Cost of Maintaining DAP

[Kristin]

Just mailed off my check. I think of it as a subscription to the best and most practical draft animal power publication out there — and it talks back!

best to everyone and thanks to Carl and Lisa for making it happen —
Kristin

[Donn Hewes]

Carl, Is there any way that someone else, or a small group could take on some of the task of developing the advertising. I would be happy to work on that. Donn

[Carl Russell]

Donn, that is a distinct possibility. It may make sense to continue this discussion, so we can develop an acceptable “Advertisement Scheme” that we all can agree on, then someone can pursue that aspect of fund raising. Thanks Donn, Carl

[Carl Russell]

By the way, we have been getting excellent response to our “pledge” drive. Thank you all so much for your generosity, and positive feed-back about the value of the site. Carl

[Donn Hewes]

Here are a few questions I have about advertising, and a few ideas. I don’t know anything about web technnology so these might be very simple questions. Can we have ads be their own forum at the bottom of the page? What if two or three ads were listed in the forum each day, like threads? Could it be set up to automatically change which ads appear each day on the main screen? The rest of the ads would be available like old threads, just click on the ADS forum.

We could easily come up with a policy that all ads would be for businesses or organizations that support the use of draft animals in the interest of sustainable farming and forestry.

Ads could be plain text of a set amount, and include contact info, or a web link.

I am afraid I am not much help with the technical part of posting ads but I would be happy to help work on an ad policy That could result in ads being a constructive addition to our site. I also be willing to work on selling ads once we got to that point. Donn

[Carl Russell]

Donn, You basically have it figured out. I will have to look into the automatic front posting, but some ads could be worth more due to there placement, or the extent of detail, etc.

A simple example is the forum I created for the Restorative Forestry Website. It has very little detail, but provides a direct link to the site.(by the way that is not an ad, it is a nod to our hard working brother, Jason, and in a way an example for those who may consider something similar)

If an ad is out in front then it would be worth the most, but if we created an ads forum then every one would be on the same footing, as threads listed alphabetically.

I’m sure that there would be a lot of leeway as to the actual layout of the ad if it were just pasted into a thread, say for those with logos, and no website, or lists of products or services, etc.

My vote would be to see how much interest there is in paying for advertisement, and if it looks like we really need to sell the front page splash then consider how to do it best, otherwise try the forum display. I know people are used to web advertising being right in their face, but I like the quiet entrance to the site, and think that the ads should fit in with that.

VT Web Properties manages several other discussion forums where he sells ad spots. I will get him to post links to them so we can see some examples. We may be able to sell one prominent space (near the bottom of the page) for enough money that it could make it so that we wouldn’t have to have them all over. More later.

Current total for our pledge drive is $365. Thanks so much to all who have contributed so far including, Jason, Kristin & Mark, George & Kristan, Rick, Drummond, Jennifer, Erika, Ira, Rebecca, and Henry, we really appreciate your support.

Carl

[Donn Hewes]

Ugh! I notice someone’s name missing form that list (I better send that in). Let’s hear from some more people about the pros and cons of Ads on their own forum. Without a front page display how much could/would we ask to be on the forum? 30$ annually, 50$ annually? I think I could convince some worth while businesses that it would be good for them to support us.

[jen judkins]

@Donn Hewes 3042 wrote:

Ugh! I notice someone’s name missing form that list (I better send that in).

HEHEHE!:D I was just listening to NHPR this am…its their fall drive and I had to laugh at them ‘guilting’ me into my yearly donation! It works though!!!

Jennifer.

PS. I’m on the fence about ads. While, I would certainly find it valuable to advertise my business on the forum and would be happy to pay, I’m not sure it would serve the atmosphere of the forum well. And to have the ad buried in a category would likely be unattractive to many advertisers. So the answer might be to have a few very relevant advertisers on the main page in an effort to defray some, but not all the costs. I think the NPR style donation drive twice a year is a great idea! We could give donaters bumper stickers or mugs for certain donation amount. I’d be happy to organize the fall drive after the Field Days next year, so that it does not become a burden to Carl and Lisa.

[Carl Russell]

becorson;2895 wrote:

i follow another online forum about keeping a family cow… it is hosted by Proboards and they have adds that are not very obtrusive. i have even found a few interesting items for sale!
but the idea of contributing as we can afford is also good. “from each according to his ability; to each according to his need.” i am willing to pledge!

I have also followed Keeping a Family Cow, and the active ad strip at the top is bothersome to me, but I have found out that it makes the forum site free. Google is pretty much present all over the page, you get used to it, but it’s there. All the ad money goes to Google, so if there is any added value from the content of the discussions, it gets usurped, and most of the ads are unrelated to farming, or cows.
http://www.familycow.proboards32.com

It is a rolling ad strip so the companies each pay a little, but basically that ad space is probably worth $300-400/year.

