Hi Ron:
I am glad to hear that this issue has resolved itself because of your efforts
and creativity. At the same time I cannot help but think that if I were in
your position, i.e. pre-Boston University revenue coming in, I might have
considered things a little differently. Because your creating and maintaining
the forum offered by your website and listserve is an excellent indicator of
your commitment to the profession. And very importantly it provides us OTs the
opportunity for informal dialogue which would otherwise be absent. Somewhat
facetiously I may add that perhaps the listserve is a medium well suited to OTs
since many of us hesitate to be vocal in person. To go back to what I was
saying, the way I see it is that the listserve and/or website are more a matter
of substance rather than traffic. Albeit traffic that can attract revenue
through ads or otherwise would be great. However, your championing the issues
that you believe are critical to the profession can perhaps only be done
through the forums you have created.
Over the years I have thought about starting a listserve or an OT website.
But I haven't only because I was convinced that I would not have been able to
give it the sustained energy that you have in maintaining such an effort. It
goes without saying that I truly appreciate being a listserve member, and am
thankful that you decided to create it. I have been its member at least since
1999. Though when you changed it to a bulletin board I did not become a member
until a few months before you decided to renew the listserve.
My sense is that there are certain things whose absence we may not miss but
whose presence makes a meaningful difference, or rather enhances a particular
experience. I think the listserve is one such example. For this reason I
believe your listserve provides an excellent forum for OTs worldwide and I
believe it is extremely important to maintain this forum created by you. The
YEARS of initiative, commitment, tenacity and resourcefulness you have
demonstrated through your website, the listserve and its incarnations would be
well served if you were to continue it. The upshot of what I am saying is that
the benefits your website confers *far far* outweigh the costs you stated in
your e-mail. Regardless of the fact that the listserve goes quiet for periods
of time before it gets active in response to a particular posting.
Despite the fact that the question you raised with your "Crossroads" posting is
quite moot now, but since you considered the idea of funding and put it before
us I think we can discuss it, if not for now, perhaps for later. Personally I
would like it if you continued the status quo. However, if at any point you
are seriously considering charging for subscriptions, perhaps you might want to
keep in mind a certain threshold above which you would like subscription
charges. Some of us may hesitate to become members of Paypal or a similar
service, in which case payments could be made by Money Order or International
Postal Certificates. I think this would also make it convenient for you. I am
just tossing around these ideas in case you want to charge at some point.
However, my preference is for the the status quo to continue.
If at any point you wish to start charging, I think there may be some *content*
issues that you may wish to look at i.e. how to create web content that OTs
around the world will WANT to
subscribe to, not just once but on an ongoing basis. I do not think it would
serve anyone well, including you, were you to invite membership on a
subscription basis and then find that in the second year membership was
petering out. My sense is that maintaining it as a listserve on a subscription
basis may perhaps not get a meaningfully revenue generating response on a
sustained basis. It is possible that a website AND a listserve may better be
able to sustain subscription memberships provided the challenge of content on
the website were addressed suitably. I am not sure, perhaps I am being too
vague (its been a long day Ron). Maybe it is just me and I could well be
mistaken. At the same time I would like you to know that despite the fact that
I have not been active on the list for the past many months, that it is not
something I have forgotten about or overlooked.
I do hope this is helpful, but I am not married to any of these ideas. So feel
free to shoot them down .
Take care,
Best,
Biraj
----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Carson<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Ron Carson<mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: October 5, 2005 7:00 PM
Subject: Re: [OTlist] Crossroads with OTnow.com
Well people, my dilemma is OVER....
Today, I received a request from Boston University to place a paid
advertisement on the OTnow web site.
It's already done...
OTnow lives on!!!
Ron
----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Carson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005
To: Elizabeth Thiers <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subj: [OTlist] Crossroads with OTnow.com
RC> Hello Everyone:
RC> Thanks for the suggestions so far.
RC> A while back, I had Google ads on the web site and even posted a message
RC> on the list encourage people to click on the ads. In the month or so
RC> that I had the ads, I received like 20 cents worth of income.
RC> OTnow doesn't get hardly any traffic. And, that's OK but it certainly
RC> explains why Google ads wouldn't work. Plus the ads were completely
RC> unrelated to the intent of the website but Google ads are automated and
RC> the only way to change the ads is to change the website content.
RC> I may very well use the hosting solution provided by Will. Also, a
RC> little more research revealed that I can save $30.00 by changing my
RC> domain name registrar to my hosting company.
RC> Will, in your message you state: "... since OTnow gets a fairly decent
RC> ranking." What do you mean by this? One other thing Will, the website
RC> you mention charges $25.00 to host the domain name.
RC> Finally, my first message on this topic had an additional option that I
RC> deleted prior to sending. Option 4 was:
RC> "Suck it up and pay the bill" <LOL>
RC> Maybe that's the best option!!!
RC> Ron
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