UPDATE: Nairaland is now 100% free!



Congratulations!

Nairaland, the Nigerian Forum, is going commercial!

Why? Because if we are to become the best discussion forum in Africa, we need money to pay the administrator and hire programmers, graphic artists, reporters and writers to add features to the site.

The list of things we need to do to make Nairaland the best is as high as Mount Kilimanjaro, but we have been held back due to lack of resources.

Please note that participation in the forum will always be 100% free. That is, reading and posting in threads.

[s]We are going to introduce a price for each private message you send. This will bring in some revenue and also help the ladies to deal with the problem of 'romantic spam' .[/s]

We're also going to introduce an [I]optional[/I] membership fee. Those of us who are not willing to pay the fee would be designated as "registered guests". Paying members will have a profile page and will be able to publicly display their contact information (email address, yahoo messenger id, home page, etc.)

[list][li][s]How much do you think we should charge for each private message you send?[/s][/li]
[li]How much per day, per month, or per year should the 'membership fee' be?[/li][/list]

Your comments are welcome.

UPDATE: The pay per PM scheme is now cancelled. Here's why.

I think this is a good idea, and in terms of the price I would say 15 Naira is just perfect, affordable at least. Well I would think adding a paid reply feature also would be great.

For the membership package, I would say it would be good news to all of us urging to show our links for publicity in whatever we are doing.

Anyways I love the whole concept, I mean don't you guys think it is a good idea?

Since u know what it takes, i guess u guys should be able to give us the rate that would help u do all u have to do to make this site "IT". I'm i making sense?.

ehmmmmmmmm here we go again money money money well just let me know how much and why and im up for it make sure its towards end of month oo i be salary earner

I take it that you all agree on the price of private being 15 naira per message, provided the recipient of the message will be allowed to send a reply at no cost. Please take up this issue if you think 15 naira is to cheap (or otherwise).

What about the membership fee? How much are you willing to pay per day, per month, or per year to be deemed a 'registered member' of the forum (as opposed to 'registered guest')? Please feel free to speak your mind; this is your chance!

Pardon me, shouldn't you be entitled to sending private messages as long as you settle your membership fee? I think the N15 per PM should apply to "registered guests" like you put it. Again the membership fee should be a one-off payment since it is going to be affordable. May I ask what the mode of payment will be?

[s]You buy an MTEL multicard voucher and send it to the administrator by PM, then your "nairaland account" is credited and the 15 naira will be deducted whenever you send private messages.

There is no way to pay just 15 naira at a time.[/s]

and what about users outside 9ja?

Very good question, jogego. For people living outside the country, options include:
1) Western Union money transfer, which (unfortunately) is slower than the MTEL method.
2) Paypal, which is officially off-limits to people who live in Nigerian.

The Western Union (or Moneygram) method, though it's slow and rather inconvenient, may turn out to be the only viable method, in which case the amount you will put into your 'nairaland account' at one time will be more than what people in the country will pay.

What do you suggest?

Going commercial yes! not with forum, take commercial adverts  like yahoo, allow singles to look for lovers etc. Introduction of fee will scare people away from your site. Please note that not everybody can link up with the wed in Nigeria. Please keep this site up for free until you are sure of over 3,000 users

trish:

Pardon me, shouldn't you be entitled to sending private messages as long as you settle your membership fee? I think the N15 per PM should apply to "registered guests" like you put it. Again the membership fee should be a one-off payment since it is going to be affordable. May I ask what the mode of payment will be?

Seun Please tell me why as a full member you will not be allowed to send private messages and you have to pay to send one that does not make any sense to me, so why pay to be a member. And i fully agree with trish I think the N15 should be for registered guest or are there some other benefits you have in mind that we dont know of.

Legry: agreed. Here is the current plan:

Membership fee deducted daily or monthly grants you rights to unlimited PM

How about that? No more 'fee per PM'.

@ Seun, I think HND_Holder has made a valid point. Depending on the rate of growth of the member base, you should be able to market advertisement to a couple of Nigerian companies. TO be honest, the web is free and when people start getting restricted by payment of fees, the user base will most likely drop off. In any case, if a member has a yahoo ID, I'd probably prefer chatting on yahoo messenger rather than sending pms.

In essence, keep up the good work, build up a solid member base, advertise on the web site.

I don't believe in the advertising model for a community website. I'm sure you know that I must have considered advertising.

Advertising simply means I'm 'selling out' my users. I do not want to do that. I want to act in the best interest of the people using the forum at all times, and I can only do that if they are the ones paying me. There is a [I]fundamental conflict of interest[/I] when you're trying to serve both advertisers and community members.

For example, there are news sites that force you to click several pages to read just one article. You know why? Because they are being paid based on the number of 'impressions', so the more pages you click the more they make even if the extra pages you visit cause you to waste your precious browsing time.

Some other sites, for example Yahoo Mail, use animated ads which distract you from the main purpose of visiting the site and makes the pages to take a long time to load. This is not in the best interest of the users, of course, but they do it because they are offering a free service and they have to pay the bills!

Ultimately, my belief is that if what you are doing [I]is worth doing[/I], then [I]the people you are doing it for[/I] will be ready to pay you. If it is not worth doing, they won't pay. If I work to create the best forum in Africa and people are not willing to pay, then it means the forum is not really helping people. It means the venture is not worth it.

Since Public TV is free, why are people willing to pay for DSTV? Because DSTV is better. Why is DSTV better? Because DSTV is focused on the needs of [I]its subscribers[/I], while Public TV stations are focused on the needs of their advertisers. The resulting difference is very clear.

Nairaland wants to be focused on satisfying [I]your[/I] needs!

