First of all, thank you to all members who contributed to the Prize Draw discussion we recently had, and thank you for helping us reach the decision of an Annual Draw going forwards. This will certainly prevent BeoWorld from being in a loss-making situation and will secure the site as it is for us all to enjoy, right now.
So, going forwards into the future is the next thing to think about. Software will need updating, many annual licences need to be paid for to enable the various elements we need for functionality and ease of use, we need to update and maintain the server we run, we will need to update the actual look and feel of the site, and if we need a total revamp at some point - this will be expensive, as it always is.
Technology doesn't stand still as we sadly found out with our old forum which became totally unworkable after the platform and software was long discontinued. Keith kept it on life support for many years with custom written patches and workarounds - but in the end the new-tech hackers got into the old-tech software with its inherent weaknesses and we had to very quickly flip to where we are now.
After a long discussion the other week both Keith and I identified that in order to actually make a small amount of money to put in our 'improvements' fund we'd need to have a think about not only breaking even every year - but to make a small amount to invest back into the site in the future. This led us to think about the current varying levels of membership and how best to fairly monetise them whilst also giving access to everyone on the world wide web.
So, we have the saying "If you're not paying, YOU are the product". I'm not sure where it was first said, but it's very true. Companies who offer amazing platforms for free need to be getting their money from somewhere and most of it is simply the selling of your data, or having huge amounts of advertising. BeoWorld has neither, and never will have.
Currently we have three levels of membership as you know.
Bronze : Allows you to post on the Forum
Silver : Allows you to access User and Service Manuals
Gold : Allows Silver Benefits plus free entry into Prize Draw.
Our initial thoughts were to trim this down into two levels. One where the basics are free to anyone and everyone, and one for the person who really wants to use the site to either set up equipment, repair equipment, gain specialist advice and insight, and to generally get something they'd pay a specialist to do for them if they didn't have access to BeoWorld. If they are prepared to pay elsewhere, then we didn't think it unfair to charge ourselves - but obviously less.
You've then got to break it down into what should be free, and what should be 'chargeable' so to speak.
A free service, in our opinion, should be the ability to discuss products, share opinions and get general help in the set up and use of your Bang & Olufsen products. A broad brush, but one of general help and support for everyday Bang & Olufsen users. At the end of the day we want people to talk about the brand, be enthused and impressed, and buy the products - which is rather in line with the ethos of the actual company. Although on an official level I've heard absolutely nothing from Bang & Olufsen for some time now, I'm sure we are still appreciated?
To the "Paid" service. Now that the Prize Draw is once a year I think it doesn't give Gold Membership the (insanely good) value it used to have, so we can perhaps absorb it into another level of paid Membership and make it a very pleasant 'Bonus'.
So, what other paid 'perks' can we add? Well, we have them already - we have a huge database of user and service manuals, plus we have stacks and stacks (in multiple large boxes) of others, all waiting to be scanned in and uploaded to our server.
This leads us to my initial thought of just two levels of Membership, and here are my suggestions.
Basic (Free) Level. My thoughts on a name could be 'Standard Member', or 'Basic Member' or I'm open to suggestions. Whilst I'm not looking for a derogatory term in any way it needs to reflect that this member is non-paying (yet is still obviously very welcome!). This will get the member access to the current forum and be able to ask and/or answer any questions he or she may have.
The 'Paying' Level. On the paid level I am thinking this will gain you access to the whole uploaded User and Service Manual Library (we are working on a far better referencing system right now to let members know exactly what we do and don't have). It will also offer the Prize Draw once a year, of course.
In addition to this we wondered if we may be able to offer access to the Archived Forum - or wether you think this should be available to everyone? It could certainly be a 'perk' for paying members if it can be 'walled off' so to speak. Is this a good idea or a bad one, I don't know.
With regards the huge amount of additional manuals we really have, but don't have (literally) hundreds of hours to scan and upload we could list them as 'uploadable' and in hand. We could charge a flat fee to pull the hard copy from our archives, then scan and upload the manual to the database.
I'm sure there may be more 'perks' we could add for paid members though, and I'm sure you could maybe think of some? Suggestions please...
Finally - the name of this new level.. I'm thinking 'VIP Member' perhaps? Or 'Full Access Member'? Again - suggestions please.
Once we have a clearer roadmap of the two levels, and what they can offer, then we need to think about pricing. That's another discussion - but for now let's change the shape of the BeoWorld Memberships, simplify and streamline, and get the next stage of this website underway.
Over to you!
Location: Eastbourne England
