Wanted Donation feedback

[Tyler]

Tacoma3G.com is operated by one person: @Tyler. My mission is to provide a friendly and resourceful website for Tacoma enthusiasts, free to use for everyone. I created T3G in May 2018. Ever since, I have personally funded the site and a handful of giveaways with assistance from sticker sales and vendors sponsorships.

I'm thankful to all vendors that help with giveaways, and to all members that have purchased a sticker. However, I still spend quite a bit out of pocket for T3G, and maintaining and improving our community has become nearly a full-time job!

Over the years, I've been asked many times if members can make larger or recurring donations. I've always been hesitant to accept that type of contribution because I didn't create our community for profit. But — despite being initially uncomfortable with it — I'm ready to accept larger donations and/or recurring subscriptions for the purpose of assisting myself in maintaining and bettering our community.

I want to be clear that I will always continue to pay for T3G myself, because I chose this way when I created it. So T3G isn't going anywhere. And I want to be extra clear that the website and forums will always be free for anyone to read and use. There will be no paywalls or expectations for members and guests to donate.

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Tacoma3G.com is a free resource community made by me, for you. Donations are not expected, nor are they required to view the information on the website or post in the forums. With that being said, donating will unlock some fun perks for your account and forum posts...

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buy, sell, trade items:​	yes, limited​	✓​
participate in giveaways:​	yes, limited​	✓​
upload photos & videos to posts:​	photos only​	✓​
use private messaging:​	receive only​	✓​
add profile avatar & banner image:​	avatar only​	✓​
change website colors & use dark mode:​	light/dark only​	✓​
blue username & supporter badge:​	✖︎​	✓​
access private forum sections:​	✖︎​	✓​
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custom build thread URL:​	✖︎​	✓​
access exclusive vendor discounts:​	✖︎​	✓​
use push notifications:​	✖︎​	✓​
use custom user title in posts:​	✖︎​	✓​
change username:​	✖︎​	✓​
use built-in forum bookmarks system:​	✖︎​	✓​
add custom signature to posts:​	✖︎​	✓​
use new website features early:​	✖︎​	✓​

By making a single or recurring donation, you are directly supporting our community. I put all funds back into the site via monthly server costs, giveaways, and new website features, for example.

 

[Tyler]

You've asked a difficult question and I think that the answer will vary between different groups. I too run a forum, Venture Rider (http://www.venturerider.org). Like you, I funded it entirely out of pocket for several years. Membership grew and at one time, I had approximately 20,000 members. Then I got sick, cancer, and due to expenses I had to make the same decision. I took it to my members and told them that I had to come to a decision on adding advertising to the pages or charging membership dues. My members overwhelmingly chose the dues structure rather than the advertising. So I started charging a small membership fee of 12.00 per year. Most everybody is able to come up with 12.00 per year for something that they really enjoyed. I also offered a somewhat restricted 60 free trial period. All set up automatically so that when the 60 days was up, they automatically got assigned to the "expired membership" group. Mine is set up so that people could visit and read the post but couldn't post, search, etc. unless they are a paid member. That worked very well for my group. 12.00 per year isn't much but when multiplied it by 20,000, it was more than adequate. Yamaha stopped making the Venture between 2010 and 2018 and my membership has suffered tremendously. I am down to around a thousand members now as we are all getting older and many have stopped riding entirely or moved on to other makes and models. My forum is still active and the dues are still the same and pretty much pay the expenses still but I'm not sure it will ever be what it once was. I don't think it has anything to do with the dues though. Like I said, it's just a matter of people moving on in life and very little new blood for the bike. The Venture came out again in 2018 but is an entirely different t bike and hasn't been much of a success. A bonus to the dues structure is that it, for the most part, eliminated spammers. It is a hard decision and I wish I had better answers for you but that is what I did. My site has been up for close to 15 years now and there have been many life long friendships made through it. Another thing that we did was to had annual "meets and greets" across the country. When people meet face to face, deeper friendships are formed. Covid has hurt us on that front but there are a couple already scheduled for 2022. I usually have one here at my house in the spring but we have skipped the last two years. That to has had a detrimental affect but we hope to get it all going again very soon. Good luck in whatever you decide. I don't visit the site as often as I should. That is primarily because I pretty much just drive my truck and really don't make any modifications to it. It's a great site though and I do enjoy it. If you decide to go with a membership fee, I'm sure I'll sign up for it.

