Vendor Giveaways -- Bad Juju

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Lost_Arkitekt

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First, I just want to go on a little rant. As a small business owner and builder, I have donated time and free merchandise to all sorts of people from varying background. In our volatile economy,the Bill Gates of today might be tomorrow's vagrant. Look at the Great Depression and even as near as the oil boom in West Texas to see where millionaires flipped out because they lost it all.

That being said, we all can't afford to belong to every forum, have every home brew club membership, buy every magazine, software and book, and STILL have money to brew, buy these cool products and build our equipment cache.

Some of those out there are more fortunate, but think about it this way vendors...that $25 membership fee could be used to buy some of your products so that these home brewers can have an easier time/better time brewing.

Before you reply half-cocked, don't think I'm saying that people shouldn't pay to keep the site up, running and being successful, but I also know how websites work...there are plenty of ads on here that make money for the website owner...otherwise, it would be membership only sustained and no ads would be needed. At some point, I will definitely be a paid member here because I think the info you get is worth it...and having that access is as well.

But, at this point, I can't put the membership as a financial priority, and although some people may think that they should never pay, there are many of us out there who want to...but have other really pressing needs.

So, why not open the giveaways to everyone? Tomorrow, one of us non-paid members might win the Megabucks...and buy everything in sight! Just my $0.0235 cents (marginally adjusted for inflation).
 
The owner of the site uses the vendor giveaways as an incentive for people to become paying members. FYI, you can enter any of the giveaways without being a paying member by entering by mail. The details are in each of the giveaway threads.
 
My take on it is this.... you can be a free member and look at a ton of ads. or you can pay a small amount and have a better experience. To me it is worth a few bucks to look at a site without ads.

The vendor give aways are just something likemthe lottery. I never win so it is no big deal.
 
You can already access everything on the site for free. I don't see somebody buying a bunch of stuff from a vendor that they win something from if they can't afford a membership to the site for a year. Not trying to be a jerk, I totally understand, but the giveaways are kind of like a huge raffle, and you didn't buy a ticket.

That said I'm not sure I want to pay $25 to read people arguing about whether BMC sucks or not for another year. Maybe I would pay $10 for that :p
 
Y'know, at the peak of gas prices, if I drove my pickup to work, I burned almost $25 in gas JUST on my commute. I've wasted more money on dumber things. Yes, I haven't gotten around to paying for a membership here yet - it'll most likely happen, just I have some other big-ticket deals I'm forcing myself to deal with first.

I have no problem with the vendor giveaways being paid-member only. There has to be perks to paying a membership for sites like this.
 
I get that paying helps the forum and I did last year. But I didn't really see any extra benefits that I cared about. My premium membership ran out last month but I don't think I'll renew it.
Just my two cents and all, but I don't care if I have an avatar, access to the bone yard and I don't really care about the adds. Also I live in Australia so the vendor give aways don't really count for me.
 
I don't see the problem.
Many membership clubs have drawings that aren't open to non members.
The difference here is a non paid member is welcome and can participate in nearly anything.
Other clubs don't allow that.

Website owners and vendors that cater to the theme of the site have a financial relationship.
They pay for advertising, and in some cases donations for things like drawings can offset those costs and get them additional great advertising.
Both parties win.

It's not like most members will ever win anything anyway.
There are a ton of people on this site so odds are pretty slim.
 
Calling a $25 annual membership fee a hardship is laughable when you'll easily spend more than that on a typical 5-gallon batch of beer. The best part about this site is that 99% of the content is free and available to everyone regardless of your level of membership. The $25 membership gives you access to the Debate forum and other member-only forums. I do like that we are given small perks like being able to enter the vendor giveaways through a post on the forum instead of mailing out a form, but these giveaways are not exclusive to members only.
 
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Oh look, somebody wants something for free while others pay for it. Where have I heard this before?

I think the giveaways are a great way to motivate people to join the site. If you have the time and money to brew, you have the money to join. I plan to get a premium membership soon for the sole purpose of supporting a site that has helped me immensely. Good juju comes from helping those who have helped you.
 
Exactly. As a forum owner myself (www.petfish.net), our server costs are BARELY covered by our google ads. We receive nothing for displaying the ads and only make money from them based on user click-throughs. Since google prevents us from promoting clicking on the ads directly, we're forced to incorporate the ads in places where users either might click on them by mistake or use some custom prestige contests (our "magic fishy"), where our users receive a special badge for being the best at clicking the random magic floating fish (it just happens to hover around ad spaces most often, imagine that).

The only revenues we've seen have to do with vendors that wish to market their products directly on our site. We do sell custom ad space, and i'm sure TxBrew does the same here. Prominently featured banner ads for a set price at a guaranteed level of impressions or click-thru.

Here, TxBrew offers perks in the form of the specialty forums for paid membership. There's no restrictions on the main areas of the website and anyone is welcome to participate whether they've paid for premium membership or not. The major reason why i've paid for mine is the extreme guilt I felt for learning SO MUCH ABOUT BREWING from everyone here, and not supporting this resource.

OP, I feel your pain about so many forums/websites, so little time and budget that you can devote. You'll have to pick and choose based on what makes the best business sense to you. Any retailer would run into the same issues, so don't feel that your situation is unique. Target your audience and be active in those communities. Most of online retail is all about promotion and reaching a wide audience. You have to be vigilant about it and outlast your competition.
 
Why not support something you enjoy and get benefit from? As the owner of a micro brewing related business, I can see the value of the giveaways.....and although very reasonable, I just can't afford the monthly vendor fees right now;)
 
First, I just want to go on a little rant. As a small business owner and builder, I have donated time and free merchandise to all sorts of people from varying background. In our volatile economy,the Bill Gates of today might be tomorrow's vagrant. Look at the Great Depression and even as near as the oil boom in West Texas to see where millionaires flipped out because they lost it all.
I am about to loose it all.

That being said, we all can't afford to belong to every forum, have every home brew club membership, buy every magazine, software and book, and STILL have money to brew, buy these cool products and build our equipment cache.
So go out and collect up some aluminum cans, donate plasma or clean windshields at an off ramp. You apparently have enough time to rant on the internet about being poor...

Some of those out there are more fortunate, but think about it this way vendors...that $25 membership fee could be used to buy some of your products so that these home brewers can have an easier time/better time brewing.
Think about it this way vendors if it wasn't for some of these giveaways I would never know about your products or even if you had the cool stuff to begin with and is some of the GREATEST advertizing I have EVER seen. (You all have some cool stuff!)

Before you reply half-cocked, don't think I'm saying that people shouldn't pay to keep the site up, running and being successful, but I also know how websites work...there are plenty of ads on here that make money for the website owner...otherwise, it would be membership only sustained and no ads would be needed. At some point, I will definitely be a paid member here because I think the info you get is worth it...and having that access is as well.
huh? You want to be a preimium member and will be "some day" but for now you just want to whine? Got it.

But, at this point, I can't put the membership as a financial priority, and although some people may think that they should never pay, there are many of us out there who want to...but have other really pressing needs.
The "need" to get up and go make some money and stop surfing the web...

So, why not open the giveaways to everyone? Tomorrow, one of us non-paid members might win the Megabucks...and buy everything in sight! Just my $0.0235 cents (marginally adjusted for inflation).
BECAUSE people would make 10,000 accounts and overload/crash the servers you seem to know so much about...
 
The forum giveaways are open to everyone. Absolutely everyone. You don't have to be a paid member to participate. A mail-in entry is completely acceptable and has the same chance of winning as anybody else.

Read the rules. You can enter if you'd like. Nothing is stopping you except a stamp and an envelop.
 
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