How Forumotion Can Generate Revenues

Heres a list of options on what Forumotion CAN do to generate a revenue:

• Create tons of more features. This suggestion category has tons of users ideas that they have suggested for weeks, months and even years ago and is still not available on forumotion forums. Create these additional features and have forum founders pay a 1 time fee using credits to have those features on their forum. The idea is kinda like buying apps for your iPod Touch or something only this can be Forumotions store for buying new features. Perhaps even allow 3rd party companies to come in and make features for a price as well.
  

• For all NEW comers to Forumotion(with the exception of current forum founders), have them pay an annual fee of $5-$10 a year for their forum. However, please provide a deadline of when forumotion will stop providing free forums. For example:
  

  Visit Forumotion.com before January, 1st 2011 to create your forum FREE! Anyone making a new forum after Jan 1st 2011 will be set up on a 1 month free trial with the option to discontinue operating their forum or automatically have a 1 time annual fee of $5-$10 withdrawn from the founders CC(credit card) they provided to continue operating their forum!

  Of course, this suggestion needs to be backed up by GREAT support on Forumotions behalf.
  

• Create & Sell some forum Themes for like $1 each. More advanced themes can be $2-$3. This is good for newcomers who wish to set up there forum with a preset FREE theme OR go for more professional looking themes for $1-$3 each.
  

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Heres a list of options on what Forumotion SHOULDN'T do to generate a revenue:

• Forumotion should never (again) embed ADs on our forums that look unprofessional, annoying, distracting, offensive, etc... Especially without any prior notice to it. Clearly you guys attempted that and you can see how much in disagreement we are with that idea. It will make people sign up to another forum provider.
  

• Forumotion should never at any point force you to make a purchase all because a change was made on our forum and the only way to rid it or modify it is to make some type of purchase.
  

• Forumotion should never sell user information to 3rd party companies for any reason at all.
  

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Well these are my suggestions as to how Forumotion can generate revenues and what they shouldn't do to generate revenues. If you agree with these suggestions, Please vote 'Yes'. If you have more suggestions to add to this idea please do so. Thanks.

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*EDIT: So I've seen some complaints already, well ask yourself this, would you rather pay $5-$10 a year to have your forum and with NO ADs for ALL members AND guest? OR have your forum free and have to pay $20+ a year to have no bright flashy offensive ADs on your forum?

Have you gone absolutely mad? Forumotion has been and always will be a free forum host, making users pay for forum hosting is ridiculous, especially when you can't even touch your database. This defeats the purpose of even using Forumotion!

I think removal of ads is an acceptable thing to pay for as long as the hosting is free and we get all these great features. And honestly if you're not willing to spend pocket change once a year then I really wouldn't go around calling your forum professional...

Voted no because this has to be the most ludicrous suggestion in Forumotion history.

LH Justin wrote:Have you gone absolutely mad? Forumotion has been and always will be a free forum host, making users pay for forum hosting is ridiculous, especially when you can't even touch your database. This defeats the purpose of even using Forumotion!

I think removal of ads is an acceptable thing to pay for as long as the hosting is free and we get all these great features. And honestly if you're not willing to spend pocket change once a year then I really wouldn't go around calling your forum professional...

Voted no because this has to be the most ludicrous suggestion in Forumotion history.

I agree it's a wild idea, I hardly even agree with that suggestion, but is that the only part of the suggestion u read? Seriously, forumotion seems to be so caught up in trying to make a profit that we're becoming the casualties of 'test' that affects our forums personally. Idk what else they can do to make a profit without it affecting our forums.

Also, if you think $20+ a year just to have no ads on your site is "pocket change" then what makes your forum any more professional if you can't handle a $5 a year fee to have the forum itself?

SPADEZ wrote:

LH Justin wrote:Have you gone absolutely mad? Forumotion has been and always will be a free forum host, making users pay for forum hosting is ridiculous, especially when you can't even touch your database. This defeats the purpose of even using Forumotion!

I think removal of ads is an acceptable thing to pay for as long as the hosting is free and we get all these great features. And honestly if you're not willing to spend pocket change once a year then I really wouldn't go around calling your forum professional...

Voted no because this has to be the most ludicrous suggestion in Forumotion history.

I agree it's a wild idea, I hardly even agree with that suggestion, but is that the only part of the suggestion u read? Seriously, forumotion seems to be so caught up in trying to make a profit that we're becoming the casualties of 'test' that affects our forums personally. Idk what else they can do to make a profit without it affecting our forums.

