A Voluntary Whole Ten Bucks A Month! For Shame!

Today I really have to vent! With all of the new listings which are at 199895 and 5222 users Bonanzle is growing very quickly. With that said, the site needs faster servers and better updated software. We all knew that the wonderful, fun, fresh site was going to grow, I just don't think that anyone could see just how fast it was going to grow. We are still as of this morning ranked 13th place in the PSU listings. Not officially, but according to the number of listings that we have. Anyway, Bonanzle needs these things to keep the site up and running smoothly. No one wants a site that is slow or error messages all of the time. Not good for business. A few days ago there was a thread on the boards of "chipping in and helping out" with donations. Donations are not an opinion with a business. Then came the ideas of Bonanzle coffee mugs, t-shirts,bumper stickers and all sorts of other items. GREAT! Who is going to pay for these items to be made up? They like most things in life are not free! So Bonanzle started a voluntary membership of either a whooping $10 a month or yet another killer of $24 a month. OH NO! Ten bucks a month! You have got to be kidding me! That is an amazing $0.33 cents a day! Would that be more than the cost of a coffee cup or t-shirt? That ten bucks a month is less than the cost of a store somewhere else where your listing are burried under everything else. That ten bucks a month is less than listing 29 items in a month somewhere else and the exposure of none. As stated in the blog by Bill, "Hey all, becoming a member does not change your positioning in the search results. I had tried to make this clear in the membership description, when I wrote “Note that we do not adjust the main body of search results for Premier Members. That would make search less relevant." The only perk I really see out of becoming a member is that I will have contributed to a great site and helped to keep it running! I do admit having the Google analytics, to see where my efforts pay off and where I am wasting my time is great, I would have become a "member" without it! It is just so funny to see all of these wonderful ideas a few days ago, people talking about what they are going to do and make and all of these ideas and then start cussing and fussing over ten bucks a month, that is completely voluntary ten bucks a month! I guess what really bothers me is when the site was having an issue the weekend before last, all of the anger and talk on the boards about it and to fix it for ten bucks a month is just unheard of! What gives? We are talking about a voluntary ten bucks! Less than the cost of setting up at a flee market one day of the week! And the talk about not wanting their little freakin green star next to their name, no they want their big coffee mug instead for $20! It takes money to run a site NOT talk!

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/BrightestBlessings