49 replies to this topic

[chief]

So when we first took over John said (and I probably did too) that as long as we owned FUS we wouldn't run any ads on it. And we did that... In till now.


Now before you get out the pitch forks and start building a fire for us to burn in.. Let me explain our reasoning. When we first took over FUS was (what I would call) a dead site. Barely 2 thousand visits in a month so it.. Got by. Anyways our original plan was to get some of the older members back, start up Sea3on, and just have some fun. Well, little over a year and a half later we have over 30 thousand visits a month, a movie partnership, a constant readership for Sea3on among a whole lot of other things.

As it stands right now, our main monthly costs hit around $160 USD. Thats after the server and paying our Sea3on staff. We also have some other costs that jump in now and then, renewing the Invision licence is one of those.

As FUS kept on getting bigger John and myself started looking for other ways to make the community better. The first one of these was partnering up with Eddie Lebron on his film. Which.. Lets just say cost us more then what most probably think. But we do it because we want nothing but the best for this site.

Anyways, due to our desire to make FUS bigger and better we started to think. Right now we can handle the sites expenses out of our own pocket (Mostly Johns) but as we keep going.. Things just keep adding up. The more we want to do the more expensive it will all be.

So, we finally settled on adding a few ads to the site. Right now its just simple google ads but if these work out we will probably sell our own space off our selfs. All I can say is these ads will help FUS grow and for us to do more. Maybe get the site to break even haha.


So right now you will see ads on the bottom of the forum and the sea3on page. Might go to a few other places but we will see.


So everyone just gang up and blame John.


Thanks,


Paul

[Nique]

As it stands right now, our main monthly costs hit around $160 USD. Thats after the server and paying our Sea3on staff. We also have some other costs that jump in now and then, renewing the Invision licence is one of those.

Wow... why does it cost so much? I thought you were on hostgator like me O_O

[chief]

We pay our Sea3on staff.

[Bakuda]

Thanks alot John!!!

[MistressAli]

I didn't know John had a soul

[John Roberts]

Yeah! Ali already owns my soul.

[furrykef]

What's a 'soul'?

[Inhibitor]

Well Kef, you can go with this,

or you can go with that,

But I'm going with this 'cause this is kinda PHAT.

[saber16]

Could be worse. Could always be worse.

[Vlad Yvhv]

As someone who's probly not as techno-savvy as he should be, I have to wonder just how the ads thing works...

[Nique]

We pay our Sea3on staff.

yeah that would do it... I forgot about that

Well it's good you do that, I never had much like with not paying them.

[randomizer]

AdSense is probably the least intrusive of all advertising (unless covertly placed near "real" links to get a few "accidental" clicks). Now if we started getting flash banners in our faces there might be something more to complain about.

As someone who's probly not as techno-savvy as he should be, I have to wonder just how the ads thing works...

Basically every time someone clicks on a Google ad (and in rarer cases, just by having it show up on screen) Google adds an infinitesimal amount of money to a monthly (I think) total that they then pay to you by cheque. On a low traffic site it isn't even worth setting up. On a high traffic site it can be quite profitable.

[SEGAMew]

Nay I say! NAY!

Nah I kid. Completely understand the site and Sea3on staff doesn't run of sugar and rainbows. Well MAYBE the sugar...

[randomizer]

I was just looking at the cost of IPB, and it's certainly pricey, especially since you need to pay for 6-month renewals. I must say that I prefer vBulletin's subscription system. You only need to renew your licence if you want to upgrade to a new major version or want commercial support. Updates to the current version are free after the upfront licence fee.

[John Roberts]

I just want to make it clear that we (FUS) aren't short of funding here, we're not going out of business any time soon. As Paul explained, we want to grow FUS even more than what it has become over the short time we took over, and to do that we figured we may as well get FUS to work for us for a change, hence the whole google ad thing.

I won't blame anyone if they hate this idea. Honestly I was dead against it from the start. I don't want FUS to be known as one of those 'we need your donations to pay our bills!', but after some careful considerations ( and Paul threatening to ban me if I didn't agree), I came to realize just how beneficial this can be for all our members here, and for FUS in the long run. We'll continue to offer you the best that we can and will never ask for a single cent from any of you to do so.

I know that we here at FUS are a bunch of mindless phycopathic elitists who are an embarassment to the entire SatAM community - apparently (just ask Rich!) - so, many thanks to all of you here for sticking with us, and I hope noone feels any ill will to this ad thing. Really, we can pull in any kind of crazy content for this website as we can, but none of it means anything without you guys enjoying it.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Advertisements? ON THE INTERNET?! Who ever heard of such a thing?!

Actually, to be honest, I thought they were still here from the last time someone else owned his site. Not that I saw them after chief and John got SatAM, I just never noticed them missing either.

[Kaotix]

As long as the ads are not intrusive, annoying, or a hindrance to using the site, I don't mind.

[Rosy]

Actually, I'm just glad you guys decided to put it at the BOTTOM of the page, most places I've been too insist on the top or side which then it gets in the way and is awfully annoying. I can fully understand the need of this, as you're paying for it. As long as the ads don't interfere or have anything disturbing (And believe me some get in there that can be even on forum/sites for kids)

[Morgan]

Yeah ads annoy me, but I'm glad these don't pop up and are at the bottom of the page so I can live with it.

[chief]

Nah, I blocked any adult content. So that should be good. I also put a google search at the top of the site and forum.. But thats actually really handy. Searches stuff on fus only.