I seem to sense from the tone of the admins that the decision to go with ad revenue is not quite working and that they do prefer to have people pay subscriptions, contrary to the original idea of wanting everyone to convert to ad viewers.
Is ad revenue something that is just taking a bit long to catch up or is it bombing and is undoing it on the table?
What are the stats in member to guest conversions? What percentage of people has chosen to remain as guests when their subscription has come to an end since free-to-post is available?
Free-to-post is indeed here to stay. As you can see from the many ads we run for cellulite-reducing pills, online diploma mills, and similar ventures, getting ads is not a problem. Getting ads that pay worth squat is more of a challenge, but the trend generally speaking is up, which is more than many banks, carmakers, etc., can say these days. Then again, that means we don’t qualify for a big federal bailout, so yes, the thought has crossed our minds that we should rethink our approach. At such times we remind ourselves that, whereas pay-to-post did keep the bills paid, it obviously wasn’t going to lead to vast wealth. With free posting, on the other hand, while it’s not like we have imminent need of a second Brink’s truck, actually making a respectable amount of money some day isn’t completely out of the question. You’ll appreciate we make this sound a little zippier when we explain it to the bankruptcy judge.
In the meantime, sure, we could use the subscription money, so we offer some modest inducements to sign up (pix, post counts). Be assured, however, that if you remain a guest, we’ll love you - generic you, our love is not restricted to you personally, Sapo - every bit as much.
You had to add that last little disclaimer, didn’t you? You had me tearing up for a second.
Now, asking from ignorance, isn’t this one of those things that could benefit from going all out as opposed to taking a cautious approach? (although I understand anyone’s reluctance to gamble one’s beans)
What I mean is, if all the user base were seeing ads, wouldn’t you be more attractive to ad agencies and qualify for better rates?
Nah. The SDMB gets 100,000 unique visitors per month. We’ve got something like 2,500 subscribers. The amount of ad revenue we forego is negligible. The amount of grief we avoid is huge - no doubt you recall the uproar that greeted our initial attempt to show everybody ads in late 2007. That’s not a lesson we need to learn twice.