paying to advertise on fiat 126 good idea or not?

[nrg19uk]

paying to advertise on fiat 126 good idea or not?

[slater]

Definatly not. :x

Its suppose to be a club ffs! I dont think ive ever come across a forum that charges you to post an advert, expecialy one that has very very few members such as this. Also i dont think ive come across a club that charges you to post an advert on there site/newsletter etc.

Its going to kill the forsale sections of the forum. Why are people going to pay ?5 to adverties on a small forum when they could put it on Ebay for less and have it exposed to way more people? it will just lead to less people advertising their parts etc which will just make it harder to get hold of stuff you need. The forsale section is a big part of the forums appeal to outsiders btw so you shouldent take it away.

It comes across as very greedy and is not giving the club a positive image

Wheres the money going? to the club to the forum or what? is there a money problem going on? bandwidth cost too high or something??

Its not such a bad idea on the front page but i stil think its a bit dogey tbh.

Sorry for getting pissed off but its a bad move :shock:

[Chris Lakin]

Hi there, the reason I have done this is to help keep the site alive I cant afford out of my own pocket at times to keep the site going. Internet web space, domain name, we only have a few members so far, and when I was sending out the t-shirts with membership I was losing allot of money.
   
I?m just about to upgrade the website from a web starter package to a professional to allow us to keep the forum. Again more money!

I thought it would be nice to advertise your car on here, and actually your wrong about ebay, if you sell a car i.e. for ?500 you have to pay an initial insertion fee then a final value fee. What?s a ?5er for an unlimited amount of time, by the way other clubs do charge! I don?t know if your a member of the 500 club but they charge in there news letter.

and This is free for anything under the value of ?10? This website goes out to all, unlike the 500 club's newsletter which just goes out to members! so a much wider scope for advertising!

We need more members to keep it all going, we have the BBQ coming up, and to make the club decent, a little bit of money is needed.

I don?t believe your a member, please correct me if im wrong. I spend most of my hours on this site to keep it interesting and good to provide content to help all 126 owners (not just the members)

Theres really no need to get "pissed off" about this, find a copy of the 500 club news  magazine and at the back you will see, non members have to pay for an advertisment!

We have never had a good forsale section, so this is why I?m taking steps to makesure we get one, one car has already sold through the site. It?s you who is giving the idea a negative image, and making an issue of it.

Regards

Chris

[fiatfsm]

Hey come on lets keep this forum friendly! We dont want to see arguing like other forums, I can see why Chris has charged for ads and personally cant see many takers for it. The club needs money and this comes from membership fees... basically whats needed is a real hard drive to recruit members... its always hard in the early days though. Thing is, as someone pointed out to me recently, apart from the shirt and sticker what does a member get for his ?16? Basically a non member gets access to all the forum as does a member, a member really doesnt benefit at present. I joined because I want to see a UK 126 club thrive and want to see 126s out at shows etc. We should be urging people to get out to shows and put on displays of our cars etc. As I said its hard and it costs so, everyone join up and support the club.

[Chris Lakin]

i cant see many takers now either after all this negative talk!! Actually you get more than the 500 club i made sure of that!! all i got was a welcome letter an a sticker when i joined the fiat 500 club.

[slater]

Thanks for explaining it Chris, Im not ungreatful for the amount of time/money and effot you put into the forum and club so i hope i dont come across that way.

No one has mentioned anythign about the club having money problems. if your going to charge for ads then thats fair enough its not the end of the world but it would have been nice to have had an explination of whats going on. From my point of view it just looked very underhand as if the club was getting greedy!

If you had said we need more money so we are goign to charge for ads then i would have been in agreement even tho i dont think its the best idea.

Your right im not a member of the club yet and i dont plan to be come a member untill i get a road worth 126 and start modding and showing it. However that dosent mean i dont care about the clubs welfare. Im contributing alot to the froum considering i dont even drive a 126 so i hop e that makes up for not being in the club.

If the forum is costing alot may i suggest you setup a paypal donation account like most other small forums have to help out with the costs. Id be happy to donate a some cash to help out so long ias i know where its going.

right got to get back to work

[f500126]

The forum allows items to be advertised free up to the value of ?10, which will probably be the majority of the for sale items.

The Fiat 126 club does need funding for it to improve,  because there are a lot of background costs involved, which forum members are probably unaware of!

The only way to improve the club and the forum is by more funding, which will only be put back into the club!

The ?10+ items will be advertised on the fiat 126 club site for a ?5 fee which is excellent value compared to alternative ways of advertising and is also for an unlimited period!

There are a lot of clubs/forums that do not offer a for sale section "fiat 500 club" is one of them. Also the other clubs that do offer a free advertising service usually have a more expensive membership fee! (So this is a much fairer way of giving better value)

[Chris Lakin]

Hi again all, yes no harm done, i should of explained. Although negative talk like that doesnt help anyone.

Slater, i know you contribute to the forum alot and your advice has been superb! so thanks, and i hope you find a nice 126 soon, perhaps through the club website  

Right, now my BIS is working and im mobile again   how about a BBQ? It will be hld at runnymede just outside windsor, i hope everyone can come, what day is best? obviously at the weekend, im thinking weekend after next? i just hope the weather will be good!! any suggestion?

Regards, Chris

[gorilly]

After reading what fiatfsm wrote i am wondering what people actually expect from a car club?

chris providing a t-shirt and sticker is actually quite good.

it cost me around ?25 to join clubgti (vw golf gti club). and all i got was a letter, a sticker and a magazine once every three months. The main reason for joining a car club is to meet other people with the same passion for a car and to benefit from discounts. Clubgti offers over 50 dicounts over the country.

the fiat 126 club is currently offering 2 discounts which isnt bad for a club which only started a few months ago, and with such a niche interest group it would be hard to match the ammount of businesses who currently work on mainstream cars such as golf gtis. There will never be the same amount of discounts as there are a fewer number of busninsses. Both chris and i are looking for places to approach to gain discounts.

At the moment there is not enough subjects out there for a magazine, plus the club doesnt have enough money to get one printed etc. therefore im sure a newsletter every now and again will do its job maybe containing an article here and there.

The BBQ is another good idea which would never be hosted by club gti...

Chris is looking to arrange alternative events such as maybe one day in the future a track day.

I personally dont think charging to put a car on the forum is a good idea, i think you should pay for a car to go on the actual fiat126 website, forum should be free but at the end of the day its chris who has to payout the costs.

He is financing this site out of his own pocket and is maintaining and adding to it in his free time so maybe asking for a small fee for advertising on his site isnt a bad idea.