Introducing Premium, Lifetime and Vendor Memberships!

[Mr. K]

Hello folks,

Nearly five years ago on September 10th, 2008, myself and Service Department Vic began what is now known as OrangeTractorTalks.com. During this period we have (amazingly!) experienced very positive growth to become what I believe is the most popular Kubota community on the internet. Every month more than 50,000 different people visit our site to get the help they need and some of them stop to say hello. This is 1,000 times the number of people who visited that first month.

We've been slow to monetize the site. Advertising was not introduced until a few days before our 2nd birthday. That's a lot of videos, articles and server space without any income coming in. Earlier this year we moved to beefier servers after we outgrew our first home.

Today, we introduce our Premium, Lifetime and Vendor memberships. Yes, these are mechanisms to generate revenue for the site, but, they are actually pretty decent and come with some nice perks, such as:

• member "recognition tags" - others will know that you are a site supporter
• bigger avatar size
• ten times more room to store pictures in your personal image galleries
• ten times more personal message inbox storage
• half as many advertisements
• some OTT decals mailed right to your door, around the world
• our heartfelt thanks for showing the site some love and monetary backing

New members will have the option of selecting a membership when they register. If you are already a member and would like you upgrade you can do so here or click the "GET UPGRADED" banner on the left sidebar or just below.

I want to stress that posting questions, getting help and reading replies is free and will always remain so. Our intention here is not to take away anything that our loyal community has become accustomed to. Instead, we are providing a way for those of you who wish to support the site a way to be recognized and rewarded in return. Either way, you have our sincerest thanks for taking part and helping OTT continue to kick ass and take names.

Go Orange!

Mr. K

PS. This feature is still pretty new. There could very well be bugs or other odd behavior. If something goes wrong let me know: mrk@orangetractortalks.com. Thanks!

 

[Burtonbr]

Ok I'm in.. This site has been very helpful and informative,I like checking in everyday to see what's going on in the orange world. well worth the money if for nothing more than to support so it keeps going strong.

Don't know if I was first or not, but the transaction went well and was simple to complete..

Thanks for the great work and site you've provided to us..

 

[Mr. K]

Awesome! Sounds like the signup process is working as expected. Our sincerest thank you for your support and kind words.

You are right - you are OTT's first Lifetime member! Mind you, you did sign up at 3:30am site-time, so I think you beat some folks to it.

 

[Profnohair]

Ok, I am interested in the Premium Membership. My question is, what if I decide that I do not want to renew it for a second year? How do I cancel the membership? Not that I would expect to cancel but it is a legitimate question that I would think others would like to know the answer to also. After all, I do check the site every single day. And have since I joined the site about two years ago.

Profnohair

 

[DonDC]

Hi Mr. K,
I tried to select Lifetime Membership but nothing happens when I click on "Select. What do I need to do? Don.......

 

[78-79fordman]

What's the prices

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Cheaper than an oil change on you Kubota!
Click on the Get Upgraded and you'll see the prices and options.

Mr. K.
You need a bigger mailbox yourself!

 

[Mr. K]

Profnohair - a few days/weeks before your subscription expires the system will email to remind you to renew. If you do not, it simply lapses without charging your account. That way, if you get busy in the shop for a while and don't check in for a few months we will not bill your account while you are away.

DonDC - hmmm you should be redirected to a page to process your order. You may have undercovered a bug. Do you mind telling me what browser and which version of that browser you are using? When you click "Select" does anything happen to move you to another page or are you just stuck?

78-79fordman - pricing is $15/yr for Premium membership, a $40 one-time payment for Lifetime and for those of you with commercial offerings, $40/month to flog your wares.

 

[Mr. K]

North Idaho Wolfman - you are right! I just upped my limit a bit too.

 

[DonDC]

Mr. K.
I am using Windows XP with Explorer Ver 8. Could be that this is tooooo old a system so will with my laptop with windows 7 and FireFox. Yep that worked. Don.....

 

[Profnohair]

Profnohair - a few days/weeks before your subscription expires the system will email to remind you to renew. If you do not, it simply lapses without charging your account. That way, if you get busy in the shop for a while and don't check in for a few months we will not bill your account while you are away.

You may want to reword the upgrade page in that case because it says that is automatically renewed.

 

[Mr. K]

I'm a liar! Oops! I double-checked and the way that the PayPal system has worked is that it will:

1) email you when the subscription is about to lapse and then
2) automatically bill you for another year

Which is completely the opposite of what I told you. Sorry about that. I thought it worked that way but upon closer inspection, I realized I was wrong and should have done my homework a bit better.

What do you think our Premium members would want here? What's the most user-friendly solution assuming the system only let's you pick from one of the two options below:

Option 1: Automatic hassle-free billing with an email from PayPal sent in advance. Assume here that we would refund and cancel the automatic subscription if one of them went through but they really wanted to cancel instead.

Option 2: 1 year terms which expire and would require manual renewal each year.

Depending on what we decide I can update the wording accordingly. Thanks for bearing with me on this.

 

[Mr. K]

DonDC - I've corrected that issue with IE8, thank you for reporting it. I took for granted that all of the antiquated browsers would have long since moved on by now.

 

[olthumpa]

Option 1: Automatic hassle-free billing with an email from PayPal sent in advance. Assume here that we would refund and cancel the automatic subscription if one of them went through but they really wanted to cancel instead.

Option 2: 1 year terms which expire and would require manual renewal each year.

Depending on what we decide I can update the wording accordingly. Thanks for bearing with me on this.

Option 3: Offer both. It should be an easy fix to offer both if you chose to make that option available.

 

[Profnohair]

Personally, I would prefer to manually renew every year. The reason being, my PayPal account is linked to my checking account. If it so happens that it renews when my funds are depleted, it just cost me another fee which is much higher than the registration fee.

Thankfully I have a good job and paying is not a problem normally, but there are times that the house note is more important than the tractor. I bet my wife would not believe I just said that.

Your site is one of the first things I look at when I sit at the computer. It is a invaluable service to us Kubota owners. Although I started out using a L1500, I now use a G6200H for maintenance.

Thanks
Profnohair

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[stuart]

Ok I got my lifetime membership - I know I will still be around in 3 years, but perhaps you know something I don't.....

This was on the order form

Subscription: Lifetime Membership
Duration: 1000 Years
Cost: US$40.00
I'll have to put this membership specifically in my will for future generations.

Stuart

 

[Mr. K]

olthumpa and Profnohair - you are both right. I've gone ahead and made the renewal option (automatic or manual) user selectable. Best of both worlds! Prof, I've canceled your automatic renewal so everything is just how you want it.

 

[Mr. K]

Stuart, management of your OTT membership is an important component of estate planning. Feel free to have your heirs contact me in 1000 years to extend their access a little longer if they are so inclined.

 

[Kubota_Man]

Ok I got my lifetime membership - I know I will still be around in 3 years, but perhaps you know something I don't.....

This was on the order form

Subscription: Lifetime Membership
Duration: 1000 Years
Cost: US$40.00
I'll have to put this membership specifically in my will for future generations.

Stuart

Sounds great. My Son age 7 has already told me when I die he is gonna get the Kubota. Mite as well will this to him because he will break something and my Orange feathered frends here at OTT can help him get it running again

 

[BAP]

I thought that my LIFTIME MEMBERSHIP was supposed to reduce the ads. Seems like there is as many as before and they all slow down the computer.