THE FUTURE OF KOPTALK

After looking at various options regarding financing the site and after taking on board all of your feedback, I have decided to continue running the site without selling it or a part of it to a commercial organisation that would be in it just for the money and their own self gain.

I have suggested various options to you, the readers, and 99.9% of you have said you would like to make donations to the cause to prevent 'the suits' coming in.

At the moment Kop Talk is run from home by myself with the help of family members such as my mum who does a lot of typing, telephone calls etc, my wife Maria who deals with a lot of emails when she's not at work and there's also help from my daughter Charlotte who's aged 7, she helps on 'Kop Kids' with Steven Macneish a close family friend (aged 11). Last but certainly not least, there's my cousin Donna (Red Alert).

Away from the family, there's input from various columnists, some of whom do it for no financial reward. There are also paid columnists.

The site survives on advertising revenue and small commissions from book sales, betting etc - every couple of pounds help.

Kop Talk has become a victim of its own success. The media refer to this site as the 'best unofficial football website in the world' - not just the best unofficial Liverpool site! Here's a few snippets from a selection of reviews, please read them before reading on:

The Mirror: "A website that represents Liverpool fans and is widely recognised as the true voice of supporters..."

BBC: "...an indispensable source of background info and news on the Mighty Reds. Anfield legends Tommy Smith and Jan Molby are among half a dozen regular columnists. Other features include in-depth reviews and previews, loads of fun stuff, a strong multimedia and interactive section and more Liverpool stats than you could shake an anorak at..."

The Daily Star: "...one of the best unofficial sites in the business...the site hit the net as a hobby of Reds fan Duncan 18 months ago and since then it has developed into the biggest and most popular Liverpool FC fans' site in the world. It receives millions of hits each month and is a favourite not only with the fans but also the Liverpool players, such as Vegard Heggem, who links to it from his own website. Columnists include old Liverpool favourites like Tommy Smith, Jan Molby, Peter Thompson, Rob Jones and Ian St. John on a site that's easy to understand and is full of newsy, fact-based information..."

Totalfootball: "Kop Talk has become one of the most important and successful football sites on the web. It's updated around the clock by dedicated and fanatical fans... a favourite amongst the Liverpool players...has a reputation for substantiated reporting and trustworthy sources...too many reasons to explain why this is one of the most popular football sites on the web..."

Football365: "As voted for by the online football public, Koptalk has proven itself as the number one unofficial website. In our poll, Koptalk beat off competition from a host of other sites for the title of Football365 Site of the Year 2000 and that is a testament to the dedication which he has in his site and Liverpool themselves. For content on the Reds you can't go wrong."

Daily Telegraph: "Of the thousands of unofficial football pages on the web, one stands out above the rest, according to Football365, the online fanzine who took a poll of their readers to decide on the world's best unofficial site. The clear winner, with an impressive 29 per cent of the 70,000 votes cast, was Koptalk, a site dedicated to Liverpool...the site began as a hobby for Duncan Oldham, and now includes columns written by such Anfield luminaries as Tommy Smith, Peter Thompson, Rob Jones and Jan Molby...it (Kop Talk) is indeed a labour of love for Oldham."

It can certainly be much better but I am struggling on my own, to the point where I have had to talk to companies who have made offers etc to see where we could possibly work together.

What is evident from these meetings, and I suppose it's rather obvious anyway, is that these people want to exploit YOU the reader, they say this to my face, you are not a fan to them, you are a unique user - but not to me, I see you as my friends, not as unique users.

I have rejected big money offers in the past because I want to keep this a fan site and because I am confident I can get by without them.

The whole situation has got me down very much because I have so many plans and ideas to produce a much better site, not for my benefit but for the benefit of us all as fans of our club. You would not believe the contacts that I have established since Kop Talk was created and the friends I have made at the club and in the media which shows how far the site has come.

If you enjoy reading Kop Talk, maybe the news, the banter, taking part in the forums etc and you can help in anyway, please let me know.

How many of you read Red Issues? I know it's a very popular area of the site. There you have a lad, an extremely passionate Red that I have never met before or even spoken to, he writes updates just about every day for the site, for you, for nothing. It's people like Paul that I want to retain on the site. I'd love to be in a position to employ Paul on a full-time basis to help in other areas but I just can't do it, I can't pay myself a proper wage so I can't pay anyone else one - I can though if I bring in the suits - it's catch 22 time again.

I looked at offering shares and it's not as simple as you think. Creating a company as such is a doddle but offering the shares to the public legally is not. I've also looked at membership schemes (tried the VIP site in the past but this discriminated and caused offence and refunds had to be made available) but the majority of the feedback from you, the readers, is that you would rather contribute without expecting something back, other than of course the site.

The truth of the situation is this, if I don't find alternative ways of raising revenue within the duration of my existing advertising contract (which limits what I can do) there will be no Kop Talk. There are some great sites out there so maybe you wouldn't be that concerned but judging by the emails I receive, I think the majority would be sad to see the site go because they have seen it since its creation and were probably on my news mailing list before the site hit the net. I know there are a few who would like to see the site fall and that's purely based on commercial reasons.

I'm going to try and fight hard to keep out the commercial people who would change something that was formed for the fans.

The only thing I can currently do is invite donations so that I can try and raise funds to take the site forward and at the same time see that contributors are rewarded. I can not guarantee anything financially in return to anyone who contributes but I can guarantee that I will give 100% to the site and the people who are associated with it. If one day in the future the site had to be sold, I would strive to repay those who have supported it because I will retain everyone's details.

Kop Talk is a special community, you may not have witnessed that depending on your level of involvement but I have ideas that can make this into a super community by bringing in various features, fun things for all ages etc.

I work on the site because it has become my life; by accident. I'm not here for the money but I do have a family. If I was motivated by money I could have cashed in a long time ago. I like to think I'm up front with everyone, you wouldn't believe the amount of times 'the suits' have said, "You can't tell them that!" - I've even been threatened with legal action for speaking the truth, now work that one out, just because I said they didn't have your interests at heart, so what does that tell you?!

I want to dump certain features on the site, improve certain areas, introduce better navigation but keep it more or less the same in looks and feel. I have much deeper plans that I want to keep under my hat for now which I know you will just love! A future share scheme is still a possibility but for now I think I'll swallow my pride and invite donations from the people who have so kindly offered them.

My priority is getting the site looking good and up to date, then I want to address the issue of getting funds to those who contribute for nothing and I'm desperate for some kind of assistant to shadow me over here.

If you'd like to make a donation to the cause, please send an email to donation@koptalk.com - just put "HELP" as the subject and in the body of the email, just type your name.

Another way of helping the site is by clicking on the banner ads at the top of each page - not many of you do this but if you did every day, you'd give the site an attractive click-through percentage which is what potential advertisers want.

Finally, you may like to know that if you can get a banner caught on television cameras at any Liverpool first team game at Anfield or away from home with "Koptalk.com" or "Kop Talk" on it somewhere - you'll earn yourself £1000 cash if you can prove it was you! A friend of the site who is a 'nice suit' has pledged the money!!

Best wishes and thanks for your support so far!

Dunk