So I want to start a discussion about the membership base and the dwindling numbers.

 

I know we have less zeds on the road so the number of people visiting our club forums is decreasing year by year and that is fact.

 

First I would like to break down the user stats as follows :

 

Registered Users :- 221 ( user accounts that have not posted in 365 days but have logged in )

 

Standard Members :- 602 ( user accounts which will need to pay the £1 membership fee after 6 months )

Premium Members :- 152 ( user accounts which have paid the £20 membership fee )

 

Dormant accounts :- 8467 ( user account that has not been logged into in over 365 days )

 

 

First thing I would like to say is thanks to the 152 premium users; without you this club would not exist :thumbup1:

 

 

Now for the 602 users what can we do to improve the services so that you will in the future consider subscribing as a Premium User ?

 

There could be many of you that do not subscribe simply because you don't own a zed; which is fine.

 

Or

 

There could be many of you in circumstances beyond control and simply cannot subscribe.

 

I don't want this to be a fight into the justification of subscribing but rather a positive thread to direct us in getting a better conversion rate.

 

As the better subscribed user base we have then the more people will take part and feel part of a club.

Edited August 4, 20187 yr by JaiKai

Yeh,

 

You could stick the forum into a shared cluster for pennies to reduce costs but we want a site that's

fast and responsive when used.

 

The site is hosted and stored on dedicated google cloud platform, we have daily backups of everything

that's stored on there so that in the event something does happen we can get it all back and go again.

 

The site used to be hosted with Vidahost but they were taken over and the support was horrendous; then

they decided to give us notice of a 10% price increase.

 

At the start of April we moved everything to a custom google cloud service which saved us 20% in costs.

 

I don't disagree that you can pick up hosting packages for less then £15 a month but the control we need

wasn't there for that priceand the need over our system requires that we use a dedicated platform and

that its not a shared resource.

 

We look into the costs on an annual basis and we have been reducing the requirements needed as the club

becomes unfortunately less used.

 

We have about 40GB of storage space on our server which is about 60% used by the OS of the platform, the

database, various attachment files for the forum then the daily backups.

 

I can assure you the hosting is in good hands and would not use a shared infrastructure at this point in time.

 

If and when the club reduces we will look into the costings again.

 

But we all don't want that to happen as it could be the signs of the end of the club as we know it.

 

 

 

I'm talking about just the forum Gaz not the whole club

Edited August 9, 20187 yr by JaiKai

I have an event at Retro Rides Gathering in Shelsley walsh?

 

Steve PM your address that you want it sent to and I will TNT to you (FYI - someone will need to be in, to sign for it)

Steve PM your address that you want it sent to and I will TNT to you (FYI - someone will need to be in, to sign for it)

 

PM'ed.

 

I don't think we should drop the Premium membership but after all the comments I'm starting to thing the £1 is a no go.

 

 

I recall the discussion at the AGM also covered the possibility that in addition to reducing 'spammers' ... a Registered User fee would enable the club to 'correctly' declare a much larger 'subscribed' user base.....which would help when liaising with such organisations as the NEC.

 

The Registered Users 'fee' could be anything...25p? 50p?...any amount. It doesn't have to be £1...and when paid via PayPal would hardly be a major overhead to prospective 300ZX owners looking for 'real world' 300ZX ownership insight.

 

People will still use FB...and there is no reason for them not to...but if people aren't prepared to spend less than the cost of a Mars Bar (which 'is/should' be deductible from their full membership) to access an 'Owners Club' with such a great 300ZX enthusiasts knowledgebase...then :surrender:

 

All in IMHO :whistling:

Edited August 9, 20187 yr by GSC

It doesnt matter what the amount is really, but its the hassle to get out a credit card or paypal details, when they don't have any idea of the quality of the club's information, havent interacted with the members and see how (hopefully) welcoming we are. My point is without knowing wahts the club they might just go elsewhere to facebook, which has a community and no fees or whatever.

 

I think the best solution is to just have a question in the account registration "what year was the z32 first sold" (1989) or something similar, which is common information and easily googled but something which would probably deter a spammer.

 

Thats my two cents anyway :)

We have two very specific zed questions but spammers get past them easy.

 

They also need to verify the email they used too.

 

In the last three days we have had 15 - 20 signups with obscure email addresses and locations.

 

They are very easy to spot.

 

I thing what we should do is put the new signups into moderation and then they will have to be manually checked.

 

 

I think the best solution is to just have a question in the account registration "what year was the z32 first sold" (1989) or something similar, which is common information and easily googled but something which would probably deter a spammer.

It doesnt matter what the amount is really, but its the hassle to get out a credit card or paypal details, when they don't have any idea of the quality of the club's information, havent interacted with the members and see how (hopefully) welcoming we are. My point is without knowing wahts the club they might just go elsewhere to facebook, which has a community and no fees or whatever.

 

Ali...I'm not buying the idea of it being too much of a ball ache to enter CC or PP details....the majority of people have a PP account...so it would be quick redirect....and if the 300ZX Owners Club website explained the reason for the nominal fee.... and extolled the benefits the vast Z knowledge the nominal fee would give them access to...I believe most people with a genuine interest in the marque would understand and accept it......they will still also go to FB :yes:

One of the other clubs I belong to you have to purchase something from the club shop or make a charity donation, to a chosen club charity. It’s only a one off thing and it seems to work well.

