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ProBlogger.com is Live! JOIN with 1200+ Bloggers to Improve Your Blog

What would happen if the thousands of bloggers who read ProBlogger each day decided to work together to improve their blogs?

This is a question that has been on my mind lately – I thought it was time to find out what the answer is.

So far 800 1200+ bloggers have agreed to join me in finding out – will you join us too? We’re offering it as a special introductory price of $1.95 a month for access to the forum (once you’re in at that rate you’re locked in at it and it won’t rise).

UPDATE: the introductory price of $1.95 is over. The monthly price is now $5.95.

problogger community.png

I’ve been asked to add a forum area to ProBlogger for almost as long as this site has been live (5 years last week). It’s something I’ve been open to but never quite got around to doing – but lately a number of things have changed my mind including:

1. The success of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Forum – this temporary forum/community rocked and led to quite a few bloggers going into partnerships and collaborations with other bloggers.

2. More and more reports of bloggers forming alliances or collaborative relationships – bloggers have joined together in networks and groups for years now – but lately I’ve been hearing a lot more stories of bloggers forming alliances and collaborating.

3. The realization that while here on ProBlogger people do collaborate in comments – that a blog is really not the medium for it to go to its potential.

Out of all this – I’ve decided to finally launch ProBlogger.com in collaboration with the team at b5media who are looking after the back end of the site.

So far I’ve invited those on my email list to join and 800 1200+ have signed up. Today I’m launching it to the wider community.

Note: You can get much of the information below in a video at the bottom of this post if you prefer that format.

What is ProBlogger.com

  • ProBlogger.com is all about community, collaboration and learning together.
  • It is a paid forum ($1.95 USD per month subscription – more on why it’s paid below)
  • It is a private and moderated forum – walled from the general public, search engines and spammers
  • It’s currently in version 1.0 – a forum but we plan to add features as it grows.

Why is it a Paid Community?

I’m aware that the idea of paying to join a forum is not going to suit everyone and I don’t pretend that it will appeal to all – but there are a number of reasons I’ve taken the decision to put a $1.95 monthly subscription fee on it.

1. I want to staff the forum – there’s nothing wrong with volunteer moderation (and we’ll add this as we go) but I wanted this community to be administrated by a paid and dedicated staff member (Lara Kulpa, who many of you are familiar with) to ensure that the forum is as useful as possible. We’re dedicating 100% of the income of the first 1200 or so members purely to cover this (and then a % of all further membership). My goal is to have Lara full time on this task.

Having a paid community manager is important to me because I know it’ll be run well, well moderated, more useful and that members will be looked after by someone accountable and focused on the task.

2. It’s valuable and I want it to be seen as such – my experience of forums in the past is that they tend to attract a lot of lurkers who join but rarely turn up and contribute. While having a cost on the forum may keep some away I believe it gives those who do join a little more reason to participate. If something costs you’re hopefully more likely to use it and a forum that is actually used is more valuable for everyone.

3. Discourage Spammers – while I fully expect members will successfully promote their blogs in this community – that’s not what it’s really about and I hope that putting a fee on it will keep spammers and self promoters a little more at bay. Feel free to tell us about your blog – but do it appropriately and as a good citizen of the forum. Spammers are not welcome.

The Details on Price and Introductory Offers

The introductory price of ProBlogger.com is $1.95 USD per month. Payment is via PayPal (sorry to those who are not able to use PayPal but at this point it’s the system that is easiest for us to use and is the most widely used option).

This introductory price of $1.95 is a limited time offer. I’m yet to decide on the price that we’ll put it up to but if you join at this rate you’ll only ever be charged this much per month for access to the forum. Those who join later will be charged at the higher rate.

I’m also offering 50% off the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook to anyone who joins the forum in the first month. This is purely an optional thing and not something that I expect everyone will want or need. You’ll be given a discount code once you register and pay for your first month on the inside of the forum for this.

