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#187201 06/16/2007 10:51 PM
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I'm wondering how everyone supplements the running costs of your websites. Do you have joining fees, donations, or just cover the costs yourselves?

My users donate money, but once a year they run an auction for 4 - 6 weeks - people donate items to be auctioned, and others bid on them. They have just finished this year's auction, and it raised nearly $1,400. They are a pretty special lot of people. smile

For several years we just paid all the costs ourselves though - so I was wondering how other people deal with it.

Rose #187210 06/17/2007 12:00 AM
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Donations, Advertising (Google Adsense for me, I've heard good things about Yahoo as well), then coding work (my sitemap for UBBers, 3rd party utilities I code as well).

I also develop just about anything anyone's heart desires, and do xhtml/css valid designs; then work on other sites lol.


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Gizmo #187224 06/17/2007 12:23 AM
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Giz, I've always resisted any advertising for my site - I just don't like it. But I did forget to add it to my original post because of that. I know a lot of people use Google Adsense.

Rose #187228 06/17/2007 12:39 AM
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It can be really proffitable; one of my clients is pulling (at minimum) 4.5k/mo due to google adsense over his main site and his forum... It's crazy...


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Gizmo #187229 06/17/2007 12:39 AM
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And yes, he runs UBB.Threads wink


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Rose #187249 06/17/2007 4:11 AM
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The site I admin was free for a long time, but after the last upgrade the owner implemented Google Adsense. frown

I was going to run my own site (even bought the license) but then ran into some issues and did not start it. Still thinking of a "theme" of a site of interest to run that is not already over used. For Website alone though the cost is about $150 a year so not too big a deal to handle myself.



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My site uses advertising. The companies involved are usually big, mostly multi-national.

I have one banner only at the top of each page and a 'directory' area where they advertise their products.

My users have often debated the point, but they accept that the advertising is necessary to keep the site going; as such the attitude is 'if we don't want to see the advertising - we don't need to click into the directory'.


driv #187272 06/17/2007 8:18 AM
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I've had my website for over 6 1/2 years now, and I once asked my users what they thought of advertising. Without exception they all said they wouldn't like it, and that they would raise the money each year for annual costs and extras - and they have. They raise about $2000 per year with auctions and raffles. We definitely don't want to make a profit, so it works out well for everyone. smile

Gizmo, that's amazing about your client though.

Rose #187274 06/17/2007 8:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Rose
Gizmo, that's amazing about your client though.


It is, isn't it?

Giz, do you have any idea about the number of members / page views he gets?

driv #187278 06/17/2007 8:35 AM
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509k unique visitors, 80gb bw, 1,478k pageviews last month; it's huge lol...

Rose, if I had members like yours I'd not run advertising either; but unfortunately not all users are the giving type :/


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Gizmo #187292 06/17/2007 9:33 AM
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My site is just a small hobby site with no advertising. I figure with what some people spend on other hobbies, I can go and buy a UBB.threads Gold License and get some decent hosting.

Harold #187299 06/17/2007 10:13 AM
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I run my own servers - however I loose every month frown

I have google adverts - but the revenue has gone down recently - I guess at the most I get $100 a month or so.

Really need to increase revenue, as I do not have a bottomless pit of money....

It would be nice to have some heavier advertising, with an option to disable if members paid say £10 a year.

Ian #187304 06/17/2007 10:23 AM
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Ian, a competition site to mine started charging a yearly fee, and lost about two-thirds of their users. But that was a straight charge - not a choice between seeing advertising or not.

Ian #187310 06/17/2007 10:37 AM
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Originally Posted by Ian
I run my own servers - however I loose every month frown


me too, but i love everyone wink

Mine a seed waiting to blossom wink

I'm going to knock on local business for local adds.

I did pull in £2k with 15 adds (sponsors) last year wink
But now times have changed and need new adds wink

it was funny as i got one i played them off against a rival lol.
And it roller balled from there lol.

Sounds easy but a lot if ass liking too frown

ian are your adds set to impressions ?


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Ian #187311 06/17/2007 10:40 AM
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Originally Posted by Ian
I have google adverts - but the revenue has gone down recently - I guess at the most I get $100 a month or so.


...and with the exchange rate the way it is, it's not so good at all frown

driv #187314 06/17/2007 10:45 AM
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Not with 1 million posts there too wink
I'm shocked, every time i visit Ian's site,
its always busy ?

x10 busier than mine.


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driv #187331 06/17/2007 11:17 AM
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Well I suppose it depends on what kind of site you are running. I originally ran a download site with affiliate software so you would get varying commissions per sale. I recently couldn't continue to maintiain the site so based it around UBBt and kept about 100 "high volume" software listings on board instead of the 2000+ that I previously had. I have a good balance now as I'm not constantly working the site and the little revenue that I do get breaks even on the hosting, domains, UBBt, etc.

Originally Posted by driv
...and with the exchange rate the way it is, it's not so good at all frown
Tell me about it. When I started £1.00 = $1.34. Now it's $2.00.

ScriptKeeper #187334 06/17/2007 11:20 AM
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PS. I hate advertising banners, google ads, etc. on sites. I don't have anything like that on mine. Pages load quicker and the site doesn't look commercial or have the appearence of a 15 year old trying to make a quick buck.

ScriptKeeper #187335 06/17/2007 11:25 AM
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Personally i think the worm has turned now,
and i mean that its the norm to see google ads or a banner.

