TPO "gut check"

In addition to member support, which I support 100% because TPO is the best fly fishing forum on the internet and the guys that run and contribute to this site work their butt off, there are a number of other ways to monetize this site. Most involve advertising in some form or other.

I know nobody likes ads but it is a pretty easy way to generate some cash. I know a little about how to set these up and am willing to help set it up if interested.

Personally, I'd rather see folks step up and become Rockstar members and keep ads off the site. Thirty bucks a year to help support TPO is by far the best investment you can make
towards becoming a better fly fisherman and having a cool place to hang out when not on the water.

Guys, I apologize - completely misunderstood!....all I'm saying is that looking through the TPO videos of tying flies, tips, etc...is all stuff that can be found many places - for free. Realize that, if sadly, this site shut down tomorrow, many of the knowledgeable people here would go somewhere else and share info. Thats all..

I meant that for new people to want to spend $30 to support the site they may want more content geared toward them. Maybe I'm wrong. It was just a suggestion. I thought the topic of this post was about growing larger?

It's no secret you have the euro-nymphing thing cornered here and there's no other place to go for as much info on such. My suggestions were only addressing the original poster wanting to grow this site larger.

I also don't think larger is always better - in fact many sites lose focus and fall apart at that point! And for sure, Id rather pay a few bucks than EVER see ads!

Biting the hand that feeds you? are you kidding me?.... ::).....I paid within a week or 2 of finding this site because I found it to be great, local, ad free work of some knowledgeable guys who love the sport and love to share what they know. It may have come across wrong, but I was just giving suggestions as the original question was - where to go from here to grow larger?

That being said, I think its pretty funny guys would jump all over me about the value of this site yet I don't see any "Rockstar" status next to their name.

Easier to open your mouth than your wallet I suppose?

Im awaiting the icon for Pimp Status..

[quote author=Rainbow link=topic=3701.msg27992#msg27992 date=1256069962]That being said, I think its pretty funny guys would jump all over me about the value of this site yet I don't see any "Rockstar" status next to their name.[/quote] :o

A noteworthy observation.



I agree that most of the topics discussed on here can be Googled, but the level of detailed instruction would be difficult to obtain and extremely unlikely to be found on one site. Some of the guys on here really go the extra mile to help people who are just getting started, whether they're in the Rockstar section or not.

I think one thing to watch out for would be becoming too big.

Part of the attraction of this site is that it is focused on a geographical area, NY, CT, PA, and NJ. Yeah of course members from all over are welcome and many from afar add a lot to the site, but the fact that I can look at the big names and say "I know that guy" is a big thing in itself. It would be a significant loss to lose that aspect of the site.


As for the topic at hand, I am new here so maybe I've missed it, but I'd like to see some meetups and TPO sponsored events.

The premise of this thread was not about growing larger. It was to encourage guys to take stock in how the site has helped them and more specifically, to determine if that benefit is worth supporting the site in a monetary way. It appears to me that for one reason or another,not too many of the 1 thousand of us have thought about this. Rainbows perspective is apparently shared by many of our members. Why? Because you can. You can get the information here for free. Why pay for it! But, if you go to a fly shop to get some tying materials, they wont let you have it till you show them the money. Here, you can glean off as much information you can absorb and it don't cost you anything! I was talking to a friend about a topic related to salt water fishing a while back. I said,"I was reading about it on ctfisherman.com. Why don't you go on the site and check it out?" He said, "No, I'm not a member on there any more ever since they started charging for membership." I thought to my self,(this buddy of mine has a $25,000. dollar boat and a lot of expensive equipment, and he wont spend the $15.00 a year membership fee?) Yet Ctfisherman is really a helpful site. People are hard to understand sometimes. I've stopped trying to figure them out. I thought it was funny when rainbow made his first post on this thread and proclaimed that 99% of the information here could be found elsewhere on the web. Isn't it ironic that the gentleman who posted just prior to him is a flat out international fly fishing icon! You have a TFO 10 ft 5 wt PRO fly rod? Well he designed it. You have some Wapsi or Dave Whitlock dubbing? Well he developed it. So, each of us should determine for ourselves what TPO's value is. In my opinion, to sustain this web site as a viable, entertaining, and educational web environment, the administrators should have our support and appreciation for their efforts. The best way to show that is to help defray the costs.

I guess the question I would ask is what do Aaron and Juice want out of the site? Where do they want to take it?

I am all for supporting the site...I put my money up, glad I did.

Here comes the marketer in me. What needs to be clearly defined is what is or are the next steps? That is for them to decide or ask us to help them decide.

What is one of the big draws is that so much of the information on here is in one place and accessible for free. If you want to start putting a lot of it in the Rockstar only section then maybe you get more folks to buy in...but I don't think that would be the right thing to do...again not my decision.

OK...I will try and put in another .02 and phrase it better this time... :'(...Im kinda with Adam above..

The value of this site is not in question, but from my experience you wont get a ton more to sign up (paid status) simply by asking.

I created a few forum type websites in the past for small markets...500-3000 member Vbulletin type sites. The most successful way to get the site to raise money seemed to be too allow a trial period (14 days or ?) of unlimited viewing. After that you needed to become a member to access the majority of the site.

Now....$30 is a tough sell, believe it or not! - guys will drop $500 on a rod or $3000 on a trip but will balk at $30 online...the best price point seemed to be sub $10 - $9.99. That generated a lot of sign-ups. mentally its much easier to handle. One site owner insisted on $12.99 against my suggestion - sign ups dropped 75%. No kidding, over 3 bucks.

We would leave some general areas open, but where the real work went into (in TPOs case - videos, tips, tying lessons etc) is where one would have to pay to see. IMO that's very fair. Posts on the forum take little work or moderation but the other stuff really takes time (I assume) I say all this without being able to tell exactly what one gets with "Rockstar" status. It needs to be very clear. I just signed up and paid as I liked the effort put in and would like to see a good flyfishing site continue w good content. Your friends etc will always support you out of courtesy, but most viewers wont unless they get a whole lot more.

This way you aren't shutting the site for guys who dont care to join or just want to surf the posts, but you are offering WAY more to guys who support it financially. Who knows, maybe the creators could support their website and ffishing hobby by the added revenue... :D

IMHO and from experience, working on a website eventually gets old, but this way the valuable stuff on the site grows AND members join and make the work worthwhile for the creators.

RB

Rainbow...I am glad to see you are taking another crack at this. The man has some good points. One thing I would say as a "paying" member. Please, Please, Please no ads if possible. If needed...then sell a banner only...no pop-ups.

I agree with Adam, I'd rather see a banner than have to deal with pop-ups. Those mouse-overs really drive me bat-sh*t.