Advertising On Acorn

[scwebsites]

Hiya

Have you ever thought about having a board where users can pay to advertise services to the acorn community?

I have services that I know some of you members would be interested in, but I don't want to SPAM by mentioning them where I am not supposed to, so having a place where we can pay to advertise would be great.

Or am I missing something, is there a place to do this already?

 

[peter_w]

People tend to offer services in the "Services Wanted" section. http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/services-wanted.html

 

[scwebsites]

Yeah I have seen a few people do that.

Can a mod or admin confirm for me that it would be OK to do that, or let me know of an alternative, as I have mentioned, I don't mind paying or making a donation for advertising.

 

[Blossom]

There was a thread about it but no real resolution reached: http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/forum-news-feedback/86346-services-offered-section.html

 

[Admin]

You can't advertise here for free as a general rule, especially domain related services, forums, etc. but I do allow members to do some stuff in their sigs as I'm too soft really.

I can add a "Sponsored" forum on a pay per post basis but then people expect that I has personally vetted everything advertised which is not the case.

What rules should I put around it?

I am hesitant as I am getting some reasonable banner ad revs here that I wouldn't want to dilute the value of if people can post anything for say £10 in a forum.

Admin

 

[peter_w]

If there was a 100 post minimum before you could post your service, I assume that would weed out most of the dodgy service offerings?

 

[scwebsites]

Well my suggestion would be that you charge more like £50 per post in a sponsored forum. I would buy one right away.

I think £50 a post would make it worth your while, and would make sure that particular board only attracted people who were serious about advertising.

Plus a £50 fee would mean less adverts for more revenue for you. It's more attractive to advertisers too because less advertisers means more time near the top.

Somehow disabling bumping on that board would be wise too, perhaps by locking threads and making people use PMs or email to respond to adverts.

Perhaps a minimum post level too, as peter_w suggests, though I would make it a bit less than 100 posts.

 

[scwebsites]

Another suggestion...

Make the terms of advertising say that adverts will last a minimum of 30 days, that way of the board didn't work out for you, you could stop taking adverts and close it 30 days later.

 

[Admin]

Well my suggestion would be that you charge more like £50 per post in a sponsored forum. I would buy one right away.

I think £50 a post would make it worth your while, and would make sure that particular board only attracted people who were serious about advertising.

Plus a £50 fee would mean less adverts for more revenue for you. It's more attractive to advertisers too because less advertisers means more time near the top.

Somehow disabling bumping on that board would be wise too, perhaps by locking threads and making people use PMs or email to respond to adverts.

Perhaps a minimum post level too, as peter_w suggests, though I would make it a bit less than 100 posts.

That's a good point, what if you pay for as ad and someone disses for product / service or says no try competitor X for example.

Maybe the ads should be closed?

 

[jimm]

The problem with making it so expensive is that you are only going to get a very limited amount of takers.
Some of the stuff I sell off cheap which could benefit to members here (eg second user servers) there isnt enough margin to pay £50 to advertise and people here dont want my expensive stuff (rightly so, its not targeted at them).
If you look at other decent forums like uk business forum they still chage a premium (£150 per month for a small add) for proper adverts on the whole site yet the ability to post adverts is £40 per year! Even my own forums (admitidley a very different area - 3 car forums) can command £500 per month for banners, even with people able to post adverts in an advertising forum a lot cheaper.
The reason being adverts in a specific forum are a lot less effective than proper adverts on the site where general browsers will more likey view.

 

[scwebsites]

If advertising is cheap it will be abused. £10 for an advert and you will get lots of adverts but the quality will likely be poor. For what I would like to advertise, a banner simply would not allow me space to explain my services.

Yes I think adverts should be closed, to stop negative replies and more importantly, to avoid advertisers constant bumping their ad to the top.

I really hope you at least trial this.

 

[scwebsites]

Or why not please everyone by allowing advertising posts at £10.00 and 1 month sticky posts for £50.00 or something like that. Then have a maximum of six sticky posts running at 1 time.

Just an idea.

That would be your best revenue model I think.

 

[peter_w]

I really don't see what the harm is in just changing "Services Wanted" to be "Services Wanted and Offered", with a minimum post count applicable to post Offers.

£50 to post in an advertising section on Acorn would be, frankly, absurd.

 

[scwebsites]

Allowing free advertising would be nightmare for admin and other members. There would be hundreds of adverts in no time, most of which offering web hosting for £1.99 a year or something equally boring.

The fewer adverts, the better for everyone, but the ability to advertise for a decent fee would be good for the site, they need revenue, as does any website, and good for serious advertisers.

 

[jimm]

Smaller amounts wont mean it will be abused. Just look at other similar quality forums and you will see pleanty of examples where it works.

I really don't see what the harm is in just changing "Services Wanted" to be "Services Wanted and Offered", with a minimum post count applicable to post Offers.

Neither do I but I also dont begrudge paying a reasonable amount either.

 

[peter_w]

Any kind of "fee" based barrier, whether it's £50 or 50p, will limit the number of ads being posted to only a handful. I honestly think you are over-estimating the impact of a "cheap" way of doing it. As it is now, people are effectively free to post adverts anyway in the Services Wanted section, yet it isn't over run with low quality offerings or hundreds of threads being bumped.

Allowing free advertising would be nightmare for admin and other members. There would be hundreds of adverts in no time, most of which offering web hosting for £1.99 a year or something equally boring.

The fewer adverts, the better for everyone, but the ability to advertise for a decent fee would be good for the site, they need revenue, as does any website, and good for serious advertisers.

 

[Sussexite]

Why not allow all members just one "services offered" post in a new thread. This can then be edited by members as they change what they are flogging.

If the services offered are blatantly off topic, then the right of that member to use the service is revoked permanently.

Not everyone will take this up, so hopefully this wouldn't be too onerous.

 

[Edwin]

Why should admin offer people anything else for free? There's already an amazing amount of free publicity offered via this site, for names that are for sale or to lease (whether primarily listed here or elsewhere). There's also the chance for service providers to approach those requesting services via the Wanted forum, again for free. Frankly (wearing my "commercial hat") there's already too much that's free on Acorn, given the amount of transactions that take place through here...

 

[scwebsites]

Any kind of "fee" based barrier, whether it's £50 or 50p, will limit the number of ads being posted to only a handful. I honestly think you are over-estimating the impact of a "cheap" way of doing it. As it is now, people are effectively free to post adverts anyway in the Services Wanted section, yet it isn't over run with low quality offerings or hundreds of threads being bumped.

Yes, but I think the reason for that is that people are not aware that you can advertise there, in fact it is not even clear that you can, I would feel like I was spamming if I advertised there.

 

[scwebsites]

Why should admin offer people anything else for free? There's already an amazing amount of free publicity offered via this site, for names that are for sale or to lease (whether primarily listed here or elsewhere). There's also the chance for service providers to approach those requesting services via the Wanted forum, again for free. Frankly (wearing my "commercial hat") there's already too much that's free on Acorn, given the amount of transactions that take place through here...

Precisely why I am suggesting it be a paid service.

No matter how much it is discussed here, there will be conflicting views, we will just have to see what admin decides I think.