To join simply follow this process:

  1. head to the registration page of the forum here – add your details and join the forum.
  2. go to the forum and hit the ‘complete the registration process by clicking here‘ link
  3. hit the ‘$1.95’ option in the ‘cost’ drop down menu and click ‘order’
  4. this will take you through a process where you can pay with PayPal and set up the subscription – once you have you can head back to the forum and start posting.

Will You Join Us?

At this point we’ve had 800 1000+ members join as paid up members and we’d love to have you join us. You can unsubscribe at any point if you find that it doesn’t fit your needs and stop future payments. While I know it won’t fit with everyone’s situation I do hope that you check it out and join the community as an active member – this will be as good as we make it so get involved!

Here a video (also on the front page of ProBlogger.com) where I go through a lot of the above information for those who prefer to watch and listen over reading!

UPDATE: the introductory price of $1.95 is over. The monthly price is now $5.95.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Congratulations to you. Hope you can give som extra value for your blog with problogger live on the internet around the world…

  2. Darren, this is awesome, very much live, I’ll try this opportunity

  3. @ Lee Ka Hoong – I’m sorry but currently the only way to join is via PayPal. Hopefully your verification comes through soon!

    @ Rajan – If you cancel your membership, and then try to join again later, you will be charged whatever rate is being charged at the time you rejoin.

    @ Typhoon – We’re trying to work out additional options for payment term lengths. We’ll make an announcement in the forum (and I’m sure here as well) if and when we do that.

  4. nice offer with nice intro price, i would like to join as well,
    i can improve my blog performance, and improve my skill on blogging

  5. 1.95 per month is ok, i will think over it.

  6. macswitcher says: 10/03/2009 at 4:48 pm

    Have not started with anything as far as blogging is concerned. All seasoned bloggers require an upfront fee when seeking assistance from them. This price is so reasonable despite my financial situation now. I hope, despite my being a newbie, i can find assistance from seasoned bloggers in this community.

    Way to go, Darren/Lara – karma points for both of you. :-)

  7. $1.95 per month is considerable, I will join

  8. Hey Darren Forum is really a very nice.. Thank you so much for sharing this nice forum link here, i’ll registered to your forum right now..

  9. I have already joined this forum. Hope all blogger also join this forum. I hope to all of you to meet in the forum. Thank you.

  10. I was one of the first people to join the forum (Among the paid members.) I do like the option of keeping it paid. Great work by the administrative team there. I was waiting for problogger community to be live.

  11. this site rocks! there is so much incredible info here, one can get lost ( which is a good thing or bad thing lol) I love this site !!!!

    http://tattoodesignsgalore.com

  12. This is a great idea and a great price. I am sure I will learn a lot from seasoned bloggers.

  13. Add me to that list of subscribers. If not to gain some new insight into blogging, I definitely would love to take advantage of this awesome networking opportunity.

  14. Best investment I’ve ever made! In less than 48 hours, I’ve received tips, advice and encouragement from seasoned bloggers. My site is already looking better and more user friendly than I ever could have imagined. I love my new community!!

  15. Thanks so much for introductory price! That just rocks. I’ve joined, and I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone and learning.

  16. This is great! I am going to join and check it out. Thanks Darren!

  17. SEOspert says: 10/04/2009 at 7:14 pm

    I joined your forum 36 hours ago after seeing it mentioned on another blog that was writing about what a rip off it is. I joined because I wanted to see for myself so that I could join the fray of those saying why you were a scammer launching this.

    Problem is that your forum completely turned me around. I got 3-4 great ideas within an hour, I was welcomed warmly by other bloggers, Darren responded to a question I asked and while some say Darren’s philosophy is too narrow and doesn’t work I actually found the ideas being shared in the forum really balanced and smart.

    I was going to leave the forum after $1.95 and then write a snarky review of it but what I’ve seen so far completely turned me around and made me realize that much of what people were writing on that post was based on false assumptions and jealousy.

    Thanks to Darren and Lara for what you’ve started. I think there’s room to improve but it’s great so far.

