Is Heybucket shooting themselves in the foot

[Schmick]

I would allow people to read the announcements page for free but require a paid membership to post in the announcements section.

Most people I know, including me, didn t even register here and came to find out about tryouts for years.
Between sponsors and the teams paying to post their announcements the board should make enough stay in the black. Forcing people, many new to travel ball, to pay to even see where tryouts are and who is holding them may cost the board the majority of its traffic.

Once my girls finished college i took some time off away from softball sort of dropped the ball you could say. The majority of those sponsor logos don’t pay. Some are friends and some just don’t pay. Some companies I just swap logos with, mine goes on there site there logo goes on my site. I have deleted about 10 who haven’t paid in years this past week, some were paying a little bit of money. At one point I was working all day and then working every night on heybucket? I didn’t mind working for free for years I was just doing it because I love the sport. The bigger HB got the more expensive it was to run. Biggest site in the country by far. So to help pay the bills a dollar a month seemed very reasonable. Maybe not

I understand and appreciate the amount of work that goes to running message boards, I ran a couple myself. I also don't mind paying the buck a month to have access to the announcement forums. But I first started looking at the announcement forums for tryouts 5 years ago and didnt register or post here til years later.

All over Southern California everything from ASA rookie parents to seasoned travel ball parents will browse the tryout forums looking to see who needs what or what local tryouts they can take their kids to to see how they stack up.

I know that it's not fair that your message board has become the bulletin board for Southern California travel softball tryouts but perhaps that can be used to your advantage. Your message board software should be ablen to track how many guests and registered viewers look at those forums every day. You can use those numbers to show how valuable your board is at getting eyeballs on announcements and sponsor logos. You could even make it so guests or non paying registered users have to see more ads when they view the announcement forums and charge more than a dollar a month for users who want to be able to post announcements in the announcement forums.
Just spit balling
Of course, if you don't want to be the bulletin board for So Cal Travel softball any longer, none of this really matters. Maybe it's time for So Cal softball to have a CCYB type forum the way So Cal baseball has where all the prospective families can find out about tryouts

[NumeroUno]

I would allow people to read the announcements page for free but require a paid membership to post in the announcements section.

Most people I know, including me, didn t even register here and came to find out about tryouts for years.
Between sponsors and the teams paying to post their announcements the board should make enough stay in the black. Forcing people, many new to travel ball, to pay to even see where tryouts are and who is holding them may cost the board the majority of its traffic.

Once my girls finished college i took some time off away from softball sort of dropped the ball you could say. The majority of those sponsor logos don’t pay. Some are friends and some just don’t pay. Some companies I just swap logos with, mine goes on there site there logo goes on my site. I have deleted about 10 who haven’t paid in years this past week, some were paying a little bit of money. At one point I was working all day and then working every night on heybucket? I didn’t mind working for free for years I was just doing it because I love the sport. The bigger HB got the more expensive it was to run. Biggest site in the country by far. So to help pay the bills a dollar a month seemed very reasonable. Maybe not

I understand and appreciate the amount of work that goes to running message boards, I ran a couple myself. I also don't mind paying the buck a month to have access to the announcement forums. But I first started looking at the announcement forums for tryouts 5 years ago and didnt register or post here til years later.

All over Southern California everything from ASA rookie parents to seasoned travel ball parents will browse the tryout forums looking to see who needs what or what local tryouts they can take their kids to to see how they stack up.

I know that it's not fair that your message board has become the bulletin board for Southern California travel softball tryouts but perhaps that can be used to your advantage. Your message board software should be ablen to track how many guests and registered viewers look at those forums every day. You can use those numbers to show how valuable your board is at getting eyeballs on announcements and sponsor logos. You could even make it so guests or non paying registered users have to see more ads when they view the announcement forums and charge more than a dollar a month for users who want to be able to post announcements in the announcement forums.
Just spit balling
Of course, if you don't want to be the bulletin board for So Cal Travel softball any longer, none of this really matters. Maybe it's time for So Cal softball to have a CCYB type forum the way So Cal baseball has where all the prospective families can find out about tryouts

I know exactly where are the traffic is on heybucket, the fastpitch boards have far more traffic then the Announcement forums. The Fastpitch boards are free. I do not care that people just use the site to look for teams, tourneys, friendlies ect. That's what we are here for. I also do not want people to be smeared with advertisement. I charge a small amount a year for the announcements.

I have been asked many times to start a baseball forum from people who love heybucket and say that baseball has nothing like it. I have a forum ready to go but I don't have the connections for baseball to run a successful site. YET
I just don't understand why the $12 a year is a problem, I have received very good feed back. I guess like anything else in life there is more then one way to do something.

[crankshaft]

I would allow people to read the announcements page for free but require a paid membership to post in the announcements section.

Most people I know, including me, didn t even register here and came to find out about tryouts for years.
Between sponsors and the teams paying to post their announcements the board should make enough stay in the black. Forcing people, many new to travel ball, to pay to even see where tryouts are and who is holding them may cost the board the majority of its traffic.

