Is adding a premium membership or vip membership a good idea.

[The_Arctic_Outcry]

I notice that many forums ads a premium membership or VIP membership. From what I know , some members are willing to pay money for extra perks. The most common advantage of Premium members are the fact they were exempted from seeing ads or the have extra privileges regular members won't have. I want to know if this is profitable ? If you are a Forum member how much are you willing today for a month of Premium membership or a year of premium membership? To all forum owners, is Premium membership profitable or not?

 

[Allenafaith]

I don't make members pay real money for the premium I only make them pay forum cash. I don't really think it's worth real money.

 

[xXInfectedXx]

At the moment, I don't have vip membership. So, I don't know whether it is a good idea or not.

 

[Aaron]

I've always found it to be a good idea. That way if you have a couple of members who add value you could make them a VIP.

 

[The_Arctic_Outcry]

What do you think would be the ideal and realistic perks I should offer to members who will upgrade to a VIP membership? I know hiding adds is the most popular choice and I will provide that to members but I want to give members another reason to why they should upgrade. Anyone here who can give me some ideas? One of my biggest worries is that regular members will feel like second class citizens. I don't went something like that to happen. I want to treat all members as equals.

 

[ThatNewMommy]

I guess it all depends. Hiding ads may be a good thing, but personally they don't bother me. I'm too focused on what I'm reading so I wouldn't need to pay to hide them. Of course if the ads are overly huge and a distraction then I prefer to not visit than to pay to not see them. LOL

Premium membership can work for perks. For instance, let's say you have a photography forum. Adding a premium membership where people will receive specific tutorials/classes online, then THAT'S definitely something I would pay premium membership for.

 

[Alexandoy]

That premium membership was part of our plan for our office website's forum. However, we didn't get a good number of members and we already got tired of promoting the site. The idea of the premium membership was to have the facility to chat with a celebrity (thru a board, not a chatbox). We actually had done a pilot and it turned out good. However, what we had in mind was a crowd of about 100 all logged in at the same time. Sadly we failed in that area.