDS, ok?!) I sometimes make the mistake of underpricing things and making the prices too low. DON'T UNDERVALUE OR UNDERSELL yourself. People have more money than you think!

So what is "addictive" marketing? It's getting them well and truly hooked before demanding payment. Some of the most popular addictive strategies are..

ONE MONTH FREE!! (You get the credit card or paypal or googlecash account information at the beginning, but then don't charge anything for a month... and then sock it to them. If the charge goes through, they have continued acces. If the charge doesn't go through, they get reduced access until they give you another method of payment)

FIRST MONTH ONLY "x" (make it some ridiculously low price) if they sign up for "x" membership to be processed at a later date. (This has the advantage of getting SOME money coming in the door while you "incubate" the additictions)

or: give them run of the mill for a week and then pull the rug out from under them.

- - - - - - -

I'm really worried about people "earning" top level membership for free. I'm worried that revenues will disappear, and that will negatively impact the site (and therefore my ability to enjoy it).

Please please please... people have more money than you think. Do not undersell yourself and do not run the web site as a "charity" !!!

I'd have to agree that the number of posts (500/1000) is way too low. I'd rather see something like 1,250/2500.

I'd have a free membership that would have limited access to the number of forums:

Free membership = 3 forums (etc etc, celebrity and relationship) for example.

Paid membership gets access to all forums immediately and PM's. Premium membership gets to all forums, chat, PM's and all galleries.

Tossing out numbers here, let's say that a paid membership is $7.50 a month that's like 2 cups of coffee at Starbucks per month and premium membership is $11.00 a month that's less than a Pizza Hut Special per month.

Once someone gets to the required level, whatever you choose to set it at (I think the 500/1000 IS to low) then they can get 50% off once they hit the first level (3.75 a month for paid membership and 5.50 for premium) and an additional 25% once they hit the next level (1.88 for paid and 2.75 for premium). If someone pays annually, they get 10% off. Then when they hit the required level and pay annually they get 60% off the first level and then an additional 35% off the next level.

For the free memberships, once they hit the required amount of posts they can get the discounts if they want to become paying members. For the free memberships, I'd give them an opportunity, once a month, to vary which forums they can get access too. Or, if you want, free memberships get access to all forums but no galleries, no chat and no PM's for one month. Then, after the one month, they can decide which forums they want access too and that can change on a monthly basis.

Finally, I think you undercharge for the service that you provide. I think a reasonable price, that you determine would bring a better value to the product. On the flip side, as part of the TOS, if a person is banned they get no refund of monies and I would make the reason for the ban public.


Thanks,

Sklar

I like the idea, but along others I'd roll with higher thresholds, combined with a sliding discount (if that's possible).

Some form of assessment of the 'standard' of posts to ensure they have actually been posts, not mere 'one liners' rushed out to reach a threshold would be ideal, but probably not very practical.

All this sounds good to me!

My only quibble, though, is that maybe some sort of dispensation could be made for those of us who actually have large penises? I haven't read the whole thread, so please let me know if this has already been brought up, but under the proposed new system rewards are given (and justly so) to those who pay or post a certain amount of posts. Again, that's as it should be. But those of us who actually are well endowed and who have been posting for a while (albeit in my case sporadically throughout the years) and are looking for advice and support, should hopefully receive something--a few extra pm's or something, no? After all, to paraphrase the immortal words of Starship, we built this city on cock and balls

Anyway, I'm just kind of musing aloud before I jet off to work. Thanks for everything you do, Rob.

Have to agree with Monstro at least part of the way on this. I've posted here since before you bought the site Rob, but don't have a huge post count as I tend to choose my replies and words carefully. I'd be a bit sad to only have access to 3 of the forums without paying. I don't use the PM system much anyway, so it's not much of an issue for me.

If you post a photo with a verification sign, then you would get free Gold Membership (under the new plan).

Again, you can verify your gallery for free access.

I think it is critical to keep the system simple, otherwise people will balk. I don't like the idea of denying general forums to non-paying members. However, I planned a Silver/Gold only forum for paying members. You (and hotmilf) mention the PM use. This is interesting, and probably the biggest free feature worth paying for. Perhaps I could add a third, Bronze, level of membership that would be like $3 per month, but would include PM use up to say 100 stored messages. Bronze could also be attainable at a low level of posts, say 200 and, of course, with verified gallery photos/videos. This would keep newbies from sending PMs. Not sure on this one, but worth some more discussion.

