Need/How to generate revenue!?

Raven · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 7:13 am

My employer in their infinite wisdom and their drive to cut costs has dealt some death blows to many employees over the last 3 years. Without going into the details, 2.5 year's ago I took a hefty pay cut. Yesterday I was informed of yet another one. Suffice it to say, the 2 total more than $20k/year. I'm at the time of my live where this is not good. I absorbed the first one, but this one will be much harder. I have tried to stay away from cluttering this website with ads all over the place and intend on continuing that practice as long as I can. Google Ads haven't generated any revenue to speak of.

I am reaching out to you, to give me ideas. An obvious one would be that those who could would support monthly with donations. I thank those of you who send donations in from time to time. If I were to sell Banner space, would you support that way? Please feedback on this. Thanks!

sixonetonoffun · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 7:45 am

I think its a reasonable thing to do. 10 good accounts would help out a little anyway.

Muffin · Client Joined: Apr 10, 2004 Posts: 649 Location: UK

Well I've had so much help from this site I'd like to subscribe a small amount each month, because you have saved my skin on several occasions and I'm really grateful for that.

At the moment Paypal have limited my account and made a mess of unlimiting it, and I'm waiting on a letter with a new PIN number before I can reactivate the account, but I promise when it's reactivated I'll donate Raven.

I've got a subscription button on my site, as I can't work, I look after my disabled husband, so any help towards the running costs of my site is very much appreciated.

If you have one on here then I'd be only too pleased to subscribe each month.

I have my subscriptions set at £2.00 GBP per month, and people can cancel the arrangement anytime they like. I dont have too many subscribers, not enough to cover the hosting costs, but it does help a lot.

GeekyGuy · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:21 am

Raven, you've got my support, whether it is a monthly subscription, or just on donations. This pay period, my free cash will be going to cover my hosting cost for this deal I got with this great webhosting company, you might have heard of them Wink

But there will be more money later on

HauntedWebby · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:33 am

I'll buy a banner ad. Not that my site is anything special but I'd have no problem helping you out Smile

Have two price structures, one if you host the banner and one if they host the banner (less since you're not using as much bandwidth).

Monthly subscription is fine ... except every month is not always the greatest for me. If we can do that and if an emergency comes up can float a month that would be cool.

You can have member levels. Bronze, Gold, Silver, ect .. or blue, pink, yellow (you get the point). Set the lowest as free, the next up a monthly, the next quarterly, the next semi-annual, the next annual. The only thing you'd want to give the people that pay an incentive .. something they get and the free folks don't. That would be the hard part for you since you help so many people and ask so little in return.

Laughing

you can charge a $1.00 per post. Sure would make people search the forum a little harder before they reask that same old questions Laughing

(btw I'm just kidding)

RavensScripts

HauntedWebby · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:02 am

An idea just hit me Smile

Instead of just the plain old PayPal donation button that you have .. have you ever looking into Nuke Treasury? It shows your goal for the month of expenses. People can donate and deicide if they want to show their name or by anonymous.

No pressure for people, but give a look at what it costs to keep this site running Smile

I don't remember where I downloaded it .. but I can email the script to you .. it's pretty small. Have ChatServ go through it to make sure it’s safe would be a good idea also.

Muffin · Client Joined: Apr 10, 2004 Posts: 649 Location: UK

I have an incentive scheme on my site to encourage people to donate or subscribe, special downloads that aren't available to non-subscribers.

but I think Raven and the other Admins on here DO give us all something by giving such great support not only for Sentinel but other website related problems we encounter. That's enough incentive for me to subscribe. lol

GeekyGuy · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 2:16 pm

Most of us that are recipients of so much help, so graciously offered, could never afford anything close to what that help, in time spent, and knowledge given, is truly worth.

I'll offer what I can, when I can, if nothing more than moral support
RavensScripts

Muffin · Client Joined: Apr 10, 2004 Posts: 649 Location: UK

All I seem to do at the moment is give Raven a headache rofl

Nukeum66 · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 5:51 pm

Raven,
I see nothing wrong with selling ad space or you could place a Google ad in your Downloads/index.php somewhere within the fetchmod hack area, and ask the user to please help support the site by visiting one of the links.

Muffin, Well Stop that!! or at least donate a Tylenol ......... Laughing

sharlein · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 9:48 pm

Raven, you know how I feel on this subject. It is a great idea, but let me make a suggestion. Allow a user (me) to purchase banner space, and then either give it back to you, or donate it to someone that needs some exposure. Also, may I request than you remove the ban from me? (You know what I mean.) Your friend and supporter, Steve

Tao_Man · Involved Joined: Jul 15, 2004 Posts: 252 Location: OKC, OK

Well this may be a bit radical, but a new job.
2.5 years ago the economy was tanking but it has got at least a little bit better and if they need to go through another round of cuts I would say the whole company is not long for this world, or at least your job is not long for this world.

I feel for you but at this point there is not to much I can do to help, 3 years ago I was making $80,000 I am making $30,000 now on a contract that may or may not end next month.

paranor · Client Joined: Aug 28, 2003 Posts: 227

I like the nuke treasury idea with a donation option. Use banners as Plan B?

