A Path to semi-profit Organisation? [Archive]

iQing

02-12-2003, 08:14 PM

First of all, pls allow me to tell you why I got this idea...

Bachok recently introduce PHP nuke to me... saying that we can use it to do online forum...

in my reading society, I have propose that we (the society) should have an online forum, creating a virtual reading space for everyone in Malaysia. so there's demand for online forum....

-*-----------------------

my reading society is Robson hill Reading society (sen le ling du su hui)
its mission is to promote reading habits amongst Malaysians
we have decided to have an virtual reading society where people can discuss about the book of the month...

the problem is... most of the members are not good at PC...
the chairman said that he has asked people to do such thing but they charge very high price... thousand ++ ringgit i think...
so the project has not been carry out yet....

so i think ReCom (with so many PC expert) has the opportunity to have an affinity with Robson Reading Society... besides, there are many profesionals and intelectuals in this organisation and it would be beneficial if both organisation co-operate...

I think we can charge them low price for doing the virtual society (it's not about the money, we charge as "meaning" just for the sake of the existance of the business transaction)

this promotes corporation amongst organisation
and I would say that it's a big breakthrough
because ReCom has the change to interact with another organisation....

in return we gain affinity and cooperation
besides, by helping them we help them to promote reading habits..
this is a noble mission right?

--------

i think if we become a semi profit (we make money but money is not the main goal)
then we should have a money managing system..
money can be a tool for ReCom to carry out more tasks

I hope to have replies from ReCom Anchors because I have to tell my reading society about our project by end of this month... thanx..

ah.. i think I shall stop here first (my hands r tired.. hehe)

thank you....

iQing

02-12-2003, 08:24 PM

by the way... just to remind u that I have add an opinion poll in this forum... the poll is just above the messages... 3 options..

thanx

Schye

02-12-2003, 08:45 PM

Does that including the maintenance or just build it up?
I think it will be no problem if we just help building it up as it is easy but if we need to take care of it all the time, then I think we better put in more effort in Recom until we are more stable.

iQing

02-12-2003, 08:48 PM

build it up only lah....
each organisation should have thier own maintainance.. if they go problem they can ask us lah....

Schye

02-12-2003, 09:14 PM

in my reading society, I have propose that we (the society) should have an online forum, creating a virtual reading space for everyone in Malaysia. so there's demand for online forum....

Is it just an online forum or including a homepage too?
If it is just an online forum then i think register one for them and they can pay to the provider to get a better service anytime.

iQing

02-12-2003, 09:17 PM

I think we better do a proper page / portal for them as they are trying to promote reading habits in our society..
it's better for us to help them help malaysian society.....

we do what we can....
and I believe...

ReCom Boleh!!!

iQing

03-12-2003, 01:03 PM

just wanna know your opinions..

can those people who vote NO
please tell why do u disagree that ReCom should not become semi profit?

thanx

chenchow

03-12-2003, 01:18 PM

Personally, I don't agree that we become semi-profit organization at this stage. While we may need money to further expand RECOM, I think we should work on consolidating ourselves and build on with the members that we have.

I would say that we could not seal any transaction deal currently, as we are not registered under RoS. Without the registration, making any deal is illegal and not binding and I don't think we should do that.

The semi-profit organization would be a good way to go in the future, but I don't think the time is ripe for RECOM currently.

"Lets not fly, before we can walk steadily"

What do others think?

1st_Spirit

03-12-2003, 01:29 PM

IQing,

here I would like to know how we generate profit and by what means to get to be a semi-profit organization...

I hope we don't end up like the NetCousin but with a much more successful and resourcesful organization..

Hmmm, I think we could try to find sponsorship for this website and asking funnding from Government or other organization to see this as a pontential place to help them to expan their bussiness...

Most of the recoms are students and I would rephrase my words *TopStudent... so there are many companies and cooperation looking for young and talented and dynamic people to join them... I believe, if we would to try to talk to Local company or global cooperation that they would interested in looking potential employees here. Not only we gain the support from profitable company at the same time we would attract more talented people to join us as we are the source of opputunity...

Imagine that Recom members as "Brand"... Therefore, quality control, Interview and Resume writing is essential...

There are still many Ideas come to my mind and I just can't finish writting.. cos I need to study now... opps it's late...

iQing

03-12-2003, 01:29 PM

OK...
I think we still should help the society..
for the mean time I suggest that we keep in touch with that society
perhaps we can have thier email and contact etc.

no need to have a deal....

after that we can help them to set up thier forum in the future...
what do u think of this plan?

screw3d

03-12-2003, 02:14 PM

I don't think there is such thing as a semi-profit organization. If it doesn't make money, it's an NGO; it it does, it's a business. This organization is still too much in its infancy to get involved in any business.

