Do we charge for ads?

Here are some of the responses we have received!   Click to see wightbays proposal

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Baz1961
Email Address: barryryves@hotmail.com

I would say it would be better to charge a yearly membership fee of say
five pounds .That way you can send a bill and people who have not got
credit cards etc can pay this by postal order.Wightbay is great and keep
up the good work cheers.

wightbay comments: This is a great idea no1 because as you say we can send a bill if
users prefer not to pay online, 2nd people will be more careful how they use the site because if
they abuse it they will be removed as a user and loose their £5. I really like this idea. I have looked at the
database stats, the average member at the moment is placing on average 5.6 ads a month! At 25p an Ad
thats £1.40p/m so £5.00 a year is a cheaper option. 10 out of 10 for this great idea. Also it works well
for both big items as well as the smaller items. ie: if someone is selling a car then £5 to sell the car is
a real bargain...even if that's the only ad they place for that year, for people selling smaller items its also great
everyones a winner and wightbay lives to fight on another day!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Robert Johnson
Email Address: sylv@nia23.wanadoo.co.uk

Hi Martin

Folowong my email last night in response to you asking users views on
charging for Wightbay I have just seen your proposals for charges as from
June 7th.
I just want to say that I for one will be very happy with the scale of
charges and I would think that this would be the view of most genuine
users.
I will be particularly happy that we will be able to pay by cheque or
postal order rather than having to give card details online.
Although I am not one of the bigger users the charges proposed will still
be very satisfactory to me personally.

Kind Regards

Bob Johnson

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: john holton
Email Address: gone-fishing1@hotmail.co.uk

I have been useing wightbay for 2 years now i think what you chaps have
done for the island is brill coming up with wightbay. To cut out the time
adds if i was you i would charge a pound a add it's not hard on the pocket
at the end of the day it would make the tim wasters think about the a
mount of times they reapeat the adds then.

Thanks for the site of wightbay.
All the best lads.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: clarkhans
Email Address: clarkhans@onwight.net

Charging a listing fee is acceptable to anyone, how you accept the monies
might lower the advertising quantity, which would not be good! A lot of
people may not have access to credit facilities, and at this stage
quantity is helpful to those of us who are looking to buy. Suggestion;
under £10 free? Vehicles £1, or £2?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: russell keeling
Email Address: dragonaire64@btinternet.com

I think to charge a yearly membership is the best idea  with the option of
being able to pay  either by credit card cheque or postal order. One
suggestion  when the  membership fee is brought in  rather than  cut
everyone off then have to re  register with payment would it be possible
to say  bring membership in on a certain date  ie may 1st then people have
say 14 days to pay up  or then be deleted  so if  say the membership fee
sarted  on may 1st if you hav'nt paid by may 14th then    non payers will
be removed from the site  Wightbay is a brilliant site  lets keep it that
way  Martin you do a fab job

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Kaz
Email Address: kazdove@tiscali.co.uk

I must say that a membership fee is a Brilliant idea, everyone pays the
same, much less hassle than keeping track of all the ad fees, £5.00 seems
a bit cheep, think it should be £10.00.as that would help cover future
site upgrades ect.
Hope you go with Baz1961s idea.
Take Care,
Kaz
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: gunnapaul2
Email Address: gunnapaul2@hotmail.com

Hi, I don't think charging 25p per ad would be a good idea, ok 25p is only
a few pennies but Wightbay has been a free ad site since it was published
a few years ago and I have used the site since it was first opened because
of the free use, as I think a lot of people have done. I think you will
lose members by charging. However you've got to do what you've got to do
and I will use the site still if yo did charge. thanks

wightbay comments: We really want it to be FREE that was the whole idea
however people/users are making this impossible for us to do! Sorry

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: chrisdee
Email Address: chrisdove51@yahoo.co.uk

Hi Martin.
Wightbay is a great site ( as you well know) but what concerns me are the
ads from people advertising for "fun", one of whom advertised today, his
user name left a lot to be desired (bigandrandy). He's not exactly selling
anything, or is he????.
I'm no prude but is there a limit to what folk can send in to your site?
I know it's not always possible to vet each & every ad. but..... Maybe you
could set up a "fun" site & charge these advertisers?
Kind regards.
Chris.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Blurt2007
Email Address: c.linfield@dsl.pipex.com

Hi,

As with most people I think a 25p fee would be more than acceptable on
general classifieds.

