Donations!!!!

Just to give y'all al ittle bit of history of the Trawler Forum. *Doug and I did the whole "scribble on a napkin" thing at Chilis one afternoon. *I am not sure if I can claim it as my idea but that is what I am doing here... . *Doug took off with the idea and set the forum up since he is the more IT inclined of the two of us.*

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We started off small and the monthly fee for the hosting service was less than $15 dollar a month. *Which we did no have issue with letting go. *As traffic increases in the website, so does the cost of the hosting service. *So we had to figure a way to defray our costs. *The Google Adsense would have been perfect. *But they fired us due to "unauthorized activity"...people clicking for the sake of clicking. *Turns out we had a few non-trawler friends that thought they were doing us a favor. *We have also been agressively pursued by someone that wants to buy us and the conspiarcy theorist in Doug thinks that it might have been the guy that is interested. *In any event, Google fired us. *We do have an appeal pending.

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In the meantime, our monthly expenses continue to mount. *And the tab to date for the forum is well into the thousands....most of which has come out of Dougs pocket!!! *Which means I am on the hook for half of that amount....so help me out here!!!! *Help us out here!!!

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Hopefully this is a transient issue and we get a better way to fund the forum. *But in the meantime, we need to find a way to help with the costs. *Maybe if it is a resounnding success, we will keep it this way.

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The DONATE button is at the bottom of each page. *It will link you to PAYPAL and it will allow you to donate with any major credit card or a PAYPAL account if you have one.

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Any donation will be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!!

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Thank you!!!

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John and Doug


-- Edited by Baker on Wednesday 6th of April 2011 12:22:44 PM

Ttt

PayPal now owes you money, many thanks for everything you and Doug do to keep this site going!

Hi Guys: I have donated and wish you all well!!! Bill

Thanks guys. It is greatly appreciated!!!!

keep going, i donated and it was a pleasure.

I'm in and lovin it.
Thanks for the great site guys.

Benn

Happy to contribute. *Thanks for all the work guys.

*

Mike

Brookings, Oregon

Baker, can you give us an idea of what a monthly goal would be? Think you could have a thread that tracks it? Because TBH (and I know I'll start a flame war here... please don't take this the wrong way) I'm ok with us covering your costs for running the site with a little bit of take home for y'all, but I am uncomfortable with you making much of profit off of it. The reason being that we have kept others away from trying to promote commercial business here, so it only seems fair (to me) that we all live by that. That's all I'm sayin'.


-- Edited by GonzoF1 on Wednesday 6th of April 2011 08:23:23 PM

Have you considered using another hosting company?

I use dreamhost.com for a busy nonprofit site I run. For organizations with nonprofit status they're free.* I also use them for my own web pages.* Performance and reliablity is good, support is great.* I probably wouldn't run a busy commercial site with them.

I have no association with the company other than having been their customer for more than a decade.

Bob
Devefer 34
La Conner, WA




-- Edited by bobc on Wednesday 6th of April 2011 10:16:49 PM

Glad to help.* Let us know if you need more help.

I donated a bit over $25 a year. Seems fair. Now that I've bellied up to the bar I better get out there and burn up some space.

GonzoF1 wrote:
Baker, can you give us an idea of what a monthly goal would be? Think you could have a thread that tracks it? Because TBH (and I know I'll start a flame war here... please don't take this the wrong way) I'm ok with us covering your costs for running the site with a little bit of take home for y'all, but I am uncomfortable with you making much of profit off of it. The reason being that we have kept others away from trying to promote commercial business here, so it only seems fair (to me) that we all live by that. That's all I'm sayin'.



-- Edited by GonzoF1 on Wednesday 6th of April 2011 08:23:23 PM

Click to expand...

*First off, thank all of you that have donated.

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And Gonzo, there is a way of doing what you are asking. *I don't know if I agree with your premise......but, trust me, we are not getting rich...quite the opposite in fact. *Our ultimate goal at this point is to get back what we have put in. *When we reach that goal(Thousands!!!), then we can talk about running this site on a "break even" basis based on donations. *And Gonzo, I think I understand the intent of your post....you don't think it would be fair for us to profit from donations alone and I agree. *I would not feel right making a profit from donations. *

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Bob, thanks for the reference and we will look into it.

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Thanks again folks. *Y'all's help is greatly appreciated!!!!!!!

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What happend to the ads?* I thought that was doing to off set some of the cost?

GonzoF1 wrote:
....but I am uncomfortable with you making much of profit off of it.

Click to expand...

* * * * Geez!!!* I can't believe this!

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We donated too!... *a worth while endeavor from my point of view!

Happy to donate, any suggestions on amounts?