Raven · Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:36 pm

Thanks for all the great suggestions and encouraging posts! I am testing nuke treasury but am having an error when I try the test link in the configuration. It's graning about not being able to select the database but everything is there. Soooo.... I'll keep trying for a while as I really like the looks of it. And yes Steve, I have lifted your "ban" Laughing

sharlein · Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 12:09 am

Thanks, Raven Very Happy

storebuilder · Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 3:55 am

I can help you.

First of all, remove your "site title" so that only the topic title appears in your "page title". For every module you need just the "article title" to display in the "page title".

I did it by hacking the "dynamic titles" mod - but you can probably find an easier way of doing it.

Once you have done this then you will have the correct keywords for your topic descriptions being listed in the search engines.

Next - googletap your entire site. It's important that you also googletap the blocks so that you get the backlinks counting for you.

Your pagerank is four at the moment. You need to ask everyone who links to you to change their link to "php webhosting" or similar phrase. This will place you at the top of the pile for the phrase you choose.

You need to get everyone who has a higher pagerank than you to link from their front page to you - for instance nukeresources has a PR of 7 - this will then lift your pagerank and you will be a "player" in the search engine rankings. You need to get to a PR of six to make a long time business out of this. Call in some favours from your friends who have a higher PR and get them to link to you from their front page.

Then sit back and watch the traffic double and more to your site within two months.

When you have done this I can show you how to make money from the traffic - but you will probably get enough business in hosting etc not to worry about it.

takaharu · Client Joined: Sep 25, 2003 Posts: 58

The googletapping and the seo pack did double my traffic too in a couple of months.

Muffin · Client Joined: Apr 10, 2004 Posts: 649 Location: UK

How do you find your google page rank? Is it by where your site shows up in the list when you put your site name in a google search?

Rage · Insane Joined: Jul 30, 2004 Posts: 85

I think storebuillder's method is a great way to grease up the site and fire it in the right direction. Banner ads also work great both ways for the consumer and the staff, as long as they're not too big and/or contain inappropriate content. Wink

storebuilder · Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 4:54 am

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Raven · Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 6:47 am

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shows a page rank of 6/10

Muffin · Client Joined: Apr 10, 2004 Posts: 649 Location: UK

Woohoo my main site has a ranking of 4/10 and my email service which is a different domain but linked to the main site has 3/10

ermm.. is this good rofl

storebuilder · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 7:04 am

To build a sucessful web business you need a pagerank of six or better - this is my opinion only so no flamers saying "I have 1/10 and I'm making a packet" please.

Pagerank is exactly that - it's to do with the page that is being linked to and not the site. The index page of a site is always the most important page and so carries the highest pagerank - this is why you should get people to link to you from their homepage as it carries the most weight.

If you are going to use

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then that's fine - as long as you are consistent with pointing to that address then I see no problem.

Taking that into account then:

My synopsis is you have a site with an alexa ranking of 57,000 which means you are ranked 57,000/18million or so, the page rank is 6 which is very healthy and an excellent base to build on, a huge membership base and a growing forum. In fact you have everything that you could possibly need to make the site a huge success. Including PHP expertise.

I would look at ways of generating revenue from the "patched series" and seriously consider making Sentinel a"pay for" module. release 1.2 as a free version but the latest version is to be paid for.

Raven, we have had discussions before about the whole "open source" thing but how much longer can you continue to provide this type of (excellent) forum, relying on external helpers (a big thankyou to them) and making peanuts from the site.

I've said it before and I'll say it again for the last time - open source is a great concept, but in it's effort to provide a "free" open source code it causes users more and more misery by forcing them to spend more and more time patching and fixing because the source is not distributed correctly.

I love what open source has given me - but in respect of a lot of applications they are half baked with no support and riddled with programming errors.

This chap

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is making money from his postnuke version of the same idea. But he is not pretending that it is open source - it's a commercial product and hopefully he is making enough money to support his users properly.

I see a lot of other people creating modules for nuke and charging for them - I really don't see why you don't do the same. Everyone is desparate for a quality "reviews" module - why not build one and then charge for it? That would generate some good revenue for you.

Muffin · Client Joined: Apr 10, 2004 Posts: 649 Location: UK

Making the latest Sentinel a pay only option is ok, but some people are on very low incomes and might not be able to afford to pay for it.

However, they could afford to donate a small amount or even subscribe a little each month.

I think it's important that Sentinel stays free, otherwise those less fortunate would lose their sites through hacking attacks and to some they're website is their only hobby or link to the outside world.

I still think the donation/subsription idea is best, alongside the banner space idea.

Sentinel has protected my site but if I'd had to buy it, in my present position I couldnt afford to so would have had to revert back to either an html site or use an inferior security program.

sorry just putting in my halfpence for the underpriviliged here. lol

storebuilder · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:03 am

That argument is at the heart of open source.

If you charge for it then how can those who don't have any money pay for it?

My argument is that if the developer chooses to charge for it and you don't like it then you have several free alternatives. It's a commercial world - face reality.

Burnwaves emporium is a "pay for" product. $35 (last time i looked) is not a lot to ask. In return he provides first class support for his product.

In essence what you are saying is " I want the product, but I can't afford to pay for it so I should have it free."

$35, $50 or whatever would be a small price to pay to stop your site from being hacked.

It would also allow the developers time to spend on making it better.

Open source means the code is open for you to develop - if you can't develop your own modules then you should expect to pay - or choose a module that is free.