Would subscribers buying advertising on this board work as an alternative to charging fees to everyone? How much advertising would have to be sold each week/month for this board to be “secure” without collecting user fees. The reason I ask this obviously is that I think this might be a good alternative so that those of us who are willing and able to financially support the SDMB can do so without driving out those who can’t or won’t.
Quoting from Ed Zotti’s announcemnt in SDMB Subscription Pre-Registration Form:
So if you happen to know a big-budget advertiser with money to spend now would be a good time to send them the Reader’s way.
This just seems lame.
What about THespos’s offer?
He said he would find them ads and they shot him down with the same “it’s slow today” homilies.
If the admins refuse help, of course they will not find ads!
Wanting to fight ignorance at the source, I had clicked the link at the bottom of the page to check advertising rates before starting this thread. I learned that the median age for this website’s users is 32 and their median income is $75,000 per year, which means I’m both older and poorer than the median.
I also learned I can get 40,000 impressions for a cost of $800 and a CPM of $20. Or I could go for 80,000 impressions at a cost of $1,200 and a CPM of $15. And if I really want to bring my CPM down I can pick 200,000 impressions at $2,000 which gives me a $10 CPM. Naturally there’s some fine print like the fact that a minimum of 5,000 impressions per week is required and I can’t get a location in rental, real estate, or housing to share at these figures but I can choose the content category and number of exposures I want each week.
I suppose if I were a professional in advertising or sales this would make sense to me. But on the downside I’d have no soul so I guess it’s all to the good. Trying to translate the above from jargon to English, it appears I can buy something for an unspecified amount of time which might be a week for an amount of money that might be between $800 to $2000 or $10 to $20. My recommendation is that the Chicago Reader cut costs by getting rid of everyone on their full-time ad sales staff who failed English as a Second Language.
where do they get info about how old we are and how much we make? i don’t remember filling out a poll.
Well, how about classified ads? I’m assuming the Reader has a classifieds section online already. How about giving the SDMB population a separate section to advertise in, and link to it heavily from the boards?
We’d get a place to post some of the things we can’t do on the boards (help wanted, stuff for sale, personals), and support the board at the same time. Heck, I’d send in a “We saved the board without going subscription! Whee!” personal myself right off the bat.
If the technology is already in place, and it wouldn’t cost much to set up, is there any reason not to try it?
abuse angel, those are demographics for the Reader, not for the SDMB.
I, too, would be interested in clarifying the ad rates, as I have something I could actually advertise and would be willing to pay for (if it meant keeping the SD free, although I’ll buy a subscription anyway, much as I don’t like the idea). It seems to me this option hasn’t been explored - if some people are willing to pay $50 for a subscription, how many of those would keep the SDMB free if we bought ads instead of paid for a subscription?
Esprix
I really like the suggestions in this thread. I’d like to hear more, and I hope these suggestions are taken seriously.
I’d pay to place an “ad” on SDMB from time to time in lieu of a commercial advertiser buying up that slot, and in lieu of having us all have to pay to post.
I also like the idea of member advertising. A lot of folks here either have real products and services they might like to advertise, or would be willing to pay for “vanity banners”–I know that was mentioned in at least one of the other threads. Could we at least try that to see if it will provide the needed funds before going to subscriptions? 'Cuz while I would definitely subscribe, I’m seeing an awful lot of people say they wouldn’t just on principle, and it concerns me.
The Reader online ad department has pointed out that for “vanity banners” to be financially viable for the Reader they’d have to be priced so high most people couldn’t afford 'em. It takes work to set up them things up and more effort than it’s worth for the Reader to be in that picayune kind of ad revenue.
The ad structure is set up for regular big business advertising customers, not one-shot “Hi there” kind of things or little businesses looking for a banner here and there.
I really don’t think y’all grok the situation here, it’s more than an ad here and there, hit and miss.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
The Reader already has a Classifieds section online. Which means that the infrastructure is already in place to create a separate Classifieds forum for the SDMB. Which means that users could voluntarily buy ad space from the Reader, at reasonable rates, advertising jobs, dopefests, personal stuff, etc. It would provide a way for the posters to contribute to the SDMB, without it being donations. It would also be a national classifieds section, with a user base already in place.
And, it has no chance of killing the boards off. Why not try this first, before pay-to-post?
