Ken,
I, personally, would be happy as a clam to pay a monthly/yearly fee if it meant
all the ads were to go away.
Not everybody understands what it takes to run a website such as this. So let's look at the situation as it stands so folks here know what is involved.
As you know (but not everybody here does) operating a web site involves:
- A. Internet Access
- B. Domain Registration
- C. Hosting
- D. Storage
- E. Bandwidth
- F. Maintenance
- G. Website design
The above are one's costs whether the site is "free" or "fee". Now to start breaking down those areas (while trying to keep it simple):
- A. Internet Access
... Moderate monthly fee which can vary from $10.00 to $80.00/month. (my ISP charges starting at $20.00/month) - B. Domain Registration
... this is a small but yearly fee. Depending on who you go through this can range from $2.50 to $30.00 a year. (my ISP charges $20.00/year) - C. Hosting
... a moderate monthly fee ranging from $10.00 to $40.00/month depending on storage required,# of domain names, email accounts, etc. (My local ISP provides this @ $30.00 for 400 MB Storage space, 10 Domain Names, Traffic & Access reports, Forms Processing, Daily Tape backup, SSL Enabled Site (SSL Cert extra), MySQL Database, Interchange Shopping Cart, 60 Email Accounts, Customer Controlled Spam filters, Outbound Virus scanning, Inbound Virus Scanning. - D. Storage
... now one starts acruing real costs based upon how much space one uses on the Host's server. This usually comes with a baseline amount with your Hosting. (My local ISP provides this @ $5.00/100Mb/month for extra storage) - E. Bandwidth
... one gets charged for every byte of data that is uploaded/dowloaded over the Host's server. A basic amount of "bandwidth" is usually provided with your Hosting, with additional amounts available for various costs. There is also an option for heavy users called "Colocation Services" which is basically renting a rack server. (my ISP provides this service for $130/month with 100Mb of Bandwidth) - F. Maintainance
... costs nothing unless one pays for help. - G. Website design
... ranges from free to many thousands of dollar per year. "Simplemachines" is a free format design anybody can use.
Now that we have looked at what it costs (which isn't anywhere near "thousands a month") ... let's look at ways one can make money to pay for that.
- Donations
- Member Fees: Pay-to-use. Can be charged daily, monthly, or yearly
- Static Ads: Clickable Links (no graphics). This type pays low per click.
- Active Ads: Clickable Links (Flashers, Banners, Expanders). This type pays better per click
- Tracking Cookies: Advertisers use them to "target" the user with specific ads. Tracked ads pay better than untracked ones
- Click-Through Pages: Extra pages that open "in-between" your attempts to navigate the site. This type pays better per view/click.
- Pop-ups: Pages that open in a new window as you enter, navigate, or exit a site. Pays per each "pop"
- Lists: Sell the user lists. Pays best of all.
or ... How can we cut those costs?
- A. Internet Access You can't change this cost much.
- B. Domain Registration You can't change this cost, either.
- C. Hosting If one reduces their storage needs, these costs will drop.
- D. Storage Reducing extra storage reduces these extra fees.
- E. Bandwidth The more "stuff" one puts on the site the more data is transferred per user/minute.
- F. Maintainance Cut back on "Paid" help.
- G. Website design This wesite design is free, so it would really be hard to reduce that
So basically, it all boils down to storage and bandwidth. The fact is that these two factors are really intertwined. I have no idea what amounts of these are used here, but those are the only ways to reduce costs. So what can one do?
Storage.
1. Cut down on all the personal "bling" that users can store on the server: extra messages, flashy things, mood critters.
2. Get rid of extra pages that nobody uses: click to win pages, games, blogs, chat, etc.
3. Delete Sweeps data after 1 year, site wide. (ie: expired sweeps, user saved sweeps, etc)
Bandwidth.
1. Delete Sweeps data after 1 year, site wide. (ie: expired sweeps, user saved sweeps, etc)
2. Simplify the web site. Throw the 'bling' out the window.
3. Restrict user time.
Revenue:
1. Bigger and better 'flashy' ads! More 'click-through' pages. Toss in some pop-ups and pop-unders just to round out the mix.
2. Membership fees.
3. Get a grant from Obama!
But, for me ...
give me the option to pay for an Ad Free version of the website. I would happily pay up to $12 - 24.00/year to be rid of those pesky things. They waste my time, irritate me, and are generally obnoxious. I have never clicked on any of them and never will. (Nothing personal there Ken or not wanting to support the site...) So, $12.00 from me is a whole lot better than ZERO. Of course you can always keep the free ad-laden version for those who can't, won't, or are unable to pay up.
So the best of both worlds there!
Or you could just make it all a fee based membership, and keep the ads, too. Of course that would also have the great side effect of reducing the bandwidth usage dramatically, saving you
additional money!
... just my 2 cent's worth.