Also, if you think $20+ a year just to have no ads on your site is "pocket change" then what makes your forum any more professional if you can't handle a $5 a year fee to have the forum itself?

Well it's these ads that keep Forumotion in business, and I'd rather have ads than have to pay for my forum. What if someone doesn't have the money to keep their forum? Do they just lose it? If they charge a fee for the forum itself then people might as well move to more flexible host.

Besides, they're not that big of a deal.

I voted No..
You don't want to pay to remove ads but are willing to pay for themes, extras and a flat yearly fee? Doesn't make any sense to me. All that would nickle and dime you to death. As LH says, forumotion provides forums for people that can't afford to pay for all that. Ads are a small price to pay for the service that we receive for free...

LH Justin wrote:Well it's these ads that keep Forumotion in business, and I'd rather have ads than have to pay for my forum. What if someone doesn't have the money to keep their forum? Do they just lose it? If they charge a fee for the forum itself then people might as well move to more flexible host.

Besides, they're not that big of a deal.

If you don't have the money to pay for it, its not like your forum will be locked down instantly... you can be given up to 6 months to pay for it before forumotion locks your site until you pay the $5. If you can't afford the $5 but can afford the $20 just for some ADs then idk what to say other than it seems like an excuse. I guess this topic proves that forumotion can't do anything to make a profit besides F up our forums with unprofessional looking ADs and make you pay annual fees to remove them. Do you have any other suggestions?

DustyBones wrote:I voted No..
You don't want to pay to remove ads but are willing to pay for themes, extras and a flat yearly fee? Doesn't make any sense to me. All that would nickle and dime you to death. As LH says, forumotion provides forums for people that can't afford to pay for all that. Ads are a small price to pay for the service that we receive for free...

The suggestions were broken down into different examples, I'm not saying for forumotion to do ALL of that at once.. No. They were just alternative options forumotion can generate revenue without it hurting the way our forum looks.

I don't have to buy any theme, I created my own and if you read what I said, you have the option of paying for a more professional theme or just using the current free ones. Also you didn't seem to read clearly when I said NEW members to forumotion will be paying AFTER a deadline, so technically speaking, I'm not setting myself up to pay for anything since I already have my forum. It doesn't affect me. Am I willing to pay for extra features? Yes. Why? Because everybody wants to be different and stand out or have a nice forum and I'm sure if the idea was already available, you would be buying a bunch of features too. Do you have any other suggestions?

Create tons of more features. This suggestion category has tons of users ideas that they have suggested for weeks, months and even years ago and is still not available on forumotion forums. Create these additional features and have forum founders pay a 1 time fee using credits to have those features on their forum. The idea is kinda like buying apps for your iPod Touch or something only this can be Forumotions store for buying new features. Perhaps even allow 3rd party companies to come in and make features for a price as well.

If you're going to be charging people money for features, you'd better release them consistently and with no bugs. That involves actually hiring more staff to develop these features and you most likely won't be doing all this with volunteers anymore. This translates into more costs since you now need to hire professional and paid developers, hence increasing expenses. Yay revenue goes up, but forumotion shouldn't bother looking at their revenue. It's the bottom line that counts and introducing an entirely new set of expenses isn't going to help the net income as much as you think.

For all NEW comers to Forumotion(with the exception of current forum founders), have them pay an annual fee of $5-$10 a year for their forum. However, please provide a deadline of when forumotion will stop providing free forums. For example:

Visit Forumotion.com before January, 1st 2011 to create your forum FREE! Anyone making a new forum after Jan 1st 2011 will be set up on a 1 month free trial with the option to discontinue operating their forum or automatically have a 1 time annual fee of $5-$10 withdrawn from the founders CC(credit card) they provided to continue operating their forum!

Of course, this suggestion needs to be backed up by GREAT support on Forumotions behalf.

Firstly, most forums don't pick up quickly within their first month, so to charge them for a forum that could easily die in a few weeks would be very unattractive to forum creators. Secondly, not all founders are going to have a credit card, especially the younger members of the forum. Thirdly, not everyone is going to be open to submitting their credit card information to forumotion. We're not talking about some major corporation with a track record of large volumes of online sales. Forumotion doesn't have that trust and recognition among people who aren't currently using the service already. The third point can relate to the second point as well if a kid asks their parent to pay for them, the parent most likely won't trust giving out their information for some $5 service that they've never heard of.

Create & Sell some forum Themes for like $1 each. More advanced themes can be $2-$3. This is good for newcomers who wish to set up there forum with a preset FREE theme OR go for more professional looking themes for $1-$3 each.

