Forum sponsorships

I'm not sure how to handle this.....

Although I would certainly like to have as many sponsors as possible for each forum, I don't believe I can have an UNLIMITED number. I just received another sponsor request for the Ball Python Classifieds forum, but there are already 11 sponsors there. Which is making it look kind of crowded -> http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...play.php?f=499

With each new sponsor, the actual ad displays get pushed further and further down the page, which is going to (if not already) start pissing people off that they have to scroll down so far in order to READ those ads.

I think the cutoff should have been at ten (10) sponsors, but I feel kind of foolish doing that, in that I have already stated that the BOI is in jeopardy because of lack of funding for this site in general. So this will definitely be a conflict to wrestle with. Yeah, I know there will not be any 100 percent consensus about how to handle this, and I'm pretty much just thinking out loud here......

Hmm, perhaps a sponsor section for the BOI? But at a much higher price? I've already done some testing and can embed a graphics banner for each sponsor, so maybe that would be attractive to some? But the drawback there is that the graphics themselves will slow down the page load for all viewers. It most definitely is the most viewed forum on this site, and the one in most jeopardy of being removed in the near future, so maybe I need to think about this a little bit more seriously....

Originally Posted by WebSlave

I'm not sure how to handle this.....

Although I would certainly like to have as many sponsors as possible for each forum, I don't believe I can have an UNLIMITED number. I just received another sponsor request for the Ball Python Classifieds forum, but there are already 11 sponsors there. Which is making it look kind of crowded -> http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...play.php?f=499

With each new sponsor, the actual ad displays get pushed further and further down the page, which is going to (if not already) start pissing people off that they have to scroll down so far in order to READ those ads.

I think the cutoff should have been at ten (10) sponsors, but I feel kind of foolish doing that, in that I have already stated that the BOI is in jeopardy because of lack of funding for this site in general. So this will definitely be a conflict to wrestle with. Yeah, I know there will not be any 100 percent consensus about how to handle this, and I'm pretty much just thinking out loud here......

Hmm, perhaps a sponsor section for the BOI? But at a much higher price? I've already done some testing and can embed a graphics banner for each sponsor, so maybe that would be attractive to some? But the drawback there is that the graphics themselves will slow down the page load for all viewers. It most definitely is the most viewed forum on this site, and the one in most jeopardy of being removed in the near future, so maybe I need to think about this a little bit more seriously....

Would a link to sponsors on another page work?

Rotating sponsors on each page load?

Maybe listing the first ten and then a link to the rest? Rotating sponsor banners when you click on each ad?

I don't know just throwing out suggestions at first thought.

i think rotating is fair. I dont think another page would be, as everyone would just ignore it.

Rotating, if it's even an option based on the avaliable software, would fix the page length issue but would itself give rise to an exposure issue- there's a limit to how many different businesses can be included in a rotation schedule while maintaining it's value.

Admittedly, I suspect this number is higher than eleven- so it's a stop-gap solution that would allow for some more sponsors but it doesn't seem like it'd be a permanent solution to open ended growth.

So I went to look at KS. They have a list of biz's on the bottom of their opening page and you can click on them and go to the biz's website. For this listing the business pays $150/year. There were 6 colums of approx. 100 businesses list so that is 600 x $150 is $90,000 a year. That has nothing to do with significant income from classifieds, that is just a biz listing service.
I randomly clicked on some of the businesses and they have counters, and many of the businesses counted clicks in the thousands so I would think the $150 is well worth it to them.
Perhaps such a list of BOI sponsorships on the bottom of the first page of the BOI would draw even more traffic clicks for the benefit of listed businesses based on the volume of people who visit the BOI daily.

Rich started the think out loud thing so I am going to run with it. In regard to sponsoring the BOI. I do go to the BOI almost every day. I want to keep it here for myself and for others. I really think it is the one aspect of this hobby that you can't get any place else.

My collection is small, but growing. I have at least one animal that I am willing to dedicate to the BOI. What I am saying is this, take one animal, more if you can afford it, dedicate a pecentage of the income from that animal to supporting the BOI.

If we, the people who appreciate what this site has to offer, come up with a backing body, stock holders if you will. To keep it, mostly the BOI, running it will help us all. Sure people will ride our coat tails, but Rich has had a lot of people on his coat tails for a LONG TIME. I'm sure I have said before, or meant to say, if the BOI goes away what would you do to get it back? By then it may be to late.

I am going to post this. Then consider what I have in my collection, as well as what percentage of it I would be willing to give up to keep this site and the BOI alive. I, myself, do not have the ability to do this. However, consider if 10 of us would dedicate a percentage of one or two animals, how about 100 of us?

Before I change my mind I am going to post this. Rip away if you feel you must. I'm going to go check out some snakes.

Jerry Cross

Perhaps making sub forums in the BP section would give you more solution. For example, in the main BP section, include one subsection for normals, one for hets and one for visual morphs. This would triple your as space. Just a thought.

Rich, May sound dumb But couldnt you do it like the banner on the top of this page? Just have all there banners rotating and you can click on them when you see a name or banner that catches your interest. Just a thought.

Any way to make the links smaller? Kinda like KS does, when they're just like a 1/2" x 1" clickable link?

Hell, even teh size of the sig pics would probably work.

I do think the rotating banners would be the best option. If you do decide to make another page just to show sponsors, than to help them get the exposure, you could make a banner that links to the sponsor page.