CubanCigarWebsite - An Update

[Trevor2118]

I thought I should provide an update following the recent post regarding my website.

As well as the replies to my post, I received numerous PMs and emails offering support and suggestions.

These fell into five groups.

1. Charging a membership fee or monthly charge to use the website, or alternatively allowing cash donations towards the costs to run and improve the website.

2. Random advertising was not favoured but there were a few suggestions for appropriate paid listings.

3. Offers of Assistance and setting up a Wiki type system to reduce my workload.

4. Creating an iPhone application for the website.

5. Other suggestion regarding the website and information gathering.

I have given some consideration to the first four options, as follows:

Funding the Website

While this project started up as a hobby, it has certainly grown beyond my expectations.

Logically, for the website to remain viable in the long term, some form of funding is desirable (if not essential) to cover the costs involved.

I have decided that the site should remain free and available to everyone, so there will be no usage charges or membership fees. Also I have decided not to have any imbedded, pop-up, or click advertising on the website.

I will trial donations via a PayPal link. Over the years there have been suggestions of this by website uses who wished to contribute cash. Reasons included not having items I wanted; the prohibitive cost of postage to Australia; etc. but they still wanted to contribute. Basically (I now realise) there is no real difference between contributing cigars or cash.

I was thinking of setting up the donation link with suggested amounts of $5, $10, $20, and "other". Comments are sought.

Excess donations would be given to charity. I would like to support FOH's Freefallguy's Nicaragua feeding program.

Updating the Website

Basically, the physical updating of the site is not onerous. The problem is with sourcing information.

A Wiki option is not considered appropriate, as having to check every entry would involve more work for me, not less. Also, there are several cigar Wikis around the world that operate with only variable success.

The recently introduced Status checklists have received a very good response, with a significant increase in information received. I probably need to be clearer in specifying the information that I need.

An iPhone Application

This has also been suggested over previous years. As I am apparently one of the few people in the world who does not have an iPhone' I am not sure what is wanted, nor how involved it is, however this will be investigated over the next few months.

Other Considerations

Several other options will be considered over 2012.

Many thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Trevor.

[Professor Twain]

This site is a world wide treasure and I'm glad to see you taking a realistic approach on what it will take to keep it going. I like the idea of voluntary donations. Your reputation is such that those who know you will not hesitate to trust you with donations. I like the idea of setting up suggestions including 5, 10, 20, and other dollar amounts. I know that I will gladly contribute and I am sure that others will as well. PayPal is a convenient approach, but you might have to watch out for fees, not sure when those are applied and whether they would be paid by you or the donor.

I don't have opinions on the other issues. If you want to develop an IPhone app, our own Kilroy has a professional background in developing IPhone apps, and has completed many successfully, including a number that are cigar related. I think you would need to pay him to develop this, and charge those buying the app. I don't really know the economics of this, e.g. how much it would cost to do and how much revenue you could expect. Kilroy (Andy) doesn't check in a lot here, if you are interested I could contact him and have him get in touch with me, send a PM if you want to do that.

Thanks again for your many efforts and contributions. I use that site many times each week and it only grows better over time.

[CanuckSARTech]

Awesome, Trevor. Glad to hear that you haven't given up hope for this - it's your baby, and we'll all support you no matter how you proceed forward with it. I think the trial PayPal donations idea is a great initial step, as is the investigative aspect of looking into an iPhone app.

I also like the idea of what you said, that all "...Excess donations would be given to charity. I would like to support FOH's Freefallguy's Nicaragua feeding program." That's an awesome way at doing things, and I think everyone would be in agreement with that. Rob'll be getting a bunch of support from everyone over the next 6 months or a year or so! Very cool!

Thanks for the updates so far, Trevor. Again, you just let us know what you need, and we'll all help from there!

Cheers.

[riazp]

Trevor,

i'm glad to see your taking the comments to heart. I love the donation Idea via paypal, and love the fact that all exess funds will go to a very worthy and exellent cause...not only will you be helping out your website, you will be raising funds for a great charity via your website (we all know that you WILL be receiving excess donations, the generosity of the botls here is beyond reproach) If you need any canadian RE's feel free to let me know.

Riaz

[SCgarman]

If an i phone app is developed, please also develop one for the Android smart phones. Many folks including myself own Android phones and would gladly support an app developed for them.