One other thing. I just tried to make a 20.00 donation but I made one before and it won't let me do it again. I asked you to not send a sticker the last time. You should create a button for a straight donation. Let the user fill in the amount and an option for no stickers.

You definitely need to redo your donation page. I sent three donations but had to use each button. Once I used them all, the buttons all go away. You should make a button that people can just donate at will and they can put their amount in.

 

[Tyler]

I'm not sure if I have a good answer for you. All of those seem reasonable to me. I don't see why there isn't an option to just donate as much as you want. I don't think many people are really expecting anything in return aside from the forums themselves anyway.

Personally, I'd like the option to just buy more stickers at the $5 price. I only pay about $1 a sticker for my own channel, I expect you would be making a decent profit on the stickers if you just sold them at that price. Honestly I'd really like a T-shirt too. That should be easy to set up with something like T-spring. I have my own shirts and stuff set up on there.

Aside from that, set up a Patreon and just let people use it as they like. It is pretty easy to set up. I did one. No one is donating (not that I expected anyone to) but it's there if anyone wants to.

I would shy away from putting up ads on Google. The site has grown organically so far. I think stickers and shirts are the best way to continue that growth.

 

[Tyler]

Having a patreon or something similar probably wouldn't be a bad idea imho. I like the idea of people being able to have a choice of what they feel to donate. Even if a couple people donate a small amount, every little bit helps, no?

Usually when I wanna support a person, group or cause I buy merchandise. I don't know the logistics of merchandising though, and I can't imagine it'll be easy with you guys on the road lol.

 

[Tyler]

Tyler,

This is deep and I want to give you a heartfelt, educated and spirt lead answer so allow me to think on this a bit...I will say I love who you and Paige are based on what I know of you! Also I admire what you have done for our little community. My hope, thoughts and prayers will be with you Brother, have faith 2022 will end better then it started....

 

[Tyler]

I would say monthly/ yearly. I’m on another forum for rc stuff and it’s like $20-$40 a year. There is also like 15k members. You don’t have to buy into it if you don’t want but it restricts things from members who don’t pay. Like classifieds and other little things.

 

[Tyler]

So the last bullet point you put up was already something I sort of had in mind while reading through your message and may be the easiest to implement on a recurring basis.

Most donations from anyone are generally a one-time thing, and recurring donations need to provide some sort of perceived value to whomever is donating their money, whether it's $5 or $50. Particularly so when forums are traditionally free resources for information and interaction.

So the goal here is to perhaps accurately inform your forum base about why donations are important, how they help both you AND them, and what they get in return for their help beyond just helping you keep the lights on.

If it's explained that the donations directly help cover the maintenance costs and the costs of new features, of hosting giveaways, organizing meets (that one might be a stretch since it's not strictly forum related but you get the idea), and if it's all stuff that benefits the forum base and what they want, you may have improved success there.

The monthly donation drive idea isn't terribly far off from this, but it more or less comes off as soliciting help to pay for the bill. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and you actually may see a lot of positive interaction over this, but it ultimately comes down to if you're more willing to just directly ask for help paying the bills, or if you're trying to get those funds to help cover and costs and then show them something in return that their money also directly supports.

Exclusive incentives are always cool, and it's a common idea. We're actually working on two Velcro patch designs for YotaWerx Tuning customers. One will be available for purchase by anyone, and one you can only get by meeting us in person. Not exactly the same application, but the idea is there and is a rough parallel. It's not unheard of could definitely be something to consider implementing. Keep in mind though that this is more of a short term solution, because it is dependent on a couple of things. First, the growth of the forum. How much does this forum currently see growth, as in new members and their interactions? If it's relatively stale, there will only be however many new members that join reflected as opportunities to sell, say, a patch, to a repeat donator.

The other factor there is the number of exclusive items. If a repeat donator, like the second time they donate, let's say they get a patch or a shirt or whatever, or a heartfelt thank you card from you. If that's the only exclusive item or incentive for additional donations, the likelihood of further repeat donations has decreased for that individual.