Changing over to a pay-for-use service will presumedly entail a lot of changes, but is obviously being “considered”. I realize none of us has any voice in the offices of The Chicago Reader, but I’d like to think they would at least consider the perceived desires of their potential customers.
To the best of my knowledge, the Reader content and the SD don’t share server space. From what little I know about the Reader content, the classified ad system is entirely different and separate as well, so I’m not sure how/if that might work.
Whether the classified ad system could be used for ad space and banners, I don’t know. I’ll ask the Reader online ad guy about it.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
I don’t think that the classified ad software can be used for banners; just for classified ads. If the Reader set up a separate classified ad section, on either their server or on the SDMB’s, and used their existing infrastructure to take ads, they’d have an easy way to make money off the SDMB. And we’d have an easy way to send in the money we’ve been begging to contribute to these boards.
The SDMB Classifieds. If you build it, they will come.
Just wanted to pop in to say that this seems like an interesting idea. Perhpas couple this with some SDMB Official merchandise and you may be talking about generating a nice revenue stream.
MrVisible, that’s a very interesting idea. Contribute funds to the Reader by buying a commercial classified ad.
From http://www.chicagoreader.com/readerinc/classifieds.html :
$23 per person sounds really reasonable and in the ballpark we’re discussing. Buy a commercial ad, text “Buy Cecil Adams’s Straight Dope Books! This ad courtesy of an SDMB poster in City, Country”. Cecil sells more books, the Reader gets income from the ad fee, the SDMB is supported and everybody’s happy.
It wouldn’t have to be a separate section, although the Reader might find it appropriate to group all ads like this together.
Questions:
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Is the fee for one minimum price ad sufficient to cover both the costs for the ad itself and give enough income to support the SDMB?
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Is there anything illegal or shady about this? What would the IRS think? If I choose to buy ad space, I can do whatever I want with it (within certain limits), right?
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Is an informal fund drive like this worth a try? How many people would really do it?
- People will do it now because the board’s in danger. Will they continue to do it, or is this just postponing the inevitable?
I’m really glad the classifieds idea is gaining interest. I really think that, given enough of a chance, this could make the boards profitable.
I want to clarify, though. I don’t see this as a temporary solution; nor do I see the ads SDMB posters would be buying as a simple donation. I see the Classifieds section of the SDMB becoming a thriving national classified ad forum, where goods and services can be exchanged.
I think a separate classified section will be necessary, and a separate pricing scheme as well. I believe that the Personals section of the Classifieds will be the largest section to start with (birthday greetings, dopefest announcements, weird missives from our bizarre user base); we can’t afford to make that free. But gradually, I see commerce developing. Wouldn’t you love to buy a used computer system from one of the notorious computer geeks on the board, and know it would be clean and in running condition when it arrived? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what kind of job applicants you could get from a Straight Dope ad? Wouldn’t you love to be able to hawk your services to the Teeming Millions, without fear of the dreaded “Hey, they’re spamming us!” denunciation? Want to bring Straight Dope traffic to your Internet business? This is a group of thousands of interesting, educated people. A commercial forum would be a fascinating, and profitable addition.
I’d like to see traditions develop in ad placement, too. Someone having a birthday? Buy them an ad. Want to apologize to someone on the boards? Buy an ad saying you’re sorry. Want to celebrate someone’s 1000 post milestone? Buy them an ad. Support the boards while making people happy. What could be better?
I think that the knowledge that the classifieds help keep the board free would get them started, but eventually, I believe that the ads would become a useful center of board activity.
I’m particularly interested in a separate forum for the Classifieds because it would save the Reader the cost of printing the ads, as well as saving the Reader’s readers from having to read our ads, which may make no sense to anyone but SDMB posters. I would feel odd about buying an ad that ran in Chicago, but would love to reach all of the SDMB.
So; a separate page of classified ads, dedicated to the SDMB readership, using the existing infrastructure established by the Reader for accepting ads online. I really think it will work.
I hate to see this thread drop to the bottom. I really think this is a good idea. I know I’m not adding a lot of new information, but I beleive Mr. Visible, et al. have hashed it out pretty well. The trick would be getting people to buy ads for things rather than post. There would have to be some other way to make it attractive (other than fear that the board will die without these purchases). I think that the the goods, services and help wanted style ads would tend to be easier to sell than the personal type ads as much of MPSIMS tends to contain personal ad type posts (birthday wishes, etc.).
Hopefully we’ll hear from some of the Administrators or Chicago Reader Ad Sales folks about this idea.