FinHeavenAJ
FinHeaven Lives
First off, welcome premium members. I would like to thank all of you for becoming a premium member and helping the site out. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Since this is the first message, I feel as though I should try and cover all the “basics†of the site. Here is a general outline of what this message will contain.
1. Operational Costs and Information
2. Future Plans/Ideas
3. Current Revenue
4. Stats
5. Things To Think About…
6. In Closing
Please note: This message is exceptionally long because I am trying to cover everything about the site.
Operational Costs
First and most importantly, let me tell you what kind of server FinHeaven & Co is running on. It’s a Pentium III 1.2 GHz, with one gig of ram. In addition, it’s on a large 60gig hard drive, with 300gigs of bandwidth. The operating system is Red Hat Linux 7.3. Furthermore, we are with FastServers.net (http://fastservers.net/). I choose them because of their reliability, support, and speed. In addition, they were rated the best Dedicated Server host by Web Hosting Magazine.
Now enough of the technical talk, and on to the cost. We pay a quarterly fee of $585 for hosting. I did bargain with them for a price, as it would have normally cost about $125 extra. Furthermore, server software called “cPanel†has been installed on the server. This usually costs $38 per month, but I got it at $22 per month. This software makes things so much easier and faster to operate the site. So, totaling those two items per year, it will come to $2,604 per year.
In addition, there is a registration fee of $13.50 a year. This is to simply keep the name “finheaven.com.†Furthermore, there is a fee of $30 to receive upgrades for the message board. Both of these fees I consider mandatory as I like to keep up-to-date. Totaling both these fees and the hosting fees, it comes to $2,647.50 a year.
Future Plans
I feel as though the strongest point of FinHeaven is the message board. Usually, 80% of the entire visits/hits are for the message board. I would really like working on more content for the main page, like news and commentary. In addition, finding a wallpaper artist would be great. All of this leads to my next paragraph…
First, I am starting to look out for posters that make great posts that could be transformed into commentary. Once the season starts, I would like to ask them if they would be interested in writing some commentary for the website. If you would like to nominate anyone, let me know.
Secondly, and most importantly, the wallpapers idea. Many members have commented on having some sort of photo galleries for members to post pictures from games or whatever. In order to do this, I’ve been looking at some software. Now, I only use the best software because I feel that the best software pays for itself later on in terms of higher membership, and fewer problems. Thus is why I’ve been looking at PhotoPost PHP Pro (http://www.photopost.com). This software is the best out there because of many reasons; however, one main reason is because it automatically connects to the user database for the forum. This is important because it means that users don’t have to register twice for two separate programs. In addition, it offers the speed and reliability that the current forum software has. The only drawback is the price, which comes in at $149 for an owner’s license and then an optional $49 per year after the first year of ownership.
Current Revenue
The two streams of revenue that FinHeaven & Co gains is extremely unstable. However, on average we usually get about $25 per month from the advertising banner left side of every webpage except for the forum. In addition, during the season we usually get revenue from selling jerseys and such. This can range from $10 - $25 per month. Larry (dolfan06) is speaking to several sport bars out in his neighborhood to see if we can get a nice sponsorship running. In addition, I am looking into getting FinHeaven & Co merchandise. If you have any other ideas for revenue, please let me know.
Stats
In the month of March there were 49,388 unique visitors. In addition, there were 6,335,577 hits. That is a very high number for the offseason, yet in season, that number generally gets up to 15 million hits. In addition, in the month of March there were 64 new registrants. From April 1st through the 22nd, there have been 78 new members.
Things To Think About…
First, many members have now said that the premium membership should be open to anyone, at any time. Furthermore, Jon (WharfRat) knew that members would want in as soon as the door was closed.
There are many pros and cons to this… One major pro of this would be an increase of revenue, thus we would be able to afford more software, as well as cover more expenses. However, the one major con would be that we would lose the exclusivity on this membership, which is why I capped it off at 30 members. The con of that con (can I say that?) is that it is the beginning of the year, and there will be new members later in the year, so why should we close the door on members that never had the opportunity to be a premium member?
So, something to think about, should there be a cap, or should we keep the door open the entire year?
In Closing…
Again, I appreciate all your help. I think all the premium members will enjoy the benefit of knowing practically everything that goes on with FinHeaven.
Currently the FinHeaven Checking account stands at $895.25. There are still four monthly payments due, one quarterly payment due, one semi-annually payment due, and twelve annual payments due.
So, I think I covered all that needs to be covered. If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I’ll gladly answer them.