[riazp]

sweet, just added the RSS feed on my blackberry for trevs website!

[stargazer14]

Trevor, i think the Paypal donation idea is a good one and I'd be one of the first to contribute. Great site.

[BENN]

I would be happy to donate, really appreciate the effort you put in to this!

Would love an iPhone app.

/ Ben Bockbrännarbolmers

[Rushman]

Wonderful news. I like the donation option and once you set up a PayPal account lemme know and I will be happy to give to the cause.

---

I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=20.631738,-87.070674

[cottierm]

+1 here.

Go on with the good work Trevor.

Best,

Michel

Awesome, Trevor. Glad to hear that you haven't given up hope for this - it's your baby, and we'll all support you no matter how you proceed forward with it. I think the trial PayPal donations idea is a great initial step, as is the investigative aspect of looking into an iPhone app.

I also like the idea of what you said, that all "...Excess donations would be given to charity. I would like to support FOH's Freefallguy's Nicaragua feeding program." That's an awesome way at doing things, and I think everyone would be in agreement with that. Rob'll be getting a bunch of support from everyone over the next 6 months or a year or so! Very cool!

Thanks for the updates so far, Trevor. Again, you just let us know what you need, and we'll all help from there!

Cheers.

[beamer]

Thanks for the update. I relish the opportunity to contribute. I appreciate all of your hard work.

Thanks.

[Scarhead]

Trevor,

I'll begin by saying thank you for creating and maintaing such an informative site. The design and informational content is unequaled. With respect to the options you have listed above I have the following opinions:

Advertising - Thank you for choosing not to have any imbedded, pop-up, or click advertising on the website.

Funding - I would be willing to donate money, for no other reason than to compensate you for your time in creating a highly accurate and user-friendly site, but also for future work/updates.

Updating - I am in agreement with you concerning the Wiki-type of approach for a number of reasons. I believe this aspect would definitely become onerous, not only to source information, but also because of the time you would have to spend back-checking and verifying information that would be posted by others. Nothing against those who would contribute to your site, but misinformation may find its way to the site creating and complicating an already difficult subject.

Again, thank you for your hard work.

[mazolaman]

They all seem to be fair ideas to me Trevor.

[coblos]

I think the wiki idea is a good one and shouldn't be dismissed so quickly. Your site is well respected and could easily have a strong community of users who keep it accurate, factual and free of spam. The trick would be to make people register before they can make updates and control the users, if any random can update then it becomes messy. Wikis aren't that hard to set up so it would at least be worth trialing.

[Trevor2118]

As discussed above, the cash donations option has been added to the website.

http://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/0-about.htm#Donations

[Custom56]

Dear Trevor,

I'm not a big poster on these forums, but an avid reader and a daily visitor of your website.

I can only applaud the work you put into this vast encyclopedia of cigar knowledge.

These kind of initiatives are rare nowadays...

I am honoured to be able to make a donation.

-Jan

[goalie204]

Dear Trevor,

I'm not a big poster on these forums, but an avid reader and a daily visitor of your website.

I can only applaud the work you put into this vast encyclopedia of cigar knowledge.

These kind of initiatives are rare nowadays...

I am honoured to be able to make a donation.

-Jan

Ditto

[BMF98]

Dear Trevor,

I'm not a big poster on these forums, but an avid reader and a daily visitor of your website.

I can only applaud the work you put into this vast encyclopedia of cigar knowledge.

These kind of initiatives are rare nowadays...

I am honoured to be able to make a donation.

-Jan

+ 2

[Trevor2118]

Trevor...don't know if this is decided yet, but charging a nominal fee for the iPhone app would be a good idea. I don't know if that goes against the grain of CCW as the website is free, but it's a thought...

Not yet considered.....depends on the development costs.

[adic88]

Trevor, most of what i agree with has already been said here by others so i won't repeat.

Just wanted to say thank you to you for such a wonderful website.

When God created the Internet, He said, "There shall be a website about cigars." He meant yours.

[CanuckSARTech]

Hey Trevor, thanks for the work on the site. You could put a live donation meter so people could see the progress to cover annual operating expense.

Good idea. I kinda like this - gives me an idea of how much to donate, to help towards the operating costs.