That’s what I said on the chat. It’s my salary. However, 2521 people won’t pay, there’s the rub.
There have been lots of good suggestions here, I can’t really add any more to them. However as a networking site, I think this knocks spots off Facebook - it is ‘clean’ there are no silly time-wasting applications, and there are great interest groups. So I would be sorry to see it stop. I think the Flickr set up is good - you have a choice of what kind of service you want. I personally enjoy the limited free service,and have not really worried about taking out an annual membership - mind you if I post too many more photos without taking some off, I may have to reconsider.
So perhaps a combination of levels of membership as in Flickr, and seeking sponsorship and advertising revenue. Whatever you do, don’t do the same sort of thing as Anglo Info! That is good and very useful. It doesn’t need to be repeated. I think if you can maintain and develop something unique, that isn’t found elsewhere, then people may be more willing to pay something towards it.
Sorry that’s a bit of a ramble!
Hang in there guys, and thank you for the vision and the effort you have made in giving us something useful.
Linda
Hi, when I joined i commented on the need to create income stream, at that time there were no ads on the site!
If this was a purely social network advertising would be the only source of income, I for one would not pay to contribute to a site, I have no expectation of reward from my contributions.
That being said many members are using the site to post advertorials.
I therefore suggest that you operate a two tier system.
- Commercial members who are allowed to post on their business interests and
- Private members who cannot.
Private members who attempt to post thinly disguised adverts for their businesses should have the posts pulled.
Additional income could be generated if you linked to sites such as ‘preloved’ or similar in France, gain a % of the sale generated!
Agree than anybody who starts a new venture does this with the hope of it eventually becoming profit making.
Clearly the issue here is how the profit is derived.
For any business looking to introduce/increase its pricing you first look at what your competitors are doing:-
Are they profit making? How are they profit making?
Do they have advertising revenue?
What is the size of their forum membership?
What percentage of the membership forum regularly post?
What makes my service unique etc
Once you have this you need to try and quantify the value of your own offering against your competitors to see where you can and can not afford to make services chargeable.
Advertisers will pay based on the market size of the forum, so increasing and retaining the members of the forum has to be priority.
I think everybody has left good constructive feedback but there are prob only 20 or so people commenting on this thread so Catherine and James could use input from more readers to help them understand forum opinion?
Thanks Stephen. We really appreciate all the support we are getting. And the great ideas.
xx
ps see your group has another member. And I haven’t forgotten about meeting up - would like to see the eco musee too.
Chris
Not offensive at all, interesting discussion.
Re: hosting again, as you discuss ‘plans’ and ‘allocations’ then assuming you are on a shared server. This set up wouldn’t work for us, but not sure what James’ set up is, he might also be including fees to Ning as part of costs which is an important aspect of this type of development. Only James knows that!
Anyway I’m sure they appreciate your feedback above on advertising, its all useful to know.
Cheers
Suz
Hi Chris,
I expect the hosting includes costs like running a server, at least that’s what pushes our costs nearer to the 1000 euro mark, if you want to run a number of sites and you need a dedicated server then it’s normal to pay closer to 1000 than 100 (which is more like a hosting fee on a shared server where you can’t control the performance of the server).
Social network sites can be profitable (SFN is more than just a forum) but it depends on the effectiveness of the advertising & the size/growth of membership. Developing a site like SFN cannot be a primary source of income as it’s unlikely to make sufficient money to support a family in the medium term, but as a sideline it has the possibility to generate an income & support other revenue streams that James/Catharine come up with. Part of the problem of valuing websites like this is that you can’t easily account for any ‘knock on’ work/opportunities that the site gives to their other business activities/future ideas they may have.
Like any business idea there is a point where you have to decide it’s not worth investing in any further (be that financially or time/effort) but I’m sure Catharine/James have got a long way to go before they get to that point and there are other revenues that could be sought through the site.
SFN has a growing membership and it’s normal for people to view & not necessarily post their views as it depends on how you want to use SFN, over time these quiet members may contribute if something is particularly important to them, for now they are happy to read other’s content, which is good.
