To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.admin.financeOpen lugnet.admin.finance in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Administrative / Financial / 27
26  |  28
Subject: 
Membership Math
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.finance
Date: 
Thu, 4 Apr 2002 13:45:02 GMT
Viewed: 
1411 times
  
I am putting together some basic guesstimate numbers for the sake of
discussing the LUGNET financing topic.  Please do comment.

Membership Numbers:
Current membership:  1,500
Membership growth per year:  500
Lurking potential members:  4,000?

Income Numbers:
Current minimal annual income:  $5,000 (500 * $10)
3-year income pattern with $10 annual fee:  $15,000, $20,000, $25,000 [1]

Monthly Non-LEGO information costs:
Cable/Satellite TV:  $30-$60+
Phone/Cell:          $25-$100+
Internet:            $20-$50
Newspaper/Magazines: $10-$25
Total per month:     $85-$235+
Total per year:      $1,000 - $3,000

It would seem reasonable that many of us would be willing to pay more than
$10 per year for quality LEGO content.  Of course this includes other sites
such as Brickshelf and Peeron.

Can we find a way to offer different levels of membership at various price
points?  My suggestion would be to keep the simple membership at a level
close to the current $10, and add other levels/benefits at $25-$250 per
year.  Maybe people can be recognized for their membership level with some
type of icon next to their posts, as in the Bricklink or eBay system.

More hypothetical income numbers:
50 members paying $250 per year:     $12,500
100 members paying $120 per year:    $12,000
200 members paying $50 per year:     $10,000
250 members paying $25 per year:     $ 6,250
400 members paying $10 per year:     $ 4,000
500 members paying $0 per year:      $     0
500 new members paying one time $10: $ 5,000

Total Income for one year:           $49,750

I honestly don't know what it takes to support some of the countless hours
of current volunteer time, but it seems as if we could easily raise more
than a token amount of money for LUGNET's operations.

What do you think?

Andreas
http://www.lugnet.com/~19/

[1] 1,500 + (n x 500) * $10



Message has 3 Replies:
  Re: Membership Math
 
(...) Honestly I think $250/year is quite high. I like to consider myself generous, but I still don't think I'd shell out $250/year. I could see plausibly $120/year, based on $10/month or so, but even that's pretty high. I might pay that. Maybe. I'd (...) (22 years ago, 4-Apr-02, to lugnet.admin.finance)
  Re: Membership Math
 
(...) Interesting numbers. But I don't think the membership base will increase as fast with higher associated costs (think of a simple supply/demand graph). Remember, there is a risk that LUGNET would price itself out of business. Especially if (...) (22 years ago, 4-Apr-02, to lugnet.admin.finance)
  Re: Membership Math
 
(...) ... I imagine that the lurk factor is much higher. For comparison, BrickLink has over 7,700 registered members. The LUGNET Admin probably has a pretty good idea of the numbers though, based on server bandwidth and number of unique IPs. Cary (22 years ago, 4-Apr-02, to lugnet.admin.finance)

9 Messages in This Thread:




Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR