Could the Wikipedia Profit Method work with your community?

[Shawn Gossman1]

Wikipedia, as you know, doesn't serve ads.

They also provide their website, its content, and services at no cost.

Wikipedia has paid staff within its Non-Profit.

How do they pay their employees a competitive wage?

Through donations...

https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...ites, Wikipedia,donation being about $15 USD.
So, my question is, could this same concept be used today to keep an online community afloat? As a community grows, so will resource requirements. As more resources are required, more money will also be required to maintain the resources. Many forum owners claim it's a hobby and are not interested in making money.

But the fact of the matter is; eventually, the forum will require significantly more money to operate.

Can a forum owner pay the amount required if there is no budget? At a point, that amount could be thousands of dollars a month.

So, as forum owners, can we provide 100% free online communities with no ads and do donation drives to keep our forums up and running regardless of how many resources are required? What steps should we take NOW to ensure that can occur in the future as the community grows larger?

I'd love to hear everyone's thought on this particular subject.

 

[joelr]

This is both a monetization question and an expense question, so it's extra challenging.

The question with donations is if it's stable enough to pay a steady income to their employees. You can't be bringing in, and I'm going to make up an extreme example, $500,000 one year and only $120,000 a next year and expect to pay 3 employees the same in both years.

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

This is both a monetization question and an expense question, so it's extra challenging.

The question with donations is if it's stable enough to pay a steady income to their employees. You can't be bringing in, and I'm going to make up an extreme example, $500,000 one year and only $120,000 a next year and expect to pay 3 employees the same in both years.

I think the employee payment idea is definitely a challenge.

But in terms of using this strategy solely to keep an online community going without having to employ any other monetization strategy, I'd wonder if it can work?

You'd like have to aggressively push for donation likes Wikipedia does. A CTA on every page, popup boxes, and email/alert/DMs frequently around donation time.

Many would worry that would drive people away but if you provided enough value like Wikipedia does, I don't think it would be negative to your community.

What do you all think about that?

 

[joelr]

Youre either a hyper focused private community where people donate almost as a form of membership. Or you're massive like Wikipedia and even if only 0.05% donate, you're able to earn enough.

Ive looked at the distribution of the "1-9-90" even on my own community, and I most definitely don't have 1% of users who subscribe / superusers.