Hey all
I've gone through all the postings on this topic thoroughly, like Na mi o said, you guys are into this and you know what it takes to get things moving. You give us your draft plan on the general conclusion as to how much to charge, the monthly, yearly or daily charging issue and PMS issue.

I trust you will come out with something good. It is after you have done this that we are then in the position to give our views.  

The last post by seun is a brilliant one, and i think it makes me lay more emphasis on my point. Let us know your stand and then we'll all deliberate on it. You need us to keep running the forum and then we also need you to stay on the Forum. This is a matter of mutual benefit and understanding. Since you are the brain behind it all, you are in a very better position to tell us how you think it will work. Afterall, not every member of this forum was present as at when the concept or idea of this forum was conceived

I wish you the best of luck in the process

seun:

Very good question, jogego. For people living outside the country, options include:
1) Western Union money transfer, which (unfortunately) is slower than the MTEL method.
2) Paypal, which is officially off-limits to people who live in Nigerian.

The Western Union (or Moneygram) method, though it's slow and rather inconvenient, may turn out to be the only viable method, in which case the amount you will put into your 'nairaland account' at one time will be more than what people in the country will pay.

What do [I]you[/I] suggest?

Have you looked at InterSwitch pple can use their debit cards to pay today check out www.rechargeNigeria.com

Yes, I would love to be able to accept Interswitch credit cards but the company is just too elitist - the money they are demanding I just don't have because I'm a one man shop. They won't even reply your mails without a 'formal company introduction'; they seem to think you must be a scammer if you're not a (big) company. I stand to be corrected.

But people outside Nigeria can't use Interswitch. For people within Nigeria, the method we've proposed is the use of the 250 naira MTEL 'Multicard' unit, which I can eventually turn into cash.

seun:

Congratulations!

Nairaland, the Nigerian Forum, is going commercial!

Why? Because if we are to become the best discussion forum in Africa, we need money to pay the administrator and hire programmers, graphic artists, reporters and writers to add features to the site.

@Seun when you said going commercial are talking about building a portal or will the site simply remain a forum as it is?

I think there should be different types of subscription based on the fact that most people earn monthly salaries. Others who have more money can subscribe annually or per quarter but of course the longer the duration the lesser you pay as subscription. They should get a discount.

There should be various types of membership which will determine the type of service you get. If you're willing to pay peanuts then you get monkeys! However there should still be some free services like posting contributions because not every member has a job and they should not be deprived of their contributions.

I will also suggest that the mode of payment should not be limited to the Mtel voucher because of network problems which we still experience in Nigeria. Flash me cash is another option or some sort.

Demmy, Nairaland is promoted as 'the Nigerian Forum'. It will always remain a forum first and foremost, regardless of the features we add to it. I don't believe in portals.

Delarontus, posting and reading will always be free. I believe that information wants to be free so I cannot charge for it. In addition, it would be absurd to charge people for sharing information!

I agree that there should be various levels of membership.

I believe this service is worth its worth any day, thats why I asked for volunteers in the first place to easy the stress on our man Seun, so if paying for some particular privileges it's one way of helping out as well.

I will advice that their be an exclusive section for paying "nairalanders", and the normal nairaland with these privileges disabled.

NB: The payment schedule is what I would want us to put straight, and Length of subscription.

- 'Registered Guests' (via free registration) will be able to read and post at will. But they will only be able to send PMs to paying members who can also send them PMs.

- Registered Members (via paid membership) will be able to display their contact information (e-mail address, website, signature, etc) to the public, send PMs to anybody and recieve PMs from anybody.

- There may be several higher membership levels with more features at a higher price, though one could argue that the best thing to do with extra money is to use it to pay for someone else's membership!

- Demmy: With Flash me cash, there is a transaction fee of 300 naira. If you're paying for a year's membership this would be insignificant, but otherwise it is. We'll support it anyway.

- I'll be reading the contributions in this thread over and over again and taking them into consideration. It will take 2-4 weeks to set up and properly test the system once the decision has been made.

- As a paying customer, you will now be able to 'vote with your money' and help to make the site a place that you and all the people you know will like to visit any time you're online.

I just found about this site and I think it's really cool for Nigerians, but I think it's a little bit early to be talking about payment, though I don't know how long this site has existed but I'm sure it's not up to 6 months.

When there are enough members I'm sure there would be enough sponsors to keep it free.

Hey Seun,

Quick question... Why should i pay to contribute to your forum? If you introduce a membership fees and all other types of fees people will walk and whats a forum without the community members?

Unless you are going to offer something special that might be worth paying for then it might be Ok.

Just think about it...

P.S

Try affliate marketing through google, you should be able to bank some $£ that way...

Just Blaze:
Why should I pay to contribute to your forum?

People are not going to be paying to read or contribute in the forum. People are going to be paying only if they want to meet new people through the forum. I think that's fair enough..

I think everything on nairaland should be free but you should rather earn revenue by providing space for adverts.

I think this is a good idea, and in terms of the price I would say 300 Naira is just perfect, affordable at least. Well I would think adding a paid reply feature also would be great.

For the membership package, I would say it would be good news to all of us urging to show our links for publicity in whatever we are doing.

Anyways I love the whole concept, I mean don't you guys think it is a good idea

That'll be the day. . .people paying to discuss, what do i gain for paying to air my mind? I thought people only pay for something they GAIN something from. . .

exactly, never see a penny of mine, not to discuss anyway lol

Nairaland has gone comercial, but our customer is the Google Advertising Network. See this explanation.

seun can't u see that u can use the Nairaland bash party opportunity to discuss this commercialization of a thing formally to your so called beloved member and that will enable people contribute there opinion ok.
its an Advice

please lets have nairaland party after xmas cos thats when am available