Same with developers, you'll need to get some designers too if you want someone to start making these all the time for sale.

So I've seen some complaints already, well ask yourself this, would you rather pay $5-$10 a year to have your forum and with NO ADs for ALL members AND guest? OR have your forum free and have to pay $20+ a year to have no bright flashy offensive ADs on your forum?

Neither, I don't pay either because I signed up for a FREE forum.

Forumotion is good as it is
with a free forum u can expect some drawbacks like ads but thats not realy a problem plus we have the option to disable ads for thoose who are atleast a member.

if you want a forum that is ad free etc etc etc then go and pay for vbulliten or sumthing like that

babaganoosh wrote:

So I've seen some complaints already, well ask yourself this, would you rather pay $5-$10 a year to have your forum and with NO ADs for ALL members AND guest? OR have your forum free and have to pay $20+ a year to have no bright flashy offensive ADs on your forum?

Neither, I don't pay either because I signed up for a FREE forum.

Exactly my point. Although the issue of forum owners have ADs on there site for guest AND members with no option to remove them has been fixed, the fact is it happened and this is why this topic started. We were forced to pay to have the ADs removed for not just guest but our members too. It's that nobody was in favor or tolerated that and thats why they fixed it.

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lol i created this topic and i myself am not even in favor of most of the things here, however, besides people complaining in this topic i've seen no other suggestions on how forumotion can generate a revenue. This topic was created to prove a point, you can't make everyone happy, and forumotion (to my current knowledge) has no idea how to generate profits besides putting up horrible theme-less ads for guest & members to endure and pay to remove them.

SPADEZ wrote:lol i created this topic and i myself am not even in favor of most of the things here, however, besides people complaining in this topic i've seen no other suggestions on how forumotion can generate a revenue. This topic was created to prove a point, you can't make everyone happy, and forumotion (to my current knowledge) has no idea how to generate profits besides putting up horrible theme-less ads for guest & members to endure and pay to remove them.

Well let's leave that to Forumotion then.

There is no reason for someone to have to pay for a limited forum with no actual domain. As I said before Forumotion would no longer be free, and it would lose it's appeal. Ads do not ruin your forum, and in fact most major sites have advertisements on them so people should be used to it. They are not too big or intrusive. I don't see what's wrong with one banner ad across your forum when you can pay to have it removed. It doesn't hurt your forum in any way whatsoever. And if you'd actually pay attention, Forumotion gives free credits to active forums; enough for a domain and ad removal. And when you forst create your forum you have an entire month to get your forum active before ads appear, 30 complete days! I don't see the problem here.

I totally disagree with your idea, sorry.

Forummotion is obviously designed specifically for those who cannot pay for a professional service. Making forummotion a paid service completely ruins the whole point of forummotion altogether. Plus, as someone already mentioned, they'd probably have to hire staff to provide even better service. That would just cost them more money, and they would have to remove the ads in order to get people to want to pay for their service. Why not just get people to pay to get the ads removed if they don't want 'em? Sounds much better to me.

If forum-motion became a paid service, we'd be stuck with the other free services like forumer. (anyone who has tried forumer knows that it is no good in comparison to forumotion. No arguing there. I originally created my site with forumer and quickly changed to forummotion after realizing just how bad forumer actually was. )

As far as themes that cost money, I don't think very many people using forummotion would use the themes. I'd probably just create my own theme because I don't have the money to pay for that sort of stuff. Some people might, but I don't think it would be very successful.

Also, ads really aren't that annoying. I would think it would be better if image ads are removed, but still, it's a free service and I understand that they need to make money somehow in order to make the service free, so I'm not complaining too much there.

I really don't think that this is a good idea. I don't mind more features, but other than that, I totally disagree with all of this. I'd much rather have more ads than have to pay for my forum. I don't have the money to pay for my forum.

Hi Spadez and anyone listening,

I'm probably one of the few people who somewhat agrees with your proposal. Although I don't know enough information about Forumotion as a company to know what they would consider. I think they are going to have to make changes one way or another in the future and if there is to be a future for them.

The ads are not going to go away and this is a fairly big source of revenue for any internet company.

My personal feelings are that they should start to work on the core infrastructure of their program to get it modernized, stable and capable of incorporating new and innovative features. There are a lot of bugs in the programming now that should have been worked out a long time ago and before any new & major updates are released. This is part of the reason why we all experience so many problems when any major update is released (so I'm told).

Next, I think they should go to a tiered system of what services are offered for free and what you can choose to pay for. I think they are going to have to stop providing every new update free for everyone, and why should they keep providing everything free? There should be different levels of services and for example:

Free/Basic forum: This would include your basic options that allow anyone to create, run and maintain a free forum but with limited features and options.

