A THOUGHT
As part of the “organisation” could we set up a data base as cover symptoms, medications, alternate medicines etc just so we as a group can see any benifits from what we the lab rats are taking?
I know most if not all medicines we are told to take for diabetes causes the symptoms which later kill us.
My cholestrol drug causes kidney failure and liver problems…
Lipitol caused me to have constant pain all through my body and made me walk like a 90 year old. It also stuffed up my memory etc to the point I almost ended up in a psych ward. Put there by the idiot doctor who perscribed the above…go figure.
Any agrees or disagrees??
Hi Garry,
I love this idea… I was wondering if the Ning network had that capability. We could all use this database to compare meds, services, insurance copays, med side effects, etc. What do you all think about this idea?
One obvious question is “How much money does it take to maintain this website?”.
Was thinking the same thing?
I was working on the numbers over the weekend (still got some more number crunching to do). It’s more than just maintaining the site in terms of hosting costs (that will add up -between TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes.com) to close to approx, $500 per year.
It’s really about the time it takes (man/woman hours) to monitor things, to keep spammers at bay (they come in waves), to continue to promote the community, welcoming new members inviting them to Groups where they can connect with others they share something in common, to work on developing the product so that it keeps getting better (answering to member requests, thinking ahead how we can make the most of upcoming/new features offered by Ning), etc.
This has been, these past few months, more and more a second job for me (weeks working about 80 hours have not been unusual)… needless to say that is very hard to sustain, so I logically wondered: maybe this can be my life… maybe I can dedicate myself to this at some point. I don’t know if that will be possible, but it doesn’t hurt to think about it. After all, I think we have something good going on here plus I love doing this and seeing that we are all causing a great impact on so many lives. So I am working on trying to develop an actual business plan for Tu Diabetes, putting the expenses on one end and the income on the other and seeing if there’s a viable way to balance them.
To me, as a member, less important than how much it costs to maintain this website is how much it gives back to others. This website is an enormous gift to others with diabetes and it benefits many (hey Manny – you are almost at the 1,000 member goal!). I would imagine Manny has given up thousands of hours of his leisure and social time already to make all this happen. Anyone can toss up a website and let it fend for itself but to cultivate a website into something more than a money-maker but an actual service takes a huge time commitment. I for one, would love to see tuDiabetes do more than cover the hosting costs and offer income to pay those who devote what basically amounts to a full-time job to keep it running.
One of the reasons I feel so strongly about this is because I believe tuDiabetes is fast becoming an ambassador for those of us with diabetes and not just another “make money off members” sites. A large community united has power – power to change laws, public perceptions, and even social “norms.”
So instead of asking how much it costs I ask what is the mission, what can tuDiabetes accomplish, what can it do for us as diabetics, and, of course, what, if we believe in that mission, can we do for tuDiabetes?
Good idea. How do you guys feel about Stevia? I ask because their makers are a much smaller company (SweetLeaf) that may be easier to engage.
Don’t forget to try approaching Fifty-fifty, makers of diabetic-friendly products. They are family owned I believe and recently started a low-cost diabetes supply program for those in need. They seem genuinely committed to helping others struggling with diabetes.
I agree with your answer Lahle! I think Manny is devoted to letting other find out about this site and he is always there to help any of us and I LOVE that!!! I’m trying here in TN too get new menbers and probably even making Manny’s job even harded but like I’ve told all my friends and the TV station newspapers radoi stations etc…This is a great site for Type 1’s and Type 2’s. You can ask anything and someone here will try and help you or atleast give you their opionion and what worked for them!!! It’s really hard to live with this dease if you have a family who just don’t understand or have lost your main support from death. That’s what happened to me and I really felt lost till I found tudiabetes! THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH MANNY!!!
