Help Us Decide On Membership Price

[havokb8]

$19.95 doesn't seem excessive. However, at present there's a lot of sharing of stuff here on a free basis. If that goes then, I'm afraid, so does the whole forum because an awful lot of people will simply find somewhere else. Memberships have a habit of falling off. One or two poor months where there's little or no new content and all of a sudden there's nobody left.

I'd suggest that a) you keep stuff here totally as it is and b) charge for VIP area access. Access to that area would be by monthly fee or, perhaps, bestowed upon individuals who contribute important stuff on the main forum. Perhaps you could 'value' such contributions and give VIP access for a proportionate period of time.

That way you have an income stream from those who always want the latest and greatest and a potential income stream from those who either can't afford a regular membership fee or will pay only for demonstrable value.

I have to admit that I've found some good stuff here - but I've also been able to find good stuff elsewhere and it hasn't cost me anything. You'd be very hard put to entice me to pay more than 20 bucks.

There already is a VIP, it has 19 people in it. And hes saying the main forum will stay the same and will go on like normal, its basically an addition

 

[jazz99]

I am not against memberships but I think a $0 should have been added to the poll just to see how many people don't want to pay anything

 

[MontyzPython]

I think that 10 bucks per year is a good amount. I would be willing to pay it for access to those services

Who is this dumbass?

 

[MontyzPython]

I was about to agree with my good friend Nicho but then I re-read Dave's post. It sounds like what Dave is proposing ALREADY agrees with what Nicho stated.

If I read Dave's post correctly (along with havok's summary above), the main forums will remain FREE and the PAID membership will only be for a special section with bonus tools, gurus, etc.

I am hoping that the VIP will remain by invitation only and the paid section will be completely separate, just to keep some dumbass with 5 posts from paying the fee and joining the VIP.

Overall...great idea. I will go vote now.

 

[Olly]

I think that 10 bucks per year is a good amount. I would be willing to pay it for access to those services

Haha yeah right, keep on dreaming.

 

[caretaker2007]

The is not too bad of a price really.

For one line of code per year. First one is on the house. <?

 

[dogdog]

I agree to membership fee but should be reasonable and justifiable. Below are the two well-known SE story for ponder:

Hope BHW won't follow Yahoo's footprint/downfall.

Yahoo Model: Webmaster contribute yahoo with contents and still have to pay them $299 to get listed.

Hope BHW will follow Google's footprint/success.

Google Model: Develop and offer free webmaster tools. Listing (contents contribution) is free. That's the main reason Google on top of Yahoo.

 

[..Q..]

I would love something like 30bucks for the first month and gazillion bucks for the following month as long it will make us money

 

[MaestroDelWeb]

I don't know why people are getting bent out of shape here. It has nothing to do with the forum if you want to think of it that way, it's a separate entity which you opt in to or don't bother with it. It's custom scripts and things that normally wouldn't be shared here any way.

For anything under $20 it probably isn't even worth taking the time to set up. $20 is a perfect price point because that's a price where you even forget to cancel if you decide it's not for you. It's a low cost of entry and that should be a price where there will be a good amount of members. Anything above that and I doubt many people will join. This is a cheapskate forum, 99% of the members won't spend $7 on a good WSO or $1 on a trial offer (have a look at the Download Request section). At the same time we have a good amount of guys here who would spend $1000 for a good product (not me I'm cheap and would need sexual favors included for that price).

For everyone saying it should be free, that's just insane. Programming costs money and to make something like that free is like throwing money in the trash. It's going to be abused and whored no matter what, but at least when someone has to pay they have to think a little bit if it's worth it for them to do that.

If you don't make enough money to spend $20 or $100 to buy something that can potentially make you more money, than start reading the forum, find something that you might like to implement and dedicate yourself to it for 30 days. If you don't make money re-read the instructions because you're probably doing it wrong. Worst case scenario get a job. Every offer isn't for everyone (this offer might not be for me, who knows, let's see what's included).

 

[odd-job]

Wow these are all great ideas.

Let me answer to just a few things that I can. The tools you can use will be my own personal stock - I've never sold them or let anyone use them before (except for cookie stuffer recently). The other tools without saying too much are serious money makers as is CS. So you see your membership will be far more then off set by using these tool.

You'd have to pay thousands of dollars for them on the open market if you could find tools like them. Personally I'm not in the "junk tool" business and until CS I only wrote tools for top gurus and myself -- thats it.

What type of tools was asked -- obviously Cookie Stuffer would be one. Others will include tools that cloak, stuff, summons spiders and get sites index in minutes (not months), Mass produce sites (cloaked or dynamic) - a 1000 sites across many domains or sub domains at the press of a button.

There are a few tools I'm not willing to discuss here in an open forum -- but those are a glimpse of the tool types going in to the pot.

You also have to understand -- you that are members will have input and can contribute as to what type of tools you'd like to see and if it's a workable idea ... I think you get the picture.

I'm really short changing the value of all my tools and future tools for the sake of making a community of black hat winners for a change. I feel that in itself is a chance I'm taking. Instead of selling my tools on the open market where I know I could make a lot more money. This is about building something of value that will last where YOU have input.

Kind of empowering if you think about the possibilities ....

That is just the tools side of the membership. There is also the advantage of knowing and being able to talk to top guru's in the industry and ask them not only questions but 'how to's.'

