Site news: Advertising

[arn]

Hey all,

Over the past few months, Macrumors traffic has picked up and bandwidth has far exceded the server's bandwidth quota...

I've had minimal advertising on the site up until now for the convenience of all involved (myself included). Unfortunately, hosting costs far exceed any revenue this site generates... as a result, you will see more advertising creeping into the site.

It's an unfortunate necessity... dedicated servers cost money... :)

We will try to get targeted Mac advertising, and of course, hope you support us by supporting our sponsors.

arn

[Falleron]

Is it possible to have a pre-defined place on the page where these advertes are found (eg. top of the page)? I am only saying because the type of advertising that opens its own windows are very annoying.

[whfsdude]

I could help host this site or part of it I have mac os server + dsl

[eyelikeart]

hopefully it won't be for the damned online casino....

that stupid ad pops up all the time now whenever u use Yahoo! to do a search....

I know I'll catch hell for this idea most likey, but have u considered charging a flat fee for those who are regulars? maybe something like $5 a year to collect from us? that way we could help fund the costs of keeping up the server and such...

just a thought...

[Falleron]

LOL eyelikeart! I know its not much, but personally, I would go elsewhere. I would prefer the ads.

[Six]

lol eyelikeart! i hate that casino thing, and also the ads for the "x-cam" are annoying too.. They advertise a home security device but have a woman in a pool wearing a small bikini... its kinda funny... too bad they dont just call it "the camera for guys looking to spy on this chick!"

[mischief]

Hey Arn! Merchandising would be more successful and less abnoxious. How about some "Got Mystic?" baseball caps and "Why Mac? Cuz it just works." T-shirts an' such. How about some official Macrumors Dicebags and liscenced Apple-logo Gaming dice?

[IndyGopher]

Originally posted by mischief
Hey Arn! Merchandising would be more successful and less abnoxious. How about some "Got Mystic?" baseball caps and "Why Mac? Cuz it just works." T-shirts an' such. How about some official Macrumors Dicebags and liscenced Apple-logo Gaming dice?

Umm.. the idea is to make money, not to owe Apple ridiculous sums for licensing the logo.. which they are almost never allowing anymore. Although, I do have to say that dice with the apple logo in place of the pips would be pretty cool... even if I can't remember the last time I used dice... probably high school. For merchandising, I would much rather see something like a coffee mug.. something that is useful, and also can be placed conspicuously on my desk at work.

Ads are just a fact of life. I don't think anyone would CHOOSE to see ads, but I certainly would not stop visiting the site just because ads showed up. And if they were truly germaine to the whole Apple thing, then I think ads are welcome. Sale notices and announcements from vendors, for example, are worth a click or two. If I am going to cruise the vendors anyway, I would rather click them from a site that I want to support than pull them from the ol' favorites menu.

[eyelikeart]

I like the merchandise idea....but I'd wonder if many people would blow it off....causing a loss of money? :confused:

[IndyGopher]

Merchandising would probably have to be done in very small orders, which would raise the costs, but it would still make a good supplement, I think. Ads are a given, they pretty much have to increase. With all the traffic this site has gotten since the Apple Hype Machine sent the rumor-mongering into the stratosphere, the hosting bills have had to be just silly-high. I think adding the occasional bit of logoware (and wear) would be a welcome touch, though. I think $15 or $20 for a quality coffee mug with the MacRumors name, URL, and perhaps a pithy slogan would be money well spent... or at least, less foolishly spent than most of the $15-$20 items that I seem to accumulate.

[arn]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
I like the merchandise idea....but I'd wonder if many people would blow it off....causing a loss of money? :confused:

we can do merchandise... there are many programs available that process it all...

however... I don't think it's the answer unless you all plan on buying a whole lot of mugs :)

arn

[Timothy]

I've actually thought about the subscription fee idea a lot. Several chat sites I participate in have grown so large, and there are so many drive-by postings, that it's hard to maintain a coherant conversation with a group of people.

I've come to the idea of paid subscription chat sites, which serve to ensure that all of the participants are serious about the topic, and will stick around long enough for everyone to get to know everyone, thus increasing the value of the discussion.

Further...I think there are actual benefits to "closing" a rumor site. Making access to the site private might mean that more "sources" would be comfortable in revealing details about additional products in the pipeline; it may even lessen threats from Apple legal, because the information would not be generally available to the public.

Sure, you'd lose tons of volume, but you'd create a site that was more valuable to the participants, and more likely to provide valuable information.

