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road.cc redesignAbout road.cc subscriptions
It’s a cliche because it’s so true: the digital landscape is always changing. And right now, the pace of that change is quicker than ever. Specialist publishers are not immune to those changes: some are charging for specific content, and some are putting up blanket paywalls. We want our well-respected reviews and buying advice to continue to be available to everyone. So we’re choosing a different path – supporter subscriptions.
If you’ve read this article on the site then you’ll know that when it comes to paying for all the things road.cc does, the ads do the heavy lifting; yes, even that gross earwax one makes a contribution. We also know (because you’ve told us) that many of you would like to make a contribution too – and that some of you aren’t keen on the ads that pay for the site. Not everyone that wants to support road.cc finds the ads intrusive, and not everyone that’s ad-phobic wants to support our efforts to produce unbiased, informative and entertaining cycling content. But there is a big overlap.
With that in mind you can now subscribe to road.cc for £1.99 a month, or £19.99 a year. That’s less than a slice of cake at your favourite cycle-friendly cafe every month, so we reckon it’s pretty good value. Subscribers have the option of turning the ads off, so the site will be all about the bikes. The revenue we generate from subscriptions will be going back into the site to make it better, and we’ll be talking directly to our subscribers to find out what people want from road.cc and its sister sites.
As a subscriber you’ll get a monthly newsletter with behind-the-scenes content and subscriber-only offers, and as the subscriber base increases we’ll be adding more subs-only content, driven by our conversations with you.
The only thing you could previously pay for on road.cc was premium Fantasy Cycling, and that will be rolled into the new road.cc subscription.
So, those are the plans. We like making the site, and we hope that you like reading it. With subscriptions we think we'll be able to do more, and we hope you'll join us on this journey.
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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As someone who lives a street away from Arnold Circus (main picture) and unfortunately has Rahman as our mayor and filled in all these...
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50 comments
I subscribed back in May 2015! Got a pair of the Argyle socks! (Which I still wear)
That scheme was cancelled the following year I think, so I'm more than happy to start up again.
I tried to subscribe, but just get this error when I click on 'Subscribe now':
"Something went wrong. Please contact with website administrator"
Sold! It's a small price to pay for a better experience of two sites I visit several times per day.
I'm in....
appreciating that the man who works for free has gone on holiday, £20 a year isn't a big hit in itself, but add in four more of my regular sites angling for my cash, it will mount up and that's without all the dozens of other sites I, butterfly-like, flit around.
I think you need to offer something more tangible than just an ad-free environment.
I've signed up - no adverts except the Daily Deals!
I don't understand this wording:
"Monthly contributions are billed each month and annual contributions are billed once a year. You can change how much you give or cancel your contributions at any time."
This seems to be you hold my details on file and call them off each period. How is that PCI compliant? How and where are my details kept? Why isn't there a one off option where you don't keep my details? Why aren't you offering PayPal?
If they didn't hold some of your details, how would they know who you were when you visited to make use of your subscription?
They must already be holding some details for you to log in and post your comment.
I thought it was clear it was card details, since that was the paragraph I copied in and then commented on. Since my layout seems to have changed on save, I've amended my post.
Payments are all handled off site, by Stripe. We don't hold your card details at all.
If they've done it right (and I'm not saying they definitely have), they don't need to hold your card details. All they hold is a unique identifier, which your bank knows relates to your agreement with them. When they need to take a payment they send the amount and the identifier, and the bank works out which card it relates to and sorts out the payment.
Two and a half years ago you wrote to me: "ad-free subscription is something we've considered, but at the moment we've no plans to implement it" since then the quality of this site has slid to the point where I very rarely read it. This is the first time that I've gone directly to the website this year, rather than having an article turn up in a google search.
I think road.cc has lost its chance with me. It's still not fully integrated with off-road.cc and e-bike tips. Ad and script blockers are no longer enough to make this site interesting. I think it'll soon just be a speck lingering in the Internet Archive and a Wikipedia entry. It's a shame, but things evolve, otherwise I'd still be enjoying uk.rec.cycling and paper copies of Cycling Weekly.
As far as I can see, it has no Wikipedia entry.
'348 posts" suggests otherwise.
Never see the ads myself but i'm willing to pay my way.I'd prefer paypal as a payment option.
My ad blocker already cleans up the mess on the site. As others have said, there isn't anything here that I can't find on other sites.
By the way, when I do visit this site off of my home network, it's hard to know where the road.cc contet begins and the ad onslaught ends. With the number of ads on road.cc, one would think you're already generate enough revenue to maintain the site.
Once the site puts up a paywall, I'll go elsware.
If you charge a subscription, you willl have to improve the quality of your blog. All we have had since the redesign are promotional clothing reviews, promotional bike reviews and promotional component reviews. Like, just how many Lycra jerseys do you really think I need.
I can't remember the last time I saw a critical review.
And advertising? It is SO intrusive......
advertising can be intrusive. and we need to keep the lights on. so now there's a direct subscription model if you want to support the site. but if your position on the site content is 'everything you do is bent' then i can't really help you, you're better off elsewhere really.
Reply to dave atkinson...
You won't get very far as a blog if you tell your readers they "are better off elsewhere..." In case you haven't noticed, you are in a very competitive market. There are dozens of bicycle magazines and blogs that give fair, honest and critical reviews of cycling products that buy advertising in your blog. Readers are not ignorant. They can tell if you promote advertisers who finance your bottom line. You will soon lose those readers. You have lost me....
To be fair, he didn't tell 'his readers' they were better off elsewhere - just one person who appeared to have already made up their mind that the site wasn't for them anyway.
if something's sponsored on road.cc, it'll say it's sponsored. like this:
https://road.cc/content/feature/everything-you-need-know-about-hr2vp-276207
It's not complicated. reviews are never sponsored. so the things you're saying simply aren't true. if you want to believe them, that's fine, but it's pretty pointless you spending time on the site.
Dave, whilst I enjoy this website (particularly the forums), there is nothing on here which I cannot get on other free sites which justifies me trusting you with my payment details, we have all regularly seen the standard of your IT system so, sorry, that is not a risk I am prepared to take.
Hopefully it will be punch out and return and roadcc will be ignorant of the details.
Sorry, pisspoor excuse - pay with Paypal and no risk at all.
Ah, sorry roubaixcobbles, I didnt see the option to pay with paypal, where did you see that, you wouldnt be spouting off through your arse without knowing the facts first would you?
They don't take PayPal in their shop, otherwise I would have bought a t-shirt (my preferred way of supporting sites I like).
Yep, I'll sign up.
Take
My
Money!
no ads? Take my money!
I think that's fair enough. I probably visit the site several times every day and I value the opinions of the writers and other forum members.
I think that this mode of operation will increase. Will just have to be mindful of how many subscriptions I take out, though. Could very easily end up leaking cash.
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