If we were to create ad forums with a lot of detail on the front page, they would be worth more, but would also take up a lot of room. I think we could create an ad page, like the photo gallery where visitors could peruse through detailed ads, which would be in the ball-park of $25-$50/yr, depending on size?, links? etc.

More later, Carl

[Carl Russell]

Also wanted to mention thanx to Jim, Robin, Rod, and David for donations.

Also thank you to everyone who uses and contributes to the site in other ways, we do not intend to limit involvement on this site based on financial contribution, it’s just a reality of putting this together, and we appreciate the financial assistance at this time.

Carl

[dominiquer60]

I am finally catching up on my DAP reading after this no internet work week. Here are a few thoughts that came to mind while reading all of this great discussion.

-it would be great if everyone that posts a for sale thread or want ad gave a little for the cause, don’t make it mandatory, but have a little reminder. If I post an add to sell hens in the local classified it would cost me at least $10 for only two weeks, but it would reach thousands of readers. DAP provides unlimited viewing of the thread and targets a specific group of inidividuals.

-We could follow SFJ’s lead and have a directory of DAP related resources. It could be organized into a few categories and a limited amount of info could be posted for each listing. DAP could charge a reasonable annual fee or a one time fee and charge a little to update annually. I have no idea what it would cost to have such a service, but if it were reasonable it would be a nice addition to the site (my mind pictures a really neat interactive google map that shows the location of all the farms, retailers, trainers, service providers, etc, but I am sure that would be too costly).

-I like the idea of keeping larger Ads somewhat low key. I don’t want to see a flashing google box on DAP. If someone wanted to place a more detailed and flashy ad (color/logos) and pay for it, I think that it is a dis-service to hide it in a thread. Can we think of someplace to feature larger ads and make the larger contributions that they would require worth it for the advertiser?

-If we utilized a combination of the above and still came up short, then Jennifer can step in with “Operation DAP Fundrive” and guilt the pants off of us. They can be very effective, the Local station here can get $800,000 in 6 days. I am fairly certain that we don’t have that in us. If someone could keep updating the site everyday with a total raised and how much of the goal we have left, I am sure that people will pull together and do what they can to keep this flame alive.

Erika

[Gabe Ayers]

It’s taken me awhile to get here but Carl mentioned this thread to me and I wanted to quickly chime in.

Raising advertising revenue is a good idea and generally how web sites such as DAP manage to survive. That said, you have a really good niche here with a growing and dedicated community of folks interested (invested, even) in the subject matter being discussed.

Adding pay-per-click links is easy enough although typically the payout on these is pennies at best and don’t typically pay until a $100 value is reached. The most accessible model for this is Google AdSense and although I use this on a number of my own sites I don’t think this is the best option for DAP.

I would think that a yearly subscription model to home page ads or “sponsorships” would be the best value for both DAP and advertisers alike. Additionally it is possible to set up forum-specific sponsorships.

Whatever model is decided upon I will help Carl set it up on the site.

[Carl Russell]

I like the “Forum Sponsorship” because it gives upfront exposure within the current structure of DAP. Second is the yearly fee (sponsorship) for a forum space home page ad.

I also want to extend thanks for more donations from Andre’, Rod, and Dan (Iron Rose). I’ll have to tally it all up, but we have made a nice run at our first yearly fund drive.

Thank you all, Carl

[Jim Ostergard]

In addition to the occasional 20 bucks I find to send I would be willing to pay for a listing of my services as a full time horse logger. I still get hits from a simple listing on Rural Heritage and sometimes from Maine Organic Farmers and Gardiners (MOFGA). I wonder if that would generate some additiional income for this fine site.
Jim

[dominiquer60]

It appears that DAP is 11 months young today. Carl has done a great job getting this party started. Thank you Carl for fronting the initial expenses of creating this much appreciated site.

What can we do as a group of over 440 members and many more lurkers, to see that we can continue to have this line of communication in the future? I know Carl, that it would be hard to compensate you for all of your time as an administrator, but is there a dollar amount that we can use as a goal to raise to cover the cost of the first 12 months of DAP’s operation? How much have we put in the pot so far? It seems to me like a good idea to start the second year with the first year paid for. What amount would we have to raise this month in order to do this? How much is the second year going to cost? Our fundraising effort may go a little better knowing the numbers, Public radio here is always letting us know how much we raised and how close we are to finishing, it seems to help get the done.

We have discussed many good possibilities to raise funds for DAP. Perhaps we have been a little distracted, beyond good communication the best way to continue to grow and learn together is to make sure our bill is paid.

Erika

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