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All Brand Spanking New: Premium Accounts


wimg

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Yes, you read it correctly!

 

We now have Premium Accounts!

Premium Accounts have been created in order to offer something extra for the business people and/or budding entrepreneurs frequenting and supporting the Fountain Pen Network. These accounts have significant benefits over Bronze, Silver and Gold membership accounts, and they are specifically intended for traders, vendors, entrepreneurs, sellers, people providing pen services, manufacturers, representatives and anybody else on the business or advanced hobbyist side of the fountain pen community to promote their wares, knowledge, skills, and services. IOW, something that wasn't available on FPN in the past, and which offers unprecedented new features and options for those partaking!

Premium Account Holders

Premium account holders have various options available to promote and enhance their business or services, right here on FPN, the largest pen community in the world, with over 75,000 registered members and over 300,000 unique visitors (ip-addresses) each month, with both continuing to grow at an almost alarming rate!

 

FPN is very highly ranked with regard to website traffic, within the 99th percentile, and FPN's site rank is well below the 100,000 mark when considering all sites worldwide (based on a survey of 25,511,510 domain names):

fpn_1354416735__gold.png

 

The Fountain Pen Network Ranking Score

 

So, what better place to promote your goods and services, with the largest ready-made target audience in the world, right here on FPN!

 

In short, do check out all the benefits you will get, here, when signing up for a premium account:

FPN Premium Accounts, Table of Comparison

 

And in signing up, you'll not only help yourself, but help this site grow further too!

 

 

The FPN Moderator and Admin Team

 

_________________

o

19 Comments


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Okay...I'm glad for the clarification. At first it looked like the "some animals are more equal" doctrine at work. Cheers and thank you for all y'all's efforts!

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I do believe we found a nice balance between the needs and wants of the two groups we essentially have here :D.

 

Warm regards, Wim

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raffaele from turin - italy

Posted

Hi Wimg,

i do not consider myself a professional, i'm only a passionate user and i like very much trading pens...i always want a new pen to write with...but your limits are quite stringent...

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Hello all FPNers.

 

I have received from Admin a kind "invitation" to join this new cathegory .

 

That would mean a considerable money cost for me.

 

But I am not a trader, I am not in the pen selling business, I do not make profit from the pens I sell (if any), I do not make a living from the FPN.

 

I only sell the (very) limited quantity of pens available for doing so, all of them from my own private collection. This is therefore a finite activity, so when all pens now for sale are gone, my share of classified is also gone. The selling is temporary (at least I hope so, if my financial status does not get still worse).

 

So I will be one of the (I think many) FPNers that will remain just Gold, of course with the restrictions implied in the new rules for the old Gold.

 

How do you see the new policy? All different points of view are welcomed!

 

THANK YOU all in advance,

plumista

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Is money starting to ruin things? What are the benefits for the average Joe?

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Is money starting to ruin things? What are the benefits for the average Joe?

 

No. For people who don't sell a lot, nothing changes.

 

Regards, Wim

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Hello all FPNers.

 

 

 

I have received from Admin a kind "invitation" to join this new cathegory .

 

 

 

That would mean a considerable money cost for me.

 

 

 

But I am not a trader, I am not in the pen selling business, I do not make profit from the pens I sell (if any), I do not make a living from the FPN.

 

 

 

I only sell the (very) limited quantity of pens available for doing so, all of them from my own private collection. This is therefore a finite activity, so when all pens now for sale are gone, my share of classified is also gone. The selling is temporary (at least I hope so, if my financial status does not get still worse).

 

 

 

So I will be one of the (I think many) FPNers that will remain just Gold, of course with the restrictions implied in the new rules for the old Gold.

 

 

 

How do you see the new policy? All different points of view are welcomed!

 

 

 

THANK YOU all in advance,

 

plumista

It would have been nice to have indicated this in a reply to Admin.

 

Regards, Wim

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this is great, i thought from years why we freely trade our pens. why not any restriction, why FPN give chance to find lots of pen directly from years, this is completely what FPN needs. Congratulations admins and FPN team. i really like buy pens with additionel fees, and seller profits.

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I fully agree with the idea of premium accounts in some form.

 

As I am not a trader, I cannot judge if the implementation suits the various traders.

 

 

But I have noticed that some moderators now also have a premium account (fine with me if they also trade), under another name. Now I have been around for a while so I spotted some of these. But I think it would be the right thing to do to indicate somewhere in the avatars or so, that this trader is also a moderator.

