12 February, 2005
- N. Michael Bryant
Latest Comment...
I'm a free member and the reason I don't have a Premium membership is because what I have said all along: I don't post enough images monthly to be considered Premium. It would be a waste of my money. As far as too many perks go, Here's a "PERK" for you. I have directed a number of people I know to this site to become Premium members. So, eventhough I am free, I do what I can to bring new members.
10 February, 2005
- Christina Toews
- 10 Feb 2005
- 416 Views
- 24 Comments
Original Post: I know I'll get slammed for this one...
As the subject says... I'm gonna get slammed. But, I have to say it because it's on my mind. :)
A lot of sites that have free and paying members have way more difference between what a paying and non-paying member gets as benefits. This encourages people who really like the site to join up. One of these common things is that free members can't post on message boards. They can read them, anyone can, but you have to be a paying member to post.
Is this something that AW should look into? It might generate more premium account upgrades, if people know that they can't post on message boards without paying.
I agree 100% with having free memberships, but personally I am shocked by how FEW of us actually pay for this website. It's a GREAT website, and we'd hate to see it shut down due to lack of funding. For this reason, it may be benefitial to AW to look into more ways to encourage people to join.
It was a good step to take free memberships down to 3 images a month. I still think, however, that they should be capped. (For example, 3 new images per month, until you reach... 15? 30?) This will help with the whole problem with bandwidth and storage space online for all of these pictures. Again, it will encourage people to join.
$5/month isn't going to break anyone's bank account, even the so-called "starving artists" out there (I'm one of them, and I scraped up the money). It's even cheaper than that if you just pay for the whole year. We need to show AW that we want the site to continue... show our support FINANCIALLY so that the site can continue to get better for all of us. Is it too much to ask? :)
