Hi everyone, thanks all for your replies. I've read every post, some more than once, and I appreciate everyone taking the time to read through my opening post and then taking the time to respond. The replies supporting the idea of an annual subscription and peoples reasoning for this are really interesting. Likewise, those against it are too. For me its a case of probably being too close to the forest to see the trees, which is why I appreciate your feedback. I've invested nearly 2 years in this site. I was driving along a few weeks ago and began calculating the time each week I spend working on the site, and was a bit stunned to realise I spend roughly 25 hours per week working on it! Whats even more scary is that I actually need to be spending more time than that on it to get it as I'd like it.

Please understand that the idea of an annual subscription is just that, an idea. I do need to monetize the site, I can’t keep investing the time I do in it without it earning money. Advertising is usually the most obvious option, but finding the time to try and lure advertisers is the sticking point, particularly in a tough economic climate. I’ve been in touch with a company who specialise in finding advertisers for websites, but they want me to increase the number of articles I’m writing, and increase unique visitor numbers a little more, and even then they can’t guarantee anything. So this is an option, but the timeframe and payback are something of an unknown.

I’m in the very early stages of working with an online promotions company to find a solution.

It may be that a dedicated paid subscribers forum area is created, separate from the existing General Discussion forum, and all the articles (both new and existing), photo collections, event reviews etc etc, go into that, and those paying the subscription have access to it, plus all the existing free view areas, while those choosing not to pay the subscription, only have access to the free areas. Those not paying could see a small part of the content (ie, the first couple of paragraphs of each article etc), so if they decided there was enough in there to warrant paying the subscription, they could, otherwise they could continue to enjoy the free areas.

Additionally, an online shop will also be created similar to what Russ has suggested above.

Anyway, still plenty to think about. Thanks again for the replies. They are really helpful.