New Advertising on the Mafia

[YoitsTmac]

I think a voluntary annual fee would be best, or even selective. Obviously most of us have paid to be able to even post. If that is insufficient, it would be nice if we could get like a "ZHP Mafia Premium" where you pay a monthly or annual fee to not see ads. I'm running an ad block but if there's a revenue issue, this is a resource I find valuable and I'm happy to pay if it helps the place.

This is how WhatsApp ran in the day before Facebook. They had a monthly (or annual fee), but you didn't lose any features if you didn't pay. It would remind the user every 6 months or so asking if they will pay. For them, this strategy gave them enough money to keep the lights on and a little room to develop. Just a suggestion.

[pedro2u]

I really like this idea. Let it be a member choice on the tier level of “benefits” they’d like to be at. Like Hulu does with their no ads tier ……

And no better time than the holiday season for folks to chip in to support a site they read and participate in every day

[holyc0w]

I'm also willing to donate. The ads are a bit over the top huge and there are pop-ups. I'm guessing most built-in browser ad blockers are able to block them reducing their usage. Would it be possible to have less intrusive ads when logged in? And maybe guests get the full blown ad experience?

[YoitsTmac]

Good point. I agree, I think for me it was just the massive intrusiveness. It was over 1/3 of my vertical screen real estate with a 900px

[pedro2u]

I'm also willing to donate. The ads are a bit over the top huge and there are pop-ups. I'm guessing most built-in browser ad blockers are able to block them reducing their usage. Would it be possible to have less intrusive ads when logged in? And maybe guests get the full blown ad experience?

Exactly. But how do the other forums not have this amount of excessive ads? I’ll pay to play here because this is the best of the forums in my opinion, but it would still be nice to know what’s different between our site and some of those other BMW forums that don’t have this barrage of ads? Is advertising cost driven by membership count?

[YoitsTmac]

For me to hold 25GB of storage on a single core for our website at work we paid about $40/mo. We since lowered the core as it never reached over 10% utility. At $40/mo, we could realistically sustain 125 users at any given moment. Bandwidth was a rounding error at best. There's also a license associated with the form backend, I remember it being fairly hefty. If we had 100 users paying $100/yr, the website would bring in $10,000, which would support $833/mo. If the forum license was even $5,000 that still allows $416/mo in variable costs.

We can do this without ads. I bet we could even do 150 users at $50/mo, you know the price structure can be played with.

edit: I am not a sys admin but I do handle all digital services for my company and so I have a rough idea of some of these costs. I also once looked into starting a forum and I know there is an annual fee associated with the forum, I forget what the backend is called.

[danewilson77]

At the top of the site is a $0.99/mo subscription. If those that feel inclined would like to donate, I'll turn the ads off tomorrow at work.

Thanks for voicing you opinions on this.

Have a great Christmas. Stay safe. Enjoy famy and friends.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

[pedro2u]

Done

Thanks Dane

Happy Holidays to all!

Put those Omaha Steaks in the freezer……..

[danewilson77]

Done

Thanks Dane

Happy Holidays to all!

Put those Omaha Steaks in the freezer……..

Hehe....Thanks!

[Oli77]

Done.
Merry Christmas to all!