What to offer donators?

[rd]

Well my forum has over 10 donators and for the last few months I kept on planning to offer them something...

At the moment they are only able to mass download and upload unlike regular members. I also gave them another color on the forums.

Anyways, my forum is basically a Harry Potter and anime discussion forum that has over 2,800 members who have a habit of going off topic :X

Anyways, what special things can I offer?

[TheListener]

I offer mine access to the adult section and their own group.

Access to the adult section is by subscription only.

£1 per year is the subsription for access.

£10 per year for adverts.

Anyways

What about their own board?

[rd]

Meh, I doubt they would be interested on their own boards and anyways all my members have access to the adult section that is 50%+ of our gallery.

Usually they pay $10.00 just to support the site, I always promise them something in return but I don't come through (they don't mind much).

[mamaof2boys]

On my forum they get special title and stars, access to a special board (which is actually quite slow) and extra entries in any giveaways we have, which they love.

[Ensiferous]

The problem with donations and a forum-only site is that your only have your forum to build value around. If people are going to donate then they need something in return, it might be that the site stays online or it might be special privileges. If you look around at sites that make a lot of money then you won't see many forums, purely because they provide very little commercial value in return.

For forum based sites you have SMF where charter membership gives you a bit of status, it's good for the hosting section etc but not much else. Then you have places like Digital Point and Web Hosting Talk. These two forums actually make money because there being a premium member means you have an easier time advertising your host or your services - which is exactly what these forums are about.

I honestly don't see much value in discussing Harry Potter, interesting as that might be. If you want to turn it into a money making machine then you need to build some value and incentive. If you have time then perhaps a Harry Potter based forum game. There more they post the more mana they get, they have a random chance of finding a better suited wand or some potion ingredient or whatever. Then you can introduce premium advantages. Of course, this is only an example, you know your forum far better than I do so it's quite possible you can think of something.

[rd]

Actually Harry Potter is valuable.

For example a forum i work in is: http://forum.writingcenter4.info

They have been up for what like 6-8 months and have less post counts then my current forum but they have over 3,000 members and many donators. Just a week ago they got sponsored for a dedicated server, and not the cheap ones, but a 4 GB RAM, 4 Processors, and 500 GB diskspace. Of course the site is run by a friend of mine and he is a professional at what he does.

Anyways, check the site out, it's pretty good but it wasn't built for profit but if it was then I wouldn't have been surprised if it bought couple of hundred dollars a month including server costs.

[flapjack]

let me add something to this. I would make a good use of my skillset and provide donators with something I would normally charge, within reasonable limits of course. assuming you have a working knowledge of php/sql/smf and similar, why don't you offer for example an hour-two of one-to-one support? something that might come handy some day. I am sure people will appreciate it, and if their expectations or the problem you will be required to help with exceeds what do you think you "owe" them, explaint upfront that they will be charged, but include additional discount, how that sounds?

[ApplianceJunk]

On my forum they get special title and stars

That is what we did too back when we took donation. We have no reason to ask for donations now days with the affiliates we work with.

[rd]

let me add something to this. I would make a good use of my skillset and provide donators with something I would normally charge, within reasonable limits of course. assuming you have a working knowledge of php/sql/smf and similar, why don't you offer for example an hour-two of one-to-one support? something that might come handy some day. I am sure people will appreciate it, and if their expectations or the problem you will be required to help with exceeds what do you think you "owe" them, explaint upfront that they will be charged, but include additional discount, how that sounds?

What?

we are talking about a Harry Potter forum... I doubt many people are or will be interested.

[flapjack]

ok then. what about one to one session on potion making?


my bad, didn't pick it when reading the thread

[rd]

ok then. what about one to one session on potion making?


my bad, didn't pick it when reading the thread

LOL... Nah, too corny for my liking.

[Ensiferous]

I don't think you understood me properly, value in this context is what you can provide your users. And the biggest motivator here is commercial value, if you're selling something (and takings donations is still selling!) then you need to justify the money spent. If you're taking donations then usually you justify it by saying it's for a good cause, it keeps the running etc. if you have a passionate crowd then that's all you require - however, you initial post was that you wanted to give something in return, and right now you haven't really got very much. You *could* restrict gallery access, posting access etc but all you'd do then limit the amount of non-paying users.

There are many ways to provide value and justify the cost to the user. Off the top of my head if your members do any sort of fan fiction writing then creating a centre for beta seeking and allowing only one request per user except for paying users, maybe give them special colour or similar.

If I took away my main site and had only my forum then I don't think I could make a lot of money, maybe a grand a month at most - purely because I would take away most value which drive purchases, so IMO you need to think outside the box and go with something non-forum'ish.