That depends on whether you're asking about the present or the future.

Presently, membership is aimed at two different groups of users: Those who want to post classified ads, and those who want to participate in discussions on the message board.

To post a classified ad, membership is required. The purpose of membership is to give you a username and password to enable you to return later to renew, edit, or delete your classified ads.

To post a message to the message board, membership is not required. But it does give you an identity here, and as well the benefit of editing or deleting your ad after it has been posted. If you post a message as a guest, you're stuck with whatever you wrote the very second you click that "submit" button. Members can also insert html code into their messages, giving them the ability to add photos, video and interactive content.

In the future, membership will be aimed at other users as well, such as those who have directory listings (teacher ads, studio ads, etc). This will all be inter-connected so that a single user -- a studio owner, for example -- will be able to manage multiple teacher and studio ads and link them to each other.

Users will soon also be able to contribute content of their own to the website, similar to the "Wiki" style sites that are so popular today. This will add so much value to the Learning Center, especially the dance dictionary and the "Learn to Dance" sections.

A little farther off in the future, we will also be adding a "Premium Membership" service for a yearly fee. Premium members will be able to view video clips of the entire Bronze syllabus (about 8 to 10 times the number of video clips available now). Other benefits may include access to other members-only areas of the website, discounts on products in our store, the ability to view previous variations of the week, and premium directory listings. The details have not yet been determined, but a list of benefits will be advertised when we unveil the premium membership service.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com

No, but this may become a feture of the Premium membership service to be offered later.

Note, however, that we carry quite a number of price-controlled items in our store, such as the DanceVision videos. As much as I'd like to charge less for these, we are not allowed to. Also, while the ISTD books are not price controlled, the profit margin is extremely narrow. So these items would not be discounted, either. But most of our music CD's, as well as any non-DanceVision videos, will be eligible for a discount when the time comes.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com