I chipped in 25.00. Boatdiesel asks that for a year subscription, although they do have a lot of ads which can be perused or not, and it's well worth it. I get that out of this site but I'm sure any amount is better than the alternative.
I guess Doug and John will have to let us know as this progresses.

That's right John. If you want to take this sight commercial and sell ad space and make a ton of money on it... That would be awesome... and I'd still come every day as I do now because of the people here. However, honestly, I think the content will suffer as it become driven by things other than just passionate boaters. But as a donation-only site? It makes me a tad uncomfortable. It's like giving to the SPCA or the Red Cross and having the organization just put the profit in their pocket. I dunno... maybe I'm off my rocker. Currently, I see this more as a community organization and not a business site, but I'm ok with that changing. I'm not trying to make a political or social(ist) statement here. It's how *I* see it. You guys are my friends, so I thought I would share it. I donated... I'll just step aside now.

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The cost for joining the*MTOA*is $95.00 US.... I really enjoy reading the posts on the forum so we want these guys to keep it going!

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I threw in and am glad to do it. Well worth the money, if you ask me. Baker, maybe you guys can run some numbers and let us know what is needed to cover expenses on an annual basis. That and the number of active members would help us know what to contribute.

Thanks for all you both do to keep this site up and running. It's a part of my daily surf...often several times a day.

This is a no brainer. I am in and happy to support it.

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In my opinion, I don't need to know how much it takes to keep this site alive. If it can't be supported by ads, then it needs to have a subscription fee. It's really none of my business what the $$$ involved are.* When you sell a product, you don't give out all your data to your customers. You tally up your costs, attach the appropriate mark up and that's the price! The market decides whether or not it wants your service/product. Although I think John and Doug's intentions (to make this a free site) were very noble, the site can't survive without* donations or subscription fees. BoatDiesel has different plateaus for different fees.

Whether or not these monies make John & Doug millionaires or not is none of my business. All I need to know is whether or not I get value out of* the monies donated or subscribed.

*

I think Walt summed it up pretty well.
It's nice it was free but I realize that the costs must be mounting past the point af a few bucks for fun for Doug and John and any others involved in starting the site.
Hopefully they can drum up some ads also. It's that or some combination of fees and ads or I'm guessing there will no longer be a site because they can no longer afford to pay for it.

To Be - or - Not To Be... That IS The Question

A Private for Profit Business; where books are completely closed or A Communal Non-Profit Business; where books are wide open... I believe that is the primary quandry for Trawler Forum!

Hello Webmasters!* Appreciating your Trawler Forum I recently jumped aboard on*2/9/11.* Its a pleasure to read/place entries and see/place picts while interacting with a bunch of cool members; and to learn things too!* That said... Being a life-long entrepreneur and believing that most (if not all boating forums should be non-profit) I feel you could calculate and provide a recommended per member/contributor donation $$$ target.* Goes without saying too often: All biz operations (profit or non-profit) need at minimum to maintain $$ breakeven... or broke they go!*

Herein I offer a simple layout for a trust based non-profit Trawler Forum that should be able to maintain financial viability while paying reasonable wage to the active webmasters.* This formula of course relies on the circumstances of: Webmaster cleverness to keep costs down / Number of annually contributing members / Whether or not those two items can result in a recommended $$*donation level that contributors feel affordable (of course in a non-profit*any contributor could donate more or less $$*than the recommended donation amount).* By the webmasters, the donation level suggested would hopefully be affordable enough so that new contributing members would be willing to join in for*the forum fun. *
1.**** For first fiscal year: Estimate total annual cost to run the forum website make detail-itemized excel (or other type) spread sheet with the cost total at end of item calcs (including a reasonable itemized income for webmaster efforts)
2.**** Learn the number of current members who are willing to participate in donating divide that number into the estimated total cost = your recommended $$ donation per contributing first year member.* Post that recommended donation $$ amount and ask for all who agree with that donation $$ amount to*post so*on that thread... that way you should be able to learn within a couple weeks if you can keep the forum financially afloat via donations alone.* If so, and you want to keep the forum alive ask everyone who answered yes to donate the recommended amount... or more!*
3.**** As new members come in during first fiscal year add their donation into the sites savings bank account which you can establish under your name to keep away from a costly biz license for the site; because after all this is a simple non-profit operation!
4.**** Upon beginning of second fiscal year, provide any member with access (if a member were to request same) to basic spread sheet results from the first year and for the second year adjust the forums annual recommended donation per member to a $$ amount that you feel will keep annual forum costs cared for.
5.**** Repeat fiscally/annually with recommended donation $$ amount adjustments as needed so forum $$ needs are cared for.* Spread sheet of previous year at beginning of each year should be available to members who request to see same.
6.**** I believe to help make and keep Trawler Forum its most productive, with the highest number of member/contributors, that the recommended $$ donation level should be kept as affordable as possible.

