Domain for sale......maybe.

[elephantspike]

I'm entertaining the idea of selling this board as a turnkey website with the domain name and all. I have a rough idea of what I think it is worth, and what it may be worth in the near future, but I'm interested in reading proposals. Interested parties please email me. I would say something like "serious enquiries only", but knowing the crowd, I won't bother.

It must generate a fortune on "beer" money alone...

Is there a price for the site with all the members and a higher price for the site with just some of them? ;)

[catawampuscat]

I have often wondered why one would put so much time, energy and money into a website like Pattayagay or GayButton or Sawatdee-Gay-Forum..
I know Pattayagay and GayButton are not for profit and one can only assume they are/were labours of love or hobbies.. I know Elephantspike has tried various ways to at least pay his costs.. Many posters seem to thinkk they have a right to a free forum and it is somehow wrong to want to be compensated for ones work and time..

One problem in selling the site would be access in Thailand..It has been very frustrating for the last few months to access 100% but it is working
well now in Thailand and the proxy is only slightly slower than without but other proxies have been very slow or useless and I, for one, stopped viewing and posting..I am sure some are applauding this and think this is the silver lining in the cloud but without reporting from Thailand (even from lmtu), the
site loses something and one can only hope that with the changes in BKK, censorship will relax but that remains to be seen...

ES has done a great job for no or very little financial reward and deserves member support.. We would all be poorer without SGT and perhaps some
promotor out there in cyberspace can think of a way to financially assist this worthy endeavour.. Dues, or a membership fee perhaps?

[elephantspike]

Thanks, Cat,

This is a labor of love, but like the old rock'n'roll tune goes;

Your lovin' give me such a thrill,
but your lovin' don't pay my bills,
Now give me money.
That's what I want.



I'm a working class guy going into what should be my prime earning years, and I'm letting my career go down the skids partly because I spend 8-12 hours daily online managing this board. I have some decisions to make in life. At 40, If I don't grow-TF-up now, I'm not likely to survive much longer.

This board has over 1,300 members now, and is gaining an average of 5 new members daily. If everyone chipped-in $5 a year, I would be all set, and you'd never hear another peep out of me about money. I could even get rid of the ads, if that's what people wanted.

The ironic thing is that the actual expense of running the board is remarkably cheap. My hosting fee is only $10 a month, but right now I don't have 10 dollars. I had to ask for a one week extension from my web-host. They granted that, but if it is not paid by Thursday, all services will be cut off, all because the guy who is neglecting his career in order to run the site can't come-up with $10 on time.

Thanks for running the board up till now.

Hey, I keep hearing about these obscenely rich homosexuals who spend a million baht a month in Pattya, and mock people like me who will forever complain about the CRIME of baht bus overpricing.

How about just ONE of them sending our host here a mere 10,000 dollars, a mere pittance, surely?

[bkkguy]

if you are not making $10 a month from the google ads to cover hosting fees then I hope you are not expecting high offers from a prospective buyer. if you are making $10 from ads but are squandering it on personal things like food then that is a budgeting problem that is not relevant here!

and if you really are spending 12-18 hours a day running a community site this size without $10 to show for it then you are doing something fundamentally wrong, and even if you achieved a miracle and got everyone here to pay $5 a year or even a month it would not justify that amount of work

"hobbies" that take up that much time every day are not hobbies - they are either obsessions or a potential businesses so either get counselling or get more business-like: people can do blogs and galleries anywhere so get rid of them if they take time or charge for them, get a few more people to volunteer to be assistant moderators, add paypal donate buttons on all key pages, learn to manage your time and budget better.... or yes, move on!

bkkguy

Hmmm. Now thats gratitude for you.
Kind of harsh there, huh, bkk?

While I've only contributed 2 or 3 times, I must say I find this forum quite informative and would hate to see it terminated or changed dramatically.
If membership fees are in order, I for one would consider signing up. You've done an great job of keeping it going ES. Don't lose hope.
PS BKK, that really was a shitty way to form your reply.

[Aunty]

Dude, charge everybody here a US$10 annual membership fee and be done with it. And if they don't want to pay they can piss off.

I agree. I bet that would separate the wheat from the chaff.

Anyway, as far as value of the website, what do you think a shop or other business that took 8-12 hours per day personal management, yet produced little or no profits, would be worth?

