More on Commericial Members

[SteveColes]

The following exchange took place on regular email with someone who wanted to know, if we accepted advertising. I've removed the identify of the person, who BTW is not a member, but I suspect will be.

Just to make sure that everyone understands. There is not any negative connotation intended about the originator of this exchange. In fact just the opposite. I was very pleased that the sender was enough of a mensch to first ask, rather than just go ahead. I will be very pleased if this individual or his organization registers and post links and info on their products. I know nothing of the quality of their products, but I certainly have good feeling about their business practices.

Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 3:49 PM
To: webmaster@ncwoodworker.net
Subject: North Carolina Woodworker Forums Contact Us Form -
advertising

The following message was sent to you via the North Carolina
Woodworker Forums Contact Us form by arthur.

--------------------------------

Hello , Do you permit advertising within your sites content or forum ?

admin@ncwoodworker.net wrote:

Not in any normal sense. But we encourage "Commercial Members" to join andgenerally participate. We want "Commercial Members" to feel free to post inthe appropriate forums, what they may have available for sale and or linksto there website, stores, etc.We just updated our policy on this and made it a bit more obvious.Just link to our home page and then follow thew link in the welcome message.We'd be happy to have your orranization as a member.​

Thanks for getting back to me .

I see you have promoted your site at Google's top paid listings for the term "woodworking"
I looked at your site and it seems like you don't make much income from it ?
I don't see how you could justify
paying for the advertising ?
Am I missing something ?
Just curious .

First, let me say, I don't make ANY money from this site, nor do I wish to. I provide it strictly as a service for people like myself. Essentially, I pay 13.00.month for the hosting capabilities. I was already paying that for another reason and the space and bandwidth were going to waste.






As to why I did it, I have a set a limited set of goals. The idea is to get approx 500 members. At that level, I will have about 50 "active" members. Then the site will have reached a "critical mass" that will keep the content at a level that this site will be the one of the first places a NC WW will come to find localized information and a set of WWers that live close enough to tap them for info, etc.

As for Google, when I set up the site, I got a credit from ipower for Google adwords. That has paid for most of it. I think that I am $100 out my pocket at this point. My campaign ends tonight, so that will be the end of it. But during that time, I have been promoting these extra services that are beginning to bring in more members and when these services are more obvious, then that will also increase my membership. Now that Google has been been doing paid promotion for about a month, the site is starting to show up in the normal searches, which was my goal. All I want to achieve is a large enough membership (I figure about 500) so that there is sufficient content on the site to meet my goals. Which are simply to provide a site where a WW from NC can come and find local information easily, not buried in a national site.

I guess another goal was to provide a site where someone could ask a question and not have to endure the sometimes biting responses of those frustrated people who like to hide behind the relative anonymity of the internet to boost their egos. ( sorry about that. That last sentence was a bit of a flame.)

Anyway, please join us. We will be happy to have you.

Oh BTW, would you mind if I post this on the site with all your identifying info removed? It some ways it explains my position better that some of my formal posts.

Steve
​

​

BTW, this whole exchange and some other things that have happened on this site have re-enforced my position that by setting a certain tone and unofficial behaviour standards, that almost everyone will adhere to them, without having to beat anyone over the head. I guess, I believe in the basic good nature of most human beings. In other words, expect and assume the best and you usually get it.

Can I get an Amen :eusa_pray

 

[SteveColes]

FYI, the person in this exchange did in fact become a commericial member