Alternatives to donor based, ie, freepathon business model?

Click here if you wish to continue the donor based business model and free participation for all ^ | April 19, 2012 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

I've checked with an ad agency. We can probably raise the funds we need to operate FR at our current level and at the current market price for online advertising if we run a banner ad at the top of every page and at least one rectangular ad in the above the fold body of the page and a couple rectangular ads in the sidebar. If that doesn't generate enough revenue, we can also run pop ups or pop unders and we can even run audio and video ads if need be. But of course, if we go full bore commercial, we'd have to insure strict copyright compliance with very brief excerpting of all articles to avoid lawsuits. And the agency would require that we install a filter to censor out any bad or unacceptable words in our posts.

Or, of course, there's always the membership model. We could setup a members only system where paying members get full access and non-paying members get throttled back, etc.

I don't like either of the above models and think we'd soon lose a lot of our readers and participants. Of course that may happen anyway if we can't fund it and if we cannot get our equipment problem under control, or if my refusal to vote for or support an abortionist/homosexualist/statist who has plans to install ObamaCare, er, I mean RomneyCare into all 50 states runs everyone off.

The donation model has served us very well since 1997 when we first started using it. It's very clean, uncomplicated and we attract participants who perhaps can't afford membership dues but do want to join the discussion and join our rallies, protests, prayer sessions, etc. And the advertising model would probably bring in the revenue, but it comes with strings attached.

I'm sure there are other ways and ways to combine features of various models, sell books, cds, gear, etc, offer no ads for paid subscribers, etc, even ISP services, but all of these also complicate matters.

I'm an old dog and I like to avoid new tricks, new complications, additional overhead, additional accounting, additional rules and regulations, etc, wherever possible. I like to stick to simplicity and with what works.

Thank you all very much for your continuing participation and support.

[Osage Orange]

I figured if you pay thru Paypal....it's a percentage.

I know Paypal...takes a % of every payment I receive thru them.

That said....I understand there's other cost's to receiving monies.

Okay...let's encourage all FReeper's to give at least $5 a month...!!!

Thanks-

[JediJones]

I say we mandate that every citizen views FR at least once a day. If they don’t, they must pay a penalty to keep the servers running for the rest of us.

[FrogMom]

I donate $10 per month and occasionally pony more during Freepathons.

Didn’t know about the $2 per month it costs. Here’s another $50 to cover some of what FR has been charged for processing.

I love Jim, John, and Free Republic!

[Jim Robinson]

Only $1 buck per year per reader if every one of our users did it religiously. Or $1 buck per month if only 10% of our registered members did it reliably.

[Jim Robinson]

JediJones for President!!

[Future Snake Eater]

An FR book...that’s a really good idea.

[Osage Orange]

If you want to save this site, what I'd suggest is you do a mea culpa and invite the Romney people back.

Save this site??????

[greyfoxx39]

Write a Book on the History of Free Republic. Talk to Jeff and Matt/Travis about how to format it and get it on Kindle. I know a large number of Freepers would buy it and I bet you would get a lot of sales outside of Freeperdom also.

Best idea yet.

Chapter on the Dan Rather lie, chapter on FR lingo...endless opportunities for subject matter!

I know we have at least a couple of published authors here.

[onyx]

Thank You Wonderful, Fabulous FReeper DONOR PATRIOTS!!!!

YOUR LOYAL SUPPORT IS TRULY & GREATLY APPRECIATED!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, ARIZONA, CALIFORNIA, COLORADO, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, IDAHO, KENTUCKY, NEVER NEVER LAND, TEXAS, VIRGINIA & WEST VIRGINIA FReepers!!!!

INCLUDES 5 NEW MONTHLY DONORS!!!!!
PLUS ANOTHER @ $360 FROM GA WHO QUALIFIES!

