The combination of powerful features and optional subscriptions is one reason we purchased IPB. We have the intention of monetizing our forums, where users pay an annual fee for some "premium" features.

We're still tossing ideas around about exactly what we'll do. We've been online for almost 6 yrs now, have a large dedicated and growing reader base, so we want to be careful about taking anything away. But since we are new to IPB, we are trying to figure out what we can offer paid groups.

So what have you done to drive paid subscriptions?

What's worked well?

What hasn't worked?

Offering subdomains/email accounts is always a good thing on top of the advanced user permissions

Yes, if you don't want to limit forum access you could always setup an @yourdomain.com email address system which people pay for. Neowin does this and people who have signed up are recognised through a soecial member's badge.

I do not recommend hosting email accounts. The amount of spam coming in that needs to be filtered can bring a server to its knees. For my paying customers, I do not have a set amount, I accept donations in ANY amount they see fit. For their donation they get the ability to attach images in any forum, increased PM storage, an image below their name, a photo gallery, removed flood controls, can edit their posts after the standard 30 minutes, etc. As an example of how well this has worked, we just migrated to a new server that the community donations paid for. A rather pricey dual 3.6ghz xeon, 5gb RAM, Raid5 3x15000rpm with separate #4HDD for backups, etc, etc.

Google Ads!

BTW they are optional, users can enable/disable the adds (opt-out) from the users control panel.