A middle way of revenue generation

This was brought to mind by the Ads are Evil / Necessary debate over in the free lounge.

Why not offer the choice of ad free surfing on these forums?

It would work like this:
For the most part the revenue stream would remain unchanged - Ads
Offer ad free surfing for those prepared to subscribe to get it.

That way people could make their choice, with those who accept the ads continuing to provide financial support via them and those who really dislike them can surf without them - by paying for the privilege.

Just a thought

Elija

Nice thought.
But i think the issue will still be there..... unsolved.

How many are gonna willing to pay??
i think only a few.

But i think these ads.... how irritating they might be ...... are basic requirements to run things like this forum or any site or any mail facility which are FREE for users like us, very necessary.

So i think we shud accept their presence and respect the fact that they enable us to access various things on net for FREE!!

Just a thought as well!!
Micky

This model seems to work OK on other sites (userfriendly.org being one of them). Whether it is appropriate here is not for me to say.

At the very least, it might make people consider just how much they dislike ads

yeah, ads are annoying if they come on my face!
also if they make the site slow......... then i really hate them!!!

nice idea, Elija... I believe part of the members would be willing to pay little amount of money, e.g. $5 for month and get extra stuff like no ads, bigger avatar etc... even if only 100 out of the thousands of members will pay it would make nice income.

Not a bad idea indeed.
So who would be takers on it?

I don't care about ads... they don't irritate me that much. but I'm sure there are ppl who just can't stand ads, and on the other hand can't live without aspfree forums, thus.....

Nope. On other sites, the ads are really annoying in that they pop up. I was trying to remember one particular site in which there is a dropdown ad as your looking at the site. Or some sites where there is a top frame with ads all over it.
I don't mind the ads. If it's a way to keep such a great site like this one operating, so be it.
At least, the admins like JC think about us and don't use noisy or annoying ads like other sites.

The ads don't bother me that much either, as you say, they don't pop up or under and they are not full page flash ads.

Having said that, I probably would be prepared to subscribe. I have to be... it was my idea

I would NOT pay for this.

You've got to look at this from an advertising perspective. If you were an adverstiser and you were given two options such as: (For example)

a) Advertise on DevShed where the adverts are present to everyone that views the page.

b) Advertise on ASPFree where the adverts are disabled for an unknown amount of users.

I would choose the definite a) example as I know there is a higher probablity of more people viewing my advert. Thus increasing my chance of income.

If I were the site owner there is no way I am even going to consider this. I would want to charge the highest price for the lowest space. This would decrease my chance at revenue.

Let's face it, this site gives us everything we want and need and until the adverts become intrusive I'm not bothered how many adverts are present.

Also, very occassionally, adverts are good for us.

Keep it the same I say!!!

Strangely enough, I'm posting here and there is a massive piece of advertising space to the right which is blank.

Jcaputo\Thaminda. You are missing out here!!! Now that's got to be worth Jcaputo agreeing with my post for rep points!! Cheeky, cheeky!! Has an admin ever agreed with a post?

I actually believe what I've written and I'm not creeping or sucking up. Everything is fine and this site rocks. That's one thing everyone agrees with. Even the DevShedians are coming here in droves now!!!

Just my take on things.

Ciao Ciao.

Right but, you also have to look at the total population of both forums. If ads stay up for the same amount of time on both forums, I would always choose devshed because they have more users anyway.

However, I would imagine that the ads are pai