[Chris 96 WS6]

I put a google ad bar somewhere on the message board?

I could place it across the top above the banner or down the left or right side.

Its not flashy, not animated, but displays contextual ads based on the content of this site, and the site earns money based on how many clicks the ads get. For example about 33 clicks is $1.

Just a way I have found to help keep the site expenses paid for going forward, but I don't want to hack all of you guys off because many of you are really picky about ads and things.

Before anyone says it again.....I WILL NEVER PUT POP UPS ON THIS SITE.

[Chris 96 WS6]

I like the shirts/mugs/mousepads concept. Like that a lot....

I do not like donations as a concept or rule. To me it makes this site much more of a public property realm and less of a private enterprise. I try to operate this board in a way that pleases the people who use it, but I am very cool on anything that creates any implied or express strings where somebody might think I "owe" them something for their donation.

For example: For the forseeable future, this site isn't very expensive to operate. A couple of sponsors a year is all it takes to pay for it assuming we don't grow 5-7 times the size in terms of bandwidth. [edit: by my guesstimates, I have enough bandwidth in the base hosting package to accomodate 5 times as much traffic per month as we get here now...so that's the growth ceiling beyond which it will cost more to operate the site].

Having said that...if I bring in new sponsors...that's profit in my pocket. I hope no one here has a problem with that. If they do then we've already got issues with the concept of this site and "ownership" thereof.

Now, I didn't start the site for you guys with the idea of making money. I knew it was a possibility, but the smallness of this niche...f-body guys that turn left and right.....precluded any kind of "windfall".

However, for me to accept donations for anything more than a break-even endeavor would be disengenuous IMO. But fee for service or fee for product is different, because the buyer gets something in return.

I don't think its inappropriate at all for me to make a little extra money from the site, considering I went through the trouble of setting it up and paid for the expenses up front. My time in doing what management needs to be done can be compensated in this way. If I make $1000 net a year off sponsorships, etc....that's pretty cheap if you divide by hours I would end up working on the site in a given year.

I agree that with the traffic this site has, the google ads are a joke in terms of the return I would get. So that idea is gone. If we were getting 100,000 visits per month I'd reconsider it, but at those levels, I could command much higher sponsorship fees, which would far outstrip any earning potential the google ads would have. But ultimately I'm not going to do things with this site that you guys don't like, because without members this site has Zero value to anyone.