Alan.. i hope you guys are able (more) (archive)

I hope you guys are able to diversify your revenue stream. Supporting this site with ad revenue only is a sure way to go bust. You should -- and this is what I was saying -- also assess an annual fee as well. That way when the economy slows down you have something to help cushion the blow.

Indeed, BMW has done well during this recent slowdown, but what happens when BMW begins to slow down? You think traffic on this site will continue to move up? Further, you say you have been around 3.5 years. You sound like those Bull market guys who only knew the stock market went up.

Lastly, I was really attacking the lifetime membership suggestion more than anything else. Will Roadfly.com be out of biz in three years? I don't know. Will it be independent in three years? No idea. You guys might actually be one of those sites that actually survives; I hope you do. I should not have you wouldn't.

But my point is that there is a lot of uncertainty and many sites will go out of biz. No need to roll the dice here with a lifetime membership.

Just saw your post below where you said this site would be gone in 3 years. Hmmm...want to make a bet on that? This site has been around longer than a lot of supposedly "big" sites that have failed recently. It has been around for 3 and a half years already, and in that time, there hasn't been a single month yet in which traffic did not increase over the previous month's traffic.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm in favor of a membership fee or not, but someone asked if you would pay $20 for a lifetime membership, and you replied saying that the site would be gone in 3 years and that you'd pay $10 a year...the only way you would come out ahead by not paying the $20 for the lifetime membership is if the site tanked somewhere in the next 12 months...after the first 12 months, you'd pay your second $10 and be out a total of $20 already... :)

I'm just giving you a hard time because I don't like the thought of this site disappearing in three years. I happen to think it will continue to grow and become a better resource than it is now.

By the way, we're somewhere close to 10 terabytes of data transferred in the history of the site...something like half a billion HTML files transferred (not counting graphics)...well over a million (perhaps 2, by this point) posts made...and counting.

Alan

Follow Ups:

I appreciate the feedback... Alan 09:59 9/10/2001 (1)
- We agree and that's what counts. Best to you. Marcus-San Diego, CA 10:21 9/10/2001 (0)

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