How Many?

[dhes2809]

I was just wondering does anyone know how many paying subscribers tamiyaclub.com has at the moment?

[netsmithUK]

As it stands at this very moment we have 6672 members of which 378 are subscribers. Of these subscribers about 200 are up for renewal between now and christmas.

Most important thing is the club is now got its hosting paid for until well into 2006[]

Chris

[dhes2809]

I should be renewing my subscription at the end of the week as it has been expired for a few weeks now. How much does it cost to run a site like this? Its just with that amount of paying members it works out at around 5 grand or so a year is that how much it costs to run a web site? I had no idea it was so costly.

[netsmithUK]

We host with one of the best hosts in the UK, on our own dedicated server. Running costs for the hosting alone approach 3k per year plus vat. Some of the remaining money goes to extra services likes the chatroom (plus a new feature coming soon[]) The rest just goes on paying for future hosting.

This time last year the site I had to pay for all of this and purchase of the server in advance - as well as paying the previous host for exceeding our previous deal in terms of space and bandwidth(by about 10x [8)]). First half of last years money went on digging me out of debt the club put me in.[]

I've got a few years yet before I can give up the day job.[]

Chris

[dhes2809]

Wow. Im not really clued up on computers but that does seem like a lot of money.

Im guessing whoever the host is, is making quite alot of money.

Do stella and fusion hobbys pay to have there banners on the home page?

I was also wondering is there any chance of me using tamiyaclub.coms money to get me out of dept?[][]

Also if anyone would like to make a donation to my dept fund please feel free to do so.

[netsmithUK]

We are still small fry with regard to running costs compared to any of the big companies. Thomas Cook spent 25k on research just to find out what people thought of their site - that doesn't include running costs or building costs, just the research!!

But then again, its the beauty of the web any one can start small and build up a service. (imdb.com is a good example - http://www.imdb.com/Help/Oweek/history - is an interesting read) All they need to do is pick a market and then go for it. Its a lot of hard work, I'd dread to think how many hows I've put into this site, so don't hold out any hope for get rich quick ideas (Unless you are planning on selling viagra, rolex watches or setting up a phising site[])

[Pellandine-sports]

It must be the salesman in me, but the first questions I ask myself on reading this thread is 'Why do only 5.5% of the membership subscribe?' and 'How do we entice the eligible portion of the remaining 94.5% to part with their cash?'

These are asked very much tongue in cheek.........there are numerous valid reasons why people do not subscribe, but for the longevity of the site surely some thought needs to be given now as to how the subscription membership could be enlarged.

[jozza]

quote:Originally posted by dhes2809

Wow. Im not really clued up on computers but that does seem like a lot of money.

Im guessing whoever the host is, is making quite alot of money.

---

id="quote">id="quote">I think it surprises a lot of people the cost of running a site such as this one. Sites like TC are not like your normal homepages, where you get a few MB of space and upload your pages there. As well as the cost of dedicated machines, you have to pay more for certain guarantees of availability and so on. (If you look at your "free" webspace provided by BT, Wanadoo, etc, you will see that they make absolutely no guarantees on provision of the service).

I run a few sites, some for fun which are on my standard ISP's webspace, and some for charity/business which cost between £300-£1000 per month to host, depending on the type of service I require.

The ISPs make a fair amount of profit, but probably not as much as you think; providing hardware, data center hosting and so on is hugely expensive, and then there is the support cost too - having a helpdesk and 24/7 call centre costs a lot.

It's good that Chris has shown the running costs though; I'm sure there's a few people who might think that he is making huge amounts of money from running TC, but I know from experience that he won't be []

[netsmithUK]

P-Sports: I'm not really in too much of a hurry to entice the other 95% to subscribe as I feel its nice and manageable at the moment and fun to look after in my spare time. If it suddenly got 20 times bigger it would be a bit of headache to say the least (although quite a nice little earner [] )

As long as we keep enough subscribers to keep covering the cost, and providing the services we want I'll be happy enough. At the moment any cash surplus is probably going on extra bandwidth this year (to cover larger number of visits and possibly movie hosting).

Chris

[Pellandine-sports]

I know where you are coming from but it all falls apart if members do not renew their subscriptions over a period of time. It would be nice to have a safety net.

Plus the fact that I was going to offer the services of myself and the lads.........could do with a bit of evening work.....know what I mean Ron? I do Ron, I do Ron Ron!!![][]

[Martin71RS(2)]

Chris, I understand the movies hosting bit... but wouldn't it be safer to keep some money as a reserve in stead of blowing it on bandwith for movies.... alot of people have the oppertunity to host movies or know someone who can and I think it works great as it is now...

posting movies will eat up LOADS of bandwith....

This thread should at least get some people to get a subscription and kill the thought that we are paying for your Rolss-Royce....you saved that from your lunch money, right?? [)]

Proud to be a paying member!

I think I get very good value for money.

thanks Chris.

[netsmithUK]

cheers - the Rolls is from my day job, honest.

Don't worry movie hosting will only come along when I happy we can sustain it. I've not rushed into it so far, have i []

Like I said to start with the site is running comfortably at the moment, which is why I haven't been chasing any of those that don't renew. Its fair enough 12mths is a long time in peoples lives and many people have now moved on to other interests - after a brief bright rekindled passion with their childhood love, they have gone on to trade-in for a set of golf clubs or something else more grown up []

There is a cool new feature coming up - its not enough to justify subscription itself, but it should still be a good laugh, particularly for those of you that are a bit competitive []

Chris

[TWINSET]

I reckon you ought to charge a nominal fee for forum access too []

[mud4fun]

quote:how much it costs to run a web site? I had no idea it was so costly.

id="quote">id="quote">

As Chris said 5K a year for the TC server is tiddly compared to full commercial systems. My company until recently paid for a hosted server with BT (Bletchley park) it was running a full commercial app for the automotive industry. That server (load balanced), dialup ports and leased lines cost £250K a year in rental!!! and that was only running 256k bandwidth on the leased lines.

On top of that we had to add the costs of ORACLE (£20K per server) and Java App server (£25K per server) plus the actual application itself.

[ChrisB]

I think this site is an excellent resource and worth the subscription alone. I am only really a "part-timer" on the Tamiya stuff - a few runners and a few NIB kits waiting to be built. I probably only run my cars a few times a month if that.

Its great though also having things like the Fusion TC discount - this makes a UK supllier as cheap as any where else without the additional wait and hassle with customs charges etc.

I am also involved in web development, and although not much experience on the hosting intricacies I do think it was worthwhile Chris pointing out the costs involved. I think many people not in this line of work really have very little idea of how much hosting costs and the facilities needed to ensure availability, decent response times on the site, and all the other things that allow them to use the forum, have showrooms and upload pictures....

I also like the fact that Chris has managed to keep the advertising content on the site to a very relevent minimum. This is an easy way to generate more cash, but with pop ups and those annoying flash adverts you have to cancel, its a sure fire way to lose people like me as visitors.

Keep up the good work Chris and don't be afraid of taking out the cash that you are owed with a bit of interest now the site is starting to cover its own costs. Sadly many people using the internet these days expect everything for free and take for granted the time and effort others put into developing sites like this.

Even if you were making a fortune out of the site Chris, I say good luck to you! It wouldn't change the fact that for the subs we currently pay the site is a bargain. If people don't like it they can always go and look elsewhere!

Cheers,

Chris

[jozza]

Yep, I'd forgotten about the Fusion discount. With the couple of cars I've bought from James at Fusion, I've saved much more than my first year's subs anyway [^]