Let's just build up a solid community first. Furthermore, you should start a business by building around a solid proposal, not start a business and then only figure out what you wanna sell.

If any cash is needed to maintain this website, I'm sure the members would be happy to chip in some donations.

littlebigone

03-12-2003, 02:29 PM

I don't agree with us branching off into becoming a semi-profit organization.

Firstly, I don't think that we have our roots firmly planted in something that we want to do. I think we have to clarify this first and make sure we have clear goals and that every member understands these goals.

Otherwise we will simply drown in all the things that we want to do. We are 600 members strong. But that is still a finite number, meaning, we can only do so much with our given energies and talents.

Currently, even without a clear guideline as to what we want to achieve, I don't forsee builiding the portal and MAINTAINING it as something that RECOM should have interest in.

The most I can see RECOM participating in this project is to be a place where the reading society could ask for members to help. So it would be like a source of talents who may or may not participate in the endeavor. mmm....for want of a better word, I think RECOM could be the classified ads for the reading society.

masterof_none

03-12-2003, 02:34 PM

ReCom is still a baby.

ReCom would be the place where you get knowledge, share projects, ask homework questions, troubleshooting computers, discuss Malaysian current issues.

It would turn into something. It will.
But we have to have a careful planning.

littlebigone

03-12-2003, 02:36 PM

I don't think it is a matter of looking ahead and planning for the future. I think it is about focusing on priorities. With limited resources, I think we have to be clear about what we want.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to help them. I think as individual members who want to participate we should go ahead but I don't think RECOM as an organization should make the move.

chenchow

03-12-2003, 02:38 PM

I would think that over the winter break, we should specify clearly what is our goal, what is our vision, what is our objetive etc... It should be specific and clear, and we would be able to look at it and check and see whether we are on the right track.

From there, we will plan our next move to further charter the progress of RECOM!

silverblue

03-12-2003, 02:38 PM

i agree with cc, 1st spirit and screw3d...

don't think it's time for any profit-oriented activities on Recom's part as of now. we are still metamorphosizing... ;)

by the way, i am still not very clear about ur idea of 'charging' them for doing the virtual reading society... are you saying that they have to pay us money to make this society on our website? Or are you saying that we have to pay them money for their services? Perhaps you can tell us a little more about what this Virtual Reading Society is all about as your description is pretty vague..? Why do you need money to encourage people to read books? And how will this affect Recom members? Also, how would this 'charge' make us a semi-profit organization? Who are we making money from?

There are just too many questions in my head about this society and I hope you can elucidate these a little, esp about how this society is going to be able to achieve it's goals....

Thanks..

iQing

03-12-2003, 02:39 PM

When Dr M propose a big project..
how many people criticise him

but look at the outcome

without such vision, can Malaysia but what it is today??

silverblue

03-12-2003, 02:43 PM

IQing,

I don't think that this is a matter of going ahead with a vision or not...
It's not like we are backing away from trying to achieve something great, in fact, I think one of our goals is to do just that! To make something really tangible out of Recom. It's just that I don't think this whole idea about affiliating with the reading society and making Recom a semi-profit org is something that can really propel us towards that direction. It isn't essential to our expansion...

Oh, by the way, I dont think that affiliating with another organization is necessarily a breakthrough... it really depends on what kind of organization it is... and how the affiliation can impact our members. There are lots of other ways we can achieve a breakthrough without even having to think about making profits first... even if Recom has funding, I don't think we'll call it semi-profit or profit anyways... (at least not at the present future...:) ) because our funds would be for organizing events for members, conferences, administrative costs and etc...

littlebigone

03-12-2003, 02:45 PM

Okay, let's give you a chance to convince us. How does this contribute to RECOM's goal and growth as a student organization?

1st_Spirit

03-12-2003, 02:51 PM

I believe that we needed more solid documentation to support the Idea of Semi-Profit Organization...

In this coming winter break, I'm going to do a proposal and writing about Recom and try to introduce it to many people and I'll conduct a survey in many places where I can ask my friends to help to do the promotion and etc...

IQing has a vision, he has his vision, and she has her vision, togather we have our Vision...

Profit oriental is no doubt good and doable, but I think i still need more ideas and more advises from other Organization like netcousin, we could seek for thier advises...

There are so many possiblities here........

I would suggest that, let us brainstroming here and may be we would come out some really good idea...

iQing

03-12-2003, 02:56 PM

littlebignoe, we r discussing an idea and I dun have to come out with a statement / explaination just for u and let u debate it and it's going to be endless...

