Hurricane Alley goes pay

[The Big Dog]

I knew they were turning into a pay site, but they had to pick now to do it? Great timing. You've gotta be kidding!

[lilbump3000]

Well i be stupid if i pay for that site which takes forever for them to update. Looks like i wont be going there anymore.

[Guest]

Why would you pay when you have Storm2K?

Poet and didn't even know it

[mf_dolphin]

You have the committment of Chad and I that Storm2k will remain free! The donation response has been terrific! Please drop DrOliver a PM or e-mail. It's through his generosity that we have a place for Storm2k on the internet! We may have to try and get some corporate sponsors to help us out but that's the way we would go. Storm2k was founded by members for the members and we plan on keeping it that way.

[Agua]

Wow, that's really bad timing.

[chadtm80]

We started this site for the Community.. Not for a profit. Like Marshall said we are now getting to the point where we may need some kind of sponsership to keep us going for ever..

[Scott_inVA]

Hey...I'm free...and cheap

http://midatlanticwx.com/modelmap.htm

all I ask is you click through to our sponsor. heck, you could win a free vacation up here in the Fall. suchadeal!!!

[Novacane]

Personally, I'd pay a subscription fee to keep this board going. It rocks! But I recognize that you lose the sense of community if you make people pay.
I subscribe to AccuWeather's pro site and think it's worth it. Not for the community aspect, but for access to its many resources. But I spend much more time here, mostly lurking, during 'cane season, so to me it's worth at least as much as what I pay the other site. So when I was trying to figure out how much to donate, I decided to give the same amount as what I pay AccuW. To me, this is a bargain.

Look at it this way. You're here, you're reading this and other posts, you're sharing or just learning. Don't you find this valuable? At least as valuable as Hurricane Alley? What's that? You find this more valuable? Then if you haven't kicked in a few coins here, you really ought to do so.

And Scott, your site is awesome also!

[yzerfan]

One thing that's really helped another forum I'm on is having people useaffiliate links when they're doing online shopping. You can set it up so that if you use a Storm2k link to get to, say, amazon.com, the shopping site will kick back some amount like 2-5% of the pruchase to Storm2k for sending business their way. Not a lot for every individual purchase, but it's at the point where it covers the forum owner's web expenses.

[snoopj]

Question.....do most of you know how much it costs in just bandwidth to keep a website up? Not just a single homepage, but something that gets massive influxes of connections in a short period of time? Hurricane Alley probably got the bill for the huge amount of traffic they saw during Charley and had no choice but to start charging for their services. I knew the minute I saw the website advertised on a live coverage from one of the Tampa TV webcasts, they were going to be in trouble, unless someone had the cash to fit the bill.

Either way, I'm surprised that this site hasn't at least pondered making it a paysite. Donations usually start off well, but over time, even the donations might not even be enough. Not saying that is going to happen, but the pattern I've seen over time usually goes like this....

1) Web site becomes popular
2) Web site admins get bandwidth bill
3) Web site admins FREAK OUT (like getting a cell phone bill with $600 extra in charges)
4) Web site admins ask for donations
5) Donations do well, until next influx
6) To alleviate the costs as much as possible, either a major sponsor is added or you end up having to pay for access to the prime information

Anyways, kudos to Storm2k. When I found this site after the 5/4/03 tornado outbreak (literally in my backyard), I knew it was going to be a great site with informed persons that would offer me the information I needed to make accurate decisions about weather. I may be learning slow, but I'm learning!

--snoopj

[dmaui]

2 ideas for supporting Storm2k...

First, put a link to a Paypal donation. Wouldn't hurt and I bet you'd get some donations.

Second, how about a cafepress store with Storm2K merch?

Donna in FL
(trying to vent her graphic design ideas since she's taking a pre-hurricane break from her freelance biz)

[wsquared77]

I heard someone on the radio today suggest that the fact that Hurricane Alley decided to go pay now was an example of price gouging!

[therock1811]

First, put a link to a Paypal donation. Wouldn't hurt and I bet you'd get some donations.

We do... The paypal link is on the left side of the homepage. Also once the rush is over, there are other templates and one of those has that at the bottom of every page I believe...

[janswizard]

We also have a Storm2K store if anyone is interested in purchasing Storm2K merchandise.
http://www.storm2k.org/weather800/store.htm

[dmaui]

Color me embarrassed...

You can tell I go directly to Hurricane Hollow. Yes, definitely get it on every page.

As for merchandise, my first brainstorm is "Derek Ortt is my home boy" Tshirts....lol

Donna

[Innotech]

I heard someone on the radio today suggest that the fact that Hurricane Alley decided to go pay now was an example of price gouging!

and thats why most americans are idiots. I love my country, but many people in it make me want to scream.

[PTPatrick]

Yeah...I didnt go there that much when it was free...definately wont pay for it now. The thing so behind schedule.

[Scott_inVA]

1) Web site becomes popular
2) Web site admins get bandwidth bill
3) Web site admins FREAK OUT (like getting a cell phone bill with $600 extra in charges)
4) Web site admins ask for donations
5) Donations do well, until next influx
6) To alleviate the costs as much as possible, either a major sponsor is added or you end up having to pay for access to the prime information

--snoopj

Exactly right.

When I was doing this at the WREL Radio site we wouldn't ask for donations but frequently were hammered.

Lili cost the station ~ $325 in excess bandwidth.
With Isabel coming in WREL blew several sites off a shared server and racked up $610 in bandwidth fees. We went down three times the week of landfall and ultimately moved to a new server we purchased. Isabel cost us a $hitload of money. Given probably 95% of IPs weren't in our coverage area, that was a tough sell.

So the decision was made I fly solo and launch Mid-Atlantic WX.com. 2 options: pay for the model map as that's what crushes the site or get a good sponsor. I choose option 2. so far, so good.

[shameless hint]Their fulfillment contract requires a certain percentage of click-thrus. Without it they can bail and I'm screwed [/shameless hint].

Yesterday, for example I used 3.1 gig of bw and the model map page was down for a while. I get 30 gig/month. Do the math and a couple more TCs cost mucho dinero.

If the other site can generate sufficient revenue to keep it floating or make a buck or two, I totally support the option. It's easier for me to have non-intrusive sponsorship at Mid-Atlantic than it is dealing with paying clients. But if sponsors are unhappy, there's not much of a site. simple as that.

Capitalism works.

Scott
just in case you want to click-thru : http://www.midatlanticwx.com/index.htm

[Cousin Dave]

I received my Storm2K t-shirt & clock from ups today!
I plan on donating also.
I thought the timing of Hurricane Alley going pay at the height of a major hurricane was extremely cheesy.
This site is much more professionally done anyway.

[HurricaneQueen]

Scott:

I try to "click thru" every day and will continue to do so. I didn't realize at the time it was helpful to you, good buddy'. I did it for solely for my own information. Now that we know, let's give "poor" Scott a hand. He's had a really rough time of it lately. Keep smiling, Scott. It's got to get better.

Lynn