FaunaClassifieds needs -----> YOU!

The time has come for all of us to do our part. I am just a hobbyist but, I use this site daily to keep up with the good and the bad. I have purchased many snakes from people who have posted on here. I have done checks on many people also. The information you can get here is invaluable.

At this time I was able to donate $25.00. I know it is not a lot of money. But, every little bit helps. Even if you can only donate $1.00 it will all help. Lets keep this site alive and give whatever it is you can afford. Come on people start donateing and be proud to add your name to the list of supporters for this site.

Scott Cook

I no longer even have my herp business (lost evrything in a fire), but I still keep in contact with a lot of people who I did business with. This site is the best out there for all herpers. It is also the best way to find who to do business with, and who not to.

I had $20.00 in my paypal and sent it to Rich with no hesitation. And I will send more in the future. I enjoy comming here every day. I still work in the pet industry, and use this site to do business.

I think all of you who use this site should help out anyway you can.

Thanks again Rich for this geat site. I am glad I could do something!

Thanks guys.

Several people suggested that I try this donation thing, and I was REALLY reluctant to do it. I am certain many of you know why. But I have had several advertisers drop out claiming business was just bad for them and they couldn't justify the advertising costs. What this does is then increase the number of impressions each of the remaining advertisers will get on their banner ad, which in effect causes their impressions to run out much quicker. As you can see, this could easily get into a runaway condition where even the minimal advertising costs I charge would quickly become too expensive for the duration the ads would run.

Traffic was increasing quite a bit before I did the conversion, and this was further adding fuel to the fire. Basically there are 20,000 hits per day on each of the banner ad positions. You have to divide that by the number of ads appearing, and that will give you a rough idea of how long 100,000 impressions will last. I have had to pad those rotations with some of my own ads just to keep the numbers reasonable for the paying advertisers. I don't think many of you realize just how much traffic this site is getting. Heck, I just checked and this site hit the 3,000,000 mark since May 1, 2002, while I had my back turned. This isn't any KINGSNAKE.COM, but if we're not #2, then we're darned close to it.

Of course, the peak number of advertisers I had was when I offered the FREE ads at the beginning of the resurection of this site. I think I had 40 advertisers. Now we are down to 14 paying supporters. The latest one I contacted about renewal being due has not responded, so I suspect we will be down to 13 advertisers pretty shortly.

I'll be frank about it. I don't want to pay for this server I am leasing all on my own. I really don't NEED that box to keep my bread and butter web site active. Besides this site, I also run CornSnakes.com, HerpShows.com, and FaunaTopSite.com; all for free. And none of them are really necessary for my SerpenCo.com site, which is the ONLY one that pays the bills.

What I am charging for banner ads will put me in about a break even situation, but certainly will not recover the money I have spent in the past on this site alone. I don't expect that will ever happen.

So I am trying the donations route. To be honest, if that doesn't work, I will strongly consider doing paid subscriptions, whereas even to READ the messages on this site will require a paid subscription. Yes, I will certainly lose a lot of people, but if it gets to that point, it really won't matter to me one way or the other. If I don't get help supporting this site, then rather than taking all the money out of my pocket providing this for everyone else to use, I would just as soon spend my money on more pleasurable things to do with my time, and kiss this goodbye.

I am being totally frank and honest here, if not brutally so. This site became a lot more than I had ever expected it to and it consumes a tremendous amount of my time each day. I know everyone is not likely to pitch in some dollars, but all I am asking is that enough of you do so that I don't have to winch everytime I pay the bill on this server and the other incidental expenses needed to keep it running. This message board software is not free. Neither is the software needed to run those banner ads.

Heck, you all probably don't even realize that I am not paying for backups of my server simply because I just can't put that kind of money out to do it. It would cost me an additional $1,000 per year for this service. So what this means is if my server has a hard drive failure, it will likely mean that this site will be gone for good. I don't have the stomach to try to start over again.

So I guess what I am saying is that I need help in order to keep on helping you. Plain and simple.

Thanks.

Rich.... please take what I'm about to say as someone talking to a FRIEND!!

