Money, Money, Money.....

[gaz_the_chav]

Just a quickie...

Is there any profit made out of this site at all?

Even like a donation service to help the upkeep of the website, hosting etc.??

[DaveW]

Currently me and Rankenphile are unpaid, and Crimson seems to be footing the bill for the site. There's some small advertising revenue from the front page which is used to lessen the impact, but we're putting a plan into action to increase the advertising revenue of the site at the moment. This will hopefully mean that we can get better stuff for the site-for example, the next modder's challenge prize will only be shippable to the US unless the winner wants to pay for shipping to their own country, due to it's size.

With increased site revenue, we can hopefully avoid things like that, thus making the adds and things more tollerable. This site was primarilly designed to showcase Paul's computers, and therefore generate business for him-but the site's taken a different direction since it was originally designed, so perhaps these changes are important to keeping the site moving in the right direction. As my survey seems to be pointing out, only about half our visitors check the front page, which is where all the current revenue comes from. This will be addressed when we come to update the website in the future.

One thing we'll definately do is add in a donations button; If you think it's a good idea. The money will go to keeping and maintaining the site.

Hope that answers your questions.

-Dave

[Rankenphile]

Good points, Dave.

As he said, both of us are unpaid and work on the site in our spare time, when we have some. Paul (Crimson_Sky, the site's owner and our resident omfg mod guru) pays for the site out of pocket, and the ads on the front page pay for those expenses. All expenses for our projects, such as the Modder's Challenge and such, are out of pocket or by donation by the sponsors. I'm paying to ship the Leatherman halfway across the world for this contest, which is something I don't mind doing in the least, but as DaveW said, that is the reason the next contest will be available only in the continental US - the prize is much larger, and I just can't afford to send something overseas every month or two.

We've got some projects up our sleeves, including a forum overhaul in the next few months or so, a front-page redesign and any number of other additions - not the least of which is the rumored "super secret project" we have been cranking away at. One of the most noticeable changes is going to be the addition of ads to the forums - it will most likely be just low-profile Google Adsense ads for the time being, and that is only to help recoup some of the expenses that we're facing keeping this site up and to allow us some more time to dedicate to keeping everything running smooth and continue to add new content, contests and more.

We really, really enjoy your feedback, however. What do you guys think? What else do you want to see on this site? Do you check the front page? If so, what do you look for? If not, why not? What other projects would you like to see added? What do you hate and want to see gone?

Anyway, just keeping you guys up to speed with what is going on behind the curtain here at TBCS. Thanks, and hope to hear from you all soon.

[dgrmkrp]

errrm.. hi.. guys :)
i was wondering, as i have no problem with ads (they can be blocked.. hihi), could the things promoted be useful (new stuff for modding, hardware.. weird stuff we use to our pourposes..)? i do have full confidence in you guys tho!

also, i wouldn't mind paying for shipping (the authorities here have different opinions.. darn buerocracy), because it is an honour winning something, as it is at least a symbol to show to our parents(or people we live with and need to see that this is not just killing time) and maybe... maybe brag about (if you're paul that is)

[gaz_the_chav]

Thanks for that guys - very interesting.

I think that a donationations button would definatly be good! and i know that I would donate!

[GT40_GearHead]

well if checking the front page will help you guys (ranken, dave, and crimson)
i'll check it every day
i have the forum set as a home page so :D
as for the content, some news would be great, modding stuff, car stuff and i dont mean things that look like a PS2 on weels, i mean real cars, and make crimson do some more mods :D

[DaveW]

make crimson do some more mods

Lol...if we could, we would! Rank and Crimson were going to go for google ads, but I don't like the google add software. I think we should have google adds for a couple of months, see how much it makes, then offer the same space to a company like Abit or something and see if they want to buy the space-in order to keep it fairly relevant and professional looking.

Then again, who knows what will happen? The front page of the forums is going to get a lot more action once this is out of the way: i'll be including links to the front page from the forums (hopefully) in order to make it easier to browse between the forums and the front page.

We're looking at some ideas just now and toying with what's practical, possible, and downright daft. If something's been bugging you for a while, then now is the time to make that complaint, suggestion, or compliment.

-Dave

[simon275]

Maybe have a special subscritpion thingy were people can susbscribe to the forum for a small fee and become elite. If they do they get

Custom Rank
Add free browsing
Maybe a special subsribers only forum.

Nomral uses get the same extra salty TBCS experience but subsribers get the above added perks.

[meticoeus]

I would recommend not placing ads in the threads themselves, except perhaps at the very top or something fairly discreet. Ads on the side of the page can be really annoying when they compress the thread into a much narrower page. One thing I like about this site is that it scales to your browser, rather than just being a set width like so many sites use.

Those of us with widescreen actually get to use the whole space when only web browsing ;p. Just my two cents. Programmers and webdesigners that sacrafice user friendliness to capture some perfectionistic tidy look that only looks good/works well at ONE resolution bug me.

[Rankenphile]

I really hope to avoid having subscription-based forums, at least for the time being. We don't really have enough up right now to offer a subscription service, and the hope is to keep the forums open for all to enjoy and contribute to. There is no reason to start segregating members by subscriber/nonsubscriber at this point.

And yes, we will be sure to keep all forum ads as low-profile and unobtrusive as possible. We understand well that people browse these at multiple resolutions and monitor configurations, and those facts will be carefully taken into consideration when the time comes to integrate the ads.

[meticoeus]

yay