Site Donations

MNSubaru.com has been up and running since 2002 and running on VBulletin since 2004. Over the years we have been steadily growing and growing. October of last year we finally hit the point of out growing shared hosting. With the constant "out of cpu time" errors and the cpu throttling (site slow downs). What we did is move to 2 VPS servers. One server running the web side of things, and the other server running the database side of things. We have also upgraded to the latest and greatest VBulletin 4.0. There have been some growing pains along the way, but we keep chugging along.

Along with the new software, we have also included some new features. We now have blogs for people who are building some custom subarus. We have a new front page, while it is a work in progress, it will allow for future expansion and allow us to get the latest news out to everyone. We also have a few more features that we want to get rolling on the site. Itrader (seller feedback system), Taptalk, and maybe even a chat feature. They are all a work in progress and as we get closer to going live with them, we will make the announcements.

In the past 2 years MNSubaru has also spun off a official car club. MNSOC, Inc. MNSubaru will remain the front line for all subaru information on the web, and MNSOC has taken over the duties of creating and organizing events, club discounts, and club swag. Yes, we did try and combine the website with MNSOC, but with further research, combining the 2 would/could create a new list of problems. Basically with MNSOC being able to get insurance for its events, this would limit what could be posted on the website without adding a bunch of disclaimers. The decision was made to keep MNSubaru.com a website, and keep MNSOC the official car club. MNSubaru.com will continue to provide MNSOC webspace for MNSOC to advertise their current events and swag.

So at this point in time, MNSubaru.com is back to being just a website, and MNSOC is back to working on the official club activities. Along with those changes, we have also added a donations tab and donation thermometer. As before, MNSubaru.com will continue to be a free site. The main reason for the new donation items is that it would be nice for the site to be able to sustain itself and these will give everyone a idea where we stand. As before, if the site can not generate enough donations and MNSubaru swoosh decal sales, we will have to cover the rest. Over the years MNSubaru has remained ad free. Now with the increase in hosting, we might have to introduce ads to the site to cover the difference. If we do introduce ads to the site, we will also make a paid user level that will be ad free. We do not know the extent of the ads that will be placed on the site, and really that is kinda up to you, the end user. If we can't get our donation goals met, we will supplement the site income with ads. To keep track of our progress, we have also added the donations thermometer. As donations/sticker sales come in, we will continue to update the thermometer. The goal is currently set at $500 since that is what our hosting costs each year.

Cliffs:
MNSubaru is the website
MNSOC is the official car club
They have been split up to avoid legal/insurance issues
MNSubaru is currently supported only off of donations and swoosh sticker sales
Hosting is $500 per year
Donation Thermometer is set to $500 to reflect hosting charges
All donations go to cover the hosting of the site

Thank you for your years of support. If you have any questions, please ask.
The Management Team

 

I have to manually update the thermometer, so it will get update in a bit.

Russ

 

At the last mod meeting, Russ said he was getting pocket change per day on it. It wont pay the bills for the site entirely, but it will help sustain the place should the donations dry up.

 

The ads will stick around. 2 main reasons.

Since the thermometer has reached 100% we haven't received any donations. Luckily MNSOC stepped up and donated $240 to help cover hosting since they are using this website to conduct business on instead of creating another website for everyone to go too. They have also stated they will continue to help out with another donation for each year that they continue to use MNSubaru to conduct business on.

The other reason is that I have been approached be a couple of local vendors about using the banner locations for their own ads. This will allow our vendors to deliver ads for new products and specials.

As for revenue, like Jason said, I won't be retiring on it any time soon.:laugh: After it is all said and done, it is averaging out to less than $2 a day, then I have to pay income tax on that money come the end of the year. There have been a couple of good days ($10-11) that get followed up by 3-4 days of making .25-.50. I figure as things continue to roll, the ads and the random donations will pay the hosting. Any money that is made over and above that will get rolled into next years hosting and some promotional items for the site. I have a couple of mini projects in the works that I will hopefully be able to roll out in the coming weeks.

Russ

 

That was a thought. I was also going to just reset it to zero and place some update text below the button on the right side saying that the next years hosting was covered and this would be for the following year. The current year is done in October, so it is not too far off before we would start working on Oct 2011's payment.

Russ

 

That is correct. Just use custom and you can select anything from there.

Also, since this original post was made, I have a completely new "donations" system running. This one is completely automated, so after the donation is made, it brings you back to the site and updates the progress bar.

Thanks again for the contributions to help keep the site up and running.

Russ

 

What kinda of change in plans? Any donations over the 100% will go towards next years hosting and future items (shirts, food, etc).

Russ