WOW, I am glad I went to bed early, (2AM).
What needs to be realized and understood is that everything we are doing here is relatively new and has never been done before. I try to learn from my mistakes but the problem is I have to make them first to be able to learn from them. I would much rather learn from the mistakes of others and in this area I have learned much in the last few months. So the following is a synopsis of what
is and what
will be going on here.
First I lost a huge source of income last year and early this year. I was making about $12K a month and I had no problem paying for this site out of pocket. I looked for ways to break even at least but that never happened. The site grew and we were forced to make decisions and I took on the added cost of maintaining the site on my own. In January several things happened that can not be discussed in public. In a meeting with my CPA I was forced to make a decision and I had to look at BladeForums in a different light. Basically what it amounted to was BFC has to be looked at as a business since I was obviously having to pay the bills using WOW checks and not my own money anymore.
The tangibles are easy to figure out. Server cost, T-1, rack and so on. The intangibles are not so easy but I was forced to apply rule of thumb accounting to figure out just how much time Spark and I put into keeping this site running smooth and when that was done I decided enough is enough.
The analogy has been given that urine is running down people legs. Well here is similar analogy, I have to "pee or get off the pot".
So pee I shall, but I assure you that it will not be on your legs as my aim is fairly good
I have the full intention of making money off this site now, period. I will never charge a member to post or read in what we will now call the "information" areas. By the time you read this the auction software will be up and running and the classifieds have all ready launched. These are the only 2 money making software programs I have in place at the moment other than 1SKS.
For those of you who think we have been planning this for months, you are dead wrong. I can post the checks and the credit card bills if you like to prove that all of this was done in the last 45 days or so and another quick call to Missy at Blade and you will see I slipped the ad actually past the deadline for the Blade Show issue. BTW that issue will feature our ad for the Forums, the classifieds and the auction.
If I can make enough money then the level of service we are able to provide will increase. I have to start making money before I can put more into this site. The auction software and the classifieds cost over $20K and that figure does not include the many hours it has taken to put this together.
My vision is to make this site the place for all knife nuts, makers, manufacturers, dealers and casual sellers to come together in one convenient simple package.
The point was made that people are not so upset with what we have done, but rather how we have announced it and implemented it. Your right, I am wrong, and that is my fault. That is a problem I have always had and I guess I always will. Maybe one day I will be able to hire someone less arrogant than Spark and more politically correct than myself to perform that task but for right now it is just Spark and me running this show. We may not be very tactful at times but we do get the job done and the result is the world's largest, busiest and most respected knife related web site, bar none.
I would love to make the selling of knives on this site a free option but I simply can't. Maybe a knife loving millionaire will read this and offer to pay Spark and myself to run it and we can then do that. Until then the mailman will still come to my door daily with envelopes stuffed with bills rather than cash. I get sick of writing these posts about how much this place costs to run and I am sure you are all sick of reading them. I had no idea nearly 2 years ago that this site would generate enough traffic to use 50% of a T-1 and a peak of 80%!
What I am doing is ensuring the future of this site. To do so I must now run it as a business and move all of this crap behind the scenes for you guys so you don't have to read about it. The On-line magazine was a good idea but I have no money to pay legitimate writers and let's face, I can't write worth a ****. Now I have this embarrassing January issue sitting there with no real way to keep it going. I have a few ideas but they cost $$$ and I simply don't have it.
We are not the first site to go through this situation. As I stated earlier I would rather learn from the mistakes of others than my own. DUH! So a little research yielded some rather interesting results. I was actually called an idiot by another person who said with my traffic I would be a fool to not make money off it. He further ridiculed me when I showed him that I actually allow other dealers to sell on my site and my mental state was brought into question. I would of hung up the phone but this guy has "been there, done that" and everyone of you know him and he is right. He is not in the knife business BTW. The difference is that I am not looking to make a million bucks off this site. I just want it to make some damn money to pay for itself and not be a money pit.
KnifeForums was brought up. Keep in mind that it was almost shut down when Earl could not afford it anymore. Jim took over and it seems to be doing better. I have talked to both Earl and Jim and whether you choose to believe this or not, I am a big reason why KnifeForums is still up. Jim asked for advice from me on the day he was to buy KnifeForums. I had the opportunity to make that deal go south or at least attempt to. I chose to help and will continue to do so as this is my nature.
All in all the future of this site depends on me and what I decide to do. The decisions are mine and mine alone. I have the best interest of the members in mind and I want this site to grow even beyond the scope it now holds. To do so has and will cause a lot of sacrifice on my part and that of Spark. No one said this will be easy and we fully expect to take some heat with some of the decisions we make. I learned a long time ago that the old saying "good things come to those who wait" is wrong. Good things come to those who sacrifice whatever it takes to achieve the goals they have set.
My goals are set, my direction is now clear, and I will
"Do It, Do It Right, and I will Do It Right Now!".
------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
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lets see, with like 7,000,000 hits per month how fast and FREE would your email be?
i dont see anyone holding a gun to your head to pay diddly here!
