unforum

[SpaceBass]

 Call for Ideas for Revenue Generation to Support uF

[FilmEdge]

Will think on some good ideas. Meanwhile, made a modest contribution to help a bit.

[negativeview]

I like payed titles and badges. Not sure how many people would actually spend money on those, but I like the ideas.

A fast and a slow server might bring tech support headaches and the benefit seems a little too abstract to be an easy sell.

I'm pledging 10% of arg-related revenue earned to unfiction/argfest (customer choice) for at least until Halloween, and that may be extended. We'll see how much of a difference that makes.

[RAD24]

Regarding the fast and slow server idea, The Fuselage (a "Lost" forum) has something almost identical. I don't know about 2 separate servers, but during times of high traffic (such as the night of a new episode), higher level users and ones who paid a subscription were guaranteed access, while other users sometimes had to wait until things calmed down a bit. It was efficient, and I never saw anyone complain about it, so it might not be such a bad idea. The thing is, I don't really know how much revenue it would generate.

[addlepated]

Metafilter does advertisements for people who aren't logged in. It costs $5 for an account. I think that's reasonable, even on a somewhat different basis - i.e. $2/month or $20/year. You could also have membership tiers with all those value-added services, such as an unfiction.com email address and the like.

[ljm]

T-shirts!

Not necessarily uF branded shirts, so much as game specific shirts like what were being designed for Super 8.

Your wholesale cost on a t-shirt screen printed with two colors should be under 4 dollars, and most people are happy to pay $15. There are the obvious sites out there that prevent you from having to put the costs up front and instead collect revenue... Spreadshirt, CafePress, etc.

Just a thought. I'd be happy to do some shirt design if that helps at all, I have quite a bit of experience with it.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

[SpaceBass]

Rarely do people buy T-shirts or other swag. I can't remember the last time I actually received any cash from Spreadshirt, CafePress, or Lulu, although I have got a few bucks from each.

Addlepated: Kudos for hitting on two of the three things I said I wouldn't consider. Also, I cannot do things like sell uF email addresses because our free Google Apps hosting is limited to 100 users, so those have to be reserved for mods and admins only.

Paid badges and titles are an option but I'm not sure how much demand there would be, nor what a fair price might be.

Here's another suggestion that Mike Monello made at ARGFest last year but I didn't have a clue how to properly implement until recently: what about clearly delineated in-game or sponsored subforums for games where the PMs of those games could pay to post in character, with character accounts clearly labeled as such? This would not be a complete solution to our money problems due to the cyclical nature of campaigns, however.

[aliendial]

I like the idea of payment for faster access but I think it would have to be cheaper. So it would really only be the big games that would throw off serious revenue, rather than establishing a solid flow all the time, but even casual players might find a low price option something easy to do any time. Like a buck or two a month.

Hmm. Does that then overload the faster server? Oops. Well if it does then you could nudge up the price until you find the economic tipping point? Except you'd lose people every time you needed them to approve increases unless you set it up in advance that renewals go automatically at new pricing...or price may increase at renewal to a max of 5 to keep volume down...getting too complicated? Or too ick on sales ethics?

Sorry for stream of consciousness

[Tenshi Akui]

I had seen there was a link for ARG Auctions. Has there been any luck with those in the past?

[aliendial]

Not so much on the auctions. Relied a lot on swag from past games, possibly too dated.

[Tenshi Akui]

Oh well it was the only thing I could think of that didn't involve advertising.

Wait what about "Offical" Unfiction email addresses? You know for a fee you get usernameSPLATunfiction.com email for all your ARG needs? I knwo whith having all the free mail services it may be pointless but there has to be someone out there who would be interested in having a unfiction.com email.

The only other thing I can think of is subdomain web hosting. But that can be a pain.

[vapor]

Maybe an annual fund-raiser/sweepstakes. We could make it fun. Maybe give prizes/badges for donations. It would not be a steady stream of income but I bet if done proper it could pad the coffers nicely. Give the forum a chance to not only survive but also to grow.

Whatever is decided I know that uF will have the support of the many people that cherish it.

[natas]

[Tenshi Akui]

I missed that one. Sorry my bad. I'd self-trout but I dont know if that applies here