I'm writing to ask for your help because I'm having trouble keeping Toastmost at or above the break even point.
The club website hosting service was never intended to be a money maker, just an easier way to provide access to the WordPress for Toastmasters software I had created as a volunteer project. To some extent I'm happy to support Toastmost as a loss-leader if it brings me other business -- let me know if you're looking for website development or support services -- and I've enjoyed working on this project. I've learned a lot from it.
But right now Toastmost expenses are wiping out the profits of my consulting, which I do on a moonlighting basis since taking a day job. My latest 6-month web hosting bill was nearly $1,700, primarily to support Toastmost, and made my business bank balance drop alarmingly.
I know, cry me a river. 😢 It's my business problem, not yours. Still, if you find Toastmost useful, please help me me figure out how to solve this problem without having to raise the base price of a Toastmost subscription.
A few ideas:
- Encourage other club leaders to try Toastmost. Building the subscriber base will help me balance the books.
- Introduce me to a business, maybe your own business, that could use my help building or improving a website. Details on my consulting work below.
- Introduce me to district leaders who might hire me to help improve their district website.
- Upgrade your web hosting plan from Basic ($50 per year) to Gold ($100 per year), as detailed below.
- Make a donation, individually or from your club, to support the project.
- Sponsor the project or introduce me to a sponsor who could help keep the project solvent. Promotional acknowledgement for major sponsors is negotiable but could include a cobranded webinar or advertising.
- Help me find $5,000 sponsor to support an option where clubs could get a website for free in return for allowing some discrete advertising. That would grow the user base while lowering a barrier to entry.
- Contribute documentation or video tutorials that will help people learn the software, making it more likely that they will be successful with Toastmost and renew their subscriptions.
- If you have design or user interface skills, help me make the software easier to understand.
- If you have technical skills, help me optimize the software and database lookups to reduce the load on the web server and lower hosting costs.
Thank you for your consideration.
David F. Carr, DTM
david@toastmost.org / 954-290-6788.
How to Upgrade Your Plan
Upgrading your hosting plan is simpler if your website is set up with a subscription through the Stripe service, where a credit card is being automatically billed either annually or monthly. Stripe handles the complexities of letting you switch from one plan to another and pro-rating the fee if necessary. Click the Upgrade button to upgrade your subscription from Basic to Gold. (You can also switch back if you later decide you need to economize.)
At $100 USD per year, Gold Membership is for clubs who make an optional, additional investment in the WordPress for Toastmasters project in return for priority support and club-specific enhancements to the design and functionality of their websites. Gold membership includes a Mailing List upgrade of from 500 to 2,500 messages per month.
If you pay monthly, Gold Membership is $9 per month instead of $4.75.
If you're not on a recurring payment plan, consider upgrading when renewal time comes around.
Make a donation
You can make a free will donation at https://biz.toastmost.org/donate/
As things stand, you'll be "donating" to a business, so it's not tax deductible -- a "thank you," rather than a charitable contribution.
Hire me as a web consultant
My web clients rely on me to help them solve digital business and technical problems without having to become techies themselves. Often, they've experienced frustration working directly with a web host whose technical support help assumes greater technical knowledge than they possess and shows little understanding of their business. I charge a quarterly or annual fee for providing them with more personal support.
In addition, I consult on the implementation of my RSVPMaker for WordPress events and email marketing plugin, which is used as part of the Toastmost service but has many other applications. If your website needs a design update, I can clone the current design, improve on it, and make it easier to update going forward.
Some current clients:
- Swank Specialty Farms uses RSVPMaker to take reservations for the gourmet dinners they host and collect payment via PayPal (case study). I've also worked with them on a website design update.
- Florida Bulldog, an investigative news website, uses RSVPMaker's mailing list service to send out breaking stories and maintain its email list (case study).
- Geeks on Tour, the technology for travelers website, relies on my for general WordPress support and recently worked with me on an update to its website design.
- Ortega River Club promotes events and takes registrations using RSVPMaker.
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