Ya this is a great site. 

I think the site is an example of "Web 2.0" done perfectly.  It incorporates user-generated content, online applications, and online community to provide a great learning experience to users.

Not to mention, the site is easy to use and simply, yet strikingly designed.

I don't know ファブリス maybe one day you'll redesign the entire site with big bright colors, stars with "BETA" on them and lots of advertising

...please don't!

we can only imagine google's contextual ads for the "shakuhachi" page...

(^_^;)

Last edited by johnzep (2008 January 21, 4:20 pm)

I'm actually glad to see that Fabrice got rid of the ad he had on the homepage. I love the design of this site and the fact that it is so clean.

As for rewarding him...Aren't we supposed to do that?

Speaking of donating, I suppose I'm not the only one who has used PayPal to set up a recurring donation.  It's small each month, but it keeps on showing up routinely, so over time it can be bigger than I can really afford in a single chunk.

With the number of users here, if each of us gave a little bit, it could add up to a nice total.

AndamanIslander wrote:

I think Fabrice should set up a pay-per-Kanji system, where you can sign up to pay like 10 or 20 cents per Kanji learned, and that amount is automatically deducted from your paypal account each time you reach final stack for a given character. That way, the more "value" you get out of the site, the more money he makes!

Haha that would never work, it would give me the feeling my knowledge is being held hostage

If anything becomes paying it's not going to happen soon. In any case, I will always keep the RtK 1 review free and all the basic features of the upcoming Trinity. For this kind of site I think the best would be to find some good sponsors that can benefit from the public here, which is motivated Japanese learners, and who offer somthing useful for users as well.

Affiliations is another option, although you actually spend your own time (and thus money) to set it up properly and you're not guaranteed to see even a cent back. I removed the Japanesepod101 affiliated link after 6 months simply because I never earned anything with it. I'm not too surprised because I think everybody here is fairly computer savvy and you all know you can get your Japanese audio on YouTube, and possibly even more interesting audio input, from real Japanese TV and such, rather than prefabricated lessons. I think an affiliation with stores that sell dictionaries, textboooks etc would be more likely to work.

CharleyGarrett wrote:

Speaking of donating, I suppose I'm not the only one who has used PayPal to set up a recurring donation.

There's 7 or 8 recurring donations at the moment. I'm very thankful for these. It's not a lot of subscriptions, but given that it is a voluntary choice between one-off and recurring donation,  and given  the total number of really active users on the site, that's not bad. That would be like 1% of the active users (there are 800+ reviewing in the last month, on the members page). I read somewhere for a internet business you would have to expect 1% of people to sign up for the paying "plans", so while the number of active users is not great yet that's still 1% of the users ;P

Anyway, together these are covering the server costs each month and the annual domain registration, thank you!

I do think it's kind of a mistake to "hide" the Donate button. Should be visible on the main page. No need to be bashful about this.

I'll have to make it into a button then    I know I'm going to have to revamp the whole homepage so I didn't feel like doing these design changes yet.

synewave wrote:

What sort of rate are they charging?

They have two rates, one is without Credit Card support, the other with. I haven't figured yet how to see if someone paid with a credit card or with a PayPal account. I'm using the option which allows to receive payments via credit card, and the fee is higher. They take a 0,55 fee on a 5 euro payment, 1,03 on 20 euro, 2,05 on 50 euro, so it's roughtly 5-10% ...