From Boards.ie:

Some additional suggestions - thanks again @New Home

1. Add an option to pay with PayPal
   »I will add this in with the donation and carrier payments we are looking at next week.
   
2. Sell Boards' themed T-shirts, hoodies, pint glasses and other merchandise.
   »Looking at options here but the margins are pretty low depending on what service you use… so we would have to look at upfront ordering I think to make it worth while. So not out of the question - we might start with tshirts and see how we go but its a question of time v's return at the moment. Perhaps we could look more at setting up a Boards Marketplace where community could look after things like this and give a % to Boards rather than it being done 'in house'.
   
3. Find corporate sponsors and reactivate the "Talk to" pages.
   »This is a non starter. We have tried to maintain and grow … corporates are already managing Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc … we are too niche unfortunatly.
   
4. Do a raffle, similar to the one done to raise funds for health workers during Covid, where the prize was a cottage (corporate sponsors would have to be found for the prize).
   »I think this could be a good thing for paid members and our annual event (more to come on that). So, perhaps something we could look as part of this.
   
5. Sponsored Boards golf tournament
   »Possibly falls into above and again I think these are things that should be community rewards.

Hi all - we will arrange for an open forum for updates to keep everyone up to speed. I was posting in another channel but appreciate that not everyone has access to that and would like to know whats going on. Ill chat with Mike later and we will get that going next week. In the meantime here is my last update and answers to some other questions that were raised (in other thread):

• encourage the help of the community in actually implementing some of the suggestions you get|
  »»»» Very open to this and perhaps here is the best place to do that. I think we do need to be a little careful as the primary route for € generation really needs to be on site as it has most longevity and chance of success. But happy to try anything.
• update the Keep Boards Alive site more regularly
  »»»» Im keeping on top of that now so you should be getting live updates again daily of the totals. I am reporting out the daily € totals and also successful transactions. I am using this reference as otherwise its complicated around members that have paid once and dropped off etc.
• look into the Google indexing issue
  »»»» This is done regularly. For instance we have a number of pages now that aren't being indexed … but its a small number in the greater scheme of things. It's an ongoing effort and I have someone looking at it at again.
• Amazon referral codes
  »»»» We don't get anything from this. We make a small bit of money from skimlinks for referrals … like €100 every 2 months.
• Thread by @BrendanBurgess is on subscribers forum " Archiving Boards"
»»»» We are not there yet.
• I asked Mike about the "Learn More" button….
»»»» I updated that to link here. As above lets look at how information gets pushed out.

If there are any other points I missed let me know.

Update on other items:

1. Ad revenue switch progressing. I should have this completed in the coming days.
2. UI update. Waiting on Vanilla but no change there
3. Overall cash position … I will share after I see impact of ad switch and other conversations finalised.

Some additional info that I did not share in the above:

I have changed the text to say 'Current Subscriptions (Transactions)'. The reason for this is we have a mix of onetime and recurring customers. Transaction count is total payments while customer count is slightly lower. We have a small bit of churn on the monthly's.

• Total Customers:714
• Total Revenue: €28,708
• Recurring Customers: 53 (7.4%)
• One-time Customers: 661 (92.6%)
• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): €617

53 should have come after or with the MRR total.

• Total Customers:714 (this is 714 people paid either once for anuual, half year or monthly)
• Total Revenue: €28,708
• One-time Customers: 661 (92.6%) (Paid once)
• Recurring Customers: 53 (7.4%) (53 people have signed up for monthly or have paid more than once for their sub.) and that contributes to a monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) of €617 (the 53…)

Also… on carrier billing for payments - I have approached all providers and none are interested. Typical reply: We truly appreciate the opportunity and the information shared. However, due to the low expected volumes, regulatory challenges in Ireland around DCB, we regret that we cannot pursue this opportunity further. Talking to Eddie also re Adverts … its going to be removed as far as I know. It costs too much and is not used a whole lot. So I am taking this one off the list unfortunatly unless anyone comes back with something that we can work with.

Guys.. a few pretty off the mark posts to say the least. @dulpit to reply to some of your posts in particular - I have posted from day one the why and the goal. If you have missed all of those updates and hit the reset button … I will do another refresh here and try to clear up some of the statements you have made.

For those who missed: Boards is losing money. It is not and never was a profitable business. I got involved again about 4 years ago to try and keep the lights on - we did that - and kept things going for 4 more years. We moved to Vanilla from vbulletin a move not loved to say the least .. but one that allowed us keep going. The cost to maintain the heavily customised system of old from a dev, scaling, constant hacking etc was unsustainable - well advertised at this stage.

The site was 100% reliant on Google revenue and attempts to go down other routes failed.

Google changed their algorithm twice - once in our favor and our ad revenue went up. The next one - March of this year reversed that + tax. Our organic / search traffic plummeted due to this, ai search and more reasons again which I have commented on many times. So here we are.

The objective rolling out subscriptions for no ads was to see if our ad revenue (running at 1/3 of what it was) combined with subs could help us keep Boards going. Along side that I have been working on several other initiatives again all posted several times which are still in discussion.

Until they are bottomed out and I have a full view of where we stand I am not 'calling it a day' or anything else. My objective is to keep the site alive. That seems to erk some people and it goes back to me filling my pockets with cash and running off to spend my millions - again if history has not told you that is not the case, never has been and continues not to be… let me be clear again - I dont profit from Boards. The 'owners' do not profit from Boards. There are no millions. Everything gets invested back in.

To your messages:

1. Clearly there is no implied suggestion that if we raise 99k not 100k we turn off the lights. Come on… really?

2. I have both answered questions and openly stated what we are trying to do (keep the lights on), whats going on in the background (as above programatic ad change, partnerships, new UI, deal going forward etc etc etc) and much more. I am not sure what you want here. I have gone down to the level of sharing the subs breakdown, churn etc. I have said that when I get visibility on what those things bring to the table - and ahead of any final decision - I would share our realistic position and the plan going forward. That has not changed.

3. Your assumption is that the target in mind is not 100k. I am not sure what that even means but clearly nothing positive. I have stated many times - We are trying to reach a number that makes the business sustainable on its own without having to rely on declining ad revenues. If that means we get to a point where there is enough for another year … what is the problem with that? A lot happens in a year. Here we are nearly 4 years after the last Hail Mary to keep the site going…. another year is a good thing.

4. You then go on to suggest a more (?) cynical view .. that the 'owner' is doing this to pay off other debts or whatever - again.. really??? You might have missed in a previous post where I said that the money raised for subscribers who have with great thanks and appreciation paid to go ad free and help keep the community alive is sitting in our stripe account where it will stay until we are going to deploy it. Our members who have chosen to help are both giving something and getting something back - and just to be very clear to avoid assumptions on this … it is not clearing debts as you suggest. But a massive thanks again to everyone that has helped so far.

Across many posts I have stated what we are trying to achieve here - from day one the message was clear. No hiding anything or 'the real answer' etc. That is just bonkers stuff at this stage.

So, we push forward. We wont hit 100k within the target window - thats pretty clear. But we might over a longer period and that might be manageable. But I don't have that answer yet.

We started on June 9th and are at a gross volume of €30,400 from no ad paid subs. Our paypal account sits at €3,463.08. Unfortunatly the taxman needs to be paid as our numbers are inclusive of VAT but all of this helps. So, was €100k in the timeframe ever really acheivable - probably not. But we stand at about 37% of target today. So lets see where we end up.

Thanks. Ill update on the other items when I have movement on them.