| Author |
Message |
    
Heirloomgardens
 Supporting Member
My Garden Journal
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 02:17 pm EST : |   |
Not that what I think matters, either, but I like all of your ideas, too, EJ. I appreciate that you posted your finances. It looks like you actually have been and currently are paying pretty reasonable prices for what services and equipment you have, so that's good.
Now, like Helen says, how best to make up the difference...? 200 paying members sounds like a lot. Even if people are paying an average of 15 bucks per person now (and that's just a guess), it looks like only 100 people are currently contributing. It'd be tough to get people to pay more than they usually do, and even tougher to get non-contributors to pay anything at all. How about something like a "shop" with products for gardening, using Commission Junction (or something similar)? Then people wouldn't even have to be members to actually find themselves contributing to the site... the world at large would be paying.
Heirloomgardens
- Massachusetts,
Zone "5b"
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Heirloomgardens
Supporting Member
My Garden Journal
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 02:28 pm EST : | |
LOL. I went to that page and forgot why I was even there. I had to reread your post to see what your point was.  Maybe something a little more obtrusive for people like me (but hopefully less obtrusive after paying dues!). Over the many years of browsing the Internet, I have developed a keen ability to block out anything running up and down the sides or top and bottom of all web pages because that is where the annoying ads appear. I now also automatically block out those same areas in newspapers, mags, and on TV. Just something to consider. I remember Bravenet or some similar site having an annoying banner that floated up and down the site pages unless you were a paying member. That was irritating enough that I could not mentally block it out.
Heirloomgardens
- Massachusetts,
Zone "5b"
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Ingwe4
Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Garden Journal
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 03:11 pm EST : | |
EJ! First of all: Thank you very much for running this wonderful site! It doesn't only cost you a lot of time, but also a lot of money, as we can see from your Income-Expense Balance in black and white above. If we want GardenBuddies on the web, we all have to try to help you solve the problems!
I have been here on GardenBuddies since the start and have had contact with many of my fellow buddies. Year from year it is the same people who has that little red (or yellow) star in their profile. Some contributors have left and some new have arrived. But as you can see the sum from the contributors have been more or less the same year after year. I don't think it is fair to ask the present generous contributors about giving more money! More contributors? Is it possible? Yes, I hope so! But it hasn't worked before, I think we must find a better way to solve it.
EJ has a fulltime job, a house and a garden (very beautiful we have seen it in photos) and a houseboat in a lake! And of course a family! So somehow I don't find the idea with a shop so very good! I think he has his plate full already! But it is up to him to say yes or no!
I hate ads and pop-ups but if this is the only way to get in more money, it's okey with me! And also the other things you've listed above.
And also thank you to EJ's assistants Tanya and Diane!
You help to make this forum the best place to visit on the web!
Ingmarie Sweden Zone 1 USD zone 6
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Gardenfiend
Supporting Member
My Weather
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 03:47 pm EST : | |
Ingmarie, I suggest that if we do ads (NO POP-UPS), affiliate links and other more creative things (I've got some ideas), we do the acquisition, organisation, and other jobs ourselves, leaving Ej with the simple (hah!) task of integrating them into the site. I entirely agree with you - the last thing we want is to give Ej more work!
Gardenfiend
- Germany,
Zone "7a"
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Heirloomgardens
Supporting Member
My Garden Journal
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 05:03 pm EST : | |
The kind of shop I meant is simple to implement. All it entails is creating simple web pages that advertise products that are owned by and shipped by some other company. That company provides the pics, buttons, and such to put on the web pages, and EJ gets a check every month for a portion of the sales. Any one (or all) of us could help with that.
Heirloomgardens
- Massachusetts,
Zone "5b"
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Sunnyday2day
Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Weather
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 05:59 pm EST : | |
There's only ONE Gardenbuddies.  I've looked around at the other forums and feel like there truly IS none like it. The folks here are upscale...in integrity, comraderie, eagerness to help, and compassion. E.J., let's just do whatever it takes to keep us up and running. I'm not at all opposed to a pay site. Thank you, Ingmarie, for your kind words. 