The only thing about the smaller companies is they may not have the funds to provide. I think any of the smaller companies is great! You might even try to engage Subway. I know that our local Subway helps with all of our ADA events and they promote healthier eating habits… just another thought. You might consider Medtronic even. They just want to push people going on the pump (which will help many) and not any kind of drug or pill, etc. Nestle’ also has many sugar-free items or even Smuckers…
Thanks so much to everyone for all your ideas!!! It means a lot!
I’ve gone ahead and set up a banner with diabetes books on the site, all of which I’ve found to be very useful. If you feel I could be adding another book to the mix (refresh to see the whole list), please let me know.
When you click on any of the books in the banner and end up making a purchase a percentage of the purchase goes to TuDiabetes. I will leave it running for a couple of months to see how it goes. 
Wanted to give everyone an update. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve set up a few referral accounts which generate a commission for TuDiabetes whenever anyone clicks on the banners mentioned below and eventually makes a purchase of a product/service.
I’ve placed these banners on the following Groups and I wanted your feedback, as well as to make you aware of their existence and purpose:
US - West Diabetes: Safeway Online
Music and Music Lovers: eMusic, TicketsNow.com
Retired Diabetics: American Diabetes Services
Diabetic Geeks: Apple, 1&1, Verizon Broadband
Single Diabetics: Match.com
Pets and People: PetCareRX, PetsMart
College Students: Kaplan, FastWeb
I have a lengthy list of other ones that I have not had time to place yet. Among them:
-Skype, TigerDirect, Toshiba, 1&1, GoDaddy, GoToMyPC - for geedk diabetics
-Champion, Champs Sports - for athletic diabetics
-eStudentLoan - for College Students
-NutriSystem - for Weight Loss Team
-iTunes - for Musicians and Music Lovers
-CafeMom, Hooked On Phonics and SitterCity - For Diabetic Parents and Parents of Children with Type 1
Thoughts? Any other companies that come to mind when you see these that you’d see yourself clicking on, in order to purchase products/services from?
Weight Watchers Online
E-Bay
Gap
Manny, I’m not sure if you or anyone else here has ever heard of Mr. Rebates, but I’ve been a member for about two years now… Basically, if you shop through their links you get rebates on a lot of stuff you already buy online… but the coolest part is that if you refer friends, you also earn 20% of their rebates (doesn’t change how much they earn). So, Manny, if you signed up, and let other members sign up through you, they’d earn rebates, and TuDiabetes would earn a percentage of those as well… This way, it benefits not only the members but the site as a whole. I personally do a lot of shopping online, and I’ve earned over $200 in rebates the past two years. With even half our community doing this through the TuDiabetes site, the site would pay for itself.
I applied for becoming a WeightWatchers affiliate and still haven’t heard back.
Gap is good.
What do you mean about eBay?
When I bring up my email, there is advertisement, either it said get on E-Bay, or special deals on E-Bay, so I could of gone right to e-bay from my email screen to look at the special deals.
If it comes up again I will be more specific.
You should also look into iGive.com and maybe even mypoints.com
I just signed up our local iGive.com site and sent it out to our local ADA members… it’s basically what you are trying to do by using certain affilites, but iGive handles it all for you. You could just put a link directing everyone to login for free and shop thru iGive. It’s pretty easy.
Hope I haven’t missed the answer to this somewhere, but have we worked out yet what sort of cash the group needs to answer the problem and over what sort of time frame (immediate injection, long-term trickle)? The choice we might consider between - say - sporadic revenue generation (e.g. selling T shirts) and low-level but long-term support (e.g. corporate advertising) is going to be dependent on what the need boils down to.
Though T-shirts are always cool. Especially if they can be sent to the UK.
Penny:
I didn’t know about iGive. It makes great sense!
I will sign us up right away.
I know this sounds silly, Ross, but I sill haven’t done all the math I need to do. My life has been close to crazy with 80-90 hour weeks the past month or so, with last week peaking due to a project we FINALLY launched today!
I hope the next weeks leave me some more time to get you and everyone an answer.