14 replies to this topic

[ChaosTech]

Why are there no advertisements on OC? Q, what's wrong with you, you could be making bucks (and snazzy uping this site)?

[A Rogue Spirit]

Advertising may be a good way to get more members and increase site activity as well. Perhaps it is a good idea but maybe Q has some reservations about doing so and I would like to see what he has to add to this idea before I form a solid opinion.

[Nameless]

I'm not sure making popular a website is a completely good idea, too much popularity on something usually tends to make it sink. For a community to be healthy, it needs to have some frequent posters, but not by thousands or so. I hope I am wrong.

[voidgazing]

Well, I've said to Q before I don't mind it I see ads on the OC... As for advertising the OC, the former must needs precede the latter, else bandwidth costs would rise and revenues would not scale with them.

If the OC itself is advertised, we should first sell some OC branded hip-waders on Cafe Express, because we are gonna be at least hip deep in trolls for awhile Our subject matter being what it is, there is an understandable urge on the part of the uninitiated to poke us with a stick and see what we do. The poker might be a 14 year old kid looking for a cheap laugh, or perhaps a reporter or blogger looking for material for some yellow journalism or 'oddly enough' article. But poke they will.

[Pale]

Wait, you're complaining that there aren't enough adds? That seems a little backward

[Morrigan]

Yes because ads have been so beneficial to our culture. Seriously why does this community need ads?

[Qryztufre]

Log out and look again. What I will not do is spam the member base. However, megabucks? LOL... not on a site like this. The keywords are not high paying, and we are lucky to earn a dollar a day (most days don't even see half of that).

As for advertising the OC, well, we are currently breaking even (on a good month) so, erm, I can't afford it.

[UraTriUra]

What about porn? Porn pays well... hm but it might shock away certain members... and def will attract more 14 year olds who then will try to "poke".

[UraTriUra]

Also I doubt the cafepress attempt will cast ashore a lot. For this catch phrases would be needed and work as anchors people would like to be identified with. Like "Mephisto call me back" or "Satan likes kittens". I doubt this is what people want...

[Reed]

Ah. I noticed that the advert discussion was talking indirectly about Google's AdWords. Perhaps there's a better solution than involving them.

We have quite a few professional makers here, whether it be silver, gold, bookbinding, incense, oils; you name it. Instead of the ads from Google, they could come from members and friends of members of the community. There's enough interesting occult sites that would tie in directly to the relevant topics at hand.

It would go from impersonal adverts, to targeted 'I needed that for this CM working' advert. Of course, tastefulness would most certainly have to apply.

[A Rogue Spirit]

We could put up a thing on Witch Vox. That is free. I am sure there are similar sites that carry lists for occult based sites. Additionally, members who feel comfortable doing so can share OC links on FB, twitter, myspace, etc.


Maybe we could do a monthly raffle that you can buy into and the reward can be X length of a certain level of membership(a month or two maybe) and that money can go towards ads.

Edited by A Rogue Spirit, 26 March 2012 - 02:15 AM.

[VIRAL]

Why not let's do some promotion, but keep it off the site and not necessarily strictly occult?

[A Rogue Spirit]

VIRAL, on 26 March 2012 - 04:05 AM, said:

Why not let's do some promotion, but keep it off the site and not necessarily strictly occult?

If we do advertise in a way that cost money we will loose money if we advertise to places where people are not likely to be interested but if we keep it to a place where people are interested than that should not be a problem. What I learned in my business classes was that you need to figure out what your target market/audience is and advertise there. We could probably get away with new age sites but occult sites would probably be best. I however, have no personal experience in marketing so I am only sharing what I have been told.

Unfortunately, as Q said, the site does not have the funding to do that. x-( We would need to figure out a way to get that money or try and do it free.

[Qryztufre]

Reed, on 25 March 2012 - 05:24 PM, said:

Ah. I noticed that the advert discussion was talking indirectly about Google's AdWords. Perhaps there's a better solution than involving them.

We have quite a few professional makers here, whether it be silver, gold, bookbinding, incense, oils; you name it. Instead of the ads from Google, they could come from members and friends of members of the community. There's enough interesting occult sites that would tie in directly to the relevant topics at hand.

It would go from impersonal adverts, to targeted 'I needed that for this CM working' advert. Of course, tastefulness would most certainly have to apply.

With this new board, that is an option, and it's an option that I DO plan on exploring! Expect polls and discussions on how it should be done (like should the memberbase see them). I have thus far frowned upon spamming the memberbase on any level, and while there is a "book" ad on the main index, that will eventually be supplemented with links to threads and other OC related things...

A Rogue Spirit, on 26 March 2012 - 02:09 AM, said:

We could put up a thing on Witch Vox. That is free. I am sure there are similar sites that carry lists for occult based sites. Additionally, members who feel comfortable doing so can share OC links on FB, twitter, myspace, etc.

We are (were?) already listed on there, but it's been like three years since I looked... the first year we were here I actually paid to have our site listed at the top of the categories we fit into. It did pull in some new faces...

A Rogue Spirit, on 26 March 2012 - 04:31 AM, said:

If we do advertise in a way that cost money we will loose money if we advertise to places where people are not likely to be interested but if we keep it to a place where people are interested than that should not be a problem. What I learned in my business classes was that you need to figure out what your target market/audience is and advertise there. We could probably get away with new age sites but occult sites would probably be best. I however, have no personal experience in marketing so I am only sharing what I have been told.

Unfortunately, as Q said, the site does not have the funding to do that. x-( We would need to figure out a way to get that money or try and do it free.

PAYING to advertise the site is a loss for the site... at least a site like this one that does not specifically sell anything. While it could increase the membership, the membership is already growing daily.

However, with that said, there certainly are free methods of advertising (like you already pointed out) and I fully encourage each and every member here to share us on social networking sites (stumbleupon, twitter, facebook, etc, etc) as well as to blog about us and to place an link to the OC within your sig files on other forums Just please, do NOT spam us on other sites, because we wont allow them to spam here.

[A Rogue Spirit]

Qryztufre, on 26 March 2012 - 07:45 PM, said:

We are (were?) already listed on there, but it's been like three years since I looked... the first year we were here I actually paid to have our site listed at the top of the categories we fit into. It did pull in some new faces...

Just because I was unable to find you does not mean you are not there but before I made the suggestion I looked and was unable to find a listing.

Quote

While it could increase the membership, the membership is already growing daily.

I am glad to hear that.