Bronze Account: This would be your first level of a pay account with increased options and features and for example you could pay $19.99/year for this level of service.

Silver Account: The next level of a pay account with even more options and features for $29.99/year

Gold Account: $39.99/year for nearly all features and options available.

Diamond Account: $49.99/year for ALL features and options currently available.

***Those prices are just for an example only, not suggesting what Forumotion should charge but those amounts are reasonable and competitive to what other free forums are charging for extra services. Also, Forumotion would have to determine themselves what services are included in which package***

This is how it SHOULD work, or something similar and this is how it mostly works on other free forum hosting services. There would still be free forums here on Forumotion, but with limited services and features available. Then, those who can or wish to pay for better and more options, can pay for those.

It should be a yearly amount too, not credits or $2 for this and $5 for that. You could either pay one month at a time, or every 6 months or one time per year.

Just to clarify for those who didn't know, when this topic was created, Forumotion had placed ADs on everyones forum and removed the option of placing the ADs for guest only & to limit the amount of ADs. This forced people to have horrible ADs all over there forum with no option to remove them other then to pay to remove it. I don't mind having the ads for guest, but when they removed the option for guest only and set the ads (big flashy ADs that said "You are the 1000th visitor, Congratulations! and didn't even match your forums theme) to appear for guest AND members and you could not remove them without paying, it became a BIG problem for everyone.

Eventually with the amount of building complaints against forumotion, they were forced to put the option back for guest only and remove the ADs. Then I created this topic, giving other ways forumotion could generate a revenue and its clear nobody agrees.

So tell me, people of the forumotion community, other then these quick ideas I threw into this topic, what ideas do YOU have that forumotion can generate revenue? Frankly, I don't care, I don't benefit from forumotions revenue gains and I doubt the support will get any better from it anyway.

SPADEZ wrote:

So tell me, people of the forumotion community, other then these quick ideas I threw into this topic, what ideas do YOU have that forumotion can generate revenue? Frankly, I don't care, I don't benefit from forumotions revenue gains and I doubt the support will get any better from it anyway.

I thought I had made some suggestions on what they should do. I really feel that a tiered system is the way for them to go forward and gain some good potential revenue. Those prices I used for examples are very reasonable, yet realistic. Consider the cost breakdowns:

Free forum = $0/month
$19.99/year = $1.66/month
$29.99/year = $2.50/month
$39.99/year = $3.33/month
$49.99/year = $4.17/month

That is not a lot of money by any standard and again, those pay options would only be for those who want to have a better forum with more features and functions. People could still have a completely free forum if they wanted, just they would be limited to what features are available to them.

I'm all for paying for a properly functioning, feature packed forum and I think more would be too. If you consider the costs of starting a fully customizable forum like V********, first you would need to pay your own domain and server, then you would have licensing fees and other costs that would be MUCH higher than anything I'm proposing. Then there is the ease of use factor for free forums like this, because that other forum software I mentioned can be quite challenging to work with.

As for the ads here, I agree with you Spadez, but removal of all ads should and could be part of a package that a person decides to pay for in a tier system.

Good idea Brad, at least you came up with an idea rather than just give your opinion on disagreeing with the topic. It would make sense to have it broken down into package deals while still allowing the free forum option. Also the $50 a year could include the custom URL of your forum.

I've looked at A LOT of forum options over the years myself. I've considered a V******** forum but they are very expensive overall and can be complicated for those who want to have a fully custom forum. As for other free forum hosts, none are as customizable as Forumotion. Most do not allow full access to the CSS and if they do, you have to pay for it...and so you should.

Things like access to the CSS, templates, unlimited storage space for a gallery or attachments are things that people want most and they should be extra costs. A custom domain name is another and these should be things included in a top tier package.

Haha, this is got to be the most ridiculous suggestion. When you think of Forumotion, you think of free forum hosting. How good is this?

Person 1: I want to make a free forum! Should I use Forumotion?

Person 2: No way! They charge you! They use to be good when they were free!

Oh yeah, good reputation! I'm sorry, but this is an obvious no.

I just don't like the idea of paid services. Forummotion is the only good free web service out there, and making it a paid service simply ruins that.

Harperboy326 wrote:Haha, this is got to be the most ridiculous suggestion. When you think of Forumotion, you think of free forum hosting. How good is this?

You've missed the point and the suggestions. Nobody is suggesting that Forumotion shouldn't remain free. However, they should start to charge for special services and features to help them with revenue and for those willing to pay for them.

