I’m still in the middle of doing a big update to the backend of Grouvee, but I wanted to let you know what I’m planning on doing with the Gold payments.
We currently have a $20 yearly plan and a $2 monthly payment option. The point was never to make a lot of money. I just wanted to pay for the servers, and pay for a little bit of my time working on the site. Between the Gold payments and the ads, I’ve been able to cover most of the server costs.
I don’t really like recurring payment plans, so I’m going to change it here fairly soon to let people pay for either 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year at a time, non-recurring. My favorite podcast app, Overcast, does this, and I really like the way it works. I think I’m just going to make it $3, $6, or $12, and call it a day. I hope this would encourage a few more people to become a Gold member.
I’m going to be canceling anyone who has a recurring membership here in the next week, so if you see a charge on your card this month, email me (peter@grouvee.com) and I’ll get it refunded right away.
Part of the reason I chose reoccurring was because $3 a month game you a bit more than $20 a year. I wanted to make sure you were getting the most I could give via gold. To me $12 a year is too little for the work you do here and for what I get out of the site. I respect that you have a plan in place, but I just want you to know I think Grouvee is worth far more than you are asking.
I’m planning on subscribing too. It’s the only gaming community I’ve ever felt any connection too, bar my early days of WoW (before my guild fell to s*** and the game just became a chore rather than a pleasure).
Glad I caught this. For how often I’m sitting on the front page, I should probably check over here on the forums more often!
A little sad to see the “set and forget” option go, but it’s understandable. As already mentioned earlier in the thread though, $1/month seems pretty light for what you are actually doing with the site here.
But like you said, @peter, maybe those who balk at a recurring charge will feel better about jumping in, maybe even to the point where you pick up multiple times the current subs and offset the cheaper price. As “The Guy”, I’m sure you’ve already figured out your price point and what you are actually looking to make, so I’m really just babbling.
As someone who floods the front page with a bunch of wordy, wordy posts, just know we appreciate what you do! Can you make it so it’s like “$12, or however much more you want to pay”?
Or start a pool of “over paid” money and combine the excess as raffle subs to others or something? This second idea is certainly more complicated, just a thought. I will keep an eye out for an updated sub page, though!
