I was on a forum for a while that had a donor icon next to the poster's names just as you described. It was definately an effective psychological tool, but truthfully there was more a sense of pride attached to it than one of embarassment. People were excited about the site, and wanted folks to know they helped support it.

They also had special sections within the forums that only donor members could enter similar to what is described in the LTP section description.

I also have a subscription to another site currently that has subscriber sections with interviews, downloads, and a subscriber chat area. I'm not suggesting such a thing for this site necessarilly as they tend to add to the bandwidth and increase costs. However, since Doug is already doing the ETS Audio downloads, that could be moved to a subscriber section, or as in the case of the other site i visit regular content can be had by all who visit, but the donor section has special downloads.

Had I not made a donation to ETS recently, I'd probably be less than forthcoming about how well it worked in those other sites though, at least until a few clients pay their bills... LOL

In all seriousness, $12.00 a year isn't bad at all. I'd pay it up front, all at once, and everything too. I can eat Ramen noodles for a day or so. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />