24/7 Help Yourself

Please note that 24/7 Help Yourself remains a website that anyone can use without charge and it is intended to keep the website that way. We do however ask that you make a contribution towards the costs of the website. A donation even as little as $10 per member will keep the website open without having to charge.

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A Fee-less site

There are no charges for 24/7 Help Yourself

That’s right, there are no longer any fees to use 24/7 HYS. And no it does not mean that you get access first to a reduced version of 24/7 HYS and then pay for the other features. You have access to the whole site, not for a month, but forever. You can be a member as long as you want to be. You can also leave and come back again, in a year, two years, ten years, whenever. All your assessments, Blog entries etc will still be there waiting for you!! You may need to blow off the dust, but they will be there just as you left them.

You may wonder why I have done this, then again you may not, but I’ll tell you anyway!
There are many reasons, ideology, conscience, and the current economic climate. The bottom line is that I want help to be available to anyone who needs it regardless of their ability to pay. And the drinkers who need help most often can't afford it. So I thought that I would remove a barrier to getting help.  However that has a number of consequences.

Supporting and maintaining the site
The first and most obvious consequence is that the site will not be collecting fees and so will not be paying for itself. You will see a new button in the site which is a Donation button. If you want this site to remain open without fees, then I hope that you will support it. The site will need donations, just to pay the bills. 

A donation, even as little as $10 per member, will keep the website open without having to charge.

For those of you who like to know the numbers, here they are. To have the website built and optimised cost in the region of $30,000. This does not include my time, nearly 2 years of planning, designing, writing articles and making videos. Adding in my time, a modest figure would cost the website at around $100k. Current running costs, hosting, advertising so that you can find it, and maintenance are in the region of $1k a month, not counting any time I spend answering emails, posting in the forum, updating and improving the site. I only provide these figures to demonstrate that without support the website will not be viable and will not last for very long, at least not as a free site. So help me keep open without charge.

Originally I was going to charge a membership fee of $80 a month, extremely cheap compared to a rehab or counselling (if you don't believe me go and check a few rehabs and counsellors). However as I said above, I have decided to provide the website for free to all. I ask now that, if you can, you make a donation towards the maintenance of the website. If you have received help from the site, or you feel that others may benefit, then please help to keep the website open. Please note: use of the website does not depend on you making a donation.

Some people think no charge means no value
This is clearly not true if you look at the figures I gave about the cost of the website above for starters. However, more than that the website is also an award winner. It won the Best Website of 2008 Award in Scotland, where the judges stated that they had searched the internet and could find nothing like 24/7 HYS. They are correct, 24/7 HYS is a unique blend of research and technology. This makes the site an interactive experience designed to help you to help yourself. So, just because 24/7 HYS does not charge does not mean that you are getting a second rate site, quite the reverse.

There is no outlay so there is no great incentive to continue using it.
One reason I felt a little reluctant to offer 24/7 HYS as a fee-less website was that paying money is usually a great motivator. Research has shown that if you pay for something you will use it more, (not exactly rocket science was it). So my fear would be that there would be no motivation to continue to use the site if there was no cost. There are two things to say here, first the members are adults and can make up their own minds. Second, if they want the incentive of parting with cash, they can donate and everyone's a winner.

How much should I donate?
That is completely up to you, however even as little as $10 per member, will keep the website open without having to charge. If you cannot afford anything then please do not donate anything at all, I want the website to be available to those who need help and cannot afford it. If you can afford to donate, then please help keep it available for those who can’t. The only stipulation I would make is please make your donations more than $5, as the handling charges for any sum less than $5 is prohibitive.

Bottom Line

24/7 Help Yourself is now a fee-less site. Please feel at liberty to use it and please help keep it fee-less for everybody and anybody.