Basically, BHW will become the king of marketing communities IF you are a serious player, want to make a living on-line and are willing to help make that happen.

If you are not -- the forum is still free to you (aside from the tools, marketing gurus and things that go with that.) So all were trying to do here is add value to BHW for you.

 

[odd-job]

By the way -- for public record, I personally despise, MSN, yahoo and google. That isn't the "model" that BHW has in mind.

I think you all need to understand that NOTHING will change in the forum -- it's still free to you to access, post and read as always. The membership is ONLY for people that are serious about wanting to make a living on-line.

In that area you will have more value then stompernet and most SEO (Black or White hat) communities put together. Especially if you continue to give input as you do now.

So don't anyone panic -- it's just an add-on to the forum, nothing is being taken away.

 

[crsk8andsno56]

To me this is pretty dissapointing...
At $20 a month these tools will become saturated EXTREMELY fast... They will then go obsolete.
I'd much rather have the tools be out of my price range even per month just so that I could have something to work for and when I got there I knew it would be worth it...
I mean what about all the people who already bought cookie stuffer for $250? Thats like 2 years worth of $20 a month payment.. Thats just crap....
Cookiestuffer would then be detected easily because of all the noobies using it in a outright stupid way and would then get it caught for us all.....
I am personally going to vote for the highest price just because I know it won't turn into that crap blackhatseo forum because of the great minds here....
I don't want to see all of cory's work go to shame.....
Saturation may just be a theory but it does still make it harder.. I personally like the easiest money I can get

 

[yanton]

Well, those tools sound VERY interesting - that makes a subscription payment worthwhile.
How soon before I can get my digital hands on those scripts?????

I would recommend that you do not include cookie stuffer in the arrangement - it seems very unfair for those who have paid big bucks for it.

 

[boomboomer]

I don't agree on the limit of members because then you limit contributions from new blood of new ideas and methods.

The forum is gonna remain as it is now which means that people will be allowed here for free and keep contributing with ideas and methods as they are doing now. The membership is for a different thing which is sharing exclusive tools and stuff. It's the exclusivity that people will be paying for more than anything else.

If this doesn't remain exclusive, it won't make any sense. The reason is that there will be more people and more chances of stuff going out which means that there will be some other place where this stuff will show up. More than that, it's just that too many people using the same methods or tools renders that almost ineffective in a very short time ..

 

[crsk8andsno56]

God the more I think about this the more I get pissed...
Obviously the $20 is going to win because there are so many fkin leachers who either dont realize the value of the tools, dont realize that they will get saturated, OR they don't have the resources to use these tools effectivly (to avoid exposure to google etc) and then tehy can only afford the $20......

 

[yragcom1]

I think that if this happens, you just need a monthly subscription section. That's all. I make money now, probably better than most people online, but not a fortune, but quite frankly, I don't think I have the expertise to use a tool that has a monthly fee attached. I've been a member of SEC, YACG and SSEC, and I still don't have it all down to warrant me paying extra every month if I'm not going to get something back for my efforts.

I don't mind the donor contributions, because I've learned more from the materials I got through the VIP section than I learned scouring the web. But I've also noticed, whether it's SSEC, YACG or whatever, there are people that make and lose money. For now, I'll probably just stay on the outside, experiment and learn.

I think you've got to make the price high. I'm voting for $50.

 

[odd-job]

The more members the more the tools are used and the more often they have to be updated. Also, the more members the more chances that things will leak and then the tools are useless.

A higher price will limit the number of people, as will being picky about who is allowed to join. A combination of the two, a mid range price to cover profit for the programmer/tech support on it, and being choosy is probably the best.

These tools will only be accessible through BHW and only in Client server or thin client format -- there will be no leaking. Right now people that want to be cool send tools to china to be reversed engineered (mostly doing a poor job) so they get their points on torrent sites. It's not cool and ruins it for everyone else including them. I take caution in coding and bait the code for a reason.


I don't think people realize that I belong to many an underground torrent community as well -- which in theory allows me to get the code after reverse engineering and make changes that will totally screw them if they use it.

Hence, client server or Thin client - the engine resides on the server and never leaves, so if it leaks it will be in theory or principal only not the actual code or product.

I just want to make that clear --

 

[cheaponlinestore]

Hello,

As far as I'm concerned, I am new to Internet Marketing : I started the 20th of december and I landed on BHW the 1st of january ! The dark side attracted me quick

I was waiting my first adsense check (which should come this month) to donate because I know I owe a lot to this forum. And there comes this thread !

I'll be certainly in.

I voted 50 $ for the following reason :
- I want to have access to powerfull tools and info, and agree to pay for that. If there is a price for getting exclusivity or reward the coder, then it's fair.
- I plan to MAKE MONEY with this, so that 50 $ shouldn't be a problem.
- 50 $ is what I pay monthly for internet, nice coincidence

I could have voted 99 $ if I was currently already making money but check my sig to understand where I am at... ah, the learning curve *sigh*

PS : I'll be in anyway, even for 99$ : I want to learn, and if after some months I don't make profits from that then...

Best regards.

 

[odd-job]

I am not against memberships but I think a $0 should have been added to the poll just to see how many people don't want to pay anything

People that don't want to pay don't have to. Thats the beauty of the membership. But if you are saying you want something for nothing, thats exactly why there is a price to the membership ---

 

[ClownSoup]

Wonder why the riches only live in closed communities?

To make it easier for people like me to rob them blind.