Membership pricing
Hey guys,
This isn’t the typical how to question but a question manly aimed at Martin and the site owners. I thought I’d post it here though to get feed back from other users. The membership pricing seems to be built around professional home builders who will learn new building techniques, gain customers, and increase profits based on the information in the articles. The problem with that model is that there’s plenty of basic home owners that aren’t gaining anything more than personal knowledge and improvements on their own home. $15/month is more than I pay for Netflix… Of course this site needs to make money and the customer base isn’t anywhere near the size of Netflix, but I’ve been wondering if the site owners have ever considered a two teared pricing scheme. Or paying per article as many of the pay walled articles don’t apply to me. Or possibly just publishing old articles to the public after a few months.
I know there’s a free trial, I’ve used that up. I might be able to apply again with another email address, but that would get tedious and it’s not the point of the free trial.
Martin’s article, published today, on attic insulation looks really intriguing from the introduction. Like many homeowners my attic has the issue mentioned and if there’s a new technique I’d love to learn about.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
For me, personally, I find $15 fair. Asking a professional for their opinion in the construction industry would cost far more. While Netflix is less, I consider that entertainment and not something necessarily educational in its focus. I pay for my kids to be able to go to a better library outside of our district as it gives them better access to books.
If one were looking to save costs they could always sign up for a month, read/print/save all the articles of interest, cancel their subscription, wait 6 months, resign up, and then work through the backlog, rinse, repeat. I do that for some of my streaming sport shows (I only watch the playoffs or the final series). There are still quite a few articles available for free.
For me, personally again, I don't have a problem paying a fair amount for a good product. I don't believe GBA to be a good product--I believe it to be a great product. My $0.02
This web site is great.
The 10 free days is like drinking from a fire hose. There is so much new to you information.
While $150 price tag is high I think it is well worth the price for the first year.
In my opinion renewing for the second year where I think this site needs to change pricing. After a year you have read most of articles and seen the videos, so in the second year you are paying for the new content. You get 1 blog from Martin and 4 interesting article \ blogs from others sources each week. I think the second year should be half price and 1/3 after 2 years.
If there is more new content than I have noticed it needs to be marked better. When is the last time the site added a video?
I wonder what percentage of members stay 24 months? 36 months?
Walta
I've been enjoying this site for a couple months now, but as a homeowner who is more of a curious bystander I find the price a little steep, but I am willing to pay something, for full access to blogs and articles.
Perhaps a homeowner's membership that excludes the architectural details for substantially less.
I would say, for someone in the industry the price is a steal, paying someone to come up with a single detail drawing would cost more than a year's membership.
Thanks for the feedback. Whether or not the price seems fair depends in part on whether you are engaged in a construction project.
I know that when I'm working on my own house, it isn't hard to spend $200 or $300 every time I make a run to the lumberyard. If I'm doing that once or twice a month, then spending $15 for advice and personal education might be a good investment -- especially if the $15 saves $30 or $50.
$150 per year is way too much for a casual homeowner. I pay the $75 per year for FHB, and that is manageable. Great content, podcasts, after-show, etc. Adding another $150 for a total of $225 is just too much.
Maybe $150 gets you access to both?
I find the price fair, because the information I get here is invaluable. Without it, I would have made serious mistakes in my projects. And where else am I gonna get near-instant expert advice through Q&A? I imagine I'd have to find a building science consultant and I imagine the price wouldn't be cheap.
Good point. If I were to offer building science consulting I would charge around $250/hr. with a 4-hr minimum.
Another way to look at it: GBA membership is $0.41/day or $2.88/wk. If you're not getting that much value from the site, you probably aren't spending much time here.
For context, I only signed up today.
The $15/month gives you access to quality content, with ease.
There are many other avenues to research and ask questions that are free, like government websites and Reddit. The paywall however, I think and hope, is a bit of an insulator against poor quality, misguided content noise. It’s hard to put a value on that, but $15/month seems fair.
My renewal was today and it was a bit of a shocker as I had forgotten the price. I tend to get my value from it, but I also have a disdain for the rest of Taunton (who has absolutely horrible customer support especially when it comes to billing issues). I also subscribe to FHB, but draw the line at paying yet even more for the paywall on their bulletin-board system and archives. It would be nice for there to be a more reasonable package price across the estate.
FWIW, I tend to find the JLC crew a better buy than the FHB stuff.
I don't subscribe, but may if it was more affordable. Although my house is built (and I plan to never go through this process again) I'm curious on how best practices evolve and mature, so I keep reading.
I concur that the details can be extremely valuable to someone who makes their living homebuilding or someone building a house.
The articles should be what draws people into the fold, either as non professionals who want their professionals to follow the recommended practices, or as professionals who need the execution details to act on what they have read about.
Putting the articles that educate people behind a firewall seems counterproductive to me, as with fewer people educated, there is less demand for the details.
I know this is an old thread...but I find that GBA is the opposite of the rest of the internet. Where influencers, would be experts, or even AI try to give you advice on a myriad of topics that are so obviously biased, simple, or just plain wrong.
If you post a question here, you will get insightful answers from experienced professionals and DIYers that are incredibly informed and trying to give you the best possible advice. Opinions may differ, but in my experience everyone is trying to help without their own agenda.
Sadly, this is very rare today.
One way to look at it: You get what you pay for.
Free/cheap information often isn't good. Good information often isn't free/cheap.
There are expenses associated with providing the content that need to be paid for. That can be done by barraging us with ads and sponsored content, or membership fees. One way or another the site needs to generate money to continue.
I agree, and I never suggested that it should be free. It would be great if there was some type of group membership between the FHB and GBA. I know this was recently suggested on the FHB podcast. That might allow some FHB members to have access to GBA at a reduced rate, and vice versa. Overall they might end up with more members and members dollars overall.
David,
Yes that would be great. I hope it happens.