Quote Originally Posted by ColoradoCareMMJ
Why not break some ground and take a new direction away from dispensary sponsored reviews? Create a members-only site that you have to pay 5 or 10 a month to be a member of.... that way you can cover your costs and put some money in your pocket while not having to worry about boosting any sponsors egos. I think ALOT of patients would be more than willing to spend 5 or 10 dollars for this service...
This is a quality idea. However, it sort of goes against some of my intent and mission, which is to save patients money. I don't really want someone paying for my site and then going and paying $50 for meds on top of it... Not to be too presumptive, but I think that dispensaries are more able to fork over a few bucks a month for something that is providing them advertising than patients are for something that isn't bringing them a measurable monetary benefit. I know some patients can afford it and would gladly pay, but I want to make my site available to all MMJ patients, many of which are low-income and can barely afford their meds and living expenses, much less a paid review site to help them make buying decisions.

It would definitely be nice to have some mega-site where you have reviews of a ton of strains coming in daily from all over the area from qualified reviewers... if it took charging $5 or $10/month for access, then maybe it would be worth a shot. I'm certainly open to the possibility, but my first option for a pay site would be getting funding from the primary beneficiaries (dispensaries) rather than from patients. With all the integrity issues and muddying of the waters that causes though, maybe the non-dispensary ad route is really the only way without charging patients... It's tough, especially for someone like me who loathes internet ads and would hate to muck up my site with them ("legal buds", how I hate you).

Maybe a partially paid site... like a members area with access to ALL the review archives but a front page with a selection of the most recent 10 or so... I dunno, it would be tough for me to limit content in that manner, but you're right that it would be a good solution to the ego issues and everything else that comes along with dispensary-funded review sites. Something to thing about I guess.

Thanks for your thoughts Bryan. I hope to meet you soon as well, I'll try to make it in on Saturday so I can see your shop.