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We need to make some money - comments please


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We have over 16,000 registered users. In a couple of weeks it will be 20,000.

People seem to be getting their money back and even having quite a lot of fun doing it too.

 

Morale seems generally to be high and we seem somehow to have developed a good community spirit.

However as everyone is aware, the forum is funded from personal funds. You probably gather that Dave and I are in the same boat as most of the people on the forum which means that we don't have a lot of money and we have been hit by bank charges when we have gone wrong.

 

Some people have been very kind with Amazon Gift certificate donation and whether you realise it or not, the books which we bought on civil procedure and Data Protection have provided the basis for answers to questions here which people seem to be finding very helpful.

 

However, we need to make enough money to fund the site.

 

We have decided to join some affiliate programs which means that if people decide to buy those products and they go there from this site then we get a commission on the sale.

 

 

Our first loyalty remains to our campaign and to the Users of this forum.

 

 

But the group has grown at a phenomenal rate and that means that in order to handle the volume of traffic which comes through and to give everyone as much chance as possible of getting their money back and maybe even their defaults removed, we need to try and improve the support we can give.

This means salaries and part-time or even full-time paid staff.

The amount of administrative work which has become necessary to run the site and the needs of existing and new Users is starting to take up too much time which means that there is less time to respond to the needs of Users in their claims and also in the business of trying to run an overall campaign.

 

We have no idea what kind of revenue can be generated but we will be very conservative about who and what we recommend.

 

Most importantly, we will be brutally honest about the products and we will set up a speciual forum where products can be reviewed, praised or criticised.

 

There is no product loyalty here.

 

Product manufacturers and developers whose products are sold through this forum can be proud that we are prepared to carry their links because we will always side with our Users whenever we can.

 

We hope that the manufacturers of products will visit this site and see what is being said about their product and even take part in the discussions.

 

We are also likely to post a donate button. This is an idea which has been suggested by many Users so we figured that we would give it a try.

 

The first affiliate links and recommendations would be likely to go out with the first edition of the Newsletter

 

What do people think?

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Guest Lueeze

It sounds like a plan!

 

You have to recoup your costs somewhere, as this forum overnight has doubled!

 

I think you will get more money through donations personally, but the affiliate is a good idea as long as users are happy too!

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I have always believed in affiliate listings - but to work they have to be vigorously promoted, and clearly they have to be relevant. Even a link to Amazon could generate some reasonable revenue if everyone here undertook to ONLY use Amazon, and then through the affiliate links...

 

Also believe that a donate button is great - I would love to donate £5/10 now, and once I have got my money back I would be in a position to make a larger donation. I also feel that the facility for people to 'pay directly' needs to be finalised - once people get their money back I don't think there is any shame in BAG requesting voluntary contributions of 1/2/5% of 'winnings'

 

I am sure 90% of people here would agree that a small percentage, to help future claimants, is a small price to ask.

 

In a nutshell, ask, ask, and ask again - just don't become a commercial entity...

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Alecto, Magaera et Tisiphone: Nemesis on Earth is come.

 

All advice and opinions given by Spiceskull are personal, and are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

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If we do become a commercial entity, then if you make a c*ck up, we'll have to charge you for it, say £35 a time?

 

;-)

If you feel that we have helped you, or you would like to help keep this web site running so that others can continue to get their money back, please click the donate button at the top of the forum.

Advice & opinions of Dave, The Bank Action Group and The Consumer Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability.

Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.

 

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Add me as your friend on FaceBook - I need all the friends I can get :-(

 

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=577405151

 

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I'm a big fan of donations, as was suggested on the previous thread.

 

Having read comments on a recent thread (now linked here) I believe that any attempt to instigate a set fee, especially at sign up stage, would do more harm than good.

 

People often feel as though they might be entering into a con when they are asked to pay for something that they can not be sure will help them. Only by coming onto the site, reading the material and the threads will people really be able to judge it's value.

 

I also think that asking for a set percentage of winnings would be wrong too. You would have to get people to agree to this at sign up, and this brings into play the same problem as before. Also, how would we make people pay up at the end?

 

Within a couple of days of joining the site, I was sure that I would be donating something in the way of book tokens (now gone) once I had my refund. Having understood the potential costs of running things, that position soon changed to "as soon as possible". Thankfully I've found a way of helping financially sooner rather than later, but it won't stop me giving more when the Halifax pay me back!

 

I'm not against forms of advertising, and without knowing what revenue it may potentially supply, can't comment on it's overall worth, but my suggestion would be a donate button now, wait and see how much that produces, and then move to other avenues if it did not pay the way.

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Opinions given herein are made informally by myself as a lay-person in good faith based on personal experience. For legal advice, you must always consult a registered and insured lawyer.

 

 

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icon1.gif Re: Please don't shoot me down its only a suggestion

This is the comment I made elsewhere tonight before I saw that one of the Mods had provided a link to this thread. (think our postings crossed.) .....

 

Maybe I have some unrequited hippy aspirations but I much prefer the idea of this being a co-operative type affair.

 

If we start going with subscription fees and/or commercialisation where does it end? Collecting money could be time consuming and costly - would users incur charges for late/bounced payments (which I reckon there'd be a lot of given most of us are barely what you could call solvent!)

 

Ridiculous I know but you see my point.

 

These wonderful guys need reimbursing for their time and outlay but surely we are generous enough of spirit to make a pledge of a donation and stick to it.

 

Could even take it further and offer services in return. One good turn deserves another. Mechanics, builders, joiners etc etc might have something they need?

I could do a spot of ironing, make a nice apple crumble too!

 

Yes, donations is the idea most preferable to me.

 

Maybe we should have a poll?

__________________

CLAIMING OVER £800 CHARGES

DPA REQUEST SENT: 19/4/06 (awaiting file)

PRELIMINARY REQUEST SENT: 21/4/06

STANDARD (NO!!) RESPONSE RECEIVED: 28/01/06

LBA TO BE SENT TUESDAY3 MAY!!!

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Even regular donations. Even as little as say £5.00 per month via a Standing Order or other suitable method.

 

LOL That scares the ... out of me, it reminds me of what it is I am running from and fighting at the same time.

 

no no dont give banks buisness, banish them forever

 

BL

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There is no questions of having subscriptions or percentages of any kind.

 

The suggestion is only that we will join affiliate programmes and have a donate button.

 

 

The Consumer Action group is overall - a free campaign and support group and it will stay that way.

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Yeah i agree , affiliates and a donate button.......paypal or nochex....i for one would be willing to donate.......

 

After all, you have to pay for your time etc and the hosting

IF YOU FEEL I HAVE HELPED YOU IN REPLYING TO YOUR POST, CAN YOU CLICK ON THE SCALES AND LET ME KNOW

 

Halifax - Total £2116 - Plus approx £300 in interest plus fees for 3 small claims...settled all within 3 weeks of claim.....Now for the mortgage.....

Clydesdale Bank - Credit Card - Sent Data Protection Act - Awaiting statements

Clydesdale Bank - Current Account - Awaiting statements

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Affiliates, donate button... yeah whatever I don't care. I was gonna PM and ask for account details to send a donation direct anywayz.

 

Which reminds me; can the sort code, account number and name of the BAG bank account be posted here somewhere such that direct donations are possible without using PayPal etc? Trouble is, a lot of people can't get PayPal, or don't trust it, or just plain don't know about it. However, anyone can use their bank's internet site or telephone their bank with an instruction to pay "sort code" "account details" with "amount"... and sort/account/name confers no other access to the account than to pay in.

 

Cheers!

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We are in the middle of getting a bank account at the moment.

 

 

That is the only thing which needs to be done to enroll on the affiliate programmes.

 

We expect to put it all up in about 10 days.

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Some time ago my computer became infected with various viruses and spyware

which was slowing my computer no end. I found a website called techguy that

had a number of experts who gave free advice on how to rid oneself of bugs etc

without having to pay for programs that may or may not clear up the problems.

