Snowmobile group organization? - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

Kirk36 · 12-02-2008, 11:44 AM

We have around 10-15 people that we e-mail back-in forth about snowmobiling in our area. It's kind of like a sled club. Me and another guy would like to get it a lot more organized (contacts listed, picture gallery of rides, calender of events, links. We would like to use a free service. I have used Yahoo Groups and I think it stinks.

We were wondering what everybody else is using to keep their groups organized? We were thinking about using FaceBook or a Blog. What else is there to use other than a costly web site URL? Are thoughts are to keep it pretty private so the world can't see all the info, only what we would like them to see. We were hoping to try and generate a little income for the group through web traffic, it looks like Facebook doesn't generate income but a Blog would cuz of the ads that you place on your blog. Can you password protect parts of your Blog?

We are just brainstorming!

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks,

Sledder

dobbs · 12-02-2008, 11:49 AM

Where are you located? Are you looking for a free message board?

Forget about generating income from your site, you'll never have enough traffic to generate money. You won't be able to even attempt this if you are using a free site (it's free because they place ads on it) If you pay for a domain and hosting so you can host paid ads you won't make enough to break even.

You can't get everyone to kick in $20. That will buy you a years worth of hosting for your own board? A lot of message board software is free.

Kirk36 · 12-02-2008, 12:12 PM

I just looked at a web site called www.GroupLoop.org. It seem like a similar kind of topic for organizing e-mail contacts and events for all in a group to see.

I am not sure what you mean about a message board? Can a message board contain a calender, master list of contacts, photo storage, web links?

For an example I have a bunch of e-mail addresses that we have in our e-mail group. I would like to have only one master list of e-mail addresses that anybody in our group can send out a mass e-mail or just a single e-mail. I have a list of e-mail addresses, but some don't have names with them I don't know where they live. Also have addresses and city fields. Also have a place to share pics of your rides to share to all in the same place. Also list helpfull links for sledders, have a calender for all to look at, that shows local stuff like grass drag dates, poker run dates, other sled group events that others might want to be in.

Central Iowa

dobbs · 12-02-2008, 12:35 PM

Yeah, a message board can do all that. Take a look at the site I made. Similar situation as your. There is about 20 of us that grew up together and now we have all moved. We still get together to hunt and ride. The message board is how we keep in touch. We have a gallery for pictures, a calendar, you can do mass emails but there is no point since you can post it to the board and everyone can comment.
www.315er.net

dobbs · 12-02-2008, 12:38 PM

check this out for pricing

phpBB • Hosting Providers

it's about 6 or 7 a month, more if you want a lot of storage.

PHPBB is decent free message board software

Kirk36 · 12-02-2008, 01:16 PM

Thanks Dobbs that looks promising.

Now I need to sell it to the group and ask for money to suppport it. Or maybe me and another guy will split the bill for the first year, $85 bucks I think it would be. I think this will be a good start to organize our group, plus it will let outsiders see what our group is about and try and try and drum up newbies to join.

dobbs · 12-02-2008, 01:23 PM

My advise, get it all set up before you tell anyone about it. Nothing worse then trying convince people to use your board when it looks like crap. After people get used to it and see that it has value asking for $20 is easy.