Rich,
First, I want to say sorry that you are going through this emotional and business decision hell to figure out what to do. With everything you have done for this community (yes, the BOI is the biggest thing), it is not fair that you have to even consider shutting down.
I have a few comments as someone who once posted years ago, and as a fairly newer person to the game. It's early for me after being up several times with the baby last night, so forgive my rambling...
A few years back, I had a big issue with a breeder. I had nowhere to turn to find out what to do, as I was a total newb to purchasing online. Someone mentioned the BOI - I checked it out, and forked up the $10 to post my experience and have access for the year. My issue was important enough to me to do that. I figured "wow, I have access to this WHOLE THING for that little money for an entire year? How cool"...and then became an avid BOI reader from that day forward.
I forgot my user name after awhile, and was actually fairly loyal to a different forum where I was very active. I had a disagreement with the webmaster, and needed to find a new home. I am sure you remember the "whys" of when a group of us came over all at once a few months back. Well, although I was never active on the forums, I ALWAYS read the BOI during my absence from the rest of the site. So, anyhow, I came back, and everything was free, even the BOI. I was a bit surprised. Heck, you could even get into HELL now for free! And the classifieds were free, just about everything was free. I was surprised, and happy, but confused. I was not sure of what the deal was on why you decided to make all these great features free all of a sudden, but went with it, even though I would have been willing to pay my $10 for the BOI again if I had to.
Granted, I say this as someone who has not been able to do a paid membership yet (money has been tight, but now that the show is over, you can expect something from me this week), I think you should reconsider a fee for posting on the BOI, and put one back in place for sure to be able to go to HELL if someone is not willing to do a full paid membership. Integrate those features into a membership level as well (say, if you pay the $25 level, you get them both, but separately it will cost you $10 each without membership). People will more than likely pay the extra $5 to gain some other features if they are already going to pay for the BOI and HELL. Plus it might help stop some of the BS posters over there, and streamline things a bit. People NEED the BOI, and right now it is too easy to abuse. Making it a paid thing will help stop the abuse, as well as give you some income.
The other suggestion I would make is to put some sort of a fee back on the classifieds. As a business person, I expect to have to pay to advertise - I have to on most other sites, and I do it if I need to, why shouldn't I have to here? Why should you not benefit from that as well? Keep it cheap - do your $.50 a day or something like that like you have on banner ads. This can give the advertiser a choice on how long to run the ads without having to do a monthly membership like some other sites (KS for example - what if I have no ads to run this month, I still fork out my $20 if I forget to cancel that month for example...). Make a trade section free, sure, but if you want to sell something, you gotta pay up. Not many sites offer free classifieds, and those that do, honestly, don't get much traffic from what I have seen.
I don't think you can do much more to appease the masses with the banner advertising prices. No one else out there is as cheap and gives you the exposure that Fauna does, plain and simple. Plus the fact that you use those same rates on CS.com makes a big difference too. For me to know that I can run one add on 2 websites for $365 a year is great - to do the same on KS for a year costs me at least $480. As a show promoter, those things are a big deal to me, and I know it is for other business people as well.
The other thing I think might help is for you to do more advertising for the site itself. You even said in the flier post that you have not done the advertising you should. Granted, that's tough because not a lot of sites will allow you to advertise your forums on theirs, but there are ways around it...Do you remember when I asked you about putting up banner ads for my show that might have a sponsor that was a competing website? Your answer was "sure, as long as it's done the right way" in not so many words. Well, have you considered "sponsoring" other businesses or shows and ask them to advertise on their banner ads for you? There are lots of members here, including me, who would love to help you out. A simple text line on their banner and a logo on their website might help. Getting fliers out to shows to the promoters or to vendors that are members here, something. Shows bring in a lot of foot traffic, and it is an easy way to get advertising out there. Even if you have someone design up a cool B&W one (its MUCH cheaper), you can generally get 1000 copies made up for about $45 bucks if you go through a small mom and pop store. Hell, call my printer and have some done up, and for my shows, I'll go pick them up and put them around for nothing. I can pick them up when I pick up mine. I'm sure you can probably make some sort of arrangements with the other show promoters on this site to do the same.
The thing you have to try to remember, no matter how tough this decision is for you, is that the economy sucks right now for everyone. Hell, I started a new show in this money hell we have. One thing I learned though, is that no matter how tight money is, people love their animals, and will not skimp as much on that as they will on other hobbies. In these bad times for everyone, people need something to make them feel good, and for a huge chunk of the world, we get our warm and fuzzies from our herps.
I think it is great (and unfortunately necessary) that you are thinking about what to do when the time comes for SerpenCo. It is something that one day all of us breeders have to think about no matter how heart wrenching (I don't know what I will do when that day comes!). But try not to get yourself too down on the whole thing. You have some great things going for you, and if you can ride it out for a little while, the economy will swing back up, things will start happening again, and you will probably look back on this whole thread and go "what an ass I was to even think I would have to shut down"...maybe not. I certainly hope, for you and the future of Fauna, that it is true.
Now I am off to get you that membership fee...
Kelly Kordek