Once again, thank you for your help, it is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Andrew Tatum
Since this is the first message, I feel as though I should try and cover all the “basics†of the site. Here is a general outline of what this message will contain.
1. Operational Costs and Information
2. Future Plans/Ideas
3. Current Revenue
4. Stats
5. Things To Think About…
6. In Closing
Please note: This message is exceptionally long because I am trying to cover everything about the site.
Operational Costs
First and most importantly, let me tell you what kind of server FinHeaven & Co is running on. It’s a Pentium III 1.2 GHz, with one gig of ram. In addition, it’s on a large 60gig hard drive, with 300gigs of bandwidth. The operating system is Red Hat Linux 7.3. Furthermore, we are with FastServers.net (http://fastservers.net/). I choose them because of their reliability, support, and speed. In addition, they were rated the best Dedicated Server host by Web Hosting Magazine.
Now enough of the technical talk, and on to the cost. We pay a quarterly fee of $585 for hosting. I did bargain with them for a price, as it would have normally cost about $125 extra. Furthermore, server software called “cPanel†has been installed on the server. This usually costs $38 per month, but I got it at $22 per month. This software makes things so much easier and faster to operate the site. So, totaling those two items per year, it will come to $2,604 per year.
In addition, there is a registration fee of $13.50 a year. This is to simply keep the name “finheaven.com.†Furthermore, there is a fee of $30 to receive upgrades for the message board. Both of these fees I consider mandatory as I like to keep up-to-date. Totaling both these fees and the hosting fees, it comes to $2,647.50 a year.
Future Plans
I feel as though the strongest point of FinHeaven is the message board. Usually, 80% of the entire visits/hits are for the message board. I would really like working on more content for the main page, like news and commentary. In addition, finding a wallpaper artist would be great. All of this leads to my next paragraph…
First, I am starting to look out for posters that make great posts that could be transformed into commentary. Once the season starts, I would like to ask them if they would be interested in writing some commentary for the website. If you would like to nominate anyone, let me know.
Secondly, and most importantly, the wallpapers idea. Many members have commented on having some sort of photo galleries for members to post pictures from games or whatever. In order to do this, I’ve been looking at some software. Now, I only use the best software because I feel that the best software pays for itself later on in terms of higher membership, and fewer problems. Thus is why I’ve been looking at PhotoPost PHP Pro (http://www.photopost.com). This software is the best out there because of many reasons; however, one main reason is because it automatically connects to the user database for the forum. This is important because it means that users don’t have to register twice for two separate programs. In addition, it offers the speed and reliability that the current forum software has. The only drawback is the price, which comes in at $149 for an owner’s license and then an optional $49 per year after the first year of ownership.
Current Revenue
The two streams of revenue that FinHeaven & Co gains is extremely unstable. However, on average we usually get about $25 per month from the advertising banner left side of every webpage except for the forum. In addition, during the season we usually get revenue from selling jerseys and such. This can range from $10 - $25 per month. Larry (dolfan06) is speaking to several sport bars out in his neighborhood to see if we can get a nice sponsorship running. In addition, I am looking into getting FinHeaven & Co merchandise. If you have any other ideas for revenue, please let me know.
Stats
In the month of March there were 49,388 unique visitors. In addition, there were 6,335,577 hits. That is a very high number for the offseason, yet in season, that number generally gets up to 15 million hits. In addition, in the month of March there were 64 new registrants. From April 1st through the 22nd, there have been 78 new members.
Things To Think About…
First, many members have now said that the premium membership should be open to anyone, at any time. Furthermore, Jon (WharfRat) knew that members would want in as soon as the door was closed.
There are many pros and cons to this… One major pro of this would be an increase of revenue, thus we would be able to afford more software, as well as cover more expenses. However, the one major con would be that we would lose the exclusivity on this membership, which is why I capped it off at 30 members. The con of that con (can I say that?) is that it is the beginning of the year, and there will be new members later in the year, so why should we close the door on members that never had the opportunity to be a premium member?
So, something to think about, should there be a cap, or should we keep the door open the entire year?
In Closing…
Again, I appreciate all your help. I think all the premium members will enjoy the benefit of knowing practically everything that goes on with FinHeaven.
Currently the FinHeaven Checking account stands at $895.25. There are still four monthly payments due, one quarterly payment due, one semi-annually payment due, and twelve annual payments due.
So, I think I covered all that needs to be covered. If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I’ll gladly answer them.
Once again, thank you for your help, it is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Andrew Tatum