   2012 Q2 Scoreboard — ranked by total receipts   

Rank	Location	Receipts			Monthlies
		Total	#	Avg/Per	Total	#	Avg/Per
1	California	$2,692.00	74	$36.38	$1,159.00	79	$14.67
2	Texas	1,859.00	54	34.43	976.50	63	15.50
3	Florida	1,080.00	34	31.76	665.00	44	15.11
4	Ohio	943.00	25	37.72	305.00	26	11.73
5	Georgia	736.00	11	66.91	255.00	18	14.17
6	Virginia	701.00	17	41.24	477.00	27	17.67
7	Pennsylvania	652.50	25	26.10	260.00	17	15.29
8	Alabama	605.00	18	33.61	320.00	17	18.82
9	New York	565.00	24	23.54	345.00	24	14.38
10	Australia	510.00	2	255.00	10.00	1	10.00
11	Arizona	480.00	17	28.24	325.00	19	17.11
12	Missouri	455.00	16	28.44	175.00	11	15.91
13	Alaska	450.00	3	150.00	60.00	3	20.00
14	North Carolina	425.00	21	20.24	305.00	21	14.52
15	Maryland	422.50	16	26.41	352.50	22	16.02
16	Colorado	405.00	17	23.82	275.00	17	16.18
17	Connecticut	387.51	11	35.23	80.00	5	16.00
18	Illinois	378.00	18	21.00	226.00	13	17.38
19	Louisiana	365.00	5	73.00	183.00	10	18.30
20	Washington	340.00	11	30.91	340.00	18	18.89
21	Michigan	286.67	14	20.48	281.67	17	16.57
22	New Jersey	270.00	9	30.00	128.33	7	18.33
23	Mississippi	239.00	10	23.90	164.00	9	18.22
24	Oklahoma	225.00	9	25.00	250.00	15	16.67
25	Wisconsin	225.00	9	25.00	182.00	11	16.55
26	Minnesota	220.00	11	20.00	205.00	15	13.67
27	South Carolina	210.00	8	26.25	85.00	7	12.14
28	Oregon	190.00	8	23.75	180.00	10	18.00
29	Indiana	190.00	8	23.75	205.00	16	12.81
30	Massachusetts	180.00	6	30.00	255.00	16	15.94
31	Tennessee	155.00	10	15.50	155.00	13	11.92
32	Arkansas	145.00	4	36.25	85.00	7	12.14
33	Montana	135.00	5	27.00	60.00	3	20.00
34	Idaho	125.00	6	20.83	120.00	5	24.00
35	Kentucky	115.00	4	28.75	40.00	3	13.33
36	Hawaii	105.00	5	21.00	85.00	5	17.00
37	North Dakota	100.00	1	100.00	30.00	1	30.00
38	Kansas	90.00	7	12.86	95.00	10	9.50
39	New Mexico	85.00	5	17.00	50.00	4	12.50
40	Vermont	70.00	2	35.00	50.00	1	50.00
41	South Dakota	60.00	4	15.00	85.00	6	14.17
42	United Kingdom	60.00	3	20.00	30.00	1	30.00
43	Nevada	60.00	4	15.00	55.00	5	11.00
44	Canada	50.00	3	16.67	20.00	3	6.67
45	Iowa	40.00	2	20.00	40.00	2	20.00
46	Delaware	36.00	3	12.00	16.00	2	8.00
47	West Virginia	35.00	2	17.50	50.00	2	25.00
48	Puerto Rico	25.00	1	25.00
49	Nebraska	20.00	2	10.00	65.00	5	13.00
50	Rhode Island	20.00	1	20.00	30.00	1	30.00
51	Germany	20.00	1	20.00
52	Utah	20.00	1	20.00	100.00	3	33.33
53	Wyoming	20.00	1	20.00	10.00	1	10.00
54	France	12.00	2	6.00
55	District of Columbia	10.00	1	10.00	10.00	1	10.00
56	Maine	7.00	1	7.00	27.00	2	13.50
57	Armed Forces - Pacific	5.00	1	5.00	5.00	1	5.00
58	Bulgaria	5.00	1	5.00
	New Hampshire				108.50	5	21.70
	Norway				20.00	1	20.00
Never Never Land		843.00	29	29.07	1,113.00	91	12.23
61 locations total		$19,160.18	623	$30.75	$11,584.50	762	$15.20

[JediJones]

Something funny about banner ads, I was on a conservative-oriented news site the other day that was displaying liberal banner ads, “Recall Scott Walker” and the like. Hopefully FR could put a filter on those.

[JediJones]

Could you maybe set up affiliate-style links like to Amazon books/products so maybe you wouldn’t have to deal with an ad agency?

[Jim Robinson]

Thank you very much, FrogMom!!

[Jim Robinson]

"Just about 95% of the time I’m reading Freerepublic, it’s on my cellphone. Is there any way to set up donations by text message? It’s a lot simpler than having to dig out your credit card."

That's a question for John.

[MEG33]

Thank You Jim Robinson
Thank You Donors

[FrogMom]

Most welcome!

Anyone else?

[Jim Robinson]

Yes. And I agree. Fix the broken parts only. Leave all else alone. Thank you very much! God bless.

[onyx]

Thanks very much, dear Osage Orange!!!!!









Make it $7 and FR will get the whole $5.00 for sure!

[NoGrayZone]

If we were to open ourselves to advertising, how about strictly conservative ones? Along w/ a membership fee. Non paying members can still post, but be limited to how many per month.

Perhaps if enough of us contact Rush, we can get Two If By Tea, The Heritage Foundation, etc.

Personally, I do enjoy taking care of ourselves, but it seems to get harder and harder each FReepathon.

I wish more people would step up.

[Jim Robinson]

Thank you very much, OldMissileer!! And that’s one of the reasons I’ve resisted going commercial all these years. I’d much prefer being beholden to no one but our like-minded loyal participants!!

[q_an_a]

Jim, You can do both and it won’t harm the quality of the product. I suspect that your loyal Freepers will contribute at any time you need help and feel that money will do the job...you need - you have a great deal of TRUST built into your friends who post.