Re: PM access, see above. Perhaps it shouldn't be for everyone by default.
With the new system a lot more people would have access to the gallery at full size.
The problem I see with the one month free, etc. is that people will keep re-registering once the month expires. Also, I think that having a low first month and then an automatic second month is a little deceptive, as many folks who leave the site may forget to cancel their membership.
If this new system results in significant loss of revenue, then I'll have to change it back. However, the theory is that more people will pay less and that the lost revenue will be made up on volume.

My experience is that this isn't the case. If someone were posting crap just to get their post count up, then they would clearly be trolling and would be banned. However, I have found in similar situations that folks continue posting real posts, only more people posts because they want to reach the next level. I think more people posting is generally better.

I agree that the 500/1000 limit is way too low.I think that's excellent. New joins should have a limited posting privelege, regardless of having paid or not. That would encourage a "think-before-you-post" mindset.

That wouldn't be terribly fair to the ladies among us, would it?

I think rewarding anyone simply on the basis of post numbers is a recipe for disaster, Rob. As someone who has been here since the Yahoo Group days, the influx of posters who as jeff says, fill the site with countless random posts, has been the single most pernicious factor in the deterioration of the LPSG. I have recently been attacked by a troll who joined last year and yet already has amassed a tally of 3,878 posts! If even 10% of his posts were of any interest [which they are not] their total would still be greater than my 317 posts since 2003!
Although I do not have a model for improving revenue at LPSG, and would love to help you formulate one, I do believe that there must be a way of rewarding quality rather than quantity.

Hilarious! That is the first time anyone has ever accused me of being a troll. Ooh, now it's 3,879.

Hello Rob E -- I'd like to make another suggestion:

Instead of having a "Silver Membership" level, why don't you let people pick and choose the features they WANT to use, and then charge, say, $2.00 a month for those features with price breaks for buying chunks of time.

Here's how it would work:

When it gets right down to it, this site basically has nine features:

Features that could probably always be free:
-- Being able to see the galleries as thumbnails
-- Being able to READ the threads in the forums

Premium features that people would probably pay for:
-- Being able to see the galleries as LARGE pics
-- Being able to post your own pictures in the galleries
-- Being able to send and receive PMs
-- Being able to post replies in the "Large Penis Encounters" forums
-- Being able to post replies in the "Discussion" forums
-- Custom avatar
-- Support (name change, etc.)

Not everybody uses ALL the features, and people would probably prefer to be able to pick and choose features.

And then you have a package deal where they get everything for the Gold membership price as you already laid it out.

*** of course, if this would be a nightmare to program, then skip the idea!

In any case, if I were you I would also....

-- I got what you just posted about "addictive marketing" -- thanks very much for commenting. Yes there are pitfalls. No system is perfect, but it was LOSS of the big pics that kicked me up to getting the Gold membership. I was like, where did it go?!!! I wanna see the big pictures! Maybe give them 7 days run of the mill (with reduced pm/posting capability) and then pull the rug out from under them.

-- Allow people to easily UPGRADE their membership to Gold. In other words, if they bought a Silver Membership (or two-features) for three or six months, and within 45 days they said to themselves, you know, I might as well "go for the Gold", well let them apply what they already paid toward upgrading to a Gold membership. You could also program an email campaign that automatically sends at least three email alerts to people saying, Hey... your 45 days is coming up... do you wanna Go for the Gold?


Long term members:

Putting in a new payment system can sometimes alienate long term loyal members.

Because you do have a lot of long term members who have been enjoying a lot of functions pretty much for free, you COULD give long term and/or high post members a one-time-only price break and/or automatic Gold Status for "x" amount of time.

It's not going to hurt you financially right now as these people haven't been giving you money anyway.


No automatic membership upgrades:

But repeat memberships are a HUGE part of any online business's revenue stream, so I wouldn't do automatic memberships. People DO understand that it costs money to run a site, and they don't usually begrudge you that money.

Also, it might hurt your new memberships - people might hold back paying while they rack up postings. That would harm your finances AND the quality of postings in the forums.

Maybe a reduced price for repeat membership for high-post members.


(Sorry if I'm repeating myself -- I really want the site to do well!)
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I don't know exactly how all of this works, but... Would you have or save more memory or whatever you're looking to achieve, besides the extra revenue, if you deleted members that have had no activity on their account? Say for the last 6 months or so. Would this help with the issue?