RUMCARS FORUM MEMBERS

[witney44]

   Now that there are 100 Members on the Forum, I was wondering how many are actually members of the Register of Unusual Microcars?     If not, Why not? 

[Stuart Cyphus]

I'm one!

[Jean]

Yes I would be interested to know the answer too.  More importantly how many of you take RUMCAR NEWS on a regular basis?  You don't even have own a car to subscribe to the magazine, and if you are interested in microcars of any kind what better source of information than RUMCAR NEWS.  Come on folks at £14 a year for four A4 issues in full colour I am sure those that do read it agree that Tony Marshall does an excellent job coming up with little gems of knowledge never heard of before.  Of course those of you that have such information to impart are always welcomed by him to make the RUMCAR NEWS even more interesting.  So what about it, remember not everybody has a computer so they will never hear your views or read your stories.

[Jim Janecek]

 More importantly how many of you take RUMCAR NEWS on a regular basis? ....

I subscribe!
and I try get a gift subscription for a new person each year (after that, they are on their own.....)

plus I do try and take in RUMCAR NEWS whenever I am "regular".
and other times when I am not as well.

[Jean]

Thanks to you Jim we have eleven American subscribers.  I find this surprising because your own magazine is of such high quality. Tony and I often wish we could afford to have such a good print job for our offering but with only about 140 subscribers each year it rather limits our presentation.  This is reason why I keep trying to drum up custom, after all there are 100 forum members and I am sure not all of them are subscribers. Added to this the one make clubs  have over 100 members makes, that makes at least another 700 enthusiasts in GB alone, so why can't we get more takers.  If any of you have any suggestions Tony and I would love to hear them.

[Jim Janecek]

Thanks to you Jim we have eleven American subscribers.†

only eleven?
that is terrible!† †I was certain there were more people.

I think one problem may be that people subscribe to many many magazines and it is difficult to keep track of what you subscribe to and when to renew.
I have also found that while many people will use a computer, they don't like to pay for things online.† They still like checks and other "tangible" methods of payment and this makes subscribing or renewing difficult.

I am running into this issue myself now that it is "renewal time" for MICROCAR NEWS for many people.

One of the reason I like RUMCARS NEWS is that it provides a home for those single marques that might otherwise not have a newsletter of any sort.
I don't know if people realize that.† It also provides a perspective and opinion that we do not get in America.

However, my only bit of constructive advice at the moment would be to change the way the OnLine payment works for you.
If you go here:† http://www.microcar.org/renewal-pay.html
this is what the payment page for MICROCAR NEWS looks like. (this is after you have submitted your information on a previous page)
Note that there is a single "button" which both takes you to PayPal and also has the correct information ready to go.
Go ahead and click it to see what happens.† You don't have to pay anything, it just opens a new page that you put your payment info into.† You can just close the window after going there.
You can pay with a Credit Card or from your PayPal account and very little work is involved with either way.
You do NOT have to have a PayPal account to pay and I think you should change your wording on the subscription page to reflect that.
I also think you should have a single BUTTON to pay that takes you to PayPal and already has the correct account filled in.

This alone might help you get more subscribers, but then again maybe not.† But it costs nothing, so what do you have to lose?
You must "create" the button from within your PayPal account and then copy/paste the code into the web page, so I cannot help you there.

[Jean]

Thanks Jim I will get Darren our Webmaster to follow your instructions when he is able.  It may take a little while because I understand he has other problems at the moment.
I am pleased to think that RUMCAR NEWA does offer something in the way of the unusual for our American friends, we have a lot of work to do to catch up on your magazine as far as presentation is concerned.  I have just received your Issue#3 2007 and see we have both printed the article on the Thrift-T  however I must say as far as presentation goes that there just no contest, you win hands down.  Are printing costs in the US a lot less than ours or do you have far many more subscribers which makes professional printing more viable?

[Jim Janecek]

I am pleased to think that RUMCAR NEWS does offer something in the way of the unusual for our American friends,

of course it does!  That is why I always try to recommend it to others.   (not that it seems to do any good....)

we have a lot of work to do to catch up on your magazine as far as presentation is concerned.

I think RUMCARS NEWS looks just fine.  It is not a contest.
MICROCAR NEWS is formatted for a primarily American Audience.

I have just received your Issue#3 2007 and see we have both printed the article on the Thrift-T  however I must say as far as presentation goes that there just no contest, you win hands down.

But you "scooped" me!   You got it to press first!   So you are the winner!

 Are printing costs in the US a lot less than ours or do you have far many more subscribers which makes professional printing more viable?

I believe that it is Economies of Scale that allow me to use the printing that I am using.  We currently have just over 800
I could not produce the same thing for 200 subscribers.
I have no idea what printing options you have in the UK.

Also- after I started the printing and learned how and where it was done, I was able to reduce costs considerably.
There are also certain Printing Standards that help keep costs down as well, such as sticking to 32 pages and not making them some crazy size.
Mailing costs are reduced (for US members) by not sending it out First Class Mail.

I still shop around trying to save a bit if possible but I think I am getting it done about as cheaply as possible right now.