I took some time to think and figure out if and how I should make this happen, considering all memberships were already in place and ready to go. But I decided people shouldn’t be paying for a service that can’t offer what it promises (yet). Let me explain why I decided to roll back paid memberships before going live and give free full access for all in 2020 instead!
Ready, set … go?
After many hours of sitting behind my computer working on this site, creating pages, articles, membership pages, groups, payment setup and more, I’m finally at a point where I’m happy enough with how everything looks and functions. The site is ready to go. Right?
Wrong! I was so focused on getting this website ready and making it perfect, that I’m missing the most important part of this website. It’s members. And let’s be honest, who’s going to pay for dating on a site with no members? Not me! So most likely, neither will you.
It’s just a phase
A phrase most of us probably have heard once or twice as a response to our (a)sexuality. However, in the case of this free membership, it (unfortunately) really is just a phase. I feel like the next months until the end of 2020 can be considered an improvement phase. Meaning the rest of the year (2020) can be used to improve the site as much as possible as more asexuals will start using it and hopefully will be offering feedback and ideas so I can make it an asexual dating website worth paying a annual fee for. More information on memberships and pricing can be found in our FAQ.
But why pay at all, ever?
There are many reasons why I have decided to start using paid memberships in 2021. But I’ll name the three most important ones to me below.
Safety
The first reason that made me decide to implement paid memberships is safety. Because I want this asexual dating site to become a place where asexuals feel safe. Putting the option of private messaging, as well as viewing peoples personal profiles behind a paywall means less spam and harassment and more people who are seriously looking for a match.
Better, faster, stronger!
Another reason is that I’d like this website to become ‘better, faster, stronger’. I want to combine the website with both information on one end, dating on the other. The money earned on paid memberships will also go back into the website with more elaborate scripts for the matching system, as well as building more user friendly ‘search’ scripts.
Dedicate all my time to raising awareness and helping the community
Monitoring and moderating, but also updating and securing will take up time and the website as it is as of now, already has taken up a lot of time to build. I’ve been working on this site for hundreds of hours now. But I am thoroughly enjoying it and would love to make this my full time job. As an asexual myself I would love nothing more than to spend more time building and growing this site and its community. With the income this site could possibly generate, I can do even more!
For example, I have been thinking about doing bigger things for the community, like organizing events and starting a podcast for more awareness. More ideas are already present but will be shared later on. One big project at a time, right?
So what will paid memberships cost?
The different prices for memberships will be €0 for the free (look around) membership and €30 for the full access membership. The full access price will allow you to use the site fully for a year and is not automatically renewed. For most people this means not buying that one extra coffee a month.. or cake.
On the bright side, I’m expecting the asexual community to grow over the next few years with more and more people talking about asexuality. The goal will be to lower the annual costs as more people join.
More information
Now you know why I’m giving free full access for all in 2020. I’d suggest to get started on finding and dating asexuals if you haven’t already and try everything out that the website has to offer. And if you run into any issues or have any ideas to make it even better, let me know so I can improve. If you’d like extra information about the memberships, this website or anything else related to it, you can find a lot of frequently asked questions in the FAQ. You can find this under ‘info’ in the top menu.
Enjoy your stay!
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