With the phasing out of free Ning networks, I was faced with two choices. Keep Outsider Writers as it is with the $200 level program, or kick about 850 members out and slide down to the $20 plan. With nearly a thousand members, I decided to ask for help figuring, nothing ventured nothing gained, and really, nothing to lose. I posted about the situation on our main page and sent a broadcast message to all our members. I pointed out the bad news and the good news. The bad news being we needed to raise $200. The good news was that with a thousand members, we only needed to chip in twenty cents each! Of course, this was rather tongue in cheek and I mentioned that if we could get ten percent participation it would still only be $2.00 each.
I asked people to consider pledging $4 or $5 in case some people couldn't afford even $2.
I should mention that the other people working on the site with me were skeptical. But they were surprised because about twenty people responded right away. Three people gave pledges in the $50 range with the rest ranging from $2 to $10. I sent these people a PayPal invoice, or my mailing address, according to their preference. Within ten days I had nearly $300 raised.
We are hoping that we can raise enough money by selling the available advertising space and that we won't need to beg each year. I highly recommend asking for donations. Again, nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Comments
Hiya!
Frampton Central is a site dedicated to fans of musician Peter Frampton. It is designed to be a site run for the fans, by the fans!
It was started at NING on July 8th 2009, however, it had been available at a couple of other sites until then, having to be moved twice due to site closures or fee introduction.
It is there for fans to get together from across the World and there are a few members who spend their time helping out with stories, adding videos etc to keep the site interesting! There are just 2 admins.
There was much heated discussion about the fee issue...
We held an open debate and lots of people blamed me personally for the charges, which of course, was nonsense and many fans threatened to leave if they were forced into paying a membership fee.
In the past we had asked for donations etc and it was always the same few people who put their hands into their pockets - what we needed was something different!
I decided that the fairest way of raising funds was to make the site 'public' and offer shares to members. This way the members could decide what was featured and benefit from any potential profits.
See post below:
Hi everyone!
It is my pleasure to announce that we are now making ‘Stakeholder Shares’ in Frampton Central available...
They are on sale now priced at $10 each.
The idea is to allow existing members to become stakeholder shareholders in the site in order to help raise enough capital to pay the forthcoming charges proposed by NING.com
As you are probably aware, there are many members here who do not like the prospect of paying an annual subscription fee to remain as a member of Frampton Central.
This has been very carefully considered and it is my intention to keep the site FREE to use!
FREE members will be able to access most of the new site when the changes take place, however, there will be the opportunity to ‘upgrade’ to FULL membership for just a couple of dollars per year that will allow you to access all areas.
You will also need to be a FULL member in order to enter the competitions we will be running in the future.
HOW do I become a Stakeholder?
If you are interested in becoming a stakeholder in Frampton Central shares will go on sale from now until Thursday 1st JULY (via a PayPal button that has now been placed on site) shares are priced at $10 per share.
What do I get in return?
Purchasing shares will give you very important voting rights so that you can influence the decisions that are made with regards to running the site etc. For example $100 will give you 10 shares and 10 votes. The more shares you own the more say you have in the sites operation.
As a shareholder you will be entitled to full membership as long as you retain your shares.
As a shareholder you will be entitled to a dividend on any net profits made by the site at the end of any financial year. For example April-March. (So you could make your money back!)
You will be entitled to sell your shares to another party after one complete year of participation.
Share values will be negotiated individually by way of an on-site auction.
Shares have no value outside of this site.
There will be no refunds.
Being a shareholder does not qualify you for automatic administration rights. If you wish to be an administrator then a shareholder meeting can be called and vote taken.
To conclude, I believe this to be the fairest method of raising funds in order to keep our community together and running in a democratic fashion. It is better than asking for donations as those who put their hands in their pockets tend to get nothing in return.
If you have any constructive comments or would like more information please contact me via private message.
Once we have successfully sold shares we will be able to inform you of any 'upgrade' cost.
Remember - You have been given a real chance to influence decisions now!
Simon Hodgson (Mouse)
To date we have collected enough money to pay the NING charges for this year and will introduce two levels of 'upgrade' fees to cover future charges...
SILVER - $2 per year which allows people to enter competitions
GOLD - $5 per year to allow full access to site
A friend of mine, DeAnne at Blip is Hip has also adopted this idea and she too has raised sufficient funds already.
Hope this helps anyone looking for alternative ideas...
All the best,
Simon Hodgson
http://framptoncentral.com
Peace Maker, the plans are still outlined in detail at the link in the announcement Ning put on your main page....if you accidentally deleted it before reading, here it is:
http://about.ning.com/announcement/?xg_source=announcement_bar
the plans are described more in depth by clicking under the descriptions on the page you land on with above link, where it says "For full comparison of the three plans, click here."
We asked for donations on my site, 343 members to date, and we're up to 406.66 out of 499.95 discounted annual price for pro
Regards
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