[Theforum] funding options

[isaac]

IMO, the key to maintaining evolt.org's services lies with Ron's suggestion
of an affiliate hosting program.

He's looking at starting one up, and we should look for other partnerships
(perhaps one per continent).

Here's how it'd work: if you host a site with one of the affiliates, they
kick back a commission (probably 10%) to evolt.org.

And some sample figures. Say we have even 200 members who think that Ron's
offer of hosting at $7.50 a year is good. And they have an average of 5
small clients who could benefit from that. 200 members x 5 clients x $7.50/m
x 10% commission = USD$750/month. And that's a good portion of our service
costs covered. (Those, IMHO, are low estimations too. That's assuming
everyone's using the cheapest offering, that only 200 members need to host
clients, etc.)

And the advantages: it's very regular money. Coming in every month. It's not
like a one-off mousepad sale -- that would be icing. It doesn't cost our
members money (unless they're hosting their portfolios, etc). It's an
evolt.org tax of sorts on clients. Why would the clients complain? evolt.org
saves *them* money by providing just-in-time learning opportunities for
their developers!

Each member could choose to receive that 10% back personally, but it's a
$1-2/month or something not-even-worth-considering. But when combined, and
coming in regularly, it adds up. Dealing with a monthly kickback from 5
affiliates is easier than dealing with 200-500 donations from individual
members.


So, what would we have to look out for? Ensuring the quality of every host;
speaking to the affiliates personally if we receive any service-related
complaints from members, etc.


Thoughts?


isaac

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