A Serious Word From The Publisher

As we come up to the end of the second quarter 2012, for the first time since its inception, TGForum has gone into the “red” in bookkeeper parlance. There was not enough revenue this quarter to meet expenses. I personally put a lot of time into making sure the back-end of TGForum works properly so that Angela and the other writers can focus on writing for you. Now, I don’t require TGForum to make a profit, but it must break even (I’m a business person, not a philanthropist). So there will be a policy change coming.

Sometime in the next few months, TGForum will go back to subscription-based access. The fee will be $0.50 a month billed in 6 month increments ($3). There will be a two-week refund period. Payment will be made through PayPal. You will not need a PayPal account to use the PayPal payment gateway. It will accept any credit card. Subscriptions will automatically renew every 6 months unless you unsubscribe.

I expect to begin testing the payment process within a month. The code is being written now.

Fee-based access to TGForum will help out a couple ways. As of now, about 10 percent of the people who register for TGForum never sign in, ever. Another 10-15 percent sign in once and never come back. A fee-based registration system will discourage that and also discourage lurkers, trolls and spammers.

We need between 1,200 to 1,500 paid subscribers to make this work. More than that and TGForum will make a profit. I might even get paid! With a profit we might be able to expand services, add more writers, maybe get a faster server. Anything might be possible.

What I do know for certain is this: if TGForum cannot break even I will have to shut it down rather than lose money.

It’s all up to you.

Tags: featured, TGForum

Category: TG Forum News