Obviously it could be seen to be a bit harsh on the Freecycle ads :-)

Keep up the good work.

Cheers Calvin

wightbay comments: OK we will not charge for FREECYCLE ADS!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: dmr
Email Address: dmroo@aol.com

just wanted to let you know i think 25p per ad is a very good idea...i
would have no objection to paying it and it would stop everyone abusing it
by leaving silly ads and those who keep repeating them over and over again

wightbay comments: All because people cannot play the game!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent From: daza
Email Address: dsorrell@btinternet.com

yes 25p is a good idea.. although it has been a free site it will stop the
idiots putting ads to the top of the page so very genuine user doesn't
stand a chance..
the only concern is paying the 25p per listing. i will not use paypal as
had dealing with them in the past... so this should be taken into
consideration when charging that not everyone will have a paypal account
or have the means to open one...

wightbay comments: Good point this is something that I will have to look into

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Ian Churches
Email Address: ianchurches@tiscali.co.uk

Hi i think your site is superb,a small charge would be a great idea,keep
up the good work.

Kind Regards Ian .

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Davidamy
Email Address: crockadelick@hotmail.com

Why don't you ask them to make a donation when they have sold something
off your ads, and if that doesn't work then maybe charge according to the
price of the sale !
thanks for your site, it has been a godsend.

David & Amy

wightbay comments: Great suggestion! Perhaps 25p for upto £20, 50p upto £50 and so on
with a max of say £2.50 for a car perhaps?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: dan
Email Address: danfp200@fsmail.net

hi, re: 25p per ad. i guess you have to do it, i would probably still look
at the ads but i doubt id place anymore myself, just being honest.

wightbay comments: That's a real shame, but if there was not silly people around that keep
placing ads willy nilly then I would not have to consider this option. After all where else can
you sell anything for 25p? County Press, Weekly Ad, ebay?? Because wightbay is becoming so popular
it is now costing me quite a lot of money each month to maintain & run the site, and I have run it for 3
years free of charge, so I now need a bit of help from you guys.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: LeeRoy8888
Email Address: Lee@SolentSun.co.uk

Hi, Just a quick note regarding the 25p listing option. I personally
think I would stop a lot of the listings appearing. Not sure people would
want to pay 25p to list a £2.00 item. Maybe offer everything under £50
for free, and 25p for things under £100, and 50p for everything else, or
similar. You will then still get the small listings coming through but
you should be able to get money in from the more expensive items.

I can understand your need for extra funding. Is there the option of
additional sponsorship? Dare I say it, Red Funnel, Wightlink etc.

Thanks
Lee

wightbay comments: I agree that people would not want to pay 25p for an item costing £2.00
I was just thinking the same. So we have to look at some sort of scale I suppose. Good Point.
As for sponsorship em! I'll wait with baited breath on that one....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: brian
Email Address: brianandberni@aol.com

think the idea of a 25p charge per ad,is very fair and would certainly
approve of getting rid of the duplicate business ads as it puts me off.

wightbay comments: Thanks..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: ashlye
Email Address: ash@a998.fsnet.co.uk

I feel that 25 per ad is a fantastic idea. If that's what it takes to keep
it going , go for it. It will also make people consider before they place
the same ad in numerous times.  Good luck

wightbay comments: Than ks..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: spy68
Email Address: spy1968@aol.com

In response to charging for ads to re-coop £500, 25p to me seems too much due to
the amount of ads being placed on a daily basis as I am a registered user and viewer.
To me, you will be making a whole lot more. Still good for you as you have given us an
excellent service (when its not been running slow.) As I'm a low earner and
sometimes regrettably have to sell items to gain cash, I sometimes place more
than one ad so 25p soon mounts up. For the more expensive items like livestock it would be
a shame to charge but do as you must. As they say good things always come to an end.good luck spy68

wightbay comments: Thanks for your response, however if I don't charge a nominal amount I will
end up having to sell everything, I have to keep wightbay running! Also the main reason is to stop
these silly people placing 12 ads at the same time and clogging up the site and ruining it for genuine
users! I do take on board what you say though. Another idea I had form someone was to make it 50p
and donate 25p to the Island Hospice or another Island Charity? Worth thinking about?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Lee
Email Address: Lee@SolentSun.co.uk

Hi, I droped you an e-mail a few days ago regarding the 25p listng idea.
I have just been thinking, £500 pm is a small fortune.  I would imagine
that you could easily purchase a high-spec server or 2.  Coupled with a
couple of 8mb DSL lines you would be able to manage the servers directly.
I know there might be a small out-lay needed but after a few months the
servers will be owned and just the monthly DSL costs need to be met.  Or
am I missing another part of the expendeture?  I won't be affended if you
don't want to divulge the finer details of your costs but I have quite a
few contacts that might be able to help!

