This will help FFR as a whole

[Iwhaiwnfi]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

5 dollars a month isn't bad at all, if you offer enough features.

The way I see it, you can generate a lot of money by offering a lot of features for premium accounts, but that in turn will aggrivate more people. Or you can get less money, offer less features, and not aggrivate as many people.

Just don't get greedy, like rade said 3 dollars a month with even a small percentage of the members subscribing will generate a lot of money.

[JurseyRider734]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

I probably wouldn't pay monthly because my parents would get pissed that i'd have to bug them every month for the credit card to pay for it. It's just like a bill, and people hate bills. I'd rather just pay like maybe 25 dollars or so for a year and not have to worry about it.

[Shashakiro]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

The whole point of the premium thing would NOT be to aggravate people...that must be avoided if possible.

All the suggestions I've agreed with so far are like that:

Special Forum Access/Chat - Would be nothing more than an extra place to go, regular users wouldn't exactly miss out on a ton
Custom Title - Incredibly minor to those who don't have it, but it's a kinda nice thing to have
Early SotW/All songs unlocked - Playing off people's lack of patience is the PERFECT way to do premium features. You can either be patient, or pay up. There will be people who pay up.
No ads - Easily justifiable, no one can really complain about this one.

[chickendude]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

Why don't you make a deal with some kind of shirt/other merchandise company to take care of orders for you. I think that with as many members as FFR is getting, the other company would be stupid not to take in all that easy market.

Then you could sell merchandise and profit from it without having to worry about it all that much. I'm sure plenty of people would love to sport an FFR shirt.

[Tasselfoot]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

IMO, $2-3 a month is the right way to go, with either a $20 or $30 yearly option. Also, you wouldn't have to bug parents each month... things like this can be set up as a recurring credit card payment. Sign up once, and it automatically bills you each month afterwards until you cancel it.

Don't forget though... to accept credit cards (vs paypal or cash/checks), there are extra fees (paypal has fees too for business accounts)... payments to a Visa, to processing companies... things like that.


And Shash, what you said is basically what would be offered... I'd prefer to have at least one other big drawing feature as well though. Best thing I can think of is a small section of Members Only songs.

[rade0110]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

Keeping the main features of the site (being free without needing anything else to be a part of the community) is obviously the whole idea. Things like what shash said I agree with entirely. But, there absolutely HAS to be something that will flat out WOW them. Remember, how many of the regular forum goers even play ffr regularly? Doing things like Special Forum Access/Chat and Custom Title are things that would indeed be appealing to forum goers and Early SotW/All songs unlocked obviously for players. No ads is both. But what else can be done with the help of this new package? Having a members only section of songs I think would anger more people than intrigue. Maybe, like chicken said, You could do something with a t-shirt company. If you spent $4-5 on creating a shirt (you'd have to buy in bulk numbers), then included that in part of being a member for 25 bucks; spend $1.25 on delivery fees you'd still be profiting basically $20 per person per year. I don't know if this is possible or not still just trying to pitch ideas.

*Edit

Although now that I think about it, you might have to make an initial investment with this idea....

[Iwhaiwnfi]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

Special Forum Access/Chat - Would be nothing more than an extra place to go, regular users wouldn't exactly miss out on a ton
Custom Title - Incredibly minor to those who don't have it, but it's a kinda nice thing to have
Early SotW/All songs unlocked - Playing off people's lack of patience is the PERFECT way to do premium features. You can either be patient, or pay up. There will be people who pay up.
No ads - Easily justifiable, no one can really complain about this one.

Almost every single one of those things offer no incentive to pay money to get them.

Custom titles are essentially useless, aside from bragging rights. Getting every song isn't too much of a hassle for any advanced member, and advertisements have never been a hassle for me. They take up very, very little space anyways.

Early SOTW would be pretty neat, but again, it doesn't seem worth paying 2-5 dollars a month just to get a song two weeks before everyone else.

I'm starting to think premium accounts is a bad idea, since you can't offer enough premium features to make people want to pay money to get them, and at the same time aggrivate those who enjoy FFR because it's free.

