Paid Subscription Extras - What will you offer to Supporters?

ArnyVee

Well-known member
With vBulletin, I was able to offer various 'upgrades' such as additional PM space, less restriction on signature space or custom user title, etc.

What will all of you offer supporters to your sites for their purchase of a paid subscription?
 
I increase the PM limit and add site supporter below their username.
It gives members a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Also give them a sense of ownership
And if they request, I mail them some site decals.

I also have a donation progress bar with a goal of $100/month.
 
The site I'm on that's still vB offers a subscription that allows you:
  • Custom Avatar (our site uses avatar galleries [of Pokemon, lol] by default; you have to be in certain usergroups to have a custom avatar)
  • Album Access
  • Blog Access
  • PM box storage expanded to 1,000 messages
  • No ads
  • Enhanced Reputation options (can give negative rep points, which was disabled for those not in secondary usergroups [i.e. those that just registered])
  • Ability to post in the For Sale Forum (which is for buying/selling stuff...not that anyone uses it :/)

The new site we're working on (internet radio site with user influence on what's played) would allow users greater power in determining the playlist, though the finer details have yet to be worked out. :)
 
So far I've added the following for supporters at TeeVeeTown...
  • No ads
  • Username markup (color)
  • Usergroup image (star for supporters)
  • Listed on "Town Officials" page
....anything else that I can add with the 'default' options we have with xenForo?
 

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Oh yes, Username markup.
I don't limit ads. Ads provide some additional content.
In my 6.5 years using adsense, no one has ever mentioned to get rid of them.
They all understand it funds the site, including those who donate money.
If ads really bother then, they probably would install an ad blocker.
 
At http://xenfans.com we offer whatever product/service we have listed in the client-area as a download for the period their premium account is valid. Additionally we give sneak peaks of work in progress. And xenforo stylers who have plans to list paid styles get permission to then list their styles in a thread in the resources area. We also take away certain restrictions and limits, such as flood time between posts, etc. And it's simply a status thing. Long time posting members might get the account upgrade automatically, but those who can't wait and skip that process can get an account upgrade. And this can be used by advertisers as well as members who donate.
 
On my VB forum I don't allow users to have an avatar until they have made 40 posts, for some reason people love avatars and this encourages posting.
However, I have a premium subscription that over rides the 40 posts so that users can have an avatar, as well as this they get...

A premium account lets you play the 350+ arcade games unlimited times a day, normal users can only play 5 games a day.

Premium gives you more PM storage, Normal accounts have storage for 100 private messages, premium accounts have storage for 800 messages.

Premium allows you to deny a read receipt.

Premium allows you to still send messages to users who have reached their quota.

Premium allows you to send a message to 5 users at once.

More album storage, normal users 30, Premium 250 images.

Thread top 30 stats listing at bottom of forums, see new posts at a glance.

I-Spy feature lets you see posts as they are posted without refreshing your screen.

Premium members sales threads are made sticky's for one week so that they stay on page one of the sales forum. (Max 5 sticky's per forum)

I also have adsense running, these combined more than pay for my dedicated box.
 
I use a lot of what's been already posted.
I routinely prune inactive members (support forum) but my 6 month and yearly subscribers are exempt from being deleted.
 
So far I've added the following for supporters at TeeVeeTown...
  • No ads
  • Username markup (color)
  • Usergroup image (star for supporters)
  • Listed on "Town Officials" page
....anything else that I can add with the 'default' options we have with xenForo?
Any sample of how it's implemented? I'm interested in seeing how people use username markup and usergroup image around the avatars so it gives significance to those paid users.

There are some mods around here that I can't find.
 
Anything new in the way of 'paid' or 'supporter' privileges that have been offered to your members?
 
Thinking about what I want to offer to supporters/donors for my forum (suggestions welcome):

  • Usergroup markup
  • Option to include an affiliate link in the sidebar block on the homepage
  • T-shirts? (thinking about using CafePress)
  • Something integrated with the radio station (probably more influence on what's played...haven't decided on that yet since the add-on I'm having done isn't finished yet)
 
Upload attachments directly to the forum (although I'm considering making this available to everyone)
Ability to have an avatar
Custom user title
Upgraded PM box
More characters and URL BB codes in signatures
Search the forum every 10 seconds (instead of 30s interval for standard members)
Access to several unmoderated/premium content subforums
... and a few other random odds and ends.

Also... FYI... you'll get much better pricing on t-shirts by doing it through a screen printer local to you. We get short sleeve tees for roughly $7.50-10.50/ea (2x and bigger sizes cost more) once any taxes, setup fees, shipping/packaging, paypal charges, etc are out of the way. Tees ship USPS for about $3/ea. Only downside is that you have to buy them up front, so anticipating demand becomes a problem. Unrelated to the OP, I know... only brought it up b/c Trombones mentioned using a turnkey service.
 
When I was doing the mugs for xenfans, I offered it half the cost of what it would be for me, and more discounts to staff and premium members. The reason why? It's cheap offline and online advertising, it's giving back to the community, and it's building great community feeling between registered members. I rather spend some money on giving back to the community - than on 10,000 impressions on some site that gives me 1 member that is probably a spammer.
 
When I was doing the mugs for xenfans, I offered it half the cost of what it would be for me, and more discounts to staff and premium members. The reason why? It's cheap offline and online advertising, it's giving back to the community, and it's building great community feeling between registered members. I rather spend some money on giving back to the community - than on 10,000 impressions on some site that gives me 1 member that is probably a spammer.
So, did you buy them all and ship them out yourself? I was researching this some more last night and there's no way to offer your own coupon codes, but I could add a "hidden section" with discounted prices that only supporters/premium members would get a link to.
 
It's very difficult with a "naked" Xenforo to do a paid subscription...with VB and VBCredits+VBShop you can offer some premium "rights":
More PM Space
More Signature Space
Username Color
Change Username
More downloadable files
etc. etc.

I hope to see soon a serious credits/shop mod with Xenforo...
 
So, did you buy them all and ship them out yourself? I was researching this some more last night and there's no way to offer your own coupon codes, but I could add a "hidden section" with discounted prices that only supporters/premium members would get a link to.
Yes, we bought them in one go, quality inspected them before shipping them with track/trace to the provided address by those who paid a bit for one or more.
 
I had a ton of options with vBulletin 4 but with Xenforo this is all I've cooked up so far:

Paid Subscriptions $10 a year non-recurring using Xenforo's built-in account upgrades system.

Features List:

Usergroup Markup
Disable advertisements
Delete your own threads
Change your own screen name (every 88 days)
View members who have read a thread
View and post threads in a private, mostly unmoderated subforum
Use Arrowchat which is a Facebook-Like chat bar with one-on-one video chat
Rule of Four: Down-Vote System (from Jaxel'x XenUtililes mod)

There are probably more privileges that VIP members have on my site that I can't think of at the moment.
 
I'm bringing this back, as I'm considering memberships - my primary concern is that members who contribute start behaving differently in the forums? asking for different moderation treatment etc?
 
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