Rodney,
I'm not surprised to find that you see little value in this site; I'd say that's primarily because you're a special case.
Just as you see the awards and engraving industry related trade shows, as too limited a venue, for a person of your breadth and width of knowledge, by natural extension, an awards and engraving industry related forum will hold little in store for you.
I agree with that assessment.
Despite the harbingers of doom, my entire career has been a story of hatching success by "doing it all wrong."
As an employee, my bent for taking on most any job, which was considered lunacy and too risky, by most engraving outlets, saw the shop I worked for, flourish, with customers coming from all over Southern California.
When I decided to go on my own, the concept of having a business with almost no inventory, which relied heavily on engraving customer-provided merchandise, wasn't given a snowball's chance.
Today, I enjoy a unique niche, in having fellow engravers, who find many projects too daunting, as a goodly portion of my customer base.
I don't consider myself a special case at all.
My message has always been one of encouraging people to get started on any level, in any way possible; which, over time, with sound businesses practices, which we regularly discuss here, should see their collection of small victories, turn into profitable independent businesses.
You mentioned that the photo site you belonged to, turned into a pay site a week ago. Isn't it a little premature, to call their change of format a resounding failure?
You no doubt, have a collection of posts on their site. What is/was their answer to your concern over archived information?
Will we see a drop in traffic?
Most assuredly; I absolutely expect it.
Does that mean our traffic will stagnate, at whatever level we begin with?
Very doubtful.
I'll go so far, as to say, there are many people who currently view the forum, as lurkers, who will come out of the shadows, with amazing posts, once they know, what they consider to be "insider" information, won't be available to the general public.
Who knows? Maybe a new "Rodney Gold" will emerge.
quote: How will newbies even gauge the value of the forum if they have to pay to read?
There's no mandate to join for a year; or at all, for that matter.
If newbies take a leap of faith, in the way of a $10 investment, which, by the way, is less than two gallons of gasoline, in many parts of the world, they'll enjoy 30-days of access.
During that period, if they don't see something of value here (which is extremely unlikely) they never will; but they won't have gone broke, in the process.
quote: I would seriously try to cut some other deal , perhaps with advertisers or suppliers or find another means of supporting the forum other than asking users to pay.
I'm actively in the process of cutting a deal with industry suppliers, as well as paid members.
The deal with industry suppliers, is an opportunity to advertise to a prime demographic, with their only costs being a paid membership and an exclusive offer to our paid members.
What's in it for paid subscribers, other than the supplier offers, is my heightened sense of responsibility, to ensure they get their hard-earned money's worth.
I don't take that responsibility lightly.
In the end, the irrefutable law of supply and demand will prevail.
Our members will demand and we'll supply. :-)
David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri
DGL Engraving
Port Hueneme, CA |
Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)