Membership Site

[petercom]

Would forum members be interested in a membership site where they could read the HFW DIY articles?

There would be a small annual charge (much less than the HFW cost of course) and you would get access to all the current articles and past articles in the DIY section and supplements.

Please vote to give us an idea of the popularity of such a site.

[alnewall]

Nice idea, but before i vote, would it have a detrimental effect on HFW sales?
Or have i missed something?

[petercom]

I am duty bound not to release the articles in the month of issue, and of course you would miss out on all the other reviews and stuff if you didn't buy it.

It would be more like a resource centre for all current (excluding the month of publication) articles, circuits and so on.

I know we talked at one time of putting these on CD, which we still plan to do, but this would be an easier way for us to archive, and for members to download, all the past articles.

[Andrew]

Hi Peter,

If you're already a HFW subscriber, what's the advantage? Do you plan on more value added content? Perhaps, some reviews etc or a schematics database (copyright issues, of course taken into consideration)?

Sure I would like these articles in a more convenient format, rather than carrying around the mag etc, and I'd like to support your venture but it doesn't make sense to pay for something twice, even if it is in a download-able format.

cheers,

-- Andrew

[petercom]

I haven't thought through how much added content we could bring, yet, but you would have access to the whole set of HFW DIY articles, construction notes and diagrams going back to the year dot.

I can see that we're frightening people off with the concept of a small monthly charge, so it is looking more likely that we would do a small annual charge.

The benefit over a CDROM is that you wouldn't have to get updates - the archive would be constantly updated with the latest articles etc.

[lt_texan]

oh come on, just buy the mag. It's worth it!

[Shane]

Originally Posted by lt_texan

oh come on, just buy the mag. It's worth it!

True, but how much would it cost to buy all those DIY supplements back to 1990 or whenever it was?

[vitalstates]

Hi peter

Just a couple of points

There doesn't appear to be a vote for ' no I dont like the idea'

and

forgive me if I've missed this but..other mags that have a web presence have an archive section which contains such items. I vaguely remember being told (a long time ago)by somebody at HFW that DIY supp items would appear on the HFW site some months after publication, to avoid any costing issues.

Surely the onus is on the mag(having bought the pub rights) to make historic stuff available.

as an example : http://www.soundonsound.com/articles


Regards

Ed

[Ianm2]

I am not sure, Ed., its always been traditional that mags produce back issues, and you have to pay for them, but old issues can be out of date, and don't give the same 'excitemen't as a new copy

its only with the internet we are expecting things for free.

so I don't think you can expect things for nothing, however, I don't think they should be too dear

Gets my vote

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by lt_texan

oh come on, just buy the mag. It's worth it!

I agree, I do, and yes I think its worth it, but Peter is running a business and I was simply asking what can he hopes to do to attract existing mag subscribers to his site or whether he feels that the mag caters well enough and this is simply for those who don't subscribe.

cheers,

-- Andrew