The Future of Nappycino - Important Reading for ALL Members

[Admin]

For over two years now, Nappycino has been struggling through each month on member donations and paid advertising, meeting the immediate expenses of running the website, often falling short of our financial needs which have caused a strain on my own budget. During the last two years I have given more and more of myself each month to Nappycino to the point where I now spend up to 12 hours a day online, often staying up into the middle of the night.

When working fulltime last year, I gave every spare hour to this site, along with a lot of my working hours, but I was still employed, still earning a wage, and it was just what I was happy with doing. Since moving and finishing work, I have taken on more and more work and the time I was going to put into sewing and reestablishing myself as a WAHP has instead gone into new projects and the future development of Nappycino.

So for Nappycino to remain and the new projects to continue, Nappycino has to change its outlook and focus. Following a long period of soul searching and in-depth discussion with our Admins & Moderators, I have decided that it is time for Nappycino to become a registered business. This will mean lots of changes, some of which are already underway. And whilst there will be some who are opposed to the changes, I honestly believe that the majority of our members will be supportive.

My primary goals at this point are to help Nappycino to grow, to make cloth more accessible for every member and to help Cloth Nappy businesses to flourish. To do this Nappycino will move away from donation based income and generate its own income through Buyena Auction Fees, Nappycino Advertising & Nappycino Membership Subscriptions.

Auction Fees

The new Auction Fee structure has already been published and will be implemented when we change over to a new domain in the next week. Our fees are still very low and competitive and have been received well by Buyena members.

Advertising on Nappycino

Nappycino currently provides a very low priced advertising service and this will cease and pricing will come inline with other websites such as Natural Parenting. Developing the pricing structure is something I have struggled with since making this decision. And I am sure that will be reflected in the pricing when you see it. I have tried to accommodate every WAHP budget to ensure new businesses are not left out of the race. With this in mind, Advertising has become tiered to suit the WAHP budgets.

Subscription Areas on the Forums

For Nappycino's members, in the near future they will be able to pay subscriptions to restricted areas and increased features. These will include increased signature size, increased message storage, larger avatars, galleries, custom titles & more. Members’ current signatures, PM storage, etc. will not change and members will not be obligated to take on paid membership in order to participate in the general forums. By subscribing to membership packages, you will be helping to support Nappycino as we grow to support the community.

I anticipate our new advertising structure will be released within the week and we will reopen for advertising. Hopefully we will keep our heads above water during the change over and adjustment period. If you see me sewing you know it’s not going well LOL. There are a few plans going on the back burners, including the Nappy Library, which will still be open to new and second hand donations, as until we are financially able, we won’t be able to purchase products for the library, which I am sure you can all understand.

I would like to also take this opportunity to extend a heart felt thank you to our Admin’s Eilleen & Bronnie, and all of our Moderators, whose support through this decision has been overwhelming. No one knows more than these people how much I put into Nappycino, so having their support means everything to me. All of our Moderators & Admin staff are unpaid volunteers, and the amount of crap they put up with and the amount of stress they handle is nothing short of amazing. Without these Ladies there simply wouldn’t be a Nappycino, now or in the future.

Please feel free to post any questions and I will try to answer them all. Thanks for your continued support.

[Tina]

Sounds awesome Jo
I'll definitely subscribe

Oh, and yep, a big thankyou to YOU and all the mods.
You guys do a great job
Call out if you ever need any help. I'm on here alot anyway LOL

-Tina

[mummygeorgie]

Can I ask, if NC is going to be a business, will the aim be eventual profit-making? Or merely covering costs with any extra going to ... whatever (stuff to support the cloth community, I guess)? Is that a really tactless question? Heh.

[alineanne]

soudns aweseom jo. very positive
thanks to all for your dedication & hard work.
i think nanppycino is such a lovely community

[Hayfever]

Jo

Sounds good - why shouldn't it be turned into a registered business. You deserve to be paid especially for your time away from your family. Isn't that why you were sewing from home in the first place.

I wouldn't be put off paying membership fees.

Keep up the great work.

[Knitting Jo]

Hi Jo,
I haven't been a member for long, but in the short period it has been such a great blessing to have! The advice on nappies is top notch and not only that but the support from all the other mum's brilliant. Keep up the good work! I don't mind buying a membership in the slightest!

[Admin]

Can I ask, if NC is going to be a business, will the aim be eventual profit-making?

Yep, as with any WAHP business, or any business at all for that fact, long term profitability is always the aim. At the moment our aim is to cover costs and grow, expanding our products and services, so that we can be profitable in the long term.

[Elliemadcase]

Sounds great to me!
I'm more than happy to help out by paying a subscription.

[bamboogal]

I'm all for it Jo. I know what kind of work goes into a forum and this is a really large and busy forum.

[johT]

Thanks for all your hard work Jo, I know i take it for granted sometimes, i just love this place so much and would miss it if it wasn't here! It will be great when you finally get something back for all the time and hard work you put in, not to mention covering all the costs at your own expense for so long. I can't believe how much nappycino has grown,it is great for cloth advocacy and you deserve for it to be self-suficient in costs
You know you have my support and help when you need it