If you charged for people to use this site, law students at strodes would be less likely to have the materials etc... that they need for their lessons. You wouldn't be able to force people to subscribe, therefore you and the other teachers would have to start printing out the resources for us, which I doubt is womething that you would be willing to do.
On the other hand, this website does offer example essays and essay writing advise. Other websites that provide the same service often do charge a fee. I think it would be acceptable to charge people who are not Strode's students.

i just understood the concept behind charging . YES DEFINITELY !! I THINK YOU SHOULD CHARGE ANYONE WHO IS NOT ENROLED OR WASNT ONCE ENROLLED AT STRODES :D

I agree with the previous comment - Strode's students need this site, but external visitors could perhaps be charged. It wouldn't be fair to charge the students.

Yes, this is a superb idea. Once you have started charging students for use of the lawsblog you can start charging us for our lessons. How about £5 for a lesson? We could pay £2 to the laws department for every essay they mark, or take out a monthly standing order for all the additional work we're blessed with!

In all seriousness, I can't disagree more with this idea. Given that students wouldn't be able to do any of the laws dept. courses without the lawsblog, we would be forced into paying.

Where would the money go anyway? Personal gain would be unacceptable. As for charity, that would be a better alternative, but it still wouldn't justify forcing students to pay yet more for their education.

The comment above mine makes sense - charge the external visitors if you must. That said, and with all respect, I imagine that the vast, vast majority of visitors are students, so as a source of revenue I doubt it would be particularly effective.

Of course the idea behind charging people is to make some money. It currently costs me a fair amount of money each year to maintain the LawsBlog. To-date, I have been content to invite people to donate to the charity work of the RNIB.

Obviously, I could not charge Strode's students for marking their essays, since I am employed by the College to provide that service.

That being said, the LawsBlog is my own creation and while I could give Strode's students a free password to gain entry - I could charge other visitors.

For example, I currently charge around £40 per essay set/marked for private students (I do not provide this service to Strode's students due to a conflict of interest).

My advice to students is simple. Take advantage of what you get free at Strode's College before you move in to further education. You will soon find that education costs a lot of money.

Trust me guys, University education is not cheap, particularly all the law textbooks you will inevitably end up buying...

Obviously, it would be impossible for Dr Jepson to charge Strode's students to use it, but surely it's up to Dr Jepson whether he charges others to use it? If it costs a significant amount for him to run this site, then he has to earn it back somehow. Strode's students could all simply be given a free account.

However, if you start charging, you will lose my valuable input on discussions like these...;)

(Which raises a good point: why am I even looking at the lawsblog?)

Conor there are some students that deserve a life times free subscription and you would be one. You have made an excellent contribution to the LawsBlog over recent years.

Having said that, I would hope that you still log in for nostalgic and educational reasons.

I am truly honoured. And yes, your slides are surprisingly helpful! I notice that you've updated them in light of new case law.

You make a good point - I didn't realise you had to pay to run the lawsblog, which is commendable.

Thus, in the style of the Labour government, I've done a U-turn on this one. If you charge non-students a reasonable price it could help cover the upkeep of the blog.

Furthermore, I think it would be an excellent idea for students to recieve royalties for their donations to the lawsblog. Afterall, they are often the ones contributing (mainly with the essay competition). That way students would have further motivation to work hard and submit good essays and it would benefit me personally anyway.

if it costs so much, why not move to a free blog site?

You get what you pay for. Free Blog sites do not offer the bandwidth that is required for the LawsBlog. Given the site content, and over 200,000 visitors per year, it has become necessary to pay an enhanced fee.

yes... you would make money by charging for the use of this site... but wait is this not a homework site .. yes.you say ?!?... well in that case do you really believe students in AS will pay to do their homework :/ ... £10 a year might be too expensive for some, i think if you want to introduce a fee it should be for random posts and informative articles rather than for lesson materials (which we pay money to print out for our lessons probably more than £10) .. and homework :)

I don't think most people would mind paying £10 a year because it isn't really that much considering its for a whole year. Although I question how you would monitor who has paid and who has not. Would those who had not paid their subscription no be able to go on the blog?

The current cost iof the LawsBlog s around £250 a year. However, that sum is insignificance when you look at the hours each week spent on updating the pages. The idea would be to have a free front page, with membership required to go beyond the first page.

I looked into the income option when I faced charges of around £600 to enlarge the LawsBlog last year (this was due to increased bandwith). However, I managed to do some of the work myself and reduced the initial outlay. The ongoing costs remain.

To be honest, £10 is a miniscule amount so I would not have a problem with this.