Your Feedback Needed: What if Tom's Hardware Had a Subscription Service?

[apiltch]

Hi All,

As the landscape of publishing changes, we’re looking at new experiences to offer our audience. We’ve been brainstorming internally about what an optional subscription service would look like and what benefits it would offer if we had one. We’d love to know what types of benefits you’d like to see that might motivate you to subscribe.

Three things I want to make clear:

1. This is just in the ideation stage right now
2. The intention is not to put up a paywall on the kinds of content and experience we provide today. Providing helpful forums, trustworthy reviews, breaking news, useful tutorials, and insightful features for free will continue to be our main focus. The goal is to offer additional, exclusive benefits to subscribers.
3. There is no planned subscription plan specifically for the forums.

Here are some ideas we’ve batted around. We’d love to know which of these would be valuable to you and what other benefits you’d want to see:

• Exclusive stories with more of an insider / industry focus
• Special newsletters with exclusive content
• Ad-free or ad-limited experience
• Exclusive coupon codes and discounts
• Percentage cash back (like Rakuten) on products clicked from our site
• Special placement / flair for article comments
• TH Merch (hat, t-shirt)

What else would you like to see and, among the exclusive content, what topics do you like best?

MattK edit: This is optional subscription would be for our editorial site and not impact anyone's ability to sign up or make posts here.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Here are some ideas we’ve batted around. We’d love to know which of these would be valuable to you and what other benefits you’d want to see:

• Exclusive stories with more of an insider / industry focus

If you paywall that, very few people will read it, ergo defeating the purpose of publishing it since your reach will be limited.

• Special newsletters with exclusive content

Same as above

• Ad-free or ad-limited experience

In the age of Ad-blocking, there really isn't any purpose to this for a web news & review outlet.

• Exclusive coupon codes and discounts

More work than it's worth

• Percentage cash back (like Rakuten) on products clicked from our site

Nah, not worth it.

• Special placement / flair for article comments

Just leave comments as they are, comments, nothing special for it.

• TH Merch (hat, t-shirt)

IMO, that's what fans of TH would like: quality Merchandise that doesn't suck & is durable, long lasting, comfortable to wear. Quality at a affordable & reasonable price.

What else would you like to see and, among the exclusive content, what topics do you like best?

Simple YT style video articles about topics. I'm surprised Tom's Hardware doesn't push on the YT front harder.

 

[Dj0gany]

IMO, that's what fans of TH would like, quality Merchandise that doesn't suck & is durable, long lasting, comfortable to wear. Quality at a affordable & reasonable price.

Simple YT style video articles about topics. I'm surprised Tom's Hardware doesn't push on the YT front harder.

I agree with this!

 

[-Fran-]

The least offensive/invasive/problematic method of monetization I can think of is something which does not reduce/hides the content (articles, reviews, news, forum/Discord access, etc) and only operates at a cosmetic level (forum badge, special portrait frame, larger signature space, maybe early access to some niche content, special forum/Discord area, etc) so your exposure as a site is not reduced to the point of annoyance for your casual reader. Remember we all start as students learning about sites and get involved from that point and then we become nasty buggers that never leave

The rest would be adding merchandise and other 3rd party things which are separate from the main site operations: mugs, iRL badges and stickers (I have some from a few years back you guys sent me!) for your PC. Small things that would be welcome by many and could be simple gifts, I think. Bigger types of merchandise could be a bigger risk, so I would suggest starting small if you go this route, I guess.

Other than those core 2 ideas, making your YouTube presence stronger. Jarred has been trying his best, for sure, but I have to say it feels/looks like he's been trying without much backing from the main Corporate branch? If that makes any semblance of sense? Fund a proper studio or help them arrange a working space for a proper studio would be a great idea? I dunno. Point is to make the online viewership all-around stronger and, like or not, YT is a very strong exposition place for you guys, so totally worth investing there in a serious manner. And no, making the YT presence better does not mean written space will be weaker: you need to strike a balance you're comfortable with and I think Jarred was on the right track.

I hope this helps.

Regards.

 

[Unolocogringo]

What has made Toms hardware great is the freely given good articles and forum advice.
Don't change that it will alienate too many givers and make new visitors wary if they have to pay to get the good stuff.

Merchandise and Youtube videos is your money market these days.
Not cheap crap but useful computer/maker related items and that snazzy little Toms hardware hammer from a few years back.

To make it on youtube you need stupidity, wow factor, personality or sex appeal.
Honest "facts"that should be mentioned and considered.
And a salt toss over the shoulder for ...... what the hell , some over both shoulders.

 

[Kona45primo]

Many other alternative forums are free. You'll drive away users. Start a tiktok or onlyfans page, maybe you can slowly unbuild a PC and get money for it

 

[cineruss]

Maybe 2 levels..one for free and if you did subscription maybe something extra

 

[ilukey77]

yeah i dont think blocking content behind paywalls like exclusive stories etc etc is a good idea ..

A dedicated merch store could be a way to go to raise funds i get nothing is for free today the stories need to be written and the writers deserve to get paid ..

people come here for free advice with their pc issues so far ( i try myself to give my un bias (mostly) best advice to other users ) its helped alot of people my self included out i hope that it can remain that way !!

by paying for extra stuff it may like other people have said drive users away and toms hardware is a excellent source of knowledge and advice for tech people !!

 

[Co BIY]

I don't know your internal numbers but just about anything that you provide exclusively on a subscription basis will restrict the reach of the rest and that might reduce ad revenue which I assume is compensated on total exposure.

Low numbers of comments on a lot of content indicate to me that Tom's could drop below critical mass for any hope of interaction.

I would pay for objective reviews insulated from manufacturer and advertiser influence. An ad free site where the review samples are purchased on the open market and supported by subscription is probably the gold standard for review integrity.

Its a tough business I'm sure.

I think a counter that shows to the reader how many times an article has been accessed would be popular. (and somewhat off topic)

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Forums are already a hard sell [to these GD kids (get off my lawn)] in 2023. Paywalling what makes thos forum what it is would be a step backwards and cancelling yourselves.

If you need to generate some revenue:
- Make registering have a one time fee. (New Members moving forward).
- Make exclusive YouTube videos.
- Allow commenting of articles paid only.
- Create official Telegram (NOT Discord, too many vulnerabilities IMO) channels for members to chat.
- If you want, put ads on the forums, most will have adblockers but you might scratch some cash with those that don't but don't hardblock adblockers.
- Badges, Titles or Banners, could be cool but you are opening the floodgates for elitest entitlement and behavior.
- Ironically backwards, when spots open up, only allowed paying members to apply for mod positions.
- Keep news free but put reviews behind a paywall. HOWEVER and I mean this with respect, you need to put a lot more effort into the reviews and make them more indepth.
- Sweepstakes
- Partnerships with members where you send out loaner review samples (under deposit?) to test and give their honest feedback on.

That's just what's coming to me now.

 

[MKnott]

Many other alternative forums are free. You'll drive away users. Start a tiktok or onlyfans page, maybe you can slowly unbuild a PC and get money for it

Just to clarify, this is purely for editorial pages and what benefits or cool things would be of interest to you guys. There are no plans for any form of forum related subscription service. There should be no impact on anyone's ability to sign up or make posts here.

 

[Richard1234]

Hi, I only use the website once in a blue moon when I have a very specific problem. so I'd go elsewhere if a paywall.

I think a better way to monetise is to allow direct adverts, ie not via Google, where an advert can be relevant to the forum, eg PSU adverts in the PSU forum. where an advertiser can select the specific forum, and eg relate to the country of the visitor. eg someone from the UK sees adverts from the UK, relevant hardware adverts. eg with a PSU forum, you see an advert relating to selling PSUs in the country you are at.

with say just one advert at the top of each webpage, where its not like say taboola where they have hundreds of adverts.

an advertiser would then contact you directly to place an advert.

the problem with Google adsense, is it is totally random, susceptible to coincidences,

you can then also say have a premium price for adverts at say the higher level webpages eg the list of forums.

then its the same free website, but with directly placed relevant adverts.

with Google adsense, you couldnt have a premium price for some webpages, also Google adsense is click based, if noone clicks then no money made. Here you could charge a flat fee regardless how many click, where its more like traditional advertising. You could start with very low advertising fees to see the takeup level, and then adjust the fees later.

another MO is to have advertisers bidding per advert slot, with start bid say 10 pence per day for the next week.

with an auction the one week for the advertising slots of the next week.

December then will get higher bidding, because of christmas presents. where if no interest from advertisers, then the slots would sell very cheap. And some people might go for the slots with no interest.

pricing would then be adaptive to advertiser demand. eg say a graphics card forum could get more intense advertiser bidding.

advertisers would then be computer hardware businesses.

but a specific thread might get hobbyists.

and eg this thread here can have an advert at the top, and as more visible, a higher price, but the higher price can be via an auction from the bidding.

 

[Rogue Leader]

In the age of Ad-blocking, there really isn't any purpose to this for a web news & review outlet.

While I would normally agree with you, if you've been following the trends of the major browsers they will likely be blocking the ad-blocking software. Now sure there will likely always be ways around that, which people will find, but suffice to say this change is coming and blocking ads will become harder/more tedious sooner than later.

- Allow commenting of articles paid only.

As a moderator, oh lord this would make my life so much easier. The number of people who would be willing to pay to show up and post insanity on our articles (which is what we often deal with now) is likely extremely low.

 

[Deleted member 2950210]

So, basically, Tom's Hardware have already decided to add the subscription service, and they just want our positive feedback to help them feel good about it.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I just spent 25 minutes thoughtfully crafting a considered response but it was rejected for violating the terms of service. So the lesson here is, why bother even trying ensure the long-term survival of the forums if they're going to put contributors writing serious, professional posts into humiliating abuse jail.

Nobody is talking about the forums. The forums and the editorial division are ENTIRELY separate, even though the comments section for editorial articles is located in the forums. Everything else is strictly on two different sides of the wall.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Personally, I think it's a terrible idea. Feels like enough has happened to alienate users as it is, without piling on intentionally. Much as with some other sites such as Wired, the moment they went to being paywalled that was it. Done. Despite being a frequent visitor for years and years. Even if only some of the content is paywalled, it is still content that could have been freely offered as front page content that now would not be. Obviously it's only my opinion but as a member I feel like it's something that trends in the wrong direction. Obviously, corporate types are not going to agree with that because they opine that everything needs to be done to generate additional profits whenever possible. I really don't think it will work out that way though and would likely result in the opposite happening as many potential visitors and members will simply go elsewhere.

 

[Richard1234]

Ultimately, for a website to be famous it has to be free, eg Youtube and Google. Musk is running into trouble trying to overmonetise Twitter, where people will just do without. Most people are signed up to a plethora of websites, and its not viable to subscribe to them all. The only websites I have ever paid to visit are websites teaching something, eg I signed up to a website which teaches ecommerce MO, and sometimes signed up to investment advisories. Teaching websites were always one off payments. Basically paid subscriptions are for suppliers of info, not for nexuses. eg ebay and amazon are nexus websites, and free to visit. tomshardware is a nexus website, where the users supply each other with info.

Google is monetised via adwords, adsense and sponsored adverts, Youtube is also monetised via the adverts before a vid begins and adverts interrupting a vid. Advertisers only pay if someone clicks through, and Google detects if people are fake clicking as that would defraud someone.

my earlier suggestion of directly placed ads at the top of this website's pages would be the best way to monetise, and auctions for these would be the best way to price them. That way any webpage a person visits, they at least momentarily view an advert, and businesses will pay for that trading name visibility. A specific webpage visit could have an advert at random from an auction purchase of adverts. You could also auction hours, as some hours are more popular. I know an ebay trader of second hand things who says December is a time of increased selling.

eg I want to buy a large transparent ATx tower computer case, and I'd like to see some adverts for such for the UK.

The problem with adverts on buses and billboards is they are untargetted, ie irrelevant to most people.

if a person puts in their profile the country they are based in, advertisers can then target geographical zones, eg say the US or the UK or other countries. You could have a fee for members to opt out of adverts also. I think with Youtube you can pay to opt out of adverts.

a user could also say state what kind of adverts to show them. That also allows more targetted advertising.

I should add also that the website can also promote itself to computer hardware sellers, both directly, eg contact Intel and AMD and also via say trade journals, etc. It would be an ideal venue for manufacturers of PC components, eg Western Digital, AMD, Kingston, Panasonic, Samsung, etc. As the website ultimately is about manufactured hardware components and systems, with a targetted audience. Brand visibility adverts from big firms could be big money.

one problem with a paywall around content, is the content wont appear on Google searches.

internet history has shown that the best monetisation MO is totally free access to info, both to read and to write, but with a paywall around adverts. Youtube being the classic example, where anyone for free can watch any video, and post to the thread under the video. But to advertise costs money.

You could just put Google Adwords at the top of each webpage, but I'd advise to go for traditional advertising, where firms buy specific slots. eg sell slots to Samsung and LG and others for the "Displays" forum, and Kingston + Corsair for the "Memory" forum. You'd make enough money to salary the moderators and financially reward the most popular posters.

the only other monetisation MO I can think of is donations, like with Wikipedia and Mozilla Thunderbird.

The best contributors to forums tend to have no money and a lot of time!

people with money dont spend much time on forums, as too busy making the money or spending it.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

While I would normally agree with you, if you've been following the trends of the major browsers they will likely be blocking the ad-blocking software. Now sure there will likely always be ways around that, which people will find, but suffice to say this change is coming and blocking ads will become harder/more tedious sooner than later.

And people will leave your browser for another that better supports "Ad Blocking".

Realistically, the trends of NERF-ing Ad-Blockers comes from the "Chrome" side which is the dominant player at the moment. That can change very rapidly if people don't like the fact that Google is playing around with "Ad Blocking", the other browser competitors like Edge & FireFox will suddenly see a resurgence over time.

And those who care to actually "Block Ads" are persistant enough buggers to figure ways out to continue blocking.

As a moderator, oh lord this would make my life so much easier. The number of people who would be willing to pay to show up and post insanity on our articles (which is what we often deal with now) is likely extremely low.

You would also risk turning the TH's forum into a "Echo Chamber" and only have the few voices willing to play ball with you. At that point, more mistakes will keep coming in, and there will be less people willing to interact with you.

 

[helpstar]

I won't subscribe, just living is expensive enough

 

[lojikal]

Hi All,

As the landscape of publishing changes, we’re looking at new experiences to offer our audience. We’ve been brainstorming internally about what an optional subscription service would look like and what benefits it would offer if we had one. We’d love to know what types of benefits you’d like to see that might motivate you to subscribe.

Three things I want to make clear:

1. This is just in the ideation stage right now
2. The intention is not to put up a paywall on the kinds of content and experience we provide today. Providing helpful forums, trustworthy reviews, breaking news, useful tutorials, and insightful features for free will continue to be our main focus. The goal is to offer additional, exclusive benefits to subscribers.
3. There is no planned subscription plan specifically for the forums.

Here are some ideas we’ve batted around. We’d love to know which of these would be valuable to you and what other benefits you’d want to see:

• Exclusive stories with more of an insider / industry focus
• Special newsletters with exclusive content
• Ad-free or ad-limited experience
• Exclusive coupon codes and discounts
• Percentage cash back (like Rakuten) on products clicked from our site
• Special placement / flair for article comments
• TH Merch (hat, t-shirt)

What else would you like to see and, among the exclusive content, what topics do you like best?

MattK edit: This is optional subscription would be for our editorial site and not impact anyone's ability to sign up or make posts here.

Considering the increasing costs to effectively operate and maintain your website I am more than willing to lend my support and subscription should this idea be implemented.

 

[Rogue Leader]

And people will leave your browser for another that better supports "Ad Blocking".

Realistically, the trends of NERF-ing Ad-Blockers comes from the "Chrome" side which is the dominant player at the moment. That can change very rapidly if people don't like the fact that Google is playing around with "Ad Blocking", the other browser competitors like Edge & FireFox will suddenly see a resurgence over time.

And those who care to actually "Block Ads" are persistant enough buggers to figure ways out to continue blocking.

Edge uses the Chromium engine, if Chrome blocks ad blockers, Edge will too. The site very easily can implement anti-ad-blocker features, not saying they will, but that could negate this whole argument. I have seen other sites go to a pay to remove ads format, and they get a reasonable number of subscribers.

I personally don't care either way, I'm just saying that peoples use of ad-blockers is not a definitive no here, theres a lot of nuance around that especially now.

You would also risk turning the TH's forum into a "Echo Chamber" and only have the few voices willing to play ball with you. At that point, more mistakes will keep coming in, and there will be less people willing to interact with you.

I agree, just saying life would be easier, not that we necessarily want it that way. Also that would never ever happen anyway.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Edge uses the Chromium engine, if Chrome blocks ad blockers, Edge will too. The site very easily can implement anti-ad-blocker features, not saying they will, but that could negate this whole argument. I have seen other sites go to a pay to remove ads format, and they get a reasonable number of subscribers.

And people can implement "Anti Ad-Blocker" Blocker features.

Hmm this reminds me of a old movie scene.

Spoiler: The Big Hit - Trace Buster Buster Buster

I personally don't care either way, I'm just saying that peoples use of ad-blockers is not a definitive no here, theres a lot of nuance around that especially now.

But Chromium is "Open Source", Edge can undo any of the changes that Google puts it and fork it.
Then they can have the "Superior" Chromium based browser or just dump Chromium and pay FireFox to play ball and become the "Default" Browser on Windows and let them handle all the work, free-ing up head count or offering a superior Web Browser experience.

Personally, I wish MS would just pay to have FireFox be the "Official Browser" and pay the FireFox team to be independent and do what's best for the end users.

If that means Ad-Blocking the hell out of Google and screwing them over, wouldn't that be good for MS?

Google stands to lose FAR more from Ad-Blocking than MS ever did on their end.

So what if Bing loses a few ads, it hurts Google FAR more.

 

[Rogue Leader]

And people can implement "Anti Ad-Blocker" Blocker features.

Hmm this reminds me of a old movie scene.

Spoiler: The Big Hit - Trace Buster Buster Buster

But Chromium is "Open Source", Edge can undo any of the changes that Google puts it and fork it.
Then they can have the "Superior" Chromium based browser or just dump Chromium and pay FireFox to play ball and become the "Default" Browser on Windows and let them handle all the work, free-ing up head count or offering a superior Web Browser experience.

Personally, I wish MS would just pay to have FireFox be the "Official Browser" and pay the FireFox team to be independent and do what's best for the end users.

If that means Ad-Blocking the hell out of Google and screwing them over, wouldn't that be good for MS?

Google stands to lose FAR more from Ad-Blocking than MS ever did on their end.

So what if Bing loses a few ads, it hurts Google FAR more.

I think you have a far to high of an opinion of Microsoft that they would take up some sort of user friendly crusade against Google around ad blocking. In the end we are far off topic here. If anything the "ad free experience" isn't exactly the star of the show, should this subscription service become real.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I think you have a far to high of an opinion of Microsoft that they would take up some sort of user friendly crusade against Google around ad blocking. In the end we are far off topic here. If anything the "ad free experience" isn't exactly the star of the show, should this subscription service become real.

You're right, as long as Satya Nadella is CEO of MS, nothing is going to change for the better.

We need a CEO that is human, that is caring, that is "Pro Consumer".

That's going to be a hard mountain to climb.

 

[accesscpu_]

I know I'd subscribe, if I got access to a special forum of IT professionals (who actually knew what they were talking about) that could give real-time advice on various tech problems I might encounter. The users are great, don't get me wrong, but you don't always get 100% accurate advice (or it takes a while to weed through the various suggestions until you land on the right one that works). If I had a way to cut through all that and get my issue solved right away, I'd gladly pay for that!