[wowpow]

I feel very guilty as I have some idea of how much time you have been spending on the board with the new site and the blocking. We had a whip round once and that worked well. How does one send you some money - beer money? I am not fond of paypal.

I agree. I bet that would separate the wheat from the chaff.

Anyway, as far as value of the website, what do you think a shop or other business that took 8-12 hours per day personal management, yet produced little or no profits, would be worth?
That would depend on the potential. A buyer might have ideas on how to change management strategy to increase revenue. Lots of internet companies were valued at mega millions and never did anything but lose mega millions. Of course, they were worth nothing, but valuation of a business involves more than analyzing the current income stream.

As far as a required membership fee, DON'T DO IT. It will not work. Guaranteed. People will not pay in great numbers for a forum board. They say they will, but they won't.

I am serious that people won't pay a member fee for a forum in enough numbers to make it work.
However, I do have an idea the owner might explore.
Perhaps he can find a SPONSOR in the form of a BIG PATTAYA BUSINESS, such as the Ambiance Hotel and boy bar group, Amor Restaurant, etc. and go ahead and charge 10 dollars but included in the offer is a 10 (or more) dollar coupon good at these businesses. So, get the deep pockets to finance this, and get good PR and publicity in the bargain. Half baked idea but if it was me, I would be talking to these people.

The Donation section at the top right corner of the home page is not very clear. All it has is a PayPal logo...

http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/images/links/x-click-but04.gif

Long-time members could "possibly" guess what this donation logo is for, but genuine new members would never guess and wouldn't click on it.

I would make it a bit more informative by adding a few words something like :-


Please make a donation
to help running this board
http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/images/links/x-click-but04.gif
Thank you

[wowpow]

Paypal Donate won't work visa a proxy such as legallyblindfold!!

Correction - I tried again and got it to work. It said that the page would not be secure but the page said that it was ?

Between Google ads, contributions from the Cornucopia of Filth and PayPal I'd have thought there should be enough to keep the hosting going (at $10/month). Beyond that, what's to occupy an entire working day, every day, on maintaining the site?

I read this site almost everyday. Sometimes more a day. But I have no idea about donating. I would be happy to pay a $10 yearly fee. How is this done? Don't some sites charge for membership? The problem I feel, is the blocking in Thailand. I do not think the forum has been as worthwhile since the blocking. I understand that some feel it is easy to use a proxy.

How do you donate $ ?

[elephantspike]

Thanks for all of your input, including bkkguy. I have learned not to take his directness in a harsh way, and appreciate his wisdom. (Although, I must say, for $5 per month per member, I would quit my job and move to Thailand).:bounce:

To clarify, the ads are making money, but those checks only come every month and only if they are more than $100. Otherwise, they come at the end of the next month in which $100 is accrued, so I get a check every 1 or 2 months from the main revenue source.

The "cornucopia of filth" has potential as it's member list grows. Every time a customer that joins through my links buys more minutes, I get a percentage. Not that many people have reloaded so far after the introductory freebies. It does have income potential, it just has yet to be realized.

I do have a paycheck from my regular job coming on Wednesday, so the fees for this month will be paid, but it is just cutting it too damn close. Someone with money to invest and with business experience could no doubt make this into a financially worthwhile venture.

Thank you to our anonymous donor for the $20. Thanks for the point about adding instructions to the paypal button. I will do that. In order to use paypal, you click on the paypal button, enter the amount to donate, and if you don't have paypal, on the next screen is one button that says "don't have paypal?". That button takes you to a page where you can use your credit card to make a paypal payment. For those that do have paypal, there is a paypal login on the same page as the "don't have paypal?" link. To paypal donate using the "beer" system, just click on "beer account" in the page header and follow the same steps as above.

Thanks for pointing out that the paypal button doesn't work via the proxies, TeePee. I hadn't realized this. Paypal is only available in a really limited version for those who have only Thai bank accounts, anyway. That's fine. If you are in Thailand, don't worry about it. I really think that the main contribution of our members who reside in Thailand is that they are content providers. Something like 85% of our visitors are logging-on from countries that have full access to paypal, and come to the board to gain valuable travel information from the %15 who are in Thailand. If you are in Thailand and would like to contribute, though, you can just choose the "don't have paypal?" option to pay by credit card.

[edit: I just added the paypal donate button to the top of the ezboard http://p092.ezboard.com/bsawatdeeforum. That goes to the same account as the button on this board, but since it does not go through the phpbb software, it won't list you on the list of donors in the bottom of the whos online box or automatically give you "karma" points. If you use this donation button and want to receive "karma" points for it, let me know and I can adjust the karma manually.]