Dennis and I are seeing from our perspective of affiliation and finance

we are trying to find a way to make things possible, not to discuss how to shut down one idea....

Of course this idea is come out for the future purpose and not for present situation. it's a vision.. as the title says... a path to semi profit ..just trying to analyse this topic collectively

thanx

Schye

03-12-2003, 03:00 PM

1)I think what they want is just an online forum and maybe someone here can help them to register one.I think there is no hard work at all.

2)I am agree wthat Recom is still a baby.We need a more solid base before we expand or develope. We dont even have an organised board and a solid plan yet.

chenchow

03-12-2003, 03:02 PM

iQing, I think what littlebigone means is that he would like you to show and convince RECOM members about the whole concept of this semi-profit organization and its correlation to RECOM. iQing, littlebigone is not trying to shut down your idea, but everyone of us has different perspective and we should try to point out the pros and cons of this issue.

It is precisely what is written by 1st_spirit is the next post.

I like 1st_spirit quote of everyone has their own vision, but together collectively, we in RECOM have OUR VISION.

Together, lets shape it!

littlebigone

03-12-2003, 03:06 PM

A path can be taken in the present also, so i hope you understand why I interpreted the topic as a suggestion and an opportunity that we should take now.

And I am discussing this, that's y I asked you to defend your stand. I was trying to give you a starting point to convince those who said no to change their minds. I want to know what you're thinking. So far you remain unconvincing.

I however would like to wait for Dennis's proposal before I make any more statements whether I support or don't support the move.

Dennis:I don't quite understand what you meant by proposal and writing about RECOM. FYI, the admins are going to meet over winter break to discuss and set clearer goals and I believe an action plan to achieve those goals. I think you are talking about a proposal for the "Reading Society" but I may be wrong. If you are talking about RECOM, then I suggest you post something in the Suggestion topic before winter break so that the admins may take note of it before making their plans.

iQing

03-12-2003, 03:07 PM

I suggest that we should have a new forum on planning the Future vision, project etc for ReCom....

planning on...

1. what we should and can do after registration
2. funding , project etc.

and have a brainstorming

let my semi profit vision be my first idea in it... thanx

how about a brainstorming?

silverblue

03-12-2003, 03:10 PM

no need to be accusative here.... :) we will discuss this issue peacefully and as matured adults, okee? 8) be cool...

we would like to hear more about ur idea..... every idea has to be debated left and right....

it isn't healthy if there is no opposition party to check and balance the system, is it?

in fact, we should list down every pros and cons to every single idea put forth for Recom's advancement, so that we do not take a wrong or hasty step..

this is just my 2 cents opinion...

iQing

03-12-2003, 03:11 PM

screw3d

03-12-2003, 03:18 PM

Reading Society's website demand is what sparks out the idea, not the whole big picture itself. let's see the bigger part, the future...

too bad littlebigone... we are discussing this topic in a different time line.
littlebigone has a valid point there. Come on.. be a little receptive to people's suggestions.

silverblue

03-12-2003, 03:20 PM

One important thing to note for everyone,

It is indeed a very noble move to initiate promotions for Recom.org...
However, as Littlebigone said, the admins have yet to have our first GENERAL meeting and there are alot of important matters that we haven't finalize or decide upon...

but the point is that, we'd really appreciate it if you could share with us your plans on promoting Recom at a public level BEFORE going ahead to do it, because we have to ensure that our goals and visions are aligned with what you are going to promote... also, Recom has its own plans for promotion and all... so it'd be a great idea if you (1st spirit) can volunteer to work under our future Public Relations Director (which we have yet to appoint at this point).

nevertheless, thanks for your utmost enthusiasm in promoting RECOM! :)

1st_Spirit

04-12-2003, 02:08 AM

Brain Storming Section Begins,

1st of all, I've finished my test today and it isn't too bad I think...

I'm going to start a brainstorming here to twist our minds and turn the tide and waves of our brain cells...

We come out with whole chuck of many Ideas and slowly we catagorize and organized into a table or points form so that everyone would be able to take part in the discussion and from there we start to evaluate the ideas...

1st suggest: let us do a marketing estimation about the pay back time, profitability, risk ratio, interest group, taxes, capital cost estimation, upkeep cost estimation, organization chart, and most important thing is to estimate the interest rate...

Interest rate of return means thr percentage of profit earns after the capital cost is pumped into the project in how many years of constraint...

2nd suggest: let us seek advises from a already established profit-Oriental .com company for example like Netcousin.com, ebay, and amazon and etc...

