Yup, quite a few forums use sponsors who offer deals to the paid memberships to entice people to join the site. Its not just you Robert, they've priced it out of everyone's league..

Then imagine this. Imagine if that 35 sponsor forum owner I suggest above comes along, he's already got 35 sponsors on board and likes the look of the package. But why should he pay $245 a month to DTO for effectively nothing? They haven't helped get those sponsors on board, he's retaining them well anyway so its simply a value added service. With DTO using the 'profit share' mentality, in his position I'd tell them to get stuffed. I worked hard to get those 35 onboard, why should they get a slice of that money?

This is why pricing according to whether it will earn the client money or not isn't a professional way to price anything up.... You price to what the market will stand and the benefit to the client, not based upon the amount of money it could earn for the client.