So the incentive program is valid and something worth considering, but I would not make it the primary means of receiving donations, nor the only one. This one does not have long term steady cash flow unless the forum is seeing significant and consistent growth.

 

[Tyler]

As a suggestion, why don't you have vendors interested in contributing by the way of giveaway product, store credit, etc. As a way to advertise. For example we As a vendor give a $500 gift card every 6 months, then you have other vendors that chime in on a specific time line in order to get their products on the forum (an effective sponsorship) and this way you can collect monthly give aways for subscribers, for example $1K ir $2K worth of monthly giveaway's. So if they decide to pay giveaway subscription, they can pay $5 bucks a month. But this way they participate in the giveaway every month and a user is selected at random everyone.

1000 users, $5K a month. Vendors get the chance of promoting their products in the giveaway and you get revenue from the site.

Not sure about the legality of it, but might be worth exploring?

 

[Tyler]

Hello Tyler, thanks for your message. This is quite interesting, and I have given the problem some thought. I can't think of a situation where I would donate to a forum site, unless it was some vital part of my life, that I used daily or weekly. I understand you don't want advertisements all over your site, especially from advertisers you may not like or agree with. Thinking maybe a solution would be having ads, but to a degree that you control when and where they are displayed, and from companies you know and trust. There must be some solurion involving ads, that could give you some revenue, while at the same time, preserving the experience you desire for users. I wish you the best of luck!

 

[Tyler]

I think you could start with the monthly drive at 100% and see if you meet it.

Also for vendor sponsor how much is it. I have a website highcountryoffroad.com and might be interested in sponsoring. I joined the forum to try and get an idea of what guys are doing to these trucks.

Also I know you said you didn’t want to sell to a big forum company but would you entertain selling it to an individual? I might be interested depending on how much you would want. I just left a corporate job to pursue running my own business doing SEO for clients and stumbled into making my own e-commerce site.

Thanks and I wish you all the best,
Chad

 

[Tyler]

I did not have any idea nor I would think anyone else on the site that you are paying for this yourself.
As you can see I do not use this site a lot but I would have no problem with donating $25 a year to keep it active.
You said you are paying $110 a month.
110x12=1,320
25x300 participates = 7500

I have NO idea how many participants you have but if they own a Tacoma they can afford one time for $25. Which everyone can see is a huge profit margin for you as well as you should be paid a small fee to keep it going?

Anyway please lmk if you would like to have me do this. Hopefully, others will see this and say yes. If you want to break even and be a not for profit then calculate your active participants and what we need to pay.
If we can afford it we will and if not then you are the Ringmaster and need to decide what to do.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tyler]

Tyler, sure you could continue paying out of pocket, but you shouldn't have to. And I agree with you about loosing the essence of the community by selling out or making it only fee for service. It should remain a free resource. I for one, have gained so much knowledge and insight from the community that it is worth it for me to contribute. In fact I am about to save $200 alone on the purchase of a rear dif skid from another member.

Answers to your questions:
1) $10-$20 a month.
2) $50-$100 to send when someone feels like it.
3) 100% (full amount) of monthly costs to run the forum should be the goal. I am sure you could get 11 people to donate $10 and cover the $110.
4) A "Contributor" badge would be cool. Available If you sign up for monthly donations or exceed $100.
5) Not sure how to put money back into the forum. I'll think about that one.

Best of luck.

Mark

 

[Tyler]

I enjoy this WEB site because it is free….You have a great forum….A very informative group….they are all willing to help each other out…many , many helpful ideas , thoughts ,suggestions & recommendations…

You many want to consider having “Paid Advertising “. Especially if related to Toyota’s Tacoma groups…
There are many aftermarket companies, that many of us are unaware of…maybe create new products for everyone….the paid advertise..will need feedbacks, from all who purchase products from them..Ratings!
Like up to 5 stars?
If the paid Advertising groups can offer discounts…with every purchase…then it will benefit everyone!

