We need help!

[Administrator]

The psychonaut community needs your help!

We are very low on funds. It's hard to find advertisers, and the few banners we have only account for a small part of the costs for the server, maintenance of the website and moderation. So to survive and stay independent we need to find a way to generate extra income. We have created a 'Donate button' to start with, but any other ideas are welcome.

So please help!
* Consider making a Paypal donation to [email protected]
* Click on a banner and buy something if you find it interesting

Or maybe donate some of your time?
* Become a news hunter
* Help making a movie for our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=psychonautchannel)
* Help promoting our website on other sites/magazines etc
* Translate this or other important message in your own language
* Put a link on your website, blog, myspace to Psychonaut
* Design a beautiful Psychonaut banner
* If you have PHP or other technical skills -> help us with the creation of a new better bug-free website...
* Help to find new advertisers
* Any other ideas you can come up with!

Thanks!
Psychonaut.com

Français: http://www.psychonaut.com/post-32959.html
Português: http://www.psychonaut.com/post-32971.html

 

[redhawk]

what (extra) annual amount is needed to keep the forum running, if I may ask?

It might also help, if making profit is not a priority to give insight in the costs. I would be disappointed if (regular visiting) forum members are not willing to contribute.

 

[skoeip]

just put a couple of bucks in your pocket, and in time I will donate some more

 

[JustinNed]

All I can say is these forums cost quite a bit to run. I also imagine any donation no matter how small helps.

 

[Administrator]

Yes you're right, we should be more open about the financials. But it doesn't look good:

Expenses 2008
Server 4200
Employee costs 4500
------------ +
Total 8700 EUR

Income 2008
Banners 598
Affiliate 198
------------ +
Total 796 EUR

Server costs includes dedicated hosting and a 24 watch service. Employee costs consists of fixing technical problems, finding advertisers, reply to email, moderating etc.

Of course we are willing to pay to the community as well, because it is our hobby project and because we think it's important that such a community exists but the difference between and outcome is a little bit to high at the moment... But we have good hope!

 

[JustinNed]

Went ahead and made a small donation, I think we should set up a goal (maybe 5,000E or something) and than have a status bar until we get there like I see Erowid do when they are raising money.

 

[Arcticpheonix]

Dropped a bit in as well.

Would be nice to see some of the more active members contribute here. Remember, if you can spend $200+ on RC's from some site, you can drop $20 into the forums that let you talk about it.

 

[Forkbender]

Good to see so many people donating already!!

 

[redhawk]

Just made a donation!

As probably not everyone has a creditcard, I’m wondering if there are other ways to donate. For Dutchies, maybe iDEAL would be an option?

...have a status bar...

Or at least, keep us updated.

 

[Twilight]

You don't need a creditcard to donate with Paypal.

And damn, how come it costs such a lot of money?
Is that for one year? It really is a lot.
Or are there other spendings as well? :?

 

[redhawk]

You don't need a creditcard to donate with Paypal.

 

[Twilight]

I'd like to help with making a vid for the psychonautchannel!
But that can be discussed later I guess.

 

[GOD]

I cant aford to give cash , but if i can help at all i will .

 

[skoeip]

Nice bar at the front page!

 

[Administrator]

Nice bar at the front page!

at your service 8)

And damn, how come it costs such a lot of money?
Is that for one year? It really is a lot. Or are there other spendings as well? :?

Yes those are the numbers for 2008. Psychonaut has it's own server, at the moment there are almost 6000 unique visitors a day and 75000 pageviews. This requires a lot of resources, and unfortunatelly the Joomla/phpBB configuration we currently use it not very efficient. Besides there are a lot of costs for employees finding advertisers, answering email, reviewing posts, administration, technical problems etc.

The expenses should and could be lower with more volunteers and beter software. We already found some new people, so we're moving in the right direction.

 

[Forkbender]

Maybe translate this post and put it in the French section? I´m sure Tiax or Psychoid can help!

 

[Twilight]

Yes those are the numbers for 2008. Psychonaut has it's own server, at the moment there are almost 6000 unique visitors a day and 75000 pageviews. This requires a lot of resources, and unfortunatelly the Joomla/phpBB configuration we currently use it not very efficient. Besides there are a lot of costs for employees finding advertisers, answering email, reviewing posts, administration, technical problems etc.

The expenses should and could be lower with more volunteers and beter software. We already found some new people, so we're moving in the right direction.

What's wrong with webspace providers like hosting2go? I got my own website there and it's fine. Very cheap and you get a lot of webspace and traffic.
But maybe it can't support the visitor count of this size, who knows.
I'm just thinking out loud hehe.
I'm really surprised about the costs.

 

[Forkbender]

What's wrong with webspace providers like hosting2go?

:lol:

 

[Administrator]

I'd like to help with making a vid for the psychonautchannel!
But that can be discussed later I guess.

That would be nice, the last video is from 8 months ago... So if you have any inspiration please email your idea to [email protected].

 

[mysticwarrior]

Yes those are the numbers for 2008. Psychonaut has it's own server, at the moment there are almost 6000 unique visitors a day and 75000 pageviews. This requires a lot of resources, and unfortunatelly the Joomla/phpBB configuration we currently use it not very efficient. Besides there are a lot of costs for employees finding advertisers, answering email, reviewing posts, administration, technical problems etc.

The expenses should and could be lower with more volunteers and beter software. We already found some new people, so we're moving in the right direction.

What's wrong with webspace providers like hosting2go? I got my own website there and it's fine. Very cheap and you get a lot of webspace and traffic.
But maybe it can't support the visitor count of this size, who knows.
I'm just thinking out loud hehe.
I'm really surprised about the costs.

I also was a little surprised, tough i heard already that a lot people did visit the forums. But 6000 UNIQUE visitors and 7500 page visits says a lot about the costs. I am also surprised to hear, that only a handful of people post on the forums. I was thinking about, what the reason could be.