All the big boys are doing it.
I also don't run google ads but its getting me thinking
to turn on my own ads again.

POPUPS -That's a Killer and a NO NO


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Mark S #187338 06/17/2007 11:29 AM
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ScriptKeeper, I'm with you. I hate ads, and so do my users.

Mark S #187341 06/17/2007 11:31 AM
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I've never used pop-ups and never will.

I think many people are using pop-up killers and toolbars that stop them - so I think they will fade out naturally over the next few browser generations.

I'm now starting to hear about squeeze pages.

Aren't they just glorified pop-ups?

driv #187343 06/17/2007 11:33 AM
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Quote
I'm now starting to hear about squeeze pages.

If they are what I think they are .. I really, really hate them. Even more than popups.

Rose #187346 06/17/2007 11:35 AM
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Squeeze pages ?


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Mark S #187347 06/17/2007 11:37 AM
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Mark S #187351 06/17/2007 11:39 AM
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If there's one thing I hate more that pop-ups it's pop-unders. You close your browser and some geek has left something with cartoons and smiley faces flashing at you on your desktop.

ScriptKeeper #187354 06/17/2007 11:41 AM
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Yeah, it's always those same damned smilies isn't it mad

driv #187362 06/17/2007 11:47 AM
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Driv .. you be careful in Thailand. It can be a baaaaaad place if you're not wary. It can also be fabulous if you go to the right places.

I speak from second-hand information only - I've never been there.

Rose #187365 06/17/2007 11:49 AM
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I used to live there my friend.
Worked there for a few years, still own property.

It's like a home from home smile

driv #187367 06/17/2007 11:51 AM
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Ah .. well, I'll slink off now. laugh

Rose #187369 06/17/2007 11:55 AM
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No no - I take your point.

I wasn't offended or anything - it's always good to get feedback in any sense smile

driv #187381 06/17/2007 1:59 PM
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I know you weren't, driv. smile

I should be the last person to comment about a country I've never been to. It's not fair really.

It's just that many years ago, a friend of a friend went over there just as a tourist, and died under very mysterious circumstances. His family had an awful time getting his body back, and when they did it had been cremated. They said he'd been bitten by a misquito carrying some disease, but his family never believed that.

I've had other friends go over there who have totally loved it too - although they say that there's definitely some places you just wouldn't go to. But you could say that about just about any country too. smile

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No ads here I just write it all off at the end of the year and get it back in my taxes..


Happy Customer !!!
Rose #187389 06/17/2007 3:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Rose
His family had an awful time...


I can't imagine what they must have felt like, it's terrible losing anyone - but when a healthy holiday-maker is lost.....

But, as I say, it's like a second home to me.
I would happily go back to live there tomorrow.
Unfortunately, now we've been here for a few years, my family are rather settled in Blighty!

Ian #187435 06/17/2007 7:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Ian
I have google adverts - but the revenue has gone down recently - I guess at the most I get $100 a month or so.
I used to get that, now i'm down to $100 every two months... Then again my downtime issues right now aren't helping lol...

Originally Posted by Ian
Really need to increase revenue, as I do not have a bottomless pit of money....
Agreed


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driv #187436 06/17/2007 8:01 PM
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I hate ad's too, so I try to not be too intrusive; I mean the site is old and I have to subsidise costs somehow... I announced several years back that either donations and advertising support the site, or it go down the tube; they actually responded well to advertising.

I will agree that popups/popunders are dirty and those owners should be shot.



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Gizmo #187448 06/17/2007 8:33 PM
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I created my site to support my online gaming guild 7 years ago, and 6 years ago chose wwwthreads to support our communication needs. At first, I did it solely off my own back because it was needed...but after some time, we put it out to our user base that these things cost money (we were having some performance issues, people bitching, and I turned it on it's head). Since then, we've subsisted solely on donations from our members, and we almost keep a guild bank account (not really, but we lists our available funds, our recurring costs, and do a few money drives every so often when we're getting low). We also have expenditures into Ventrilo servers, etc, so it's not just the website hosting.

I do like your idea of an auction tho Rose, sounds like a fun way to raise some cash for the coffers.

Gizmo #187472 06/18/2007 1:07 AM
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The ones I dislike are the Flash popups/slides/etc..

FireFox wishlist:

1. Enable a safe list for site I trust to run Java/JScript/Flash all others disable until I put them in a safe list or click a temporary okay.

2. Enable an open here/now button for the download folder when I hit the CTRL-J key for the download window (sort of like IE has when a download finishes.


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Download Statusbar 0.9.4.6 as an FF extension works best for me.

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Does UBB offer a "supporting members" feature?

On a site with Snitz Forums the admin has the option to mark a member as supporting - and then a banner will be displayed under the users avatar.

Here is the thread on how he does it. See the banner under the member information.

http://f800riders.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=774

-------------------------------------
I think I found my answer in another thread https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/180235/fpart/1

Create a VIP group. Will this allow for a special banner? like the ubbBeta Tester or UBB Developer?
-------------------------------------

Last edited by Christopher; 07/27/2007 12:08 AM. Reason: Found info on another thread
Christopher #193002 07/27/2007 12:19 AM
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Rick is planning to add payment options into a future build (7.3 if memory serves me properly); I believe donations will be a part of it.


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