I'd be in for $30 per year for the right site. ;-)

[Falleron]

Surely the answer is to limit the number of guests in busy times?? That way, registered members can use the boards without 1 time posts blocking up the system. Also, deleting in-active members (say after 3 months) would clear the system out? This would at least buy you some time so that no rushed decisions are made.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by Falleron
Surely the answer is to limit the number of guests in busy times?? That way, registered members can use the boards without 1 time posts blocking up the system. Also, deleting in-active members (say after 3 months) would clear the system out? This would at least buy you some time so that no rushed decisions are made.

this is something I suggested in a general discussion thread....

there's a great number of users registered from over a year ago with 0 posts...those could easily be deleted....why have them?

[Timothy]

As I understand it...clearing out user names and id's that are inactive doesn't really accomplish anything. Arn, of course, can answer this better than I can. But, the issue is actual traffic. Inactive accounts probably only add a tiny bit of overhead to the amount of space the database of users requires, which is probably only in the low mb's of space.

[arn]

Originally posted by Timothy
As I understand it...clearing out user names and id's that are inactive doesn't really accomplish anything. Arn, of course, can answer this better than I can. But, the issue is actual traffic. Inactive accounts probably only add a tiny bit of overhead to the amount of space the database of users requires, which is probably only in the low mb's of space.

Right... those 0 post users probably take up about 10k of space on a drive somewhere...

Bandwidth and server load are what cause problems and both of those are a direct result of traffic.

Thanks for the suggestions guys... I don't want to go to a subscription basis, and I also don't want to beg for money (ala macosrumors :) )... there might be mugs/tshirts for the novelty value and that you can wear to Expos...

arn

[eyelikeart]

it was just a thought.....more for our sake when browsing through the member list.....pages upon pages of 0 post users...

but it's all good ;)

[MaxRool]

Hey. this is my favourite forum and I think I would probably pay to subscribe.
But I think this should be optionable.
Some people (the 0 posters), maybe just like to watch, some like to particpate for the sake of just having something to say and others like to comment when they think they have something useful to contribute.
As an idea you could have members and financial members. Financial members could get something extra, like a coffe mug or something. ;)
Maybe they could promote their own business or company with an advert so that rather than having third party sponsors, members could promote themselves.
Just thinking out aloud, thats all.
:p

[me hate windows]

I think the merchandise idea is realy good. Applefritter sells merchandise, and thats what keeps them up.

[j763]

arn,

thanks so much for maintaining this site. its a great resource. i hope you can work out the funding issues w/o popup ads - i'd even pay you to keep popups off this site...

j763

[Beej]

You should charge us $5 a year to be able to have a picture below our name! I want to use my hardcore prawn picture! w00t!

[IndyGopher]

Actually, the idea of being able to "buy" an avatar is not so bad... or to make different levels of contributors... there's enough one-up-manship around here that you might be able to bankroll your own T3...

"Miserly Sod" up through "Vainglorious Moneywaster" :D

[Smasher]

Originally posted by IndyGopher
Actually, the idea of being able to "buy" an avatar is not so bad... or to make different levels of contributors... there's enough one-up-manship around here that you might be able to bankroll your own T3...

"Miserly Sod" up through "Vainglorious Moneywaster" :D

We prefer to think of ourselves as Vainglorious Moneylenders:p

[Abominog]

Originally posted by arn
Hey all,

(snip)

We will try to get targeted Mac advertising, and of course, hope you support us by supporting our sponsors.

arn

I bought a high- end something recently from a click- through from this...oh yeah, redlightrunner it was, and I was glad to help support this site. But theyre an established Mac- centric company. I guess low- brow ads like those for windoze "accelerators", mini cams, casinos, etc. produce click throughs somewhere, but would they really work on a site like this with relatively computer savvy members? Either way, I wouldn't care; I would never click them, but I wouldn't mind more ads. Pop- ups don't annoy me nearly as much in the new "hidden" fashion.

As far as paid subscription format, good luck. Theres a huge chasm between enjoying killing time here by reading the mostly frivolous junk posts, arrogant moderators and broken English "what's- your- desktop- look- like" polls and paying cash money for same.

[Durandal7]

If you must post ads then I have no problem with it. Just please dont use Java in it. On my older system I become enraged when my system hangs for 5 minutes while it loads a carnie monkey.

[Abominog]

Originally posted by asurace
I become enraged when my system hangs for 5 minutes while it loads a carnie monkey.

ROTFL