Shareinvestor Forum
Shareinvestor is a site which I came across when I started on investing in stocks. At that time, Shareinvestor offered free access to its forum to registered non-paying users. After making use of the free forum access for a while, I took up a 6 months paid subscription to try out its premium services which I subsequently let lapse since I am not a frequent trader and the free forum was good enough.
Somewhere down the road, the folks behind Shareinvestor.com must somehow had decided that charging for the use of the forum will add to the site's revenue. One fine day when I was trying to get the forum and presto, only paying members can access. No big matter to me, just stop visiting Shareinvestor.com for forum discussion then. Another period of time later, someone again decided that accessing the forum is free, stumbling upon that change in policy somewhere, and started visiting the site again. Then recently, the forum is once again changed to restricted access for paying members only! Free, charge, free, charge...can those people behind Shareinvestor.com make up their mind??
From a small time investor's point of view, I will definitely like the forum to be free. The consolidation of investment ideas by share investors is sometimes greatly insightful. The free forum at www.sgfunds.com is an up-and-coming alternative to the Shareinvestor forum but is still relatively in its infancy and has a bias towards unit trusts for which it was originally set up for.
From an e-commerce point of view, I understand the need for the Shareinvestor site to try to generate additional revenue stream. However, closing off the forum actually reduces the traffic to the site and with a lower traffic, lowers the probability of people getting interested in the premium services and paying for membership. It appears that while revenue might initially increase by a little, its longer term growth might be retarded.
Somewhere down the road, the folks behind Shareinvestor.com must somehow had decided that charging for the use of the forum will add to the site's revenue. One fine day when I was trying to get the forum and presto, only paying members can access. No big matter to me, just stop visiting Shareinvestor.com for forum discussion then. Another period of time later, someone again decided that accessing the forum is free, stumbling upon that change in policy somewhere, and started visiting the site again. Then recently, the forum is once again changed to restricted access for paying members only! Free, charge, free, charge...can those people behind Shareinvestor.com make up their mind??
From a small time investor's point of view, I will definitely like the forum to be free. The consolidation of investment ideas by share investors is sometimes greatly insightful. The free forum at www.sgfunds.com is an up-and-coming alternative to the Shareinvestor forum but is still relatively in its infancy and has a bias towards unit trusts for which it was originally set up for.
From an e-commerce point of view, I understand the need for the Shareinvestor site to try to generate additional revenue stream. However, closing off the forum actually reduces the traffic to the site and with a lower traffic, lowers the probability of people getting interested in the premium services and paying for membership. It appears that while revenue might initially increase by a little, its longer term growth might be retarded.
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