[Windscarredfaith]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

WAIT!! don't post your sig yet! Jason & I have a small surprise for you tonight that would make that task easier. Just give us another 30 mins.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Omg Synth, you really are God. ='( <3

[Synthlight]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

Almost every single one of those things offer no incentive to pay money to get them.

Custom titles are essentially useless, aside from bragging rights. Getting every song isn't too much of a hassle for any advanced member, and advertisements have never been a hassle for me. They take up very, very little space anyways.

Early SOTW would be pretty neat, but again, it doesn't seem worth paying 2-5 dollars a month just to get a song two weeks before everyone else.

I'm starting to think premium accounts is a bad idea, since you can't offer enough premium features to make people want to pay money to get them, and at the same time aggrivate those who enjoy FFR because it's free.

I don't know if you are right on your judgement here. I think plenty of people would want songs early just so they could be on the highscore list before anyone else. Do you have anything as an alternative that would help the site this much?

Cheers,

Snyhlight

[Iwhaiwnfi]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

I don't know if you are right on your judgement here. I think plenty of people would want songs early just so they could be on the highscore list before anyone else. Do you have anything as an alternative that would help the site this much?

Well, getting on the high score list earlier than most people doesn't seem to be too much of an advatage to people that usually don't get on them anyways.

Even if people that are good, but not good enough to get on the high scores before Shash, Bahamut, etc. (assuming they don't even sign up), they'll still get bumped down in the 1-2 weeks when it's publicly released. And anyone that usually gets the high score anyway, it'll just happen before anyone else, and won't change much.

At best, all you get is 1-2 weeks in the spotlight before you're shot down. It's not a bad thing, but on it's own I don't think it's worth paying for.

Some other alternatives.. I don't know. Maybe a different colored text in multiplayer, of your choosing? That's all that comes to mind at the moment, but I'm sure I'll think of more things later.

[Shashakiro]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

I don't think it's worth paying for.

Then don't buy it. We're not looking for 100% or even 2% of people to be signing up for this anyway.

If almost no one thinks it's worth paying for, that's a different story...but I'm sure at least a few people would pay a couple bucks for some of the things already suggested.

[rade0110]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

Shash is right. Synth really doesn't need more than 1% of the ffr community to care. Hell, 1/2 of a percent would bring in 100k at $20 a year. Plus FFR is an ever-growing site. The more site recognition there is, the more chance at people getting this premium membership. Obviously though, this needs more thought. The best way to decide what is best for this package is to simply ask people. Getting ten peoples input represents what 1/1000th of a percent of the community? Plus we really need to brainstorm. We need to think of something that will have people pour into this idea. I still believe that having a drawing/raffle or some type of material good (even a sticker) would make this idea more promotable.

[Tasselfoot]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

plus, MANY site regulars will pay for it purely to help the site... as more of a donation than anything.

[Synthlight]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

Ok, lets see if we can get an agreement on this and or discuss this list:

No banner ads whatsoever, anywhere on the site.
SOTW early. Maybe 2 weeks early?
Special forum titles and or more information under your avatar
Private forum areas where you can say whatever the hell you want.
Special rooms in the chat that only allow paid members..
Instant access to all available songs
Special color name within multiplayer so you can play other members if you choose
Merchandise or T-shirt with membership or at slightly higher membership rate?
Active customer support network for the new people that come in as members

Monthly: $3.50
Bi-Annual: $19.00
Annual: $35.00

Pay by paypal, via credit card on automatic renewing subscriptions or one time payment. Or paypal pay by phone payment.

Can you guys think of anything else? Doing my best to implement your ideas here. Again, remember that this is all just brainstorming.

Cheers,

Synthlight

[rade0110]

Re: This will help FFR as a whole

I would say maybe hold off on the merchandise idea until this is proven a success. You don't want to get stuck with 1000 stickers that "flashflashrevolution.com" or whatever. You can always keep track and ship them to starting members later. And to promote one time payments, maybe drop the annual from $35 to around $30. That way even the parents feel like it would be a better way to pay, just one lump sum for the year.