 

D.ick

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this is great, i thought from years why we freely trade our pens. why not any restriction, why FPN give chance to find lots of pen directly from years, this is completely what FPN needs. Congratulations admins and FPN team. i really like buy pens with additionel fees, and seller profits.

Really nice of you to think that the FPN community as a whole should profit a little as well.

 

Since you do, why not take that responsibilty in your own hands, and upgrade your account to a premium one right now, considering you are a a seller in what previously was the high volume/professional category?

 

Thank you in advance!

 

Regards, Wim

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I fully agree with the idea of premium accounts in some form.

 

As I am not a trader, I cannot judge if the implementation suits the various traders.

 

But I have noticed that some moderators now also have a premium account (fine with me if they also trade), under another name. Now I have been around for a while so I spotted some of these. But I think it would be the right thing to do to indicate somewhere in the avatars or so, that this trader is also a moderator.

 

D.ick

The whole idea is to clearly separate moderatorship from premium accounts, which is why it is required for them to set up another account. Moderators, when it comes to trading, have to abide by exactly the same rules AND restrictions as anyone else here. Hence the distinction.

 

Regards, Wim

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Well, I have to say that my first response was negative - didn't feel I should have to pay just to have a few classifieds, etc, etc...

 

But then, it occurs to me that I have been really quite negligent in supporting FPN financially, despite the fact that I am here almost constantly. And, FPN does need to be supported.

 

So, despite my initial misgivings, I think this is the right way to go. I am on board now as a 'Ruby' member. Now to figure out just what that means...

 

Ken

 

PS - my ongoing thanks to all the hard working mods that keep this place going!

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Thank you, Ken, much appreciated!

 

A lot of people I think don't have the faintest idea what it takes to keep this place afloat, both from a financial POV, and from a time investment as well. Partly this is due of course because we don't want to bother everybody with the details, but considering the current financial position of the main contributors to this site, both from a financial and from a time investment POV, we had to take quick action. We'll finetune things along the way, everything constructed so far of course has indeed been partly by commission, and partly by one particular madman who worked day and night on it.

 

So far it appears to be paying off, fortunately, at least from the POV that we are safe for the next 6 months now, something we haven't been for about 2 1/2 years now.

 

I honestly do hope we will get enough support to go to the next level of hosting, as we need it really badly - the hardware we are hosted on currently, while big, is slowly but surely coming apart at the seams, since December already.

 

As to what it means, if you do hav eany questions, please feel free to contact me backchannel. I'll gladly (try to :D) help with any questions you may have.

 

Warm regards, Wim

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This is papafox38 - a newcomer to FPN which caught my interest with an article concerning sketch paper which was part of a package the person bought and was missing. The paper was of litte interest to me, the the Leonardo Sketch Pen was. I collect pens and use them to improve my penmanship, study and practice calligraphy, study graphology, and to sketch my life such as it is at 75. I've never heard of the pen and would like to know more about it and, if for sale, where and how to acquire one. Being new, any responses should be either addressed to FPN in care of papafox38 or to email papafox38@gmail.com. I haven't memorized all the rules yet, give me a little time; so any errors I may have made, please tell me and let me grow. I live in Redlands, CA, 80 miles east of LA and close to my son who is my Care Taker and a good one.

 

Regards to all, Peter

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Not sure if this is the place to ask my question but, how do you know when the Gold "limit" has been reached for classifieds? I need to sell some of my pens and inks to pay bills, so I really don't want to have to buy a Ruby. I'd like to know if there is a warning system in place so that I know if I'm close to reaching the Gold maximum and will need to purchase a Ruby account. This wasn't really addressed or clarified in the premium descriptions. I really don't quite understand what a lot of the info means except for the quantity of classifieds per year and upload size, I'm not a pen dealer. I hope this made sense.

 

Thanks Much

 

Jenni

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fountainpenlady

Posted

I am so confused. In order to sell any items, one has to be someone who has paid on any level?

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i just sell at pen shows now, and come here for advice, practical or factual. I enjoy this site. I do sell pens, but for 2012, i sold 172 pens, and bought 112, the main thing is i have changed my collection values and therfore. I hope I have raised my level of value in my collection.

I would like to be a prem, member but i travel and work 7 days a week, i just can not find the time to spend selling pens on fpn, when im at shows that most of the serious collectors are at anyways, more usa shows in 2014, see everyone in london soonish.

g

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So if I chip in for a Ruby account here I can start a blog about being a left handed FP user? I cannot imagine writing too much but are there any restrictions on blogs posted in terms of size?

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