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Paid staff or Free staff?

Ja sa bong

Ja sa bong

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A forum is best managed with staff members. Forum staff members can be paid or working as a volunteer without any pay.

When you launched your forum, did you start with paid staff members or those who volunteered to help you out? If you hired only volunteers, do you have any plans on paying them in the future?
 
I don't have the money to pay my staff unfortunately, but if I did I would definitely like to pay them! I currently have co-admins on two of my sites and they do a great job helping me run my forums.
 
I’ve never paid a staff member on my forum and I never will (apologies @Hulk & @~ True Legend ~). I’ve always ran forums as a hobby rather than a business - there’s not much monetary potential in forums anyway so it’s not like I have much of a choice! :p

Jokes aside, if you’re running forums or working on forums for money, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.
 
Excommunicado said:
I’ve never paid a staff member on my forum and I never will (apologies @Hulk & @~ True Legend ~). I’ve always ran forums as a hobby rather than a business - there’s not much monetary potential in forums anyway so it’s not like I have much of a choice! :p

Jokes aside, if you’re running forums or working on forums for money, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.
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I don't expect money. I've already got someone who pays me for working for them :eek:
 
I've always used free forum software, so I haven't really paid any of my staff members, they were all volunteers. I don't really have the money to be paying for staff members and I don't see it as a necessity when I could likely find volunteers for my board. Though, I've been flying solo for years now.
 
In an ideal world, it would be great to pay staff but I've always run forums that don't generate large amounts of revenue. I always allow staff to take part in contests though so they have the chance to win some prizes
 
Unfortunately, as much as I would love to offer a paid incentive to staff on my forum, at the moment that is not something I am able to do.

Any staff position is a volunteer on my forum at the moment which I always say is an opportunity to better your skills as a moderator to help you get into paid positions as a staff member :)
 
I only have volunteers on my new forum. I'm not earning any money out of it so can't give staff any. There's costs I have to pay for out of my pocket such as theme renewals, hosting etc.
 
Depends on what job is being done by staff members. If it is time consuming, like for real and if staff's work makes money for the owner, of course he should pay them if he is a moral person. If owner don't earn anything, there is no need to pay anything.
 
I don't have staff as my forum is still small, but if I did have staff, I'd pay them in some worthwhile way, either money or forum currency that could buy them things they really want. Well, this isn't a charity forum. I'm that case, I pay.
 
If I'm making money from my forum and I have staff members, I'll pay them because I'm not a selfish person. It's when I don't earn from my forum through Adsense or any other monetization means, I won't pay any staff from my pocket.
 
I don't do volunteer jobs. If I'm working as a staff on any forum, it's going to be paid agreement. If I own a forum and need to work with some staffs, they'll be hired on paid agreement.
 
When I launched my forum back in 2014, I started with volunteers who generously offered their help. The forum doesn't exist anymore as Zetaboards is no more there with us sadly. :( Anyway, if the forum was still there today, and the same volunteers continued to support the forum, I wouldn't have minded paying them for the efforts they put in.
 
If you want to demand anything from those who work in your forum, they must be paid. If they are doing it voluntarily, they don't owe you anything on how they are active on your forum. They can go and come as they please.
 
Excommunicado said:
Jokes aside, if you’re running forums or working on forums for money, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.
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The only way which I'm going to agree and support this your opinion would be when you the forum owner isn't making money from your forum project. If you have Google Adsense enable on your forum, charge for ads space on your forum and pocket all the money alone, you will expect someone to work on your forum for free? Sorry, this is being extremely selfish.
 
Ja sa bong said:
The only way which I'm going to agree and support this your opinion would be when you the forum owner isn't making money from your forum project. If you have Google Adsense enable on your forum, charge for ads space on your forum and pocket all the money alone, you will expect someone to work on your forum for free? Sorry, this is being extremely selfish.
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It depends on the money earned from ads and if it covers fully the hosting cost or not, because sometimes money earned from ads doesn't cover the full hosting cost and then it differs from someone making a profit from it so he pays staff for being active in his community.
 
Ravenfreak said:
I don't have the money to pay my staff unfortunately, but if I did I would definitely like to pay them! I currently have co-admins on two of my sites and they do a great job helping me run my forums.
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Paying the admins will definitely motivate them to keep doing more. This is because money is a great motivation for a lot of people to work, and that is why I think paying them will make a lot of sense. However, since you don't have money to pay them, you will need to explain that to them and make them not feel like they are being cheated.
 
Henrywrites said:
Paying the admins will definitely motivate them to keep doing more. This is because money is a great motivation for a lot of people to work, and that is why I think paying them will make a lot of sense. However, since you don't have money to pay them, you will need to explain that to them and make them not feel like they are being cheated.
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Indeed true, this is because if you invite staff member first thing they think about that you will pay them for their work provided even some funds. If they are hired, after a period of administrative work, you say them you do not make money with your forum so they got disappointed as points are not clarified in the beginning.
 
Currently, I am a staff on three forums. I get paid for staff role in one forum, payment depends on the revenue generated by the forum. On another forum, I earn credits for posting on the forum as well as package team member. On the third forum I am a free staff, but I can earn through paid posting.
 
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I did not tried staff experience in the past but join as free staff could be in case if it is not paid to post site.
 
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