Let me not be the last to congratulate you doc for acheiving one of you goals when starting this website. I would like to throw out a few ideas for discussion on how we can raise money for your increased fees and continue to increase members.
First of all, I do not think that you can charge for access for every one of your boards. Free information is the only way to increase memberships. However, I do not think that you should be the main supplier of this information (although you will still frequent 'free boards'). I think you need to take some of your best posters and give them a status that is higher than the average member. For example an obvious one is Vegas. He is a very successful trader who always has good information. I dont mean to exclude any of the other great posters at all. Vegas frequently posts on the NYSE/AMEX and pink boards which would be great boards to remain free. Dz posts wonderful information on the options boards and is very successful there. These are boards that are doing very well without your 'expert' advice, just your opinions after people post their information.
I also beleive that you can give these posters a free membership because most of them will donate to the website anyway.
My suggestion would be to take your baby - OTCBB and the private forum and make them paid. I like the idea of an option of a monthly fee and a yearly subscription. One change I would make is to have 3 months a year free to anybody for the paid forums, but not 3 months in a row. People need to see what you are doing in these forums. For example, charge $200 a year or $25 a month. But, that $25 a month only gets charged for 9 months out of the year due to the free months for new membership promotion.
A suggestion for change to the blog - instead of mentioning which stocks you are looking at and buying for the $1M challenge, only have a blurb in there stating how close you are to acheiving it. Do not give any hints out. Also - inform mods to delete or modify any posts within the individual stock forums that mention that the stock is part of the challenge.