I notice that there are no direct web revenue makers on Imminst's home page or on the home page of the forum. Why not make advertisements for the book and the film and place them prominently on the home page? If done intelligently, they would not be detracting from the mission. The graphics associated with these articles are cool and can promote further interest in and of themselves without sales. I also see the links on the home page are predominately to posts in the forum. Are you aware that many do not find forums appealing in general, perhaps a majority of people surfing the web? I'm sure many visitors to your home page, when they realize it is an attempt to promote a forum, do not dig deeper and do not come back.
I see that full membership in the forum gives you an ad free presentation. So paying membership is a competition to web revenue making? If web revenue making is selected and restricted to only those things that would promote the mission, would they necessarily be detractors or could they be gently offered attractors? I see a reference to 0.5 % of membership being full members
(as of 6/05). Focusing on membership fees, as a revenue generator, does not seem to be a working proposition and actually counter-productive as you exclude other means of traffic generation and web based revenues that are the main functional strategies in existence.
So much to be aware of, aren't quick links to relevant subjects driving more interest in Imminst's mission conducive to more contributing participation? Wouldn't that make the contributions to the forum more valuable and valid and less repetitive? Promote awareness and you'll have more aware people contributing. If the forum and the Institute are truly for the mission, wouldn't facilitating ever more to believe in the mission be a prime strategy? I see one argument to pay for full membership is
"getting info on new and/or important research before everyone else." Do you understand that this focus on full membership fees for privileges is inherently an anti-outreach policy? Rather than getting the information out there to help people believe in the mission, you are following a strategy that basically suggests joining the efforts will bring you the information to believe in the efforts. That is not functional. Value promotes commitment. Commitment alone does not promote value.
Other advantages to a news portal with value adding web revenue offers:
1. Facilitates a more worthwhile, appealing and timely free-subscription newsletter that is a major proven low-cost web site traffic and support generator.
2. Allows people who are not into forums (which is a majority) to gain greater interest and contribute to the cause without having to use the forum.
Look at the small participation in chats, the garbage that gets in them too. Is the focus supposed to be specific individuals or the mission? Look at the small percentage of full members to basic members in the forum in general. Attempting to market the chats and their archives to drive more full membership for more forum privileges, marketing the forum itself as a chief goal, puts you into the position of attempting to sell something you do not have full control over, often pure garbage that continually gets repeated. Not only do you not have control over posts that are essentially against the mission, they come up in search engines pointedly giving Imminst the exact opposite image than as a proponent of its mission.
I guess part of the problem is that the mission is not sufficiently clear to convey a universal and broadly utilitarian goal. Instead, it can and apparently is understood to be to promote the worth of individuals more than the worth of the mission. It appears as egocentric rather than focused on promoting an awareness that is rewarding, appealing, and valuable to all. I believe I can see what a succinct description of the mission might be to make it viable but rather than share it here, I will ponder developing my own venture.
As long as the mission appears to be the social prominence of a few individuals over giving something of value to humanity in general, expect no big success and probable failure. I expect it means less social prominence for forum adherents in the long run to continue to abandon the mission for the sake of a forum. It does mean though that if someone does not have real contributions to make or commitment to the best interpretation of the mission, but are adept at navigating and manipulating a forum, they can gain more power in this “Institute” and seek to preserve the forum as the focus as essentially their only claim to fame. I believe the evidence that this has already progressed to dysfunctional and counter-productive ends here is quite apparent.