I am OK with ADS….keep it simple…as long as they cannot send to us directly! Just here!
I like the idea of T-shirts (quality). Mugs, stickers, etc..
Aloha

 

[Tyler]

Honestly think you'll lose traffic the more you discuss donations openly, monthly donation drive will have somewhat of a mandatory feeling to it as time goes on and new people come in. You could do some raffle style events to help you generate some money people love that kind of stuff. Obviously I would start small and gain interest before you jumped head first but if it took off have several price points on certain items and/or take polls. Also ,if theres interest enough for it to be an option under your donation tab have a paypal account people could donate to if they wished. More traffic for this page is not going to hurt you to the slightest so if you could more money to that it would be beneficial to you and lot of the new members coming in. What extra features are you looking to add? Ive done some coding and working on my computer science degree I could try to help with that, no guarantees but no cost there, I could use the practice. Hope this helps.

 

[Tyler]

You may be doing these things already, so I apologize.

• Run display ads for non-logged-in accounts only. Log in, ads disappear.
• Charge vendor accounts a monthly fee. (do you do this already?)
• Supporter tag under profiles for a small monthly fee. ($1, $3?)

 

[Tyler]

So, I first want to say I love Tacoma3G and thank you for your dedication to the community.

I don't know how affective monthly fees would be. Personally, I would not want to pay a monthly fee for a forum. I would rather give a donation between $5-$10 and not feel obligated to pay monthly.

I think a monthly donation drive to potentially raise half+ of the cost to run the forum could be affective and is certainly a reasonable ask.

For members that donate multiple times; I like the new member tags, fonts, and colors your currently give to members that win contests ect... maybe you could provide a custom decal sticker with that person's social media tag and a simple "T3G" mention.

If you raised extra funds I think a huge benefit to this forum would be ads on google. I often find myself on TacomaWorld because I can easily google a question or topic and the results typically provide a link to TW.

I hope my feedback is helpful and thank you again for you dedication to this community!

 

[Tyler]

Tyler

I am not a business man, so I might not be the best to ask, but I will say this;

• i.e., if it costs me about $110 a month to run the forum, do I set the goal to half? 2/3? Full amount?

Go for the full amount, if you make more than what you planned, you can give it back.

As for a monthly fee, I am not into that, but doing $20-25 for a year membership, I would do that.

Bruce

 

[Tyler]

Set the goal to pay all the costs. Whatever that breaks down per user. I would think that the more it's work your while to do it, the better it'll be for the members. $5 is a pretty easy ask IMO.

I'd also require a larger membership for any brands, and potentially anyone (like me) who is posting links to their YouTube channels that we profit from.

Keep a free tier of course, but you don't have to have too many paying $5 to cover everything for you. 22 to be exact.

I'm still up for shooting a feature video fo you guys. Where you going to be over March 17 - 28th? We're renting a camper van and doing a road trip. Not sure where, Joshua Tree, Southern Utah. something like that.

-M

 

[Tyler]

I think it really depends on how many active users there are here. I mean if we had enough I don’t think people would mind at all paying just a $.99 subscription fee which would get you well over $1000 a month I expect. Then it be cool to use some of the extra profits for giveaways and such which I assume would bring mire traffic to the site especially if broadcasted to Instagram and such.

 

[Tyler]

Tyler. I just bought my sticker.
Tyler I am not trying to be a jerk but like you & everyone else I have a lot going on.
If you have a way to start reminding us once a year for the $25 donation please do it.
Again if they have a Tacoma they can handle a minimum $10.
Ask your wife. I bet she will back me up on this!

 

[Tyler]

Try donations don’t spend a dime yourself and see if that works , your doing enough already , if not 5 bucks a month for people or whatever covers it ,let $ build up ,do a giveaway if you have to

 

[Tyler]

Maybe put a donation link on the home page . I'm a member on a forum where if you subscribe (20.00) you get a little marker saying so , just like the color of user name . We also have access to different sections of the forum , like a debate section .

Maybe charge for rig of the month entries to help fund your site and give a small kickback to the winner . I'm sorry I'm not much help as I've never owned a forum site.

That being said I've totally spaced on becoming a paying member. I belong to 4 other forums. 2 are strong and the others not too good . So I will donate .

Thanks for reaching out , and best of luck

 

[dannyvermin]

Hey Tyler
i made a paypal donation a few days ago and one earlier, when i first joined the forum. the paypal won't match my username, i meant to reference my username in the comment box when i sent it but somehow missed it. (it is eviltalon@xxxxxxxx.com in case it didn't come linked to my username)
i would really love a T3G sticker if you have any on hand.
thanks,
stan