Drop me an e-mail and hopefully I might be able to help!

Thanks
Lee
Lee@SolentSun.co.uk

wightbay comments: Thanks for your email. In answer to your question I would have the outlay
for the server which would be in the region of 2k, then I have the MSSQL
Licence which is 5k, then all the Mail Software and spam software, then the
maintainance, & running costs ie: keeping the server secure etc, then I
would have the Power Safe units in case of power cuts etc, then on top of
all this BT would want their wak! Of course I have my phone bill and time
for maintaining wightbay this all costs me time and money. wightbay was fine
when it was'nt used so much but now it is getting 2,500 visits a day see
table below which is the last 3 days, this is nearly half a million page hits a
day! SO you can see my problem, the site by Dec 07 will have in the region
of 3 million hits a day and probably 10,000 visits a day. So you can see now
why I need heavy and reliable servers. However any suggestions would be
appreciated.

Daily Statistics for 7th, 8th, 9th April 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Kaz
Email Address: kazdove@tiscali.co.uk

Hi Martin,
I think charging scale is a better idea, say items up to £25.00 = free for
only 7 days.
  /£25 - £49.99 = ad cost  25p
  / £50 - £99.99 = ad cost 50p ect ect... And what if item is for sale at
£1.000 = ad cost £10.00 / and it doesn't sell after 31 days? Would it be
re-listed free of charge / or until it sells?. Think this would bung-up
the system,
I think you have to charge a fee, but it wouldn't stop the free-add
idiots.
Really hope the site keeps going, as l will really miss it if you have to
close it.
Yours truly,
Kaz

wightbay comments: Thanks, not a bad idea!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: chris
Email Address: chrisandlin22@hotmail.com

Sorry but I think charging anything will stop a lot of people using the
site to sell cheaper items they can advertise for nothing in the paper,
how about charging for items over a certain amount like the County Press

wightbay comments: Thanks, not a bad idea!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: iowpsc
Email Address: JOHNCOTTONSPORT@aol.com

I think that a charge of 25p an item for what has always been free ads
would stop many from listing. There has been several times when your
system has crashed/changed, and all listed info had to be re-input, taking
a lot of time and effort. This would probably be the last straw. I am
against the 25p fee and would stop listing.

I would also like to point out that you should not delete and stop items
being re-listed (Individuals should be left to manage their items, perhaps
a warning could be sent to abusers). In my case it is because the items
have not sold. This should still be available. It is not open to abuse as
previously.
Regards John

wightbay comments: Hi John, not a lot of people realise how much work is done in the background
regarding wightbay. I have to spend at least 3 hours a day, sometimes even more sorting out
silly ads that people have put on the system. Also there is the server costs to think about, I think you
you musr agree the site is running faster now and seems to be settling down. I'm really not sure what to do?
But I have to at least cover the cost of the servers otherwise why do it?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Thermion
Email Address: sylv@nia23.wanadoo.co.uk

Just read the message about charging for ads and of course I can quite
understand why you should do so.
Even the 25p on a £2 item is still a bargain price and no one should
complain at this.
My only problem though is using a credit card over the net and I am never
happy in doing so.
I just wish there were some way of paying other than online but I guess
this is out of the question.
Sorry about the idiots (I was going to say imbeciles but can't spell) that
abuse wightbay by repeating adverts over and over. That's human nature I
suppose but I am sure that I am not hte only one who is disgusted by it.
Perhaps charging will kill this practice.
Thank you for the service you have provided up until now.


Kind Regards

Bob Johnson

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sent From: Mandy37
Email Address: rosielee331970@hotmail.com

I think it is probably a good idea to make a charge for placing ads. but
the only way i can use this site is because you do not ask for credit card
details, i do not do credit cards so would no longer be able to list if i
wanted to.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------