Please Read: I am interested in your opinion on this matter

okeefe4prez said:
How about LEVEL D - you don't have to give folks any gear or set up exclusionary donor boards and you just let us give you a freaking donation? You don't have to tell us in depth financials or anything, but if there is a number you have in mind, toss it out there with a thermometer or tell us "hey guys, it would be great if I could get a few hundred folks to donate $25 or $50 this year to offset bandwidth costs." I don't use the other Iowa sites and I get all my Hawk news here, but I would gladly chip in for content/bandwidth because I know you're not running with the major traffic driving networks, which keeps opposing fan trolls from hitting the crap out of your board, which I really like.
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OK Garth Brooks. But when Jon doesn't build a shrine to Northwestern are you going to ask for it back?
 


Jon,

My two cents - you're putting way too much thought into this.

Step 1: Slap up a "keep the site ads to a minimum" donations widget somewhere on the front page
Step 2: Profit

I'd gladly make a small donation here and there. What I'm not going to do is drop any cash on some sort of "donor board" for a t-shirt or exclusive access. That's too much like a membership for my tastes.

How much money can you make off a donations widget? I have no idea, but lots of people do it - so it must work.

Also, a store to sell gear isn't a bad idea either - no need to tie that to any sort of tiered pay structure. Just sell stuff at a profit.
 
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JD, in all seriousness, just put more ads on the site. I read a study the other day that the average person is exposed to over 1,000 advertising impressions in an average 30 minute car commute. Now undoubtedly that was in a larger city and wouldn't hold true for someone in NeckMoines, but the point remains true.

The human mind is an amazing instrument. It has the ability to filter out all that worthless **** and focus on only the stuff you want. Think about it, how many billboards did you pass on the way home from work today? How many of them can you describe? Probably not too many. Quick, tell me what the ad is for on the right hand side of the screen as you read this. You probably can't unless you cheat a peak.

Unless an ad is of the pop up variety, or audio variety they really don't interfere with our ability to use the site. Sure we might have to look a tad bit harder to find the content we want, but we sill find it, and at a relative convenience. Will there be those that complain, sure, but you and I both know nothing can be done about that. If they don't complain about ads, they complain about the OT board, or a poster they don't like, or the fact their mommy didn't love them enough when they were little. That's what complainers do, they complain. And if you run a business trying to make everyone happy you'll go mad, or madder...

I belong to a couple of "free boards" (one of which I can't name here :)) that are hosted on completely ad supported platforms. It's not unusual to have an ad actually imbedded inside a posted message. Does that inhibit the messages impact or my usage of the forums? No, I simply adapted, everyone else would as well.
 


ssckelley said:
Just have a place where someone can give a donation and forget the different levels. Whether someone donates to you $10 or $100 give them access to a donors only forum and be done with it. If someone donates to you a special gift and you want to say thanks, do so on a 1 to 1 basis.
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This...simple, non threatening, keeps you as a "free" site. Have a drive once every 6-12 months to get us to re-up. I personally don't mind the sponsor ads, but then that whole model with advertisers is changing now anyhow with more use of phone aps, et al. Offer out clothing and logo'd mdse, good money in that as well..."the HawkeyeNation store". Offer for fun wager games or fantasy games that only users have to pay for that access, or as mentioned earlier, chalk talk sessions. People will do it, whatever you decide...

Also, a sarcasm moniker/icon on a post might keep the overly sensitive and literals from jumping to conclusions and debunking with cynicism.
 


DuffMan said:
As long as this is kosher I'd also like to start accepting donations. I don't really like my job and would much rather spend my time here. I can also guarantee that 100% of your donations will go toward me working less and spending more time on here.
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Somebody hired you?
 






Hawksd said:
Add a donate button and t-shirt link like mgoblog.com.
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If he is going the apparel route, he should team up with JesterApparel for normal Hawkeye gear at lower-than-MSRP prices.

Jon wins with more donations and Jester wins with sales volume that otherwise wouldn't exist and future customers.
 


ssckelley said:
Just have a place where someone can give a donation and forget the different levels. Whether someone donates to you $10 or $100 give them access to a donors only forum and be done with it. If someone donates to you a special gift and you want to say thanks, do so on a 1 to 1 basis.
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I agree with this as well Jon. Keep it simple for us knuckle draggers. We will pay Jon...for some of us its our only connection to society.:D
 


No levels, no changes to the site, you either donate or not (set a minimum $). Donators get their usernames in a different color that denotes them as a donator.
 




I've got it. We will have a series of fundraisers where each of us contributes some service and then we sell it. For instance, we could have a bake sale and Spliff45 could bake brownies. When Iowa plays NIU and NU in Chicago and Evanston, I could host a pajama jammy jam at my place and charge for admission. racerhawk could win the Tour de France and donate the funds to HN. Maybe we could have a dance marathon or a race for the cure type event, too. There are a lot of possibilities here, guys. Anyone else got any?
 


okeefe4prez said:
I've got it. We will have a series of fundraisers where each of us contributes some service and then we sell it. For instance, we could have a bake sale and Spliff45 could bake brownies. When Iowa plays NIU and NU in Chicago and Evanston, I could host a pajama jammy jam at my place and charge for admission. racerhawk could win the Tour de France and donate the funds to HN. Maybe we could have a dance marathon or a race for the cure type event, too. There are a lot of possibilities here, guys. Anyone else got any?
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How about a Hawkeye Nation dunk tank at front row for all away games?
 


I would be more likely to donate if it was simply a donation, as OK$P says. A separate notation by the avatar may be a good idea. Maybe even different colors for different donation levels. Maybe $10 gets you a bronze star, $25 a silver star and $50 a gold star, or something to that effect.

I really don't have any desire to enter a "donor forum", but I would be more than happy to donate from time to time since I get a lot of enjoyment out of this site. I don't see any way you could have a donor only forum without creating a slight degree of animosity between the "haves" and "have nots".

And, Jon, you mentioned that you would put any extra funds back into the site rather than into your own pocket. I wish you would stop worrying about the money going into your pocket... This is what you do and you should not feel guilty for being compensating for it. The more the better in my book.
 








Yeah like ATL said. If we donate money we don't expect it all to go to the site Jon. We appreciate this place and the work you do. I'd feel bad if you didn't take a decent bit for the work you put into this site.
 


I think he should team up with Gameday Ron to sell the shirts. Maybe they can even sell Revolt on here and Jon could take a part of the sales.
 


JonDMiller said:
Thanks for all the comments...a lot of good thoughts to consider. I really appreciate you all taking the time to chime in.

If anything happens along this front, in any form, it won't be until we move from the current vbulletin software to the xenforo software...and with the recruiting project taking precedence right now to be completed by the end of March, that will not happen until April/May.
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March of 2012...or 13?
 


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