Onsite Advertizing - good or bad idea?

[netsmithUK 488]

You will be away that the club is currently funded by the kind donations of many of our members. To safe guard the long term survival of the site we need to introduce something more reliable in terms of gaurenteed income for the site. I can only really see two ways of doing this.

1. A yearly subscription charge to all members (not those that have donated this time around of course), that have showrooms and trading areas - forum use and manuals etc remain free.

Good: Those people that use the facilities which use up resources most pay for them, steady flow of cash in

Bad: Will put people off joining, so less trade and showroom items. Requires me to do loads more setup and administrative task. Unpredicable amount of income.

2. Allow advertizing on the site. Discreet banners at the foot or head of certain pages, advertsing relevant R/C products. We are NOT talking ezboard style popup windows etc here.

Good: Very easy for me to set up and maintain. Predicable monthly income. Possible special rates for members in featured shops.

Bad: Adverts appear on some pages.

You can probably tell by the descriptions I am favouring option 2.

Anyone have any views or alternatives (particularly ones which don't require me to do large amounts of development work)

Chris

[flyby 0]

2 sounds allright Chris, just aslong as it doesn't mean loads of extra loading time, would end up being very frustrating[] that is if u got a slow connnection like me , Boo Hoo[V]

Can't think of anything else which won't mean more work for you though , apart from maybe T-shirts and other promotional goodies?

[Bibbo 3]

I am sure most members would willingly pay a yearly sub. but you are right about it being an unreliable amount and also that it would put off new members.

I think also the admin. side would be a big dissadvantage, both for you and for the people joining. It is always a big problem if you have to start sending money or paying over the internet. I guess you could use PayPal but notr everyone has an account.

I think the best idea is the advertising. Obviously this would need to be done with care because as you say pop-ups are a no-no.

I think this would also be a help to members. I don't know about shops in UK or Germany for example. I would'nt know who to order from, the only shops I know of are ones that have been mentioned in the forums.

As for other ways of generating income, I suppose there will be a bit from meetings like the one in April. I don't think it would be unfair if the club tried to make a little money from this type of event, maybe there could be a few feature races that require a small entry fee or something within the meeting that generates money rather than the meeting itself ( does this make sense? )

I don't know if there would be a mrket for certain types of merchandise like t-shirts/ caps. I guess this gets difficult because it takes a certain amount of investement and therefore risk.

It certainly seems like a difficult decision and the old advertising argument gets stronger and stronger the more you look into it.

[spice 1]

I would favor advertisements and as they would be RC related I think it would be appropriate; and as you said "Possible special rates for members in featured shops" that would be sweet []

spice

[BiggusDitchus 38]

Yup, I think advertising space is the way to go.

[bholio 0]

I'd go with the ads. Even non-RC related. No big deal as long as there are no pop ups.

[SJoerD 2]

Charging the members will hold back a lot of new ones, and some older ones might want to leave. Also, it is a lot of hassle with paying online... I think we all know... []

I think we will be forced to banner ads in the end... [v] But special rates for member in RC shops sounds pretty good! []

Or ask Mr. Tamiya for a generous offer... [)]

[DanielSchenstrom 0]

I'm for the ads. As long as they aren't popups, feel free to court any revenue source.

[mr_lister999. 3]

at the end of the day its down to Chris what he wants. I personally don't mind the banners but hate pop ups. What sort of revenue do you get for a banners? (if you don't mind me asking)

I feel yearly subscriptions will put people off joining and thats the last thing we want, the more people the better really.

[lji86 0]

The best thing about this site is thats its FREE to everyone, so making people pay is just going to send them away.

Advertising is good, just so long as its not pop up, coz they are sooooooooo annoying!

ads are the way ahead

lewis

[Razer 0]

Advertising is a great idea if done right. I'm confident that, with you in charge, it will be tastefully done.

[TWO STAR 0]

i prefer 2 ,just as long as they are done properly,i cant stand pop-ups and i would stick to r/c related ads,to me it just looks more professional....i have been to other websites that have ads some are in relation to the webpage,some not.i personally get turned off from

advertising if the topic is in no relation to the website.

[ShenUK 1]

well like most i think banners are the way to go as if there was pop ups i wouldn't get them as i use software to stop them

if there is a yearly subscription charge thats ok with me but as said here it's not for all members and i do think the number of Full Members will Drop and the trading then will be done through the forums as they will be still Free

[calvin3 0]

I am all for the advertisments, as it looks like most are. If ya don't mind me askin...any idea on the charge (monthly - yearly)? Can I advertise my personal site since I don't have a shop?

[stulec52 50]

Seems most people are in favour of ads, me too!!

I actually don't mind them, and often buy from them.

Need any more help in that Chris??

[Zeemax 0]

2 sounds good

But why all all the hassle about some silly ads that pop up , get a pop up killer!

[lji86 0]

how about ads for Ebay, its related to this site and i think i can speak for everyone and say that we would not mind ebay ads

what do you think?

lewis

[mr_lister999. 3]

Ebay used to pay a few pounds to a site that hosted their banner every time someone clicked it and signed up. Small link i think it was. Not a massive scheme but a start. Just an idea.

[lji86 0]

yer i check that out, its 3 quid when someone signs up

lewis

[Guest Carsnboats]

A side line in revenue would be a voluntary membership fee where people donate what they consider to be a fair amount for what they get out.

I would happily go with that method.

As for advertising, Pop ups are a No- No but Banners are OK by me. I have a friend that owns a Model Shop I will ask him to consider advertising next time I seee him.

[lji86 0]

quote:Originally posted by Kendalboatsman

A side line in revenue would be a voluntary membership fee where people donate what they consider to be a fair amount for what they get out.

---

id="quote">id="quote">

this already kind of exists at the bottom of most pages it says donation[]

lewis

[ukstyle 0]

Discreet banners sound fine to me,plus it will make life easy for Chris.

Go for it Chris

Barry

[snollan 3]

Chris I don't care either way I only two humble requests:

1.FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NO POP UPSid="size4">id="green">

2.Would love to see RC related adsid="size2">

Thanks Sean

[mr_lister999. 3]

how about getting the owner of www.sandscorcher.com to contribute some money? I believe that chris knows the guy []

Sorry, bad humour tonight [xx(]

[CarterTG 27]

One more vote for advertisement instead of subscription, but let me add some detail...

I've been a frequent visitor on an automotive message board for years now. The webmaster, like yourself, wanted to keep that sense of openess on the board and used banner ads. Since the site was devoted to one specific car and this is what drew it's fanatics, the webmaster was able to offer a highly targeted audience to the prospective advertising vendor. He was able to show the daily/weekly/monthly stats (80k unique hits a week). Vendors that offered "on-topic" products were given a break in the advertising rate as encouragement. The way it worked out, a series of rotating banner ads were used. Several prospective vendors could be courted and each didn't have to pay one big sum to be the ONLY banner ad... expensive for the vendor and boring for us visitors to stare at.

This strategy has apparently worked out well since the site has branched out with additional message boards covering other models and marques with specific banner ads targeting each section.

The way this can apply to TamiyaClub is perhaps court a few forward-thinking hobby shops. Maybe one shop that specializes in off-road can have it's banner rotate more frequently when a visitor is admiring one of the off-road models.

Another possibility is offer those vendors additional $ervices like banner-making, webpage hosting, etc.

Finally if the cost of a banner is "right", as pointed out earlier, I'm sure more than one TamiyaClub member would seriously consider buying self-promoting ads... or self-effacing ones.. I'm sure you won't be picky. []

HTH,