I would never actually charge a fee for reading or for posting the board, but I think bkkguy is on the right track in his suggestion about charging for the blogs. I don't think I'd charge for the blogs, as they have generated little interest, but I like the idea of charging for something extra beyond the board, kind of like gaythailand.com's expanded personals for a fee. I'm not sure exactly what yet. Perhaps Classified ads? I like Taiquila's idea about getting a sponsor. I emailed Singha about that (no kidding!), but no dice. I'm out of the loop now for local connections in Thailand. It's been nearly 3 years since I've been there (Hell, I couldn't even manage Montreal this past year).

Thanks again, everyone.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

I have just lobbed in a few Euro, ElephantSpike. I hope it helps.

I had actually never noticed the Paypal button before - I tend to go straight to the message boards. I think that on a site of this sort, if the webmaster needs donations, he needs to ask for it. Put up a message with a sticky on the main discussion page asking for funds and telling people how they can pay.

Point out that somebody can pay money into your paypal account using a credit card if they don't have a paypal account - I for one had never known that before.

Constantly asking for money would probably be wearing on members, but I think if you had (about every six months or so) a little "campaign" to raise funds, running for a week each time, I would say that you would raise a few hundred dollars easy each time, given the size of the site.

Ronan.

[elephantspike]

Thanks, Ronan. Yes, that helps a lot. I have now paid this month's hosting fee. Also, since you are the first non-anonymous donor, you are the first to test the karma purchase system. You now have a total of 130 karma points and have automatically been awarded the "Golden Member" status.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

You are welcome, Elephantspike.

Hmmm.....so I am a Golden Member..... it makes me feel a bit like I am the subject of a Shirley Bassey song! :faroah:


The first of many, i am sure. Get that appeal going with a sticky on the first page, Elephantspike. I am sure the denizens of Sawatdee Forum will respond.

Elephantspike may I make a suggestion that you try and get more paying sponsorships. While not many would be too eager to be associated with a site concentrating on the gay sex tourist in Pattaya, the appeal could be wider. What about links to Utopia or Fridae to broaden the horizons.

[wowpow]

Paypal Donate won't work visa a proxy such as legallyblindfold!!

Correction - I tried again and if you stick at it it works eventually though I am not clear if the line was secure or not. It said it would not be but the Paypal page said it was? The payment was from a UK Bank not a Thai one. I worry about Thai credit cards and ATM cards as they give you zero protection against fraud.

May I suggest that you put a donation button on the Gay Thailand Forum page. I bookmark that page directly and only go occasionally to the Index page.

[Gaypattayan]

Hello, Elephantspike,

I tried the "new" donation facility on EZ Board's version of your site, just in case the Thai blockage might cause problems on your direct site (Glad to see TeePee was able to get through on second try). I've made a small donation, and all that effort and the discussion here all effectively convinced me to reactivate my PayPal -- in my"real name", just as my deposit through the EZ board connection was done -- though that was not through PayPal. Hope all of these small donations help keep the board alive.

Even though the Thai blockage is a hindrance, I would like to think enough of us do get through the barricade to keep a good "locals" contribution factor into the forum message boards. It seems to be working.

Keep up the good work.

Allen (G.P.)

Thanks, Ronan. Yes, that helps a lot. I have now paid this month's hosting fee. Also, since you are the first non-anonymous donor, you are the first to test the karma purchase system. You now have a total of 130 karma points and have automatically been awarded the "Golden Member" status.

Wow...the British Labour Patry's Donation for Peer has finally spreaded across the Atlantic to America ! 555

[Up2U]

I just sent you a few bucks......Up2U

[elephantspike]

Wow!

Thanks guys. I think I can pay-up the hosting fee in advance and get a discount now. I have manually modified the karma points and titles for Gaypattayan and TeePee to reflect their donations. I'm not sure why that didn't happen automatically for TeePee, since he clicked through the phpbb software. Did you click the "keep me anonymous" button?

As one off the biggest " to drivel on this board " , i send you my contribution, Spike.

Hey Boygeorge Pay Pal is on the right upper on front page !

[Jetsam]

I just bought the domain name :clown: , but now I have to share it with many others http://images.fok.nl/s/nopompom.gif

I have made my donation but others may have the same problem I experienced. (I thought I had all ready posted this problem??)