3rd suggest: I think everyone should really come some kinda of proposal or some documanted evident to convince not only the recom members but other organization that would suport us as well....

4th suggest: We could start a small demo of how the paying system goes by cash or credit cards?

5th suggest: let's just do instead of sit down and talk in the air...

The above suggestion is merely my very own personal opionion, it's natural that I do not siding any party, organazation or any individual that represents the similar stand of view points...

Everyone, it's the brainstorming section now, just feel free to drop by any idea... WE ARE TALKING IN THE AIR RIGHT NOW!!! I doens't matter any kind of Idea cos it's BRAIN STORMING

luke

05-07-2004, 03:47 AM

This thread has been dead silent for 6 months already and people seemed to forget about this semi-profit thingy ...

Then suddenly GoogleAds started appearing in the bottom of ReCom pages and at the same time things began to stir ... people start making a fuss ... "last time we kinda decided to not venture into making profit, but what happen now?" - or so it says ... so why don't we discuss this issue together and clear things up ..

In my opinion, putting an advertisement in a webpage is not becoming a lucrative organization ... of course la when people click on the advertisement ReCom will get a tiny amount of money but it's not like ReCom is changing into a company that shows advertisement and gains profit from it ... and it's not like ReCom is forcing everyone to click the advertisement in order to stay as a ReCom member .. ReCom will never do that!!! ... (although we might encourage those who have so many free time to go and click the advertisement but it's up to you anyway .. no obligation is imposed ) ..

And the same logic applies to donation .. it is like the donation box placed at the entrance of surau, church, kuil, tokong etc etc ... ReCom is not making profit from the donation .. all the donations will be used for ReCom.org and its website, for maintenance and activity planning, for the good of the members .. maybe we haven't seen any tangible result from the donation yet but if things go well, we might be able to make something big in the future out of the money we have ...

anyway this issue is still open to discussion ...

iQing

05-07-2004, 03:59 AM

read back all the postings, don?t u think u guys have contradict with what u all have said? playiong around with words?

one of the ad is tongkat ali ad...

well, I don?t have anything to say .. i am speehless
I have a big disappointment to recom.

iQing

05-07-2004, 04:09 AM

by the way, if u read this thread and find that the whole thread sounds not-so-smooth .. that?s because some of the postings were deleted by admin. (mind to explain why?)

it?s the most deleted thread in the forum.

jiinjoo

20-11-2004, 03:06 AM

Resurfacing this again! :)

How's the finance going? Webhosting is costing a bomb for sure, how about other things?

New Year coming, since the thread started last year around this time, would like to see if people have any change in attitude. Anyone?

Or does anyone have any new idea about financing?

MASTER

20-11-2004, 06:04 AM

masterof_none

20-11-2004, 06:28 AM

Recom is strugling to survive and now it?s thinking about financing?
most probably recom will go downhill before it get its first cent.
you must be dreaming. what is recom?s function now? not much different from other forum.
jiwang.org offers much more than this
at least there?s not much political tension there compare to recom.

Well, at least we tried to do something different. It's better than nothing.

Unlike Jiwang.org, we don't offer freebies. We are not business organization and most of us still in the school. We're not yet organized and thus, we need something to keep on breathing.

Here's the thing. You're welcome to donate to us if you feel like it. But if you don't, that's cool.

(ps: the ads, donation, etc already exceeded its first cent. enough to keep recom running for another year)

__earth

20-11-2004, 06:45 AM

I've been thinking, why don't we expand recom from being to a msian student network to just network?

I think that will be able to attract more people.

Recom is strugling to survive and now it?s thinking about financing?
most probably recom will go downhill before it get its first cent.
you must be dreaming. what is recom?s function now? not much different from other forum.
jiwang.org offers much more than this
at least there?s not much political tension there compare to recom.

Actually, there is much to recom than what you know. This network, from what I heard, has already been given some attention from certain interesting personalities in Malaysia.

el_empty

20-11-2004, 06:47 AM

maybe we can ask george soros for some money...

but actually seriously is there a way we can get one of your universities to host the space? then to keep the domain name, we just pay a much smaller fee.

digmushu, can we get a small pie of virginia tech's system X?
http://www.tcf.vt.edu/

masterof_none

20-11-2004, 07:02 AM

I keep thinking ReCom as equivalent to 'Internet', where it is the network of networks. we hope there's no single point of failure in the network. For example, when ReCom website is down, the mailing list or another website could take over to have similar function like ReCom.

