I have been making serious progress on implementing a new subscriber feature for KitMaker. Before anyone starts worrying about losing any access to existing features, etc., this will be an option only for those looking for added gallery/photo space and some future bells and whistles I have yet to build. For the time being I just want to make sure the payment option is working and able to be automated with PayPal on signups, renewals, cancellations, and the like.

I am debating on the pricing right now so any input members have for this is appreciated. I am thinking something along the lines of the cost of a Starbuck's blended drink (per month).

Thanks,
Jim

Wow! A hundred bucks a month is a bit steep ain't it Jim?


Hermon

Well perhaps in 20 years that's what it will cost.

Jim

Hello Jim,
Count me in. I could go for $20 to $25 a month on the high side and $10 to $15 on the lower end.
I would like the extra room( Not that I have used very much of what I have). I think it is a great idea with all the work you put in to the sites.
Let me know,
Cheers,
Bruce

Since I have no idea what a starbucks blended drink costs, I remain in the dark.

A Starbucks blended drink costs about 7$ in Switzerland...

To be honest with you Jim, I don't think I would pay just to get more photo space. I can have that for free on photobucket or similar and the handling is easier too. So it all would depend on what the other feartures are.

Cheers!
Stefan

I think that it might be very difficult to justify a subscription on the basis of offering a few services (like an increased photo album) against payment which are for free elsewhere.

Do not forget that people are used to free google email (4gb), free google maps, that earlier very expensive GPS systems are now for free available in a smartphone..., that Nokia offers free webspace if you buy one of their phones...

The new kitmaker services should be solving real problems and offer significant added value to the modellers and/or producrs that is NOT available anywhere else and which is not easy to copy by any other site.

Suppose that you make the perfect color picker against payment and some one else offers it a week later for free...

If I could come up with real examples then I would probably start a site of my own ;-) (just kidding).

However, I would see a huge benefit in having a database containing all airplanes and for each airplane all available models, aftermarket decals, PE....

The average aeroscale visitor could use this dbase to find all availabe kits of his/her favorite model together with reviews, build logs...

The dbase could link to the sites of shops advertising on kitmaker and could even become the basis of an on-line shop at the service of the modelshops.

and what about providing a modeler oriented content management system for local clubs (or individuals) against a small fee. Now, many sites of local hobby clubs look horrible. The same for local hobby shops. such website is now costing about 75 euro a year, for that you get a url, 50 mb of disk space and a mysql dbase with fair use policy. With kitmaker the advantage would be that one cms development, when properly done could handle all the clubs.

A walkaround photo album (linked to the database) would be brilliant.

When thinking big you could do a client analysis putting all clients of the kitmaker enterprise into categories and then develop dedicated services for each one of those categories

well, I have been on this soapbox often enough, you can find my old contributions on this back on the forum somewhere

About $3-4 USD Dave.

I will have to put my thinking cap on to see what additional features I can offer besides gallery storage space. It may be along the lines of a system where images are easier to upload and display in a post. Ala Facebook or something similar. And yes I already know I can't compete with Photobucket (although my wife pays $25 a year for her account there).

Thanks,
Jim

No other site, has the 'basic' package better than this has. Currently, the subscription rate is the same as a Starbuck's wooden coffee stirrer (free )

Asking for financial support for the site and subscribing for a tiny percentage of the cost of a magazine subscription is a hell of a deal...

Seen the price of some On-Line Newspaper subscriptions?

...I'm with him-{non yuppie}

..."pays"...why? I have a boatload of pics on my free site and they haven't cut me off yet....hmm...an incoming email from photobucket...

$3-4 a month doesn't sound bad...what extra space/features are we talking? The upload process is easy for me using PB and I don't remember the upload here being too bad{it's been quite a while though since I have used onsite storage - not much room left}.
Hey, this isn't some kind of ploy to toss afew trinkets to us just to get free fancy coffee money...is it?!

Well they made me put the box of wooden stirrers back since I wasn't buying any of that expensive coffee of theirs..told them I needed a few for model paint stirrers and they told me to get my own paint stirrers...I told them I was trying to!

Hi Jim,

I have to say I can't see what you can add in the "subscription zone" without withdrawing some of the free services already on offer. If you want to compete with the likes of Photobucket you'd need to see what they don't offer for free - like long-term security. I gather that my PB account can be closed and wiped if I don't log in regularly, so if I got a truly huge storage space that could be left unattended for months at a time with no risk then I might be tempted. After all, you never know when life will throw a curveball and we all drift between hobbies and so-called "important" stuff at unpredictable intervals!

And the value per month to me as a user depends entirely on the raft of products on offer...

Tom

I can see 3-4 bucks a month for gallery space,ease of use, yada-yada. Beer's still free? Grumpy brings the pretzels! Maybe a discount in the Gift Shop for hats,shirts,etc.?
Cheers!

As somebody who missed the whole A-Guard era, would this be something similar? (What did A-Guard status provide, other than a patch on your profile?)

Tom

There were 2 levels of the A-guard. One was $25 a year with 25MB of gallery space, A-Guard forum access, and the added badge. The gold level was $75 a year with 100MB of gallery space, and the addition of an Armorama t-shirt.

Obviously 25MB and 100MB are pretty pathetic levels of storage 6 years later.

Jim

Was the A-Guard really six years ago, doesn't time fly when your older .
Andy

I am all for it Jim!!

HARV

SIX years ago? Well the beer tates better now. So yeah, could do with more photo capacity. Don't really trust photo bucket that much as far as protection.Just use them for on-line back up really. What other bells 'n' whistles have you been juggling around?
Rick

Well, one improvement that would be good is a one-click "send to campaign gallery" button that would make it easier to move images, but I guess you'd want to apply that to everybody rather than just subscribers. Perhaps an online easy-to-use image edit/resize tool to get big camera images to a useful size during upload? (Lots of "help!" posts on this topic...)

And of course a "New Guard" T-shirt is a must!

Tom

Jim,
I would pay $3/4 a month to have 'one click' photo posting.Not being a computer literate person,my attempts to post photos have been a huge failure & expensive too. I've given up on it

Just my two cents worth.....
Jake

PLEASE DO NOT BRING BACK THE T-SHIRT HEADACHES---- PLEASE!

What t/shirts, I never got a t/shirt .
Andy

The shirts will not be coming back. You want a shirt? KitMaker Shops

Cheers,
Jim

Hey Jim, here's an idea.....(yes Damian, I am capable of thought from time to time).

In addition to added gallery space, etc. how about a monthly lottery for those of us paying for the new subscription feature? You could draw a random name out of a hat and the winner would recieve a free donated kit. Not like a $100.00 kit or anything mind ya, just some kind of little dinky prize. Or you could have staff members each nominate one person each month and the rest of the subscribers could vote on who they'd like to see get prize, with everyone only eligable to win once each year.


Just a thought.
Hermon