Your Input Wanted - Rules/Advertising - Self Promotion

This is another thread to get your feedback, and help give Street Source a fresh start! This thread is to discuss Self Promotion Rules and Advertising

I'll start with some of my views to get this going.

I'm keeping this site free for everyone but let's face it. This site takes money to keep going, and you might be surprised how much. I know some of you are thinking...but my godaddy.com account is only $7 a month, it's not that much. While that may work for your small site, this site is an entirely different animal.

So with that I plan to bring back advertising to cover the costs. Maybe some day I can do this full time, then I could really turn out some improvements for all of you!

In a nutshell these are the types of companies here that I see do advertising/self promotion:

[Shops] - Companies who do the actual labor we all love to see. Welding, fabrication, paint etc.
[Resellers] - Companies who sell products made by other companies.
[Manufacturers/Product Developers] - Companies who design and create their own product lines

Types of advertising that will be offered:
Banner Ad
Dedicated Forum
Special New Products Section

There needs to be a balance, or set rules. Other wise how can I tell one person they are ok to post, then another they can't with out it seeming like there is favoritism in play?

What I plan to do is allow some self promotion depending on the company you operate.

The Plan is based on the company type mentioned above:

[Shops] - Free, post those builds! It's a win win. The community gets to see your project and you get free exposure of your work. All that I ask is if you sell parts also, to omit part sales posts unless you have your own forum section.

[Resellers] - You will need to pay for advertising. To many resellers just spam forums. Even though it's related to the topic of this site, it's still spam in my opinion.

[Manufacturers/Product Developers] - This is a tough one, I think it's more of a benefit to you if you are able to get feedback from the community for free. Let's face it, that's free research and development for you and sales leads. I plan on offering a specialized section where you can post new product announcements for these type of businesses which will be free. This will only be open for verified businesses. Anyone remember BYC?


Old advertisers, sorry I don't know who you are but if you are still interested in advertising, please pm me.

I'm really looking for feedback from businesses but any is welcome. I'm keeping site performance as top priority so if ads do affect performance I will find another solution.

What are your thoughts?

So, what division would I fall into?

Im a shop, We do not do a lot of custom vehicle builds, but we do a lot of custom part builds, and we also manufacture parts as a standard part line.



Taylor

This is a good point, there are a lot of companies that would fall into multiple divisions. I would say it would be based as what category your post falls in.

Say you want to showcase your latest custom work in the shop? This would fall under the [Shops] Category.

If you are posting one off custom parts I would still classify that as a [Shops] post.

The parts you manufacturer I would classify that as the [Manufacturers/Product Developers] category. You would be able to post updates to existing products as well as new products in the special New Product section for verified businesses.

If you were posting for sales I would classify that as the [Resellers] category even though you are the manufacturer because it's direct to consumers.

Keep in mind Taylor has one of the largest viewed threads in SSM History..... ;)

Hmmm, sounds confusing.

I dont believe i have ever posted for selling purposes, i have never posted a price on anything on SSM before, I just like to post to show off our work, and what not, not really trying to sell stuff.


Taylor

LOL @ brandt.

If you are a manufacturer that sells parts, and you have made any sales from the posts you have posted, then you are guilty of being a reseller... that's not a bad thing. If you have a great product, you should want to spread the word. Advertising is your friend

So, then by that theory, if anybody who owns a business, posts anything from their shop, they are a reseller, right?

I mean whos to say what you post will or will not lead to somebody seeing it, and wanting to buy it. Anything from services you provide, to products you sell, or parts you design. If by that assumption, anything posted COULD lead to a sale, right? regardless on if you post it with a price or not, correct?

That makes sense to me, that means if your a business, and you want to post any of your work, you need to pay to advertise, accross the board, right? Honestly, i feel like that is going to decrease traffic on the website, but its the only fair method of regulating it in my opinion.

I vote for Robert's proposed plan. It let's everybody do what they do best.

Taylor nailed it. If you are trying to revive the site again, paying to post will stall that for many. I think its a delicate balance, you want posting and activity but you need some ad dollars to cover the bill. I know what hosting costs on a site like this so I am aware of the type of money it takes to run this site. I dont know the perfect answer to collecting some revenue and not running off everyone. This site hasn't really ever had it right in that respect.

Id have to think a lot on it, but I think your main revenue should come from ad space/banner ads. Many sites float on those alone.