Thats a basic KISS non-profit business model scenario, adjust as desired!* Trust is a prime factor in an open organization such as this!!* There are ways to attract new donating members... the participating donating members are your best bet for word of mouth... the most useful, at times most productive, and least expensive advertising medium in existence.

BTW As an example:

Tollycraft Forum (to which I am, as all others are,*member at no charge) accepts anyone who owns, used to own, seeks to own, is willing to own or would like to discuss Tollycraft* boats; basically no other boat types are ever chatted about and no forum fee is charged to anyone the forum has no popup or other*intrusive ads.* Its format and operations are overseen by rotating execs from the Tollycraft Boating Club, to which I am a paying member.* But, a member to the forum need not be a member of the Boating Club... most forum members do not belong to Tollycraft Boating Club and therefore do not pay a dime to belong to and participate in the Tolly forum.* There is one forum sector re selling privately owned Tolly/boat parts that only Tollycraft Boating Club members have access to.* All other forum sectors are open access*to any forum member

Good luck in figuring how to keep Trawler Forum up and running.* Ill keep my eyes open to see availability to your spread sheet on estimated first year costs, number of members who will participate and your requested donation $$ amount per participant.

Best regards, Art

Avista wrote:
Happy to donate, any suggestions on amounts?

Click to expand...

*I sent $50.00. $25 for me and $25 for Marin.

Ken

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I find a lot of value in the information shared here. Donated gladly. Thanks to all the members including those that have not posted lately.

Fellow TrawlerForum members and guests,

John and I started this site over 3 years ago as a hobby.* We never expected it to make* us rich.* We still don't.* However, our little hobby and our 100 or so friends quickly grew to a level that started to look awfully red on paper.

There is a ton of free stuff on the internet, and there is a ton of stuff that costs $$$.* Some of it, too much $$$.* John and I are personaly not real crazy about advertising.* We tried to go with the Google AdSense and we all know how that worked out.* It was easy, it was going to give us enough money to operate the site at a slight profit, and we didn't have to seek funds elsewhere.

Enough of you are "voting" with the Donate button to probably keep this site ad-free.* That's the way I like it, maybe Baker feels the same way.* We really do appreciate those that have contributed with words and with $$$.* We will never charge to post on this site.

The bottom line is...if you don't want to donate...we do not have a problem with that.* Those with the contribution of good dialog and wisdom will always be welcome here.

However, we have been receiving a lot of donations and we really do appreciate it.* THANK YOU!

One thing you will never see is a Donate Button AND Advertising.* One or the other has to fund this site.* Never both.

Old Stone wrote:Some of the "suggestions" or comments about how to raise some money reminds me of the person who goes to dinner with a bunch of people, orders the most food, drinks the most liquor, then suggest everyone chips in the same amount.

Click to expand...

You guys can *criticize* (fixed ) my take on this all you want, but let's not get personal. To use the anaology you mentioned... The way I see it is that for the mods to make a ton of money off a free site is like going to the same dinner with a bunch of people. Everybody throws money in the pot to cover the bill. The person that collects all the money realizes there is way too much in the pot, but then just pockets the rest for himself. Does that make more sense to y'all?

Now leave me alone about this.

*


-- Edited by GonzoF1 on Saturday 9th of April 2011 06:35:50 AM

dougd1 wrote:
Fellow TrawlerForum members and guests,

John and I started this site over 3 years ago as a hobby.* We never expected it to make* us rich.* We still don't.* However, our little hobby and our 100 or so friends quickly grew to a level that started to look awfully red on paper.

There is a ton of free stuff on the internet, and there is a ton of stuff that costs $$$.* Some of it, too much $$$.* John and I are personaly not real crazy about advertising.* We tried to go with the Google AdSense and we all know how that worked out.* It was easy, it was going to give us enough money to operate the site at a slight profit, and we didn't have to seek funds elsewhere.

Enough of you are "voting" with the Donate button to probably keep this site ad-free.* That's the way I like it, maybe Baker feels the same way.* We really do appreciate those that have contributed with words and with $$$.* We will never charge to post on this site.

The bottom line is...if you don't want to donate...we do not have a problem with that.* Those with the contribution of good dialog and wisdom will always be welcome here.

However, we have been receiving a lot of donations and we really do appreciate it.* THANK YOU!

One thing you will never see is a Donate Button AND Advertising.* One or the other has to fund this site.* Never both.

Click to expand...

*Very perfectly put!!!

And no worries, Gonzo. *We understood your intent and we appreciate very much your participation on here!!!! *BTW, I will criticize the way you spelled critisize!!!

Thanks all of you for your support!!!

*


-- Edited by Baker on Saturday 9th of April 2011 04:48:12 AM