  18. No doubt, this is a great idea. The price will keep spammers at bay.

  19. The forum is just great. I really recommend it if you’re serious about blogging.

    Some of the most successful bloggers are already there, and that’s a GREAT opportunity.

    Regards,

    Sam.

  20. thanks for the info, i considering a blog…i know it’s a must have now a days…. looking forward to more stuff on this
    chad

  21. I am on this forum, and have gained a lot of knowledge already, not to mention the opportunity to provide it as well. My name is “Armen” on there, and greetings to all.

    I recommend the forum for pro-active individuals.

  22. I’ve been putting this off too long! I’m in!

  23. Joined yesterday, and the forum is great. I think the cost is minimal for a quality forum, and should be a good way to discourage spam.

    Also took advantage of the great price for the 31 days to a better blog, as a bonus for joining.

    In response to SEOspert, i can see that this is something many people see at the first thought of paying to join a forum, especially when their are so many free options. However i think as i already said when you have to pay for something you often find the quality is that little bit more.

  24. I’ll probably join the forum and get the half-price workbook for the 31-Day Be a Better Blogger series.

    How long will the introductory offer be available?

    Why use PayPal for payment? I haven’t used my PayPal account yet, but don’t they charge you for each transaction? Why not just take credit cards?

    Rita

  25. This is actually a great idea. I would like to join you guys.

  26. The fee is more than I want to spend to be a part of any community. I might change my mind if there were a free trial or something of the sort.

  27. Gr8!! idea and a great blog. Once again you’ve come up with an idea that serves as a springboard to blogging success. The $1.95/month is nothing compared to the wealth of knowledge we all stand to gain by joining the forum.

  28. @ Rita – The offer on the 31DBBB book is only an introductory offer. You’ve got a couple weeks, most likely – but I’m not 100% the exact date we’re going to pull it.

    The reason we use PayPal is because of their subscription feature. Makes it convenient for everyone involved. It automates our end of it, and makes it easy for members to cancel without us having to manually handle that. PayPal also has lower fees than most merchant accounts, which are required to accept credit cards anyway.

    @ TK Pandey – You can cancel at any time, so if you try it out for $1.95 and decide it’s not for you, you have only spent $1.95 and you got a whole month to try it out.

  29. I already join a paid blogger forum that available in my language so I think I will not pay any cent to join this forum. I’m sorry to say this, but that is the truth.

  30. I already join a paid blogger forum that available in my language so I think I will not pay any cent to join this forum. I’m sorry to say this, but that is the truth.

  31. I’m certainly joining this. Good thinking, Darren!

  32. Thanks Darren I will join this as soon as I get money in Paypal.

  33. Good post. I have written a post here http://bit.ly/m1LR7 and obviously you were able to answer some of the doubts I raised there.

    Thanks

  34. The price is affordable and I’ll join also.

    I also like to take the 31DBBB. Thanks Daren

  35. I have joined, and I’m very happy I did, great discussions, lot’s of answers for my questions, and great community building. Very well worth the price.

  36. Great Forum.. I recommended to everyone for joining to this forum… Thanks Darren.

  37. I also love to join such a community

  38. celiaonegirl says: 10/18/2009 at 9:26 pm

    Hello Everyone,
    I am new member in this forum.

  39. Hi Guy’s,
    nice idea and a great blog. Once again you’ve come up with an idea that serves as a springboard to blogging success. Thanks for sharing this information. i like it…..

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  41. Darren;
    O.K. I’m going to bite on this. Philosophically, I’m a bit skeptical about a paying forum, but I am impressed with the quality of your free blog content.
    -Dan

  42. Good work :)

  43. Its the great news that Problogger has live now with the users of the 1200 or more than that in the position to earn the good revenue and many facilites to be governed.I’m a bit skeptical about a paying forum, but I am impressed with the quality of your free blog content.I am using many payment gateway to use the features of this sites.I want to know more details of this problogger.

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