You're NUTS!! You should ABSOLUTELY charge for posting FOR SALE ads! At least $25-$50 per year! Most of the folks that post on the FOR SALE section.... make a lot of money off you! Why not have them PAY for that priviledge!

As far as the BANNER ads go.... is there any way to INCREASE the time they stay up?? Instead of changing every 30 seconds or so.... let them stay up for 1 minute before switching to the next one??

Now, on to the classifieds.... If you were able to charge $5-$10 per year to use this SERVICE.... I'm sure that would help you out tremendously, AND, it will KEEP THE (infantile) KIDS OFF THIS SITE! Not many children can afford $5! You should try to get as much money out of us that you can! We can afford it, and it's an invaluable service.... you don't get ANYTHING in this life for FREE! Why should this site be any different.... ESPECIALLY with the possibility of NOT HAVING IT AT ALL!! It's just ridiculous that YOU should have the burden of paying for all this!
Besides.... this way, you'll have enough money to fight all these lawsuits! lmao

....Neil

rich i would be glad to pay a few dollars a year to use your site. i don't post very much but i come here everyday and read all about snakes have learned alot about my hobby. mtman11

Neil - I hear ya!

But to be honest, doing a paid subscription thing will be yet another burden on me. I would have to manage the whole thing, keeping track of when someone paid and when their subscription expires. If I had the time to crack the books more, I could probably add a field to the database for this system and write some routines to take up much of the grunt work, but I never seem to have enough time for the fun stuff. I may check with the vBulletin people to see if someone else might have already written something that will do this. I certainly can't be the first one in the universe interested in something like this. And I'll bet it won't be free, either.

So I am trying this first. I am giving everyone the benefit of the doubt (something my wife says I am crazy to do as much as I do). And I guess I am curious to see just how many people will pitch in to help. With around 3,000 registered members here, I'll be REAL surprised if even 10 percent give a hoot. So far, I have had 11 people make donations, which honestly surprises me no end.

Actually, this probably was not the best time to do something like this, being right after the conversion and a lot of people probably haven't even logged in here yet. So maybe my timing could have been better.

So let's just see what happens. I'm hoping things will pick up for business and some more advertisers will kick in some ads. Somehow this feels the better way to handle this, and is still my first choice for getting help to foot the bills. It really doesn't cost me anything to run the ads, since I have already paid for the software, but those people putting up banners get an instant return besides helping me with the site. Apparently some of the ex-advertisers lost sight of the 'support' part of why I offered advertising in the first place.

Oh, and THANK YOU to all of you whom have donated so far. I can't tell you how surprised and pleased I am that some of you are willing to help me out like this.

I agree 100% with Neil on this one. It is not fair for some to donate money. IMHO a paid anual subscription with the right to access the boards and posting adds would serve a double purpose.

Maybe it could be accomplished by imposing a set deadline for everyone to pay their dues. The susbscription of those that have not paid by then would be automatically terminated.

Best regards.

umm I know this sounds cheap
but I would like to wait till the 15th to either buy a banner. Make a donation. Or both.

but today until the 14th is no good.

But I will do the right thing on the 15th.
And the right thing is to help the site out.

see yas then

oh yeah.
by the way.
I agree with the rest of the people....
the charging for adds thing.

BUT

I also understand that Rich is only one man.
He can't take care of the snakes and take care of all his sites and keep track of all that money too. He would need help.
I for one do not want the headache of keeping track of all those poeple's money. Some getting mad and asking for a refund. Some not renewing on time and getting mad....etc etc etc.
Too much of a headache.

So I think the best route for some of us to help out is the banner thing.

But then again if there was anyway we can revert back to the old system were we buy for a month and it stays on top or something.

Anyway gotta go.
baby is hungry and crying.
I am just hungry.

Rich.... there's one word that you keep forgetting in your vocabulary.... DELEGATION!! Who says YOU have to keep track of the subscriptions?? Give someone (Ken, Ritchie, Seamus, me, etc.) FREE posting privileges.... and THAT PERSON will be in charge of "overseeing" the subscription hassles!

....Neil