Once my girls finished college i took some time off away from softball sort of dropped the ball you could say. The majority of those sponsor logos don’t pay. Some are friends and some just don’t pay. Some companies I just swap logos with, mine goes on there site there logo goes on my site. I have deleted about 10 who haven’t paid in years this past week, some were paying a little bit of money. At one point I was working all day and then working every night on heybucket? I didn’t mind working for free for years I was just doing it because I love the sport. The bigger HB got the more expensive it was to run. Biggest site in the country by far. So to help pay the bills a dollar a month seemed very reasonable. Maybe not

I understand and appreciate the amount of work that goes to running message boards, I ran a couple myself. I also don't mind paying the buck a month to have access to the announcement forums. But I first started looking at the announcement forums for tryouts 5 years ago and didnt register or post here til years later.

All over Southern California everything from ASA rookie parents to seasoned travel ball parents will browse the tryout forums looking to see who needs what or what local tryouts they can take their kids to to see how they stack up.

I know that it's not fair that your message board has become the bulletin board for Southern California travel softball tryouts but perhaps that can be used to your advantage. Your message board software should be ablen to track how many guests and registered viewers look at those forums every day. You can use those numbers to show how valuable your board is at getting eyeballs on announcements and sponsor logos. You could even make it so guests or non paying registered users have to see more ads when they view the announcement forums and charge more than a dollar a month for users who want to be able to post announcements in the announcement forums.
Just spit balling
Of course, if you don't want to be the bulletin board for So Cal Travel softball any longer, none of this really matters. Maybe it's time for So Cal softball to have a CCYB type forum the way So Cal baseball has where all the prospective families can find out about tryouts

I know exactly where are the traffic is on heybucket, the fastpitch boards have far more traffic then the Announcement forums. The Fastpitch boards are free. I do not care that people just use the site to look for teams, tourneys, friendlies ect. That's what we are here for. I also do not want people to be smeared with advertisement. I charge a small amount a year for the announcements.

I have been asked many times to start a baseball forum from people who love heybucket and say that baseball has nothing like it. I have a forum ready to go but I don't have the connections for baseball to run a successful site. YET
I just don't understand why the $12 a year is a problem, I have received very good feed back. I guess like anything else in life there is more then one way to do something.

Took a look at CCYB baseball website.

so the website makes the connection between someone looking and the team?
Heybucket offers direct connection. Plus a hell of a lot more!

What would be the difference between paying for ccyb and paying for everything that heybucket offers?

[jessicaC]

NumeroUno wrote:
I know exactly where are the traffic is on heybucket, the fastpitch boards have far more traffic then the Announcement forums. The Fastpitch boards are free. I do not care that people just use the site to look for teams, tourneys, friendlies ect. That's what we are here for.

Dear #1,

The only thing I object to with the change is that it requires one to login to see the Announcement Boards. That is a change to how people will use Heybucket and not how other forums throughout the internet are used. Currently I see 170 guests online and 9 registered users. So those 170 guests cannot view Announcements. This limits the value added we pay.

Thank you,

[NumeroUno]

NumeroUno wrote:
I know exactly where are the traffic is on heybucket, the fastpitch boards have far more traffic then the Announcement forums. The Fastpitch boards are free. I do not care that people just use the site to look for teams, tourneys, friendlies ect. That's what we are here for.

Dear #1,

The only thing I object to with the change is that it requires one to login to see the Announcement Boards. That is a change to how people will use Heybucket and not how other forums throughout the internet are used. Currently I see 170 guests online and 9 registered users. So those 170 guests cannot view Announcements. This limits the value added we pay.

Thank you,

Hi Jess,

Maybe those 170 don’t want to look at the announcements right now? I’m not sure. Isn’t it easy to just sign on? I have mine set for automatic sign on.
I’m
Going to check with my web guy about the guests n see where they are looking.

Once again thank you all for all your input.
Make it a great Friday

[Schmick]

The 1 dollar a month is a miniscule amount, that I agree with. I'm just thinking back to when I first yanked my girl out of park and rec after her pitching coach told us about Heybucket we all started looking at the tryout pages, calling several coaches and looking for a program closer to home, the whole family looking....if there was registration and a payment involved, I don't know if we would have ever bothered.

But I'm sure you didn't start this board to be So Cals tryouts bulletin board.

[NumeroUno]

The 1 dollar a month is a miniscule amount, that I agree with. I'm just thinking back to when I first yanked my girl out of park and rec after her pitching coach told us about Heybucket we all started looking at the tryout pages, calling several coaches and looking for a program closer to home, the whole family looking....if there was registration and a payment involved, I don't know if we would have ever bothered.

But I'm sure you didn't start this board to be So Cals tryouts bulletin board.

I started Heybucket because the sport needed something like it. Anyway to help the sport grow I’m good with. You hate bulletin boards

[NumeroUno]

Have a great Saturday ya all. Going fishing 4:14 am.

[dthomca]

so is it just me or are all the Tryout forums gone, even with a premium membership (that I just paid for)?

Clear your cache n you’ll be fine

You can email me at jcook15767@aol.com

[SidelineCoach]

I just paid for premium, & can’t access tryout forums. Cleared my cache, still nothing. HELP!!