Forum members: what advertising would you like to see on TWF?
Background Story
The economic crisis has meant we're getting no new advertisers. Traditionally Christmas was a busy time, we would fill up on advertising, but this year we have nothing new and existing campaigns will end by April.
Going Forward
The ads on TWF never earnt us much, we were lucky if they paid our expenses. Also, many ads were ugly, and ad blockers are on the rise. We (Megan and I) are sure that we'd like to dump the ads, and just ask for donations to help keep the site running (we won't get as much money, but that's another discussion).
Alternatively, we could keep ads going and offer them as a reward for our members. Basically, members would accrue 'member points' for posting, inviting others to join the forums, being helpful, etc. which could then be 'spent' on advertising.
This is the choice for all you forum members: 1) no ads at all, or; 2) member ads; which do you prefer, and why?
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teammatt3 posted this at 03:29 — 8th January 2009.
He has: 2,102 posts
Joined: Sep 2003
Well of course I'm going to choose member ads. I'd rather see my butt ugly site being advertised than some get rich quick scheme. But why just those two choices? Can't you get a little more creative with advertising?
Start Selling forum stickies in the marketplace, or do an in depth review of someone's new application, for a fee. Let members bypass the required reviews in the website critique area, for a fee. Create a list of known "quality" web hosts, and charge a fee to be on that list (after a review of the company).
decibel.places posted this at 04:10 — 8th January 2009.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
Great, put up a donate button... I got $5 donated towards the $200+ I've spent promoting a YouTube video...
What about AdSense or similar programs? (watch-em pennies pile up!)
Are there any syndication possibilities?
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 04:05 — 8th January 2009.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
That is included in the ad campaign perks currently. I'm not sure if it stated that in the advertising page, but it says that on my account when I visit the critique section because I have that "Sponsor" tag.
I never received an end-of-campaign email like I have in the past. I just noticed that my ad stopped appearing one day. In fact, now that I think of it, I don't receive PM notifications in my inbox anymore even though my account is configured to send them out. Is the mail system on TWF's new hosting server working correctly? Many sponsors don't visit this site regularly, and if no notifications were sent out, nobody will know to renew.
I would go for option 2, but how would that fund the site?
Megan posted this at 14:26 — 8th January 2009.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
It wouldn't, basically. We're not necessarily looking at replacing them with an alternate revenue source. For right now, it's a decision as to whether to keep them, ditch them, or do member ads instead.
We would prefer not to put in a lot of small, low revenue things like paid market place posting and things like that. Then it gets to be little bits of advertising all over the place which we don't want. We want this place to be as ad-free as possible.
Megan
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JeevesBond posted this at 21:45 — 8th January 2009.
He has: 3,956 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
Nice catch. I've been receiving notifications whenever someone's campaign ends, so assumed the campaign owners would too. Looking into it, seems that an upgrade of the Ad software introduced some fields to fill-out, otherwise it won't send e-mails to campaign owners.
Another good catch, thanks.
Seems there was a problem with the Cron job, I've fixed it.
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Michael James Swan posted this at 14:52 — 8th January 2009.
He has: 400 posts
Joined: May 2008
I like the member ads idea.
When i get some money and finances back on track i shall donate. Just place a donate button somewhere.
We love the site and all is good.
~ Mike
decibel.places posted this at 15:04 — 8th January 2009.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
An idea ...
display "sponsor" ads in interstitial pages which would be eliminated for authenticated members...
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