Change from member supported to ad supported
I had hoped that once training camp and the season started that contributions would pick up, but we have run shortfalls three of the last four months (since training camp started). The one month we didn't come up short, a member gave a $100 contribution, another gave a $50 contribution this month. Early in the offseason, one poster routinely made up the monthly shortfalls to the tune of about $1,000 over five or six months.
In addition, there are quite a few members that month in and month out contribute to help cover the costs of BroncosForums. A great thanks to EVERYONE that has helped out, whether every month or when they can.
I think we had all hoped that of the 400 odd registered users that login every month, we could get 50 people to contribute $5 a month, but the fact is that hasn't been happening. Most months, it is a small number of members that contribute. In November, only 11 people made contributions. In October, 12. September, 11. August, 11.
In addition to the $185 shortfall we are showing on the cost breakdown page, there are many costs it doesn't include. It doesn't include the paypal fees (roughly 5% depending on contribution amount), the vBulletin upgrade I just had to pay for the upcoming vBulletin 4.0 ($130, because after Nov. 1 it was going to $250), the chat room (which I may get rid of since nobody has used it this year, which is around $150 a year), the backup virtual server that I use to test upgrades or any other forum changes before going live as well as being available if our main server ever had a bad crash ($30 a month), and other costs that I am not thinking of at the moment.
All told, I am about $4,000 in the hole since I put BroncosForums up. I understand in the current economy, it is hard for people to contribute to help keep BroncosForums running. Some have lost their jobs, some have taken pay cuts, many have seen their retirement or other investments severely reduced. In the same regard, it is hard for me to keep supplementing the forum, even forgetting about recovering the $4k I have already laid out to keep BroncosForums going.
The time has come to try a switch from member supported to ad supported. Having never done this, I have no idea if I will even come close to earning enough to covering the server costs, but I need to try. I am going to start out with a minimum ad presence, and depending on the income, may have to put up additional ads.
Initially, I am putting one ad after the first post, and one at the end of each thread, and one at the footer of each page. That means pages will have between 1 and 3 ads, but the overall look of the site, banner area, etc. will remain fairly clean. If that isn't enough, I may have to add a few to the left side, but I am going to try and keep the site as clean as possible. At some point, possibly in the offseason, I will redesign the front page and make it more of a news/reporting site, possibly recruiting some people to help with content, along the lines of MHR, BroncoTalk, etc. A news/reporting/blog area like that should bring in additional non-forum traffic, which will create revenue from the ads on that page.
Since BroncosForums will only get paid when ads are displayed and/or clicked, I would ask a couple favors.
Please don't hide the ads. I know there are things you can do to block the displaying of ads, and I understand why people do that, but if you do, you will simply force me to put more ads up, which while you might not see, others will and ultimately it could hurt our forum. I am trying to strike a balance, keeping our mostly clean forum, but hopefully generating enough revenue to cover the costs.
Second, if you see an ad that you don't think is a fit for BroncosForums, please let me know. I am supposed to be able to review ads and block specific advertisers. If possible, take a screen shot, so I can be sure to see the ad.
At this point, this is an experiment. If the ads don't cover the costs, I am not sure what the next step will be. Maybe a hybrid, partially ad supported, partially member supported. We will cross that bridge when we come to it. Also, if the ads appear to be a permanent solution and if there is interest, we can setup a 'membership' that people would buy for a monthly or annual fee, which would give them an ad-free BroncosForums.
One final note. For the next couple days, while the ad companies are evaluating our content, the ads won't be at all content specific, but after they 'learn' our content, then it should be primarily sports/football related ads. In the meantime, it will be mostly public service announcements.
Thanks again to everyone that has contributed over the last year, and hopefully you will understand why this was a step I had to take.
T
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#7 - JOHN - #44 - FLOYD - #80 - ROD
Originally Posted by Benetto
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