Last night Patti and I revealed our secret plan to destroy the planet by raising the subscription rates at Youth Ministry Exchange from $5 per year to $12 per year.
The vast majority of our users will be fine with the increase… after all, $1/month is pretty cheap for something a typical user will use every day. (We’re even offering a special for current members to make it more affordable.) But then there are (will be) those who just disagree on more fundamental terms.
Community is free, why should I pay to be on a forum?
Is community free? Is your church providing community for free? Is your public library? Is your community where you live free? When you share community with friends, does it cost the host to have a house or get snacks? The reality is that running YMX isn’t any more free than any other community in the world. Running the site to the standards our subscribers expect is expensive. Offering a stable online community isn’t free. It costs hours of labor, professional designers and developers help, top-notch web hosting, and loads of other costs. None of which is free.
Everything on the internet should be free, why isn’t YMX?
I call this the "google-ization" of the internet. Next time you are enjoying something free at one of google’s sites (I’m a huge Google fan for this reason!) ask yourself, "Why is google’s stock over $550 per share?" Google spends billions of dollars to provide stuff on the internet for free and makes huge profits. We don’t have the advertising engine that Google has at YMX to offset business expenses. YMX users are notoriously cheap. They don’t click on income producing ads, they won’t use the site’s store to make purchases, but yet the site should be free? Smelling salt time!
I thought YMX was a ministry, how can you act like a business and ask people to pay?
That’s where there is some legitimate misunderstanding. YMX has always been a business. We are an LLC and not a charity meaning that all income is taxable to us and that we don’t accept donations. People put up capital to launch the business and continue to invest in the business. Why are they doing that? At the very least they would like their capital back… but the assumption in investing in a company is that you will yield a return on that investment. It is a ministry… but it is also a business. This is similar to Youth Specialties, Group, and Simply Youth Ministry. They are all for-profit ministries.
Aren’t you just trying to get rich?
Check out my new car! Actually, I just bought Kristen a new gold rake for all the money that is rolling in. She just couldn’t get it into our mailbox fast enough. In reality, we’re just happy to see the site break even. Last year we took a pretty good hit. A couple things strike me about YMX in comparison to other online communities in "ministry world." We have no offices and no full time staff! When you compare what we are able to do with no full time staff and no offices you realize that YMX is a movement of God and not some brilliant marketing plan to get rich. We simply said "yes" to God at the right moment and He has done the rest.
Here’s my take on it, this will end my rant about this
You get what you pay for in life. I can tell the difference between a Bible Study I pull off of Pastor2Youth.com and one I buy from Group Publishers. In the same regard, I hope that those who come to YMX will say the same thing in comparing to us having a "free forum" on one of the many link farm sites out there. YMX is a stable and growing community firmly comfortable with it’s goal to encourage youth workers.
Patti and I aren’t in this to get rich.
(Anyone who has met us would know that) If we were, the site would be set up completely differently… we do know how to run a company, you know? Patti and I are doing everything we can to increase other streams of revenue for the company to not have to pass along all of the expenses to subscribers. (Advertising, web hosting, taking the site to NYWC, launching new sites and partnerships under development)
But Patti and I aren’t in this to lose money either. We’ve invested too much to be in it to lose money.
Stepping off my ranting box.
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