I’ve wanted to set up an automated subscription system that works smoothly for a long time now, and finally I’ve found both the time and the means (and the server capacity) to do so.
One of the main reasons I wanted subscriptions was so that I could offer something extra to those supporting the site. As it is today, they get little more than someone browsing from search engine results, and that just doesn’t seem right, because without them this site would be dead in the water.
So, a few of the features I’m going to offer supporters include exclusive content, access to deals on other media provided by me and others, and the ability to comment unmoderated and vote on comments. I particularly want to give subscribers more of a voice in comments and voting, because I care about their opinion a lot more than I do about that of some hostile troll, and before I restricted voting and comments people who opposed the site and our values had an equal say. Frankly, that just isn’t helpful.
However, for the casual reader little will change. Most articles will remain open to the public, and comments will be allowed, although moderated, just as they have been since summer.
For starters, I’m going to offer anyone who has ever donated to the site a free three-month subscription, after which they can choose to continue to subscribe or not. The fee is pretty small – $5 per month – so for most it isn’t a major commitment. In fact, I’d need a whole lot of subscribers to survive off the site at that rate, and even if it is possible it would probably take years of hard work to get to that point, so I’m still going to need to ask for extra support from time to time to cover overhead and pay for the time I put into the site, which is much more ideologically than financially motivated.
Although it will be pretty cheap, there will be a generous amount of value for those who do subscribe. Just as I’ve built an online presence with volumes of text, the exclusive subscriber content and material will grow to be impressive in time. I plan to offer ebooks and other files for free or at a steep discount to subscribers, and I’d like to approach others in the manosphere to see whether they’d like to promote their work with subscribers here by offering special deals and promotions. Additionally, and although this is a work in progress, I’m going to offer publishing services to those who would like to publish books and reports that I can then make available to subscribers. I envision a sort of book club and publishing outfit that provides quality material as well as services to those interested in men’s issues.
So, if you’ve sent some support my way, let me know if you’d like to be added as a subscriber, and I will happily do so. If you haven’t, feel free to try it out — it’s only $5 to get started and you can cancel it at any time. Before I forget, I know some people value anonymity and some don’t like paying online, so I’ve made some concessions for them. If you feel it’s important to keep your identity protected or you’d rather use a check, you can subscribe by mail for a year at a discount.
For now, I’m going to keep it simple and only allow one basic subscription level, but I’ll change that as the subscriber base and content develops and there’s more to offer.
Finally, there are a lot of people who still have old subscriber accounts. Around 800, actually. Most are dormant, but if you have one and would like to keep it let me know and I will give you a free month’s subscription to the new membership system, after which you can choose to keep it or not as a paying subscriber. After some time has elapsed, I’m going to purge the old accounts so as to reduce clutter in the database.
So if you’d like to help keep the site online and have access to some special features, sign up as a subscriber and we’ll keep moving ahead with the site.
Looking forward to having you onboard
Your publisher,
WF Price
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello Bill, I’d like to get signed up. I’ve done my share of contributing to The Spearhead.
I took a look at the PDF you linked to here, but it’s not a “form” PDF file. And I can’t print it and mail it to you, because I no longer live in the United States.
What is the next step for me?
@greenlander
Because you’ve supported the site, you can start with a free three-month subscription, then if you want to keep it just renew on PayPal when it runs out — you can do that from anywhere. I’ll take care of that for you right now.
As for the pdf, I made it as simple as possible on purpose — it’s meant to be low-tech and self-explanatory for the benefit of myself as well as subscribers.
Oh, BTW, make sure you login if you want to comment, vote and see restricted content. If you don’t it will just take you to the membership signup page.
So will it be set up to automatically deduct from PayPal each month?
How’s that gonna work exactly?
Also, I think anyone who visits the site should be allowed to vote on comments, if techinically possible. Letting just subscribers do it or “members” has made it kind of worthless from a feedback standpoint. Hardly anyone votes anymore, whereas before it was very active.
Good move to make it subscriber based BTW…when you consider what a monthly magazine costs at a news stand, $5 is nothing considering the amount of weekly content.
There’s an application programming interface (API) I configured that allows Paypal to communicate with the membership software. PayPal tells the site that a certain user account has paid, then it gives that account access to higher level content and features. PayPal then charges $5 each month as long as the user wants to keep that access. It is automatic, but can be cancelled at any time by the user. For those who pay by mail, I set the subscription period manually.
Yes, I think $5 is pretty reasonable. However, people are used to getting content for free online. So that’s why I’m going to offer two levels of content. Unless otherwise agreed, I’m going to keep all submitted content and most of my articles free. However, I’ll write exclusive stuff every week, and I’ll also offer ebooks and some other material only to subscribers (or I’ll have non-subscribers pay for it).
You might be right about voting. I hope enough people subscribe to make it more popular again, but sometimes people just don’t want to bother logging in if all they’re doing is voting.
Mr. Price –
I would like to purchase a DVD with all of The Spearhead content published up until now. Is that possible? I would also like to pay annually for a DVD of the past year’s content. I am thinking $100 for the content up until now and $20 per year thereafter, in addition to the subscriber fees.
I have supported the site in the past and likely will continue to do so as a subscriber, but would very much like to have in my possession some kind of off-net archive that I can access and search at leisure. The Spearhead is an incredibly valuable resource and I would like to use it to the greatest possible degree… perhaps even to educate my friends and future, hoped for, intended children.
Thoughts?
Sincerely, A Loyal Reader
P.S.: Should such a package become available, please do not exclude the comments, as they can also be very educational.
Thank you.