Dear friends and devoted fans of THE MADONNA CATALOG:
After more than five years of a "free" site, I regret that I could no longer afford to keep the site up for free, without being compensated for my work. I sometimes spend up to 4 to 8 hours a day, keeping the site up to date with all the latest photos and information.
The memorabilia I sell through my "for sale" pages used to be enough to cover my expenses. However, with increasing competition (mostly because of eBay), the ever-worsening economy, and increased overhead costs (internet service, web hosting, disk space, bandwidth, domain name renewals, equipment, etc.) I can no longer afford to keep the web site up and running with what I make from selling memorabilia.
The last thing I would ever want to do is just take away the site completely. I've owned "The Madonna Catalog" since 1992 (15 years now!) and the web site has been up for over 10 years. It's been a labor of love for me, but I'm just not making enough money off it to cover everything. I know a lot of you have stuck with me since day one (back in January of 1997) when the site was nothing more than one single page with a few photos, a few links, and a few items for sale. But now the site has grown into the largest site of its kind. It would take literally WEEKS to sit and browse through every single page of the site. So support from fans like you means a lot to me!
I honestly think that my membership prices and plans are very reasonable. If you view the site frequently (more than 2 or 3 times a week) for info on items you collect, or to just look around, I don't think that $25 for an entire YEAR of unlimited, unrestricted access is unfair. I also offer membership in 6-month increments for only $15.00. That's only about 8 cents a day, for access to the most complete, comprehensive, and most content-rich Madonna web site in the entire world. I even offer a "trial" membership for only $2.00, which gives you 3 full days of unlimited access to the entire site, so you can check everything out without having to commit to a longer membership. Besides, so many "adult" sites out there charge $10 to $20 or more each month to view nothing but naked pictures (which gets boring after a while). My web site is much less expensive than that, and it offers much more informative and interesting photos and information.
If you still think that $3 a month is too much for what you get in my web site, then simply browse elsewhere. Or better yet, pay the Official Madonna Fan Club the $30 a year instead, and get nothing but a lame, out-dated web site site with absolutely NO focus on rare memorabilia and photos, and if you're lucky, ONE issue of their so-called fanzine. Those of you who have bought memorabilia through both OMFC and through my TMC web site know the difference. Just read some of the testimonials I've received if you still don't get it.
My web site costs me hundreds of dollars each month to keep up - mostly in bandwidth (traffic) charges - the site gets over 3,000 "hits" (visits) per day, from people all around the world (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) and that costs a lot! Besides, those of you who have signed up for membership so far seem to be quite happy that everything loads a lot FASTER than it used to, because now there aren't thousands of other people trying to access everything at the same time. So membership also gets you a faster web site!
I sincerely hope you understand my situation, and will continue to support the web site by purchasing a membership. As time and money permit, I promise to continue adding more and more photos and info to the site, to make it worth the membership - but I honestly think that it's already worth it, since the site contains thousands and thousands of rare photos, exclusive information, and much more - so much more information and photos than you could EVER find in any book (even a book that costs more than a 1-year membership). I also realize that I lost some viewers by requiring a membership to view the majority of the site. This was a very difficult decision, but one that I had to make in order to keep the site alive. To those of you who enjoyed the site, but simply refuse to pay for it now, I truly apologize, and I do thank you for your patronage and support in the past.
Pages that already generate money, like the "for sale" pages, as well as other pages like my guest book, "about me" page, and many other pages, will remain free for everyone to view. I have just created some really nice "preview" pages for each area, so you'll be able to see why a membership is worth it, before you sign up.
There are now over 250 different "member" pages that can be viewed with a membership - a great value! Once you are signed in as a member, you will have complete, unlimited access to ALL areas of my web site until you close or quit your web browser. Membership pricing plans and information can be found on this page:
http://www.madonnacatalog.com/membershipinfo.htm
Aside from web site access, membership includes many other benefits, such as merchandise discounts, access to exclusive photos, pages, and areas, and much more. If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Steve Caraco
THE MADONNA CATALOG