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75evo
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Promoting items sold by members

Post by 75evo »

Guys,

One thing I love about this site is, it is supported by members, thus free from dumb google ads. BUT I think some items sold by members who are extremely helpful here deserve some "assistance" by this site.

I propose we promote 2 things:

Jim K's books
Greg Gordon's store

2 small banners at the top of this forum maybe?

Thoughts?

Again I realize that a lot of people are against ads, but JimK has spent a fortune and so did Greg to build up what the currently have. And these are very active members helping out forumers. Perhaps this would help boost their sales?
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scott.venables
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Re: Promoting items sold by members

Post by scott.venables »

I would fully support that. That's a great idea
MR2 Zig
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Re: Promoting items sold by members

Post by MR2 Zig »

Sounds like a good idea to me.
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WhizzMan
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Re: Promoting items sold by members

Post by WhizzMan »

Although I have no problem with the activities of either person at all, I think this is a slippery slope and may have more consequences than you would initially think.

First of all, both are already known well enough to not need a banner for visitors to click on. In their case, it will be a recognition of their work and status in the community, but I doubt it will have any commercial effect at all for them.

Second of all, what would be the requirements for others to be "given" a banner? You'd need clear objectives to be achieved, or it would be perceived a "friends thing" by envious people that do not get a banner but want one.

Third of all, once you introduce banners, you should be open to people paying for ad space in the banner region. This may be beneficial, or it may not be. Though should be given to this by the person paying for the web hosting, the moderators and site members.

Looking at how most Alfa related forums in the Netherlands do it, all ads are payed for and advertizing in forum postings is prohibited. "Sponsors" are allowed to actively solicit for work/purchases. This system will not be beneficial for people that give more to the community than they take, but it will prevent the forums from becoming a spamming haven and effectively bury any useful content. As can be observed here as well, most people posting that are "givers" and also have a commercial benefit from being in the community, get that benefit from sheer reputation. They don't need the advertizing all that much, and spend their advertizing budget in places where their reputation is yet to be established.
Greg Gordon
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Re: Promoting items sold by members

Post by Greg Gordon »

I can say with certainly that I am willing to pay for two banner ads. One for www.hiperformancestore.com and one for www.okinjectors.com

I pay for ads on the Alfabb. Obviously that's a much bigger site, but I like this one better.

Greg
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Zamani
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Re: Promoting items sold by members

Post by Zamani »

The requirement for advertiser could be something like:

1) Must be active on this forum
2) Well established on this forum as a helpful member
3) Have been on this forum for a loooooong time.

This is a private forum supported financially by a few members. All are welcome to contribute. But the final say is Michael Harris' because he devotes a lot of resources to get this site running.

I don't want this forum to open its gates to all sorts of advertisers, forum members will start getting pissed off, which I would understand.

Also, a lot of people know who these 2 are, but there must be many who still do not know...you'd be surprised when I mention the name GG or JK to 116 owners and they are like "who they heck are they?". There was one guy who is a Greek drives a 75 V6 where I live and when I mentioned JK he said... "uh...who?". So there are still untapped pockets out there :)

I'm only asking Michael to consider these 2 very helpful members.

Actually I'm not even asking these advertisers to pay, just let this forum be a platform to help them. But if these 2 members agree, why not, help Michael out a little with the bill.

But again, it's up to Michael.

We may contribute the odd few dollars/euros/UKP.

But Michael is the one who has to configure servers, pay the lion's share of the bill etc. He has the final say.
Dr. Alban
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