Articles Directory | Free Articles | Link Directory | TheOpinionSite.org has opened its long awaited 1 to 1 Confidential Advice Service as part of its new Members Club. The much anticipated facility has been a long time coming after having been requested by subscribers to what is the leading UK website on th

The answer is not £30 a month but only 30p a day. This makes the Members Club one of the cheapest membership sites anywhere on the Internet yet, because of the unique nature of what it offers, also one of the most valuable. Search as you might, you will find no other membership site anywhere where similar facilities exist, let alone at this price.

The subscription is subsidised by the other sites in the Peytors-Manning group and the low subscription rate is specifically designed to enable as many people as possible to join.

Peytors told me, “Many of our subscribers have huge problems of one kind of another, nearly all of which have been brought about by the implementation of current and previous government’s policies. The help, advice and opportunities available in the Members Club are simply not available elsewhere. It is not commercially viable to make them available but, as I have told you, TheOpinionSite.org and its Members Club are not designed around profit. If making a profit were the focus, the TheOpinionSite.org would have closed long ago.”

With his best selling downloadable book, “How to Survive an IPP Sentence” now the standard reference for IPP prisoners and their families, TheOpinionSite.org has further established itself as the leading site of its kind. Starting from nothing and on a budget of just £100 (really, it’s true) it has grown into a hugely influential site. Subscribers are said to include prominent politicians, broadcasters, journalists as well as thousand of ordinary people who are fed up with reading the inaccurate rubbish so often printed in the tabloid press and want to know what is really going on. It is this ‘tell it as it really is’ approach that has made the site so successful.

The Members Club builds on this hard won reputation so I was delighted to be given advance access to the facilities available. The first thing that strikes you is the difference between what is available to those with free membership and others who have a ‘full’ subscription. ‘Free’ membership is indeed free but, whilst it is possible to ‘look around’ the Club, you cannot do much else. Take the easy upgrade to full membership though and suddenly the whole place opens up to you.

I say ‘whole place’ because once you are logged in as a full member, it really does feel as if you are wandering around different parts of a club and using all the facilities on offer. The Members Club site is so well designed that everything is easy to use and navigate. A series of simple links, which change their functionality according to the different membership levels, enables anyone to quickly find their way around.

The Confidential Advice Service is brilliantly simple to use, highly efficient and very secure. As it claims on the main page of the site, the Advice Service alone is worth 30p a day. It’s true as well; you can’t even make a phone call to any advice centre for such a small amount of money nowadays, let alone submit such a comprehensive request for advice as is possible with the Members Club. Amazing really.

The Information Centre is also extremely easy to use and is huge. Although there is a menu system for finding information by broad categories, I took the advice given and used the site’s Search Facility and was amazed at what is on offer. Certainly, much of what is there really is unavailable elsewhere.

Whether you are trying to deal with unpaid bills, avoid the repossession of your house, claim money back, trying to avoid court action, attempting to deal with the police or probation services, trying to come to terms with a first prison visit or seeking information to help someone inside achieve release, along with advice to help solve lesser day to day problems, it’s all there for the asking. What is more, unlike other sites, all the information is regularly updated and verified.

Along with the Confidential Advice Service, one of the best things in the ‘Club’ is the Forum Room. There are nearly a dozen different forums covering just about everything that is likely to be of interest to subscribers to TheOpinionSite.org . Certainly, I have never seen another website where this is all ‘under one roof’, as it were.

Another benefit is that unlike other forums, this one is so easy to understand and even those with no previous experience of such discussion facilities will quickly feel at home. I think this is one of the most simple, yet most effective forums I have ever seen.

The Advertising Board is equally easy to use but also offers sophistication to those who require it, even offering the ability to upload pictures. Internet advertising is becoming expensive for individuals who want truly targeted advertising. This is effectively guaranteed with the Members Club – the members of which often have common interests – and is another reason to confirm that the 30p a day contribution to the upkeep of the Club represents remarkable value for money. It is clearly only a contribution by the way as it is obvious that such a small sum cannot possibly pay for the creation, running and maintenance of any website, let alone one that is as good and as extensive as this one.

The Advertising Board becomes even better value next year when members’ ads will also be available to the thousands of people who visit TheOpinionSite.org on a regular basis. “It is easy enough to implement”, says Raymond Peytors. “You just have to have the will to do it knowing that it won’t make any money but, as I’ve said before, that’s not the objective.”

I could go on and on about the new Members Club but words do a poor job in describing it. The best thing is to visit it yourself, sign up for the free membership and have a look around. It won’t be long before you feel the need to upgrade to full membership and you will not regret doing so.

And what of the future? A question I put to Raymond Peytors; “The Club will develop in whatever way the Members demand. It really is a Members Club, as much as any golf club or social club. Ultimately, whatever people suggest or request will shape its development and evolution. That’s the way clubs should work. The only thing we won’t have is a committee. Such bodies tend to talk a lot and generally achieve very little.”