Well there must be some acute commercial brains on this site how would you make it pay...

[lemonice]

I've no idea, but did wonder if there was a charity/community/lottery route but

I'm sure there are people who could offer their opinion...many brains and all that

Well, no brainer then?

suggestions nil

what are you talking about?

have read this twice and have no idea what you're on about lemon ol' gal

I think maybe she's talking about an alternative to the commercial links on MN (namely Milupa) ie, another way to fund Mumsnet

Correct me if I am wrong

that's right , didn't realise that the "make it pay" was obscure...said I didn't have a commercial brain{blush}

think they've got it right actually

Retailers of children's clothes/ toys/ games etc.?

Mothercare
Adams
H&M
M&S etc.

particularly retailers who sell kid's clothes but aren't renowned for them - I had no idea H&M sold kid's clothes until this year, and I've been a mother for 6 years.

Collect demographic data on subscribers? (Difficult I know because we're all anonymous. But so are magazine readers, and they use their readership surveys to sell ads.)

Collect demographic data on most vocal posters (core target)?

Introduce subs at ludicrous amounts (say £50 per post) so that the very rich can pay them and I can stop my addiction?

OK, someone else's turn now.

Think they've got it right (oops must check whether my sub's run out....) but should have a policy of no money from formula companies. Sorry, I know that cuts off one source of income, but ethically has to be done or you appear to be collaborating with them, as they seek out ways to get round the law, which prevents them advertising infant milk for babies under six months. (Looong sentence but thought someone would be bound to ask questions if left any of it out).

Really, C? H&M (as Hennes) were selling lovely kids' clothes over 20 years ago, I got v frustrated then because their nearest shop to Lancs was Nottingham or somewhere! Did they have a fallow patch between then and now?

Lottery money would be nice.

There was a thread on this long ago, I'll see if I can find it in a minute and revive it. I agree, there ought to be a way.

Yeah, honestly, never knew about them. I just thought they sold young girl's clothes, and never went in there. The big PR thing which penetrated my consciousness with them was "What the Swedish au-pair will be wearing this year" campaign, and from that I surmised that they were naff, so never went in. It was only when someone gave DD clothes there as a prezzie, that I realised they sold kids' clothes.

very old discussion on the parlous state of mumsnet finances and ideas for improving them

Mumsnet have fantstic PR, but how do you make a site which is so much a collaborative (in all but money ) pay?

The only models I can think of are wikipedia and friends reunited (which clearly crakced the money thing)

Well Friendsreunited only charge a fiver but you HAVE to pay it to be able to send any emails from them. Have they really done that well? I wonder. You can read FR without paying though! Hey, maybe mn should do read only unless you pay. Oh no, otoh, with pay per post, I'd owe them thousands so maybe not.

i think the b/f calendar should be considered again as well as releasing Mumsnet Rhapsody

I think they have it just about right. The ads and links aren't that obtrusive, and you don't have to click them: I am assuming the Milupa one will wither and die as everyone's so anti-ff manufacturers, they won't get any clicks so it won't last long!

Why should everyone pay subscriptions? It's the Internet! Many dotcoms have faded because they didn't think through their revenue-earning side well enough. Ads are fine, I don't like pop-ups though, but I have pop-up blocker on my firewall so I have no idea if there are pop-up ads here or not.

I wouldn't use MN if I had to pay (no great loss to MN!) But I reckon probably about 80% of its clientele wouldn't either. Which would make it a very exclusive little club which cost a fortune to run and which no-one would want to advertise on.

MN's very effective PR makes it a good market leader and thus attractive to advertisers. Commercially speaking MN doesn't need new posters, it needs regular high profile advertisers

I wouldn't mind filling in surveys (one a week?) for people like Mothercare, Boden(!), etc.

I think it's the old hipp conundrum, it thrives because it's free but someone is paying for it and they won't forever...

wordsmith, I take your point that it's the internet but that doesn't make running costs nothing presumably and at one point it looked like mumsnet might have to close due to lack of cash. Thank goodness it didn't.

Exactly. And tbh subscritpions (unless they're prohibitively high) won't make that much difference. Advertsisers and sponsors will.

Well based on its published accounts, Mumsnet does make some money, though I suspect that subscriptions aren't the largest proportion. And a couple of people do draw (an admittedly meagre) salary from it. The IT costs don't seem that high, and most of the money historically seems to have gone into salaries and compensating someone for the use of their home as an office. Tough they don't seem great at admin given that they have to pay various late-filing fines with Companies House and the tax man.

So bear in mind that Mumsnet is a commercial venture (ie its owners would like to see an "healthy" income from it rather than having it trundling along).

lemonice its a business not a charity - its here to make some nice money for the creators