It appears that the homepage is customizeable. Where PayPal should be located there was just a title called KARMA. I had been searching for PayPal and could not find it. It seems that I must have closed the ad where PayPal is located. All I could see was "Get Karma" Since ES wrote about giving Karma points I clicked there and the PayPal box opened. ......This is not really important, but........

[wowpow]

I'm not sure why that didn't happen automatically for TeePee, since he clicked through the phpbb software. Did you click the "keep me anonymous" button?

YES!

I've got an idea for raising money: auction off a position as Moderator, with full power to censor posts and ban members. I'd be in on that action.

Boygeenyus, power hungry are we? Now who would you want to ban? I couldn't imagine this forum with any-one missing.

What can I say, Cedric, other than my imagination must be a lot more fertile than yours?

Good bad ugly or indifferent is what makes life interesting and feeds the imagination Geeny-arse. Free speech blah blah blah. I was just asking no need to get feisty.

You ain't see feisty, dear. I wouldn't get on my shit list if I were you, though, as I may soon be holding the keys to the kingdom.

come get me ladybird :blackknight: :blackknight: :blackknight: :bootyshake:

Hope my small donation helps, we can't afford to loose you. For 3 years I have gained much usefull and interesting information from here.

[elephantspike]

Thanks, zhodane, and everyone else. It is a big help.

Let me be perfectly clear that if it is sold, it will be only to someone who wants to carry it on pretty much as is, and to make improvements to it. I'm not going to sell it to someone who just stock-piles domains for resale. Quite honestly, this domain name itself is of little value for that anyway because it is so long. The value is in the fact that it is a turnkey active web community with full membership that is focused on a specific niche. It would really be of value only to someone who wished to carry it on as such, most likely an "insider" from our community, which is why I listed it here only and not on one of those domain broker sites.

It is your born child Spike, sail it and it never be the same ! Go can afford 12 hours a day, to keep this forum running ?

Go was it to bring " all ", from Thailand back on this forum ?

All the support you get now is coming from guys, go like to see you go one white SF !

Don't sail your hart and soul, Spike, you will regret it !

As i been a member so long from SF, ( I was not Baziel on the old forum ), i hope you find the mood to go one running SF. :protest:

As I am perpetually hard up due to my breeding, is there any-other way I get hold of a gold member star?

In my opinion, there might be some problems should a member of this site buy this forum, especially when it comes to impartiality. A sudden change of regime could send us all scattering to the four corners of the net,leaving nothing but trolls and spam behind?

[elephantspike]

Don't sail your hart and soul, Spike, you will regret it !


OK, Baziel. I think I know what you mean, believe it or not! :cyclopsani:



In my opinion, there might be some problems should a member of this site buy this forum, especially when it comes to impartiality.

I don't know, Cedric. I'm asking quite a bit for it, and I would think that bottom-line concerns would make any buyer consider carefully any and all decisions made.


is there any-other way I get hold of a gold member star?

Nope, that is only available for gold, but $10 USD will do. All members with more than 100 posts can make a custom title for themselves in their profile, though. That will show under your name in your post in addition to your rank, which will be "golden member" if you have contributed, otherwise it will be based on your number of posts.

You could make your custom title "golden member", but your "rank" will be the same.

[Monty-old]

I am happy to donate 1000 bht to this forum, and I am shore a lot of poeple, in Pattaya would also.
I will be happy to give the cash to one of Sawatdee members while thay are in Pattaya then thay can Pay pal it to you .
Or you or smiles could pick it up next time your in town.
I have more and more poeple tell me how much thay enjoy the forum.
keep it going.

As a "gold member" do you become a shareholder?

I figure it this way, every year (sometimes several times a year) my local public radio station does its funds/membership drive - as does the PBS station. Their argument is we enjoy their programming for free - now we have to ask ourselves what that programming is actualy *worth* to us.

I have appreciated this site since discovering it earlier this year. ES could have put in far more ways to earn money - including pop-ups, or pay-for-access features that *so* many other websites, touting thier "free" services, impose. So, I have clicked on the button and told Spike, in my own small way, that this site is important to me.

On the other hand, I'd be in full support of a "Troll Tax" or at east a "the first head is free, all others used to make the hydra will be an additional $XX.XX" concept. Of course, this might bankrupt some members of this forum - but the value might increase manyfold for the rest of us.