I know there are hundreds of regular content contributors on SFN & you only need to look in the different groups to see the conversations going on between members.
I understand your post was a ‘balance’ for James & Catharine but I think they are really looking for ideas to support the site as they already know they can’t continue indefinitely supporting SFN without a return or at the very minimum covering costs.
To all the other members out there reading this - if you have any ideas please share & as James has said before if you are running a business & you are gaining profitable clients through SFN please think to donate/advertise.
Suz
James, where did you see the donation thermometer, I’m looking for some code.
Thanks
j
Multistrand - one euro per membership of each group per year. A limited number of posts per month or small sub for unlimited plus Jame’s donations thermometer.
Good thoughts - thanks!
Let’s have a trip to Emmaus soon too? x
We will make sure we stay open then 
I had a blog on a community site once and loved it. When that site folded I lost the blog and my readers. I never recuperated the momentum from that first blog. I loved it! I now have a couple on blogger and there is nowhere near the readership I hod on the first blog. So there are real advantages to the blogs on SFN.
Mmm charging for blogging is difficult, I’d think I’d be honest and say I’d stop blogging on SFN. Whilst some of my blog posts have been business focused most of them are about my life in/out of France and the dilemmas we find ourselves in which I know others find interesting (from comments made).
Pure 100% business blogs (which act as adverts) you can argue should be chargeable (e.g listing a long list of domaines for sale with no relevant content/chat/commentary to support being a blog post) but its a grey line between those where members promote their business as part of a blog post whilst contributing useful information to the audience (e.g. Zone Bebe discussions). If blogging businesses know they are making money via SFN then hopefully they’ll donate part of their profits as advertising fees.
I have a website which also hasn’t covered its development/running costs I know we need to find ways of getting out there to be seen but as it’s not our main project at the moment I can’t pay to advertise it. If someday I breakeven this will change. So for now I contribute to SFN in content & ideas for free.
Hi,
I also agree with a system of charging for the blogging and extra services such as classified ads, services offered/wanted etc.
I am a member of a local forum to my area(Pau) and I can say the group diminished rapidly as soon as it was time to pay for renewal. Will I renew my subscription with them this year? No…
With my marketing head on I would suggest targeting marketing opportunities such:-
English type butchers/beer makers/hairdressers
Language schools
Estatge agents specialising in expat market
Tax experts
Basically all the services etc that we miss from the UK and seek whilst we are either here or planning our moves.
Another target for advertisers could be the UK/France specific removal companies and businesses that offer UK shopping etc delivered to France.
Can’t remember the website but basically you ask a question and state how much you would pay for the advice/correct answer and a professional in that field responds/contacts you. Perhaps this is an option with a percentage to SFN?
I agree that a blanket subscription for basic services such as leaving comments to threads etc would turn people off and SFN site would lose diversity and experience in its membership.
Thanks all - please keep them coming - this is all really helpful! xx
Hi both
I can totally understand the need to try and make some money from the site, all those hours of development are for a long term return but I think you need to achieve this without charging for membership.
The content users provide is free, so the members & their contributions are your assets, without a variety of people freely posting & making SFN interesting, lively and a daily updated site the numbers will decline rather than increase.
I personally think the key is your advertising & additional services which could be chargeable but for both of these generating a decent revenue (or just sufficient to cover development & hosting!) are highly reliant on membership numbers increasing signficantly.
I have some ideas which we’ll discuss together soon. Suz
Thanks everyone for your fantastic input / thoughts etc. etc. We really appreciate it. Cx
One forum I belong to has a banner at the top, saying 'xxx required to run this site for the month, yyy so far received), and invites members to contribute. Those who do get a little sign beside their names saying ‘I support the forum’. Well over half the regular membership contribute (I guess because they don’t want to appear stingy). Worth a try, before you make other more formal arrangements?
Just a thought.
sorry, English - tut, tut…