[theforum] Fw: Your Website

Paul Waring paul at xk7.net
Wed May 16 14:28:24 CDT 2007


On Wed, May 16, 2007 at 02:51:09PM -0400, David Kaufman wrote:
> So maybe discussing potential additional revenue streams is moot... but 
> things do tend to change -- ServerMatrix (ahem, now EV-1.com -- whoops, 
> I mean ThePlanet.com) has raised our hosting rates once already... and 
> advertising revenue can be a fickle mistress at best :-)

I think it's always a good idea to think about additional revenue
streams - any organisation should have sufficient reserves to run for
four weeks without any revenue really.

> A. Do you think putting text link ads on WEO (www. not just browsers.dot 
> evolt.org) would be a cataclysmic error?

If they're done tastefully, no (perhaps at the bottom of each article
between the author bio and the comments?).

> B. What about just on search results pages?

Yes, doubly so if we can find a way to make the advertising which
appears relevant to the search query.

> C. How about on the mailing list archives?

No, this is the one place I wouldn't want to see ads.

> D. What would we do with the extra money?

Keep it in reserve until we had enough to pay at least one month's
hosting (preferably a bit more) and account for a 10% rise in costs at
any one time. Beyond that, I'm not sure - normally I would suggest
putting it towards new and exciting projects but seeing as we don't even
get a regular stream of good articles anymore I'm not sure that would be
a good idea.

I've just noticed though that the 'help support evolt' page (from the
'donate' link) no longer exists - is this intentional?

Also, on the topic of ads, perhaps we could try using The Deck instead?:

http://coudal.com/deck/

It's not an open network but I think evolt probably hits the right
audience and has enough traffic to make it worthwhile approaching Coudal
about it - the worst they can say is "no". Also, because this
advertising is based on influence rather than clicks or impressions, it
would give evolt a guaranteed stable income.

> I'm thinking it would be nice to be able to pay an author or two for 
> their articles once in a while.  What do you think?

That's a tricky one - do you want to pay all authors, or only some? If
only some, how do you decide which ones? Although personally I think
this is a moot point anyway as evolt doesn't seem to get more than two
articles a month posted anymore. :(

Paul



More information about the theforum mailing list