Diesel and I up until now have covered costs of operations, websites, OzSTOC cards, getting badges setup, extra postage costs, so on and so forth.
As this foum keeps gathering momentum, we have come to the point that to take our little world to the next level, we need to upgrade the website correctly, we have experimented with cheaper hosting, and trying to learn it ourselves, unfortunately Diesel and I are both busy with work and normal life like everyone else, so we have not been able to do this in a manner that services all our needs, our expansion, and our future growth.
Our current host will not address our issues
(such as website crashes, email accounts not working, not providing support when we need it, creating excuses when we are being open and upfront), and will not offer a refund, so we are further out of pocket again.
We have been finding out our information, and talking to various web design companies, and we have come to the conclusion that using Australian Based hosting, and having Support based in Australia is the way to go.
To that end, I sat down with one of my Clients who has a web design company so I already have a working relationship with them, we have worked out the following package:
Tidy Up existing issues
4 page website
Home page + Contact Us
Forums (transfer existing)
Plus shopping cart with 4 products
Email setup
Backup disc for website
Australian based 24/7 support for hosting
Includes website front page design and scrolling gallery similar to
www.advrider.comWebsite support is about 5 minutes drive from my shop
This will cost $658.90, plus Monthly Web Hosting Costs that are still being negotiated.
The forum WILL NOT change - all the threads, posts, links, pics etc will migrate over this time, and you will NOT have to re-register either.
We would like to throw the door open to those of you would like to help us with this, basically passing the hat around, putting it bluntly we have 80 odd members -
roughly dividing it between us it is about $10 each to cover the cost of what we are looking at doing. If we can get a reasonably favourable result with member donations, then the reults will benefit every member. Already some members have dug deep to help out, and their efforts are greatly appreciated (you KNOW who you are) - thanks. You guys have shown nothing but support in where we are headed, and we like to keep everyone informed, as this forum is for all our benefit and enjoyment.
OzSTOC Bank Account Details (I have set this account up specifically for OzSTOC)
Acc Nickname: OzSTOC Riders
Acc Name: Mr David G Strang
BSB: 064 429
ACC: 1013 8445
PAYPAL
streak@ozstoc.com
With the Shop we have been doing things at cost, which means the extra postage costs here and there, that we have been covering out of our own pockets.
What we would like to do, is put a tiny margin on some items, and use the little bit we make to look at being able to group buy things like oil filters, so on and so forth to pass on to our members (you) at a discounted rate. This is also in conjunction with some manufacturers' and suppliers discounts to OzSTOC Members.
Cheers, the OzSTOC Team.
Streak (Graham)
Streak@OzSTOC.com
0428 729 106
Diesel (Dave)
0466 494 334
Diesel@OzSTOC.com