I seriously don’t see a problem with £1, (as long as there’s an explanation behind it) people should be ok with it.

Most people these days have paypal and its linked into thier browser. When people buy things for ebay or other websites such as justeat or rail tickets, they click the paypal button, it does its spinny thing and then its back with the payment done. Its quick and easy and I wouldnt see a problem with it. If it stops spammer then its all god :thumbsup:

Can we make the club Facebook page a closed group that we can all post on? I don’t wish for the club to be lost within the many Facebook groups but if we don’t embrace it we’re missing out on lots of free advertising. I know it’s extra work to monitor etc but I think it’ll be a great tool to direct traffic onto the club forums and I’m sure members of the new sub committee would be more than happy to help.

The facebook page is a page rather than group.

 

There is another group with the exact same name as us but we do not run it.

 

Initially the Facebook page was started by Kim and was only used for site updates, the other committee and myself have been doing rotated updates on it

but it could do with more updates.

 

This is something we can delegate to the sub commitee

 

Can we make the club Facebook page a closed group that we can all post on? I don’t wish for the club to be lost within the many Facebook groups but if we don’t embrace it we’re missing out on lots of free advertising. I know it’s extra work to monitor etc but I think it’ll be a great tool to direct traffic onto the club forums and I’m sure members of the new sub committee would be more than happy to help.

Strangely this thread has done better than I thought it would ;)

 

 

 

199 views and only 10 replies, come on guys !!

The facebook page is a page rather than group.

 

There is another group with the exact same name as us but we do not run it.

 

Initially the Facebook page was started by Kim and was only used for site updates, the other committee and myself have been doing rotated updates on it

but it could do with more updates.

 

This is something we can delegate to the sub commitee

 

Can we change it to a group or add another one as a group? Because of the lack of activity, even when something is added to it, it doesn’t appear on my feed! Maybe give it the title of “UK 300zx Owners Club and friends”. It will soon gather momentum as we invite people and we can post links to the club forums regularly along with the general chit chat. The cover photo should be the club logo.

 

I just don’t think updating a page that very few people ever visit is generating enough interest whereas if it’s open to post on then it will generate its own interest. The “what did you do today” thread was successful due to its here and now philosophy which Facebook is great at capturing, I seriously think we need to embrace that and cash in on it.

Those of us that are mentioning this £1 think... we are all premium members, and don't therefore mind paying whatever the rate is. Think we need to remember it's about whether it's putting other people off. I personally think, although it's a tiny amount of money, people won't bother or want to pay it. I do understand the benefits behind it though

Way ahead of you bud,

 

Idea scrapped last night and new process now in place.

 

Those of us that are mentioning this £1 think... we are all premium members, and don't therefore mind paying whatever the rate is. Think we need to remember it's about whether it's putting other people off. I personally think, although it's a tiny amount of money, people won't bother or want to pay it. I do understand the benefits behind it though

"The facebook page is a page rather than group.

 

There is another group with the exact same name as us but we do not run it.

 

Initially the Facebook page was started by Kim and was only used for site updates, the other committee and myself have been doing rotated updates on it

but it could do with more updates."

 

 

This is what I was saying earlier. If we had a few Z related prize draws for Premium members, we could use the Facebook page as a way of alerting non-members to the fact that there is a Club that gives back to its members and channel more traffic to here, they can then decide if subbing would be worth everything we have to offer already, plus the chance to win something during the year. Surely this idea is worth considering??

 

I'd be up for helping out with bits and bobs regarding Facebook / Moderation, but I'm not the best at a lot of the computer aspects.

Edited August 10, 20187 yr by Richie K

New Facebook group created and linked back to the main Facebook page.

 

I have also added a few of you onto it already but if you all can add anyone else.

 

The group is setup to be Hidden and Private so members get added by invitation only.

New Facebook group created and linked back to the main Facebook page.

 

I have also added a few of you onto it already but if you all can add anyone else.

 

The group is setup to be Hidden and Private so members get added by invitation only.

 

Cool, I've no access to Facebook but I do have Forum access when I'm here in my office.:thumbup1: I spend a fair bit of my down time on it though:yes:

Out of curiosity, what’s the difference between a “secret group” and a “closed group”? I’m guessing it’s now not publicly searchable? I would suggest it show up on a group search much the same as you want the club website the top hit on google.

I made it a secret group as I didn't want to start a conflict with the other one that's there.

 

It's now publicly viewable to search.

Group renamed to '300ZX Owners Club - 300zx.co.uk'

 

Also renames the main facebook page to the same to avoid confusion.

Edited August 10, 20187 yr by JaiKai

Way ahead of you bud,

 

Idea scrapped last night and new process now in place.

 

Blimey....152 Premium Users...5 people vocalise issues with the 'Trial' nominal fee for Registered Users.....and it is scrapped! :wacko:

we've had over 20 registrations in the last few days and only 1 paid the £1 which has now been refunded.

 

Blimey....152 Premium Users...5 people vocalise issues with the 'Trial' nominal fee for Registered Users.....and it is scrapped! :wacko:

I just want to say a big "Thank you " to Lee (Jaikai) at this time. While we're throwing around suggestions etc, it is he who is "manning the pumps" and has put in the time to change the Club page, trialed different hosting versions, setup new Facebook pages etc. You tend to forget that someone has to be in the background doing all the work.

 

So Thanks mate for all the work:thumbup: