Suggestions for GBA Prime Membership Pricing
washxhouse
| Posted in General Questions on
I sent this question to Taunton’s contact address and got a singularly unhelpful reply so I thought I’d post here.
Just one person’s vote but I’m a homeowner who is very interested in the sorts of things GBA Prime has to offer but because my bottom line isn’t really attached, can’t justify the trade-mag pricing.
I’m not sure how you’d tier the offering but if you could create a version of GBA Prime that, say, doesn’t have construction detail drawings or something else that brings value to tradespeople and not ‘hobbyists’ like myself, and in so doing create a justifiable middle-tier price, you’d have at least one more subscriber 😉
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Replies
I fully agree! It's pretty egregiously priced for anybody not expensing as part of their business costs. I am paying it now and until my house is done because it _is_ extremely valuable to me at the moment... but man, it's been a super tough sell.
It would be nice if GBA membership also included access to other Taunton publications. A combined subscription to GBA and FHB would be nice, for example.
I'm in agreement here.
Keeping those of us for a few months while we work on our homes may help their immediate prospectus. But as homeowners, we're always going to have projects - some we choose to make and others demanded by circumstances. If GBA were more affordable, I'd be more inclined to keep this as a regular subscription. Otherwise I think for some future planned projects "free" resources will be adequate and I can contribute to those individuals Patreon accounts.
I feel the price is high but well worth it for the huge amount of great info in the archive way more than anyone could absorb in the very generous free trial period.
I feel that after 2 years most people will have gotten everything out of the archive they can and are paying the same high price for what 3 new articles each week if you are lucky 2 interest you. I think renewing member should get a large discount.
I think we would have better luck yelling at the clouds than trying to tell corporations how to price their products.
Walta
I agree as well. I had a membership when we were building the house, then had to cancel it afterwards because I couldn't justify it.p
Thanks for the feedback everyone. As you probably assume, the editors you know from the site are responsible for content, not pricing decisions. So, for consideration, I did send this thread along to those who are.
Brian, maybe there is a happy medium for your bean counter guys? I don't know if you could somehow make a "GBA Lite" version, but maybe you could come up with some multi-month prepaid plans. Maybe a "3 months for the price of 2" or "6 months for the price of 5" type of deal, prepaid in advance. Taunton gets the money up front in one chunk, the customer who is just doing one build gets access for their project at a discount. This might be a win-win.
Anyway, just a thought.
Bill
FHB All Access should include GBA Prime without the detail library. I pay for both at the moment, but have done a month or 2 of GBA prime at a time. I almost never look at the detail library. It's pretty steep to pay what, $250 a year for both together?
Totally agree on a pricing gap, I've mentioned this in the email surveys.
As a interested home owner, I subscribe periodically for a couple months at a time, but the price is too high for permanent subscription if I'm only reading out of self interest.
There should be a way to monetize the articles for a couple bucks a month, but hold the crown jewels (details library) for full subscriptions.
I get the notion that the information is worth the asking price, but it's like going to Costco, the deals are great, BUT only worth it if you actually need the product.
Like others, I cancelled my membership after (mostly) finishing my house. Cannot justify the ongoing cost as a non professional.
I've also noticed more and more articles are premium, even the Q&A spotlights.
Also in agreement--the paywall is in an odd place. I AM a pro, but only subscribe sporadically. The Prime articles are generally quite good, but the "crown jewels" are not the detail libraries but the Q&A archives and the ability to actually post a question, which are not behind the paywall. A person can glean PhD-level knowledge from all this back-and-forth, not in a terribly efficient manner but the gold is in them thar threads. I am deeply indebted to the experts, named and unnamed. The recent addition of the "expert member" label is deserved recognition. I would not object if GBA nominally compensated the expert members and moved their responses behind the paywall, although the free riders would then see a much-diminished product... :-)
+1 on pretty much what everybody else said, especially that I’d be first to bite on a homeowner subscription option more in the $5/mo range.
When I look at other subscriptions in my life (Disney+, Spotify, a weather app, a cooking magazine), $15/mo seems high for something that I love staying up on but don’t strictly need for day to day projects or as a pastime.
The difference between $60/yr and $180/yr is also often the difference between someone getting one for me as a gift subscription, or not :)
Just my two cents, I could swing a subscription if it were $80-100/year, can't really justify anything higher.
Like a lot of online services, the bulk of the content is coming from users. Like many, I find the best details are in the answers to the QA with the pros and experts going back and forth. I subscribed, I am working a build, but I am doing it in part because I hope questions from paying members get some activity, but not sure that's how it works.
$60 for a year, paid up front is probably fine. $7/mo if going that route.
Maybe a related question. I am a prime member. Often when clicking Q/A links, I am being directing into advertisements. What's up with that? Cheers
Wooba,
I have the same problem! It's as if a spam program has hijacked the links on GBA. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it's irritating. I hope these events aren't due to a Taunton contract with advertisers.
Martin,
The same thing just happened to me what I clicked on 'edit reply' on a different post. Those are known as 'malicious redirects', and are likely a bit of code injected into the site by one of the many widgets that GBA uses as a part of their Wordpress CMS.
They do it sporadically so as not to be easily discoverable, which makes weeding them out of the code a bit of a chore, but it is certainly possible with a bit of searching and perseverance.
The price is a the high end for someone like myself is does it mostly out of enjoyment since my job in facilities and accommodation doesn't allow me to put any of this in practice.
The main reason is the prices are in US dollars so once you do the conversion, it's almost $20 CAD per month for me.
Arnold
Would be quite different if I was currently building. But for now it's mostly an attempt to charge me for providing advice.
As long as we are opening up a price discrimination discussion, can we consider an enhanced or more premium version with more Q&A priority or ability to influence topics for upcoming articles (at a higher price)?
I agree. I subscribed because I needed to access to some articles that could only be viewed with a prime membership, and though I've not yet completed my construction project I have completed the majority of it that I needed reference for from the prime articles and I can't ecomomically justify continuing membership. Often, in response to a question posted on the q&a, the response with be a reference to a prime article, and unless the poster wants to subscribe for one month in order to access the article - which for many folks would be a tough expense to justify - the answer and help can be somewhat lacking. This is an outstanding site with excellent help, and perhaps a lower tier of membership with reduced pricing could be offered which would entitle the member to a limited number of articles per month. Many users are not pro's and would benefit greatly from an "occasional need" type pricing.
Thanks, Daniel