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PART 11
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10.03 - Can I make money running a BBS?
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The BBS As A Profit Center
How To Successfully Run a BBS for Profit:
By S. Carol Allen
___________________________________________
Review by Dan D. Gutierrez, SYSOP, AMULET:vc BBS: A Collection of
Virtual Communities (specializing in Virtual Reality, Artificial Life,
Nanotechnology, Cyberpunk Lifestyles, Cyberspace). 310-453-7705
dataline.
As a Sysop who has been running boards since 1984, the idea
of charging for what in the past has been a labor of love, a
hobby, a way to communicate with my students at UCLA, and the
occasionally useful tool for my business, is new to me. The
realities of this economy, a mortgage, and the desire to excel in
virtual reality, have been the impetus for me to look around for
information about making my board self supporting. There is not
much out there that I could find and when I received a copy of
this book from the publisher, the title intrigued me -- How to
Successfully Run a BBS for Profit.
Being a skeptic by nature, I approached this new release in
my usual fashion. I read the foreword, checked out the table of
contents, then started to scan the chapters that most interested
me. I was instantly hooked. For me, chapters 8-10, Getting the
Word Out, Hooking Your Caller's Interest and Assuring Your Callers
Return, were exactly what I had been looking for. I read those
chapters then proceeded to read the entire thing (unusual for me).
When I finished, I couldn't wait to put several of the creative
and inexpensive marketing ideas to work.
As I assume is the case with most Sysops, when setting up my
board I concentrated on the technical needs of the board while
the marketing needs seemed unimportant. In my case, they were
also unknown. The author of this book obviously recognizes that
for most of us, marketing experience is not part of our past.
She tutors the reader, not with just an explanation or description
of what needs to be done, but with numerous worksheets and a
collection of sample marketing tools (press release, direct mail
letter to potential subscribers, a "report card" for user
feedback, etc.) that can easily be customized for any BBSes use.
Don't think that this book is just for the hobbyist turned
entrepreneur. Any individual or business that is running or
planning a BBS will benefit from the marketing secrets revealed
throughout this book. True, there is the basic business
information on putting together a business plan, determining
start-up costs and long term costs, and getting financing if you
need it. But, then there are the BBS focused tips on attracting
new callers, getting them to call back and to pay you top dollar,
collecting the fees by credit card (even if you don't presently
have a merchant account) and guaranteed ways to generate other
revenues besides subscription fees. There are phone numbers,
board numbers and addresses for a long list of BBS resources.
Some of the suggestions seemed pretty simple and were just
common sense, but I hadn't know about them so they gave me ideas
for my board. Other marketing avenues seemed too advanced for
me, but on the other hand, I can see myself growing into them. In
essence, the tools are laid out in the book, it's now up to me to
choose the timing and implementation.
For all of us, the timeliness of this book seems significant.
Although I found little information out there on making money with
my BBS, it's hard to read a magazine these days without seeing
references to the explosion of the BBS industry. With this book
has come the realization that a BBS can be a significant profit
center.
Not only does it contain the marketing tools described, it
also includes over $1,000 worth of money saving coupons from
vendors of products and services for Sysops. Also included with
the book is a disk with the full version of a DOS based decision
support program. It proved to be very useful and lots of fun
whenever I needed to choose between alternatives the book
recommended.
Here's a list of the Chapters from the book:
1) Winning in the 21st Century
2) Surveying the Marketplace
3) If You Fail to Plan Then Plan to Fail
4) Choosing the Theme of Your BBS
5) Value Adding Options For Your Customers
6) Pricing for Profits
7) Increasing Profits by Reducing Costs
8) Getting the Word Out
9) Hooking Your Caller's Interest
10) Assuring Your Callers Return
11) Collecting Your Money
12) Owning a Gold Mine
13) Growing and Expanding Successfully
14) Achieving Your Goals
Appendix A - BestChoice3 Documentation (software disk included)
Appendix B - Marketing Toolkit
Appendix C - Bibliography, Glossary and Quick Phone Directory
Appendix D - Coupons
Index
The publisher is so confident that a reader who applies the
techniques described in this book will be making profits within
90 days that they offer a 90 day money back guarantee for the
book. I would be surprised if they get many back. It's on my
reference shelf with a 5 star rating.
So, bottom line, this is probably the BEST investment you
can make for your BBS!
The book has 304 pages and costs $49.95. You can call the
publisher, InfoLink, to order this book by credit card (Visa/
Mastercard/AMEX) by calling toll free 800-776-3818 Ext. FG20 (US) or
619-228-9653 Ext. FG20 or Faxing an order to 1-619-369-1185. FAX
orders please include: "ATTN Dept. 254-FG20". Orders with checks can
be mailed to InfoLink, 56089 Twentynine Palms Highway, Suite 254-FG20,
Yucca Valley, CA 92284. $49.95 + $5.00 shipping and handling + California s
ales tax.