@ Kate – Thanks so much for elaborating. Totally makes sense. I can see I have a lot to think about, but I’m certain I can come up with something that pleases everyone. One thing’s for sure – content will always remain free!

@ Jenny B – Thanks lady, I’ll check those out!

@ Farmingtheburbs – Awesome comment, thank you. And good luck to you! It sounds like you’ve got a great plan though, so hopefully no luck needed. =)

My husband and I are in the same space with our business, Indie Arsenal which is my husband’s passion, not his main source of income (a freelance website designer and developer). We are going to roll out paid membership (everything has been free for 2 years). We have online and offline components and we do have some overhead. We have over 500 members, almost 6. My hubby has a hard time finding time for it because it is not paying the bills.

We do anticipate some members leaving as there are always folks who hope to get stuff for free but to be honest, I don’t think it will be that bad. Of course, membership with our organization will be a business expense and will be so minimal that I think there is an understood value for what we offer.

All that said, there has been a big push for free content and I think that era is coming to a close. With so many sites trying to keep their doors open, free is becoming a thing of the past and users are slowly starting to cough up some dough.

My only warning is to make sure your product is sustainable and within your ability to produce, aka the one of a kind t-shirts. I would consider more passive avenues at the start (like paid membership (what is 1 dollar a month to basically all of us?), or a pledge drive.

I didn’t read all the other posts but I was getting the impression that most readers are all for you making some dough on this awesome sight. Don’t worry, whatever you try may not work or may need tweaking but you will surely find out how to make this work for you and for all of us.

Thanks for all the work and your passion.

If it’s structured like BackyardChickens.com, it’s probably ok: http://www.backyardchickens.com/gfm.html
(“Member” is a registered user of the site)

As for new features requiring membership, it depends on what they are. If it’s content related, then I would be upset. If it’s things like a fancy username, or more of a ‘trusted user’ (where you get to be an admin or something) I could care less about that stuff.

As for honor system….I wouldn’t like that. :-( I think it’s either some one is a member and pays for that, or they are not a member. Like you said, your time costs money, and the whole reason you are monetizing your site is so that you can live off this. As generous as it is that you would like to offer those who can’t the ability to be ‘exclusive’….well…it just doesn’t sit right with me. I feel like sponsorship, or a pledge drive toward a goal, is something that’s ‘sliding scale’ in nature. Perhaps today I can give $50, but tomorrow I can only give $1. I feel the only way to be generous to those who can’t afford is to provide the true essence of the site for free (ie, the content). That’s why I would rather not see content be in the ‘exclusive’ part of your site. Does that make sense? I hope so, it’s tricky to explain why it sits weird with me…

Yes, charge for your ebooks, absolutely. If some one can’t afford it, and they REALLY needed it, and couldn’t figure out the book from your site, then I’m sure they’d reach out to you to let you know they’re in a bind, but would appreciate your generosity.

Also, as for Organic Cotton – it takes a LOT of water to grow cotton, and the dyes are often very toxic. There are much better alternatives to cotton! When sourcing….I’d love to see hemp clothes! Hemp the wonderplant, yay! :-D

I am also impressed by this feedback. Thanks everyone!

I’d love to discover some new good ones… recommendations?