I have voted no. I can see where you're coming from, but anything that requires a purchase to use (with the exception of credits) seems to defeat the purpose of a free forum. I'm pretty sure if this was introduced then A LOT of people would leave ForuMotion. And just on the curious side, are you actually willing to pay? I mean it sounds ridiculous that you seem to want something that you can purchase whereas right now a lot of features are free.

Regards,

Base

Base wrote:... anything that requires a purchase to use (with the exception of credits) seems to defeat the purpose of a free forum.

I don't agree, there are lots of other Free Forum hosts online. Nearly all of them offer free forums, JUST like Forumotion, but they charge for things like, extra storage space, access to your database, more features that are actually wanted and work like they should on a forum etc.

Base wrote: I'm pretty sure if this was introduced then A LOT of people would leave ForuMotion. And just on the curious side, are you actually willing to pay? I mean it sounds ridiculous that you seem to want something that you can purchase whereas right now a lot of features are free.

Regards,

Base

Again, I don't think anyone is suggesting that Forumotion doesn't remain free but they shouldn't keep having to provide upgrades and services to more and more users totally for free and forever. This isn't sustainable. It costs money for servers, equipment, staff, developers, programmers etc.

The only reason people might leave is if they did start charging for certain features and options. But this in itself, might help to weed out those who are not serious about running a forum or those who start one and lose interest after 3 months. Also, other free forums have MUCH better Admin control panels, with some really good features and many have excellent support forums.

I'm sure you've heard the expression, "you get what you pay for"? Sometimes you have to pay a little extra to get a little bit better of a product. I AM willing to pay for top notch services, expert staff on the help forum, new and problem-free features and other things. I already do pay for certain things on my forum, but the credit system is not properly handled either. The way it's set up now, IS nickle and diming, I'd much rather pay for a package service because it would probably end up being cheaper actually.

What about those who can't pay, like me, for instance? What will they do?

I tell you I don't think I could pay if I only needed two dollars a month, and it isn't like anyone could get good service at that price. Forummotion is a free service, and that's what I like about it.

It isn't a bad idea to continue to make it the best free forum hosting service out there with new features, but honestly, I think that making it a paid service just ruins the whole purpose of forummotion altogether. Yes, it might be good for those who can pay, but don't we already have enough paid services out there? The internet is lacking in good free hosts. That's where most people are actually looking. "Free" is very commonly searched for in a search engine.

I don't feel that it is a bad idea to offer ad-free service, more gallery space and a custom domain for a yearly cost so long as there are no additional features that aren't available in the free version. That might make things simpler for the smaller percentage of people who use forummotion and do actually pay for all of these extras. Making additional features available, even if there is still a free service available, completely ruins the purpose of forummotion.

If no features are removed, I don't know that too many people would desert forummotion, but FM probably wouldn't get as many new users either. It just ruins the point of forummotion, and making it a paid service removes the "free" from its "Free forum" slogan, and that isn't nearly as attractive. It might actually get people considering services like Smfnew and forumer, which obviously don't compare as far as features.

I just don't think that this is a good idea. What you guys are efffectively saying is to make forummotion a paid service completely. If that's what forummotion was trying to do, it would be a much better idea, but I don't think that it would be as good for FM as it sounds. It would probably just be a massive hassle and a massive failure at the same time.

I'll make my comment brief. What could they do to get more revenue? Bring up some premium features that can be paid using credits. So to say... bring back template editing for phpBB3? I'd pay to get my templates edited. Access to the PHP? Turning off external links from "Similar topics"? Those are just some ideas.

TheListener_ wrote:I'll make my comment brief. What could they do to get more revenue? Bring up some premium features that can be paid using credits. So to say... bring back template editing for phpBB3? I'd pay to get my templates edited. Access to the PHP? Turning off external links from "Similar topics"? Those are just some ideas.

If I may, you can turn off the links without paying.

ACP >> General >> Forum Promotion >> Traffic Exchange >> Activate Traffic Exchange? : No

Harperboy326 wrote:ACP >> General >> Forum Promotion >> Traffic Exchange >> Activate Traffic Exchange? : No

You may not.

TheListener_ wrote:Turning off external links from "Similar topics"?

I mean so that only the ones that link to other topics on the same forum show up, and not the rest.

I can see this going no where now. All I see is members arguing about suggestions and its getting pretty nasty in here. I'm going to lock this up. I like some of the suggestions and I'm glad that all you provided some in which Forumotion can consider if they need it.