I think by now, we realize, just like _earth said, ReCom is much more than this humble website. It's the living 'Internet'.

digimushu

20-11-2004, 07:03 AM

hahaha
i wish i can get a small pie of system X-2 for my research...sigh...

weich

20-11-2004, 10:27 PM

hmm....it seems that some ppl here have this mentality that if you receive money from online ads you must be a semi-profit organisation/some profit-oriented company....and once you have money you must change the way you are doing things...

FYI, the income is not that much....it's just enough to pay for webhosting & the domain charges + abit more depending on traffic.....just look at most blogs, do you happen to notice that almost all of them now have Google ads....do you think they are all registered companies/doing it for profit's sake?

I don't think it's that simple really...and even when you mention NGOs they actually do 'earn' money from fund-raising (e.g. selling T-shirts, etc)....

What I suggest is ReCom can call themselves a not-for-profit organisation - we use the money we get for our own activities...treat it as a continuous donation to ReCom from advertisers....so that ReCom is self-reliant & independent!

This way you don't have to worry about college servers shutting down your account say when you graduate and if you hit some serious trouble, you might have the resources to pull ReCom out of that....etc...

So, all that I wanna say is that the ads on ReCom are not bad at all, it's actually almost unseen since it's at the bottom & if you can stand watching TV with advertisements, this is nothing really!

jiinjoo

21-11-2004, 03:54 AM

So, all that I wanna say is that the ads on ReCom are not bad at all, it's actually almost unseen since it's at the bottom & if you can stand watching TV with advertisements, this is nothing really!
Isn't this the funny thing then? Ads not visible hence creates good experience for forum users, but since no one sees it no one clicks it :) hopefully we can continue to earn money just by having other webcrawlers and robots click on those ads...

So... nothing else other than adsense? I'm thinking of running a donation round (you know, like a physical one) in some of the Malaysian concentrated areas in the states (e.g. NY / Bay Area) but to make that happen, we need to offer people something. Selling food sounds like a mundane but definitely welcomed one, but if there's something more interesting and relevant to recom's nature would be even better...

el_empty

21-11-2004, 04:09 AM

some sites do this - can we just get the host to advertize on our space, and in exchange waive the hosting fee?

__earth

21-11-2004, 08:48 AM

or maybe, we can sell something at cafepress?

:D

i wonder, what happened to the finance team?

misled_youth

21-11-2004, 04:33 PM

*twiddling fingers*

Can't we display some google ads and Amazon ads instead?
________
SabrinaCutie (http://www.girlcamfriend.com/cam/SabrinaCutie/)

Leen

04-01-2008, 01:48 PM

I believe that advertlet offers pay per view (not wrestling =P) ads. I heard from my friend that it pays when people view the page. No clicking needed.

As for google ads, there really is no way we can force anyone to click them. The next best thing to make people click to display firefox ads instead. Better pay for conversion, a really reliable software for people to try(better than IE definitely), and a more beautiful logo. ^__^

Or else, just put some pop-up ads and let the members deal with them until they are willing to click google ads for a change. :twisted:

Edit.......

Get to the root of the problem and solve it. Why do people refuse to click on google ads?

1. They are not attracted to the ads.
Can't solve this. Google controls it.

2. They don't want to support ReCom.
Can't help it then. Screw them.

3. They don't trust ReCom to be non-profit forum,
Explain. Make a big sticky post saying that we are cash-strapped and that we need money to sustain the forum and not to buy booze.

4. They want to help but they hate that they have to open another window to ReCom once they click the ads.
- This one we can solve. So solve this. Make the ads open in another window/tab and people might be more willing to click since it will not distract their original viewing page.

This move might not drastically increase clicks but at least it might make people click more often.

Xon

04-01-2008, 05:02 PM

Leen

06-01-2008, 03:57 AM

Fellow Recom Admins and Anchors and Moderators and memers,personally,i think Recom.org is no longer a baby now (2008).

Its time for Recom to turn into a Semi-profit organization. Or the least,Recom should has its own financial management syatem and team and not to let Google control over the advertisements on Recom.org . Through this,Recom can sure go ALOT further.

I am sure the founders of Recom wants to see Recom.org grow stronger by now. Ready to lend a hand to the admins.

We need to try to stand alone now,seriously. It will never be too early/late to start now.

If we turn into a full-profit organization, people will start asking:

Who takes the money?
Who use the money?
Where is the money?
How much do you earn?
What do you use the money for?

If we turn into a semi-profit organization, people will ask the same questions.

Best thing to do, make it a non-profit organization. Less hassle, less questions.

Then questions that will arise will limit only to:

If non-profit, why do you need google adsense?
Answer:
Because server is expensive. Because forum is not free. Well phpBB is cheap but to maintain it is not cheap

Case closed.