Sunnyday2day
- Tanya-Michigan,
Zone "5"
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Bcollingwood
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 06:45 pm EST : | |
I'd gladly pay (whatever number of) pence or cents each time I made a post to this site (except sometimes if a discussion like this was going on it might be inappropriate). A button to 'pay if you want to, for this post' would generate some additional revenue that I think most people shouldn't get upset about. A post can be made either way, pay or no pay. Some ads don't bother me either, so what? you don't have to linger on them.
Bcollingwood
- Manchester,
Zone "UK"
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Ej
Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 06:50 pm EST : | |
A donate button has been placed on the pages and will show once a topic gets a new post. Also I added back the links in the nav bar on top instead of taking them away from supporting members. They will be available only to supporting members in the future.
Ej So.Cal. Zone 10a
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Gardenfiend
Supporting Member
My Weather
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 06:51 pm EST : | |
Hey, I like the shiny new Donate button!
Gardenfiend
- Germany,
Zone "7a"
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Jeanne
Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Garden Journal
My Weather
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 07:04 pm EST : | |
You could have Nurserys have an ad all to themselves on the appropriate Forum..for Instance over at Dave's ..Brushwood has an ad on the Clematis Forum..and it stays there all year...you sell an ad like that per forum and you could make plenty to finance this site and recoup your loss.....You just click on that ad and it takes you to Dan's site..
Jeanne
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/clematis/all/
Jeanne Texas Zone 8B |
Nibbs
Supporting Member
My Garden Journal
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 07:10 pm EST : | |
Everything looks great, Ej! Your membership page for web space is easy to understand and the donate button is a great idea. What a jewel of a web site you have here!
Diane British Columbia Zone 7b |
Ej
Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 07:48 pm EST : | |
Mara please point me to anyone who has the knowledge and ideas how to end relaying through sendmail. This is the number one problem that slows us down. Everyone has some good ideas. Some I'm not sure how to go about.
Ej So.Cal. Zone 10a
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Dishesdone
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 08:01 pm EST : | |
EJ, my star isn't showing up?
Dishesdone
- New York,
Zone "7"
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Gardenfiend
Supporting Member
My Weather
My Garden
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 08:10 pm EST : | |
Ej, I'll be back to you tomorrow (my tomorrow).
Gardenfiend
- Germany,
Zone "7a"
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Cindym
My Weather
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 08:24 pm EST : | |
Since my little check is still floating around out there I made an additional donation via Paypal.
EJ, hope you can find an equitable solution. It'd be a shame to lose this place, especially since I just discovered it a few months ago.
Cindym
- Louisiana,
Zone "8b"
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Plantynut
Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Garden Journal
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 08:33 pm EST : | |
That takes a while Carol. One day it will appear.
Plantynut
- New York,
Zone "7"
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Dishesdone
Supporting Member
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 08:56 pm EST : | |
Thanks, Arlene! IT'S THERE! Who'd have thought I'd be so excited to see a little red star, LOL 
Thank you, EJ!
Cindy, that was nice of you!
I really am glad Jain and Monique told us about GB, I love it here!
Dishesdone
- New York,
Zone "7"
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Terryk
Supporting Member
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2007 - 11:04 pm EST : | |
Thanks so much Ej for this wonderful community you have so graciously allowed us to enjoy.
Even though the financial shows the dollor deficit Ej has taken on, his loss of enjoyable free hours can never be outlined in a financial. My hope is that you will gain this also. We can't expect that our membership just cover the dollor costs you outlined. I strongly feel that you should be able to cover expenses to have more help with the daily problems you combat or be able to upgrade to a higher level of service from the company that hosts our website.
Terryk
- NY,
Zone "6"
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Heirloomgardens
Supporting Member
My Garden Journal
My Garden
| | Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 08:35 am EST : | |
Have you Googled "without using sendmail" to see what other people are doing?
Heirloomgardens
- Massachusetts,
Zone "5b"
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Heirloomgardens
Supporting Member
My Garden Journal
My Garden
| | Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 08:52 am EST : | |
What about qmail?
Heirloomgardens
- Massachusetts,
Zone "5b"
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