Although not mandatory, they did ask if they had cleaned our computers that we made a donation to them-not much $20 or so. Something along those lines when we get our charges back might help in this instance?

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Hello everyone

 

Deadline is approaching and i am more than happy to make a donation.

 

Was going to anyway,wouldnt be here without all of you.

DPA Letter sent 28 Feb

  • Statements Received 24 Mar
  • Prelim sent 24 Mar
  • LBA sent 12 Apr
  • MCOL 26 Apr
  • Acknowledged 3 May
  • Coming soon:

£2810 inc int. Halifax. Done and Dusted 16/05/06

Dont forget to donate

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There is no questions of having subscriptions or percentages of any kind.

 

The suggestion is only that we will join affiliate programmes and have a donate button.

 

 

The Consumer Action group is overall - a free campaign and support group and it will stay that way.

 

many sites have a donate button and linked to paypal, this is a cracking idea and better than the booktokens, i would rather re-imburse the guys than buy book tokens, the lads are doing a phenominal job, paypal does incur nominal charges for the reciever but thats not too bad, a lot of people use ebay and paypal so that may be easier than the tokens for them, paypal have an affiliates prog, use it and watch this site grow.

i have done a couple of fake auctions linking this site for publicity and they got more ppl viewing than any of my auctions ever, one was 900+ viewed, paypal is the best bet, all you need is an email address, we trust you fodder to use the money wisely and dont mind if you use it to recover the costs of this site

TOTALLY debt free as of 2007, Fantastic,

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Could even take it further and offer services in return. One good turn deserves another. Mechanics, builders, joiners etc etc might have something they need?

I could do a spot of ironing, make a nice apple crumble too!

That is a great idea - how about a separate forum, whereby anyone from the boards is able to start their own sticky, and use it as a personal advertising space (subject to rules, regs and moderation) - I for one would be happy to advertise what I do (although getting the boss to pay is another matter...) I would make my own personal contributions as I passionately believe in what I do...

 

I think the charging could be done in a similar way to post office postcards - say £2.50 a week or someting like that...

Alecto, Magaera et Tisiphone: Nemesis on Earth is come.

 

All advice and opinions given by Spiceskull are personal, and are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

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When we get a bank account then we will get a Paypal account as well which will funnel directly into that account.

I don't think that we would want to publish or supply our bank account details directly.

Apart from coming under the scrutiny of the banks, we are already under a sustained hack attack from at least one peson who has been trying very hard over the last 3 days to break in to the software (Dave can explain better than me).

I think that we would have to be careful about our bank details

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i would rather re-imburse the guys than buy book tokens

Fair enough, but you must remember that the book tokens enabled us to buy books so that we could share that knowledge here, like the DPA rules (thanks BF), the Civil Procedure Rules etc...

 

However, generally, we have quite a few books that we needed now - it's the ever growing hosting costs, google ad hits etc... that need paying for now.

 

As someone else said in this forum - it would be a shame if it had to close down due to it's success. Sounds odd that, but I know what it means now ;-)

If you feel that we have helped you, or you would like to help keep this web site running so that others can continue to get their money back, please click the donate button at the top of the forum.

Advice & opinions of Dave, The Bank Action Group and The Consumer Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability.

Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.

 

------------

 

 

Add me as your friend on FaceBook - I need all the friends I can get :-(

 

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=577405151

 

------------

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Fair enough, but you must remember that the book tokens enabled us to buy books so that we could share that knowledge here, like the DPA rules (thanks BF), the Civil Procedure Rules etc...

 

However, generally, we have quite a few books that we needed now - it's the ever growing hosting costs, google ad hits etc... that need paying for now.

 

As someone else said in this forum - it would be a shame if it had to close down due to it's success. Sounds odd that, but I know what it means now ;-)

Any update on when we will be able to 'pay directly' - I think BF mentioned 3 weeks a few days ago...

Alecto, Magaera et Tisiphone: Nemesis on Earth is come.

 

All advice and opinions given by Spiceskull are personal, and are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

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