Your Input Wanted - Rules/Advertising - Self Promotion

Good point! ^^^

I hope this is not taken as arguing, this all has been just a conversation in my opinion, casual conversation.

Right now I'm thinking $200 a year for a forum section. In my opinion that is pretty cheap, how much did you pay for other forums?

Yeah I thought it was just a casual conversation too.

I think your true fire way to grow SSM is to allow users to use it, free. Then that traffic will attract advertisers to put up banner ads, sections of the site, and so on to interact with customers/potential customers.

If you charge for advertising, besides the obvious blurry line you will end up with you will in fact not attract everyone since not everyone finds value in advertising HERE. I mean myself specifically can afford to advertise here, but I suspect a single post on facebook would be as useful for my business currently. Just my personal opinion based on experience. Not that there is NO value here, but I think you have to create real value before you reach for ad dollars.

This site can be great, it really can. Right now while its taken a great step by being under new ownership, it still has the same shitty after taste for now. I say that with love as well. I would almost suspect not a single person on this planet wanted this site to succeed as bad as I did at one point and to some lesser extent still do. I assure you people dont forget the screwing they took here.....it was evident in the last revamp and while we had that ship pointed in the right direction for a minute....old ownership habits took over and this ship never got any steam in that right direction.

I strongly suggest a robust look at what gets traffic here, how to duplicate such traffic, and then long term how to make the bills be paid from that. So lets help this site realize its potential in the most intelligent ways, none of this ready, fire, aim business. This site is better than that and we all deserve a better site than that.

I absolutely agree with Brandt.

I hope it doesn't seem like I'm just trying to get money guys. My focus is getting the traffic back. Whatever I do it's going to have to be implemented over time.

The reason for the threads I recently started is to get feedback on the main problems that I have seen over the years and create a new base to work from.

Argue is not a negative word, at least not by definition, understandably it may be taken/read that way. Please forgive me if it was!

I think Brandt is right, although the site does currently have real and appreciable costs, but again I believe Brandt is on point.

Robert, I feel 200 a year is a real fair price. I have seen 25 bucks a month to five hundred a month. The fees charged were according to, and appropriate for, the traffic and exposure each site offered.... I don't even cater to trucks anymore and I'd be intrigued to pay for a forum section at 200 a year.

$200 a year is a fair price to have a dedicated forum section.

$200/year is fair, it needs to be low enough that a lot of shops could get in on it and post daily, but not so much that only a corperation could afford it.

i think you could offer a $100 for 6months of advertising as well... but i dont think your pricing is too much. i just think if the ads swap out more often it keeps the site interesting. and i also think the "grey area" everyone keeps talking about is a little bit too difficult to make solid rules for at this moment. lets get traffic back here again where the Recent Posts list doesnt say 2days ago.... but 2 minutes ago and i bet advertisers will be contacting you. i know im being petty by saying this, but i also dont think many people are looking at these dull graphics and thinking... "man, i could really improve my business with this site" they are probably thinking "this site must be run by people who know custom vehicles cause its very :to the point: and not very fun to look at for long periods of time"

then again... you said you arent expecting the ad dollars anytime in the super near future so you might already be thinking the same way. just my retarded opinion

how can you tell who likes your post anyway?