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Kai
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Re: Advertising

Post by Kai »

rwtucker wrote:Structurally, what I had in mind is pretty easy Kai. If you click "Active Topics" above, you are taken to a list of active topics sorted by date, clicking on any item in the list takes you to that topic. If you were to click on "DAN Sponsors" on the same level, it would take you to a list of sponsors, perhaps with their logo by their name and a tag line denoting their value proposition.
Until here, this is indeed quite easy to do. I would describe it as a banner farm.
rwtucker wrote:Clicking on any of the sponsors would most likely take you to a click-tracked DAN landing page on their company website (there are other options here). The landing page would contain the special greeting for DAN members and any special offer in place at the time. (I would suggest that sponsors be required to change their offer every 20-30 days, more often if they desire to do so. The rotation cycle for specials should be staggered so that new offers become available every day (assuming at least 20-30 sponsors). This constant change maintains interest and elicits clicks each time a DAN member visits.
Do you know of any available, secure and mobile-ready scripts? Or some example which could be cloned? What you are describing costs more to program and to implement than it could possibly bring in within a year.
rwtucker wrote:There are several sources of revenue under this general model including a monthly fee for space on the "DAN Sponsors" page, click-through revenue, and purchase revenue. Models and ratios for these revenue sources are well established, as are tracking and compensation systems. A referral system can generate additional revenue. I'm sure that many current DAN members are familiar with this approach and can add detail based on their particular experiences.
Monthly fee: that is quite easy to do, although I think a yearly fee is easier. The other systems require that the sponsor installs such a system on their servers, automates billing and paying of affiliates and I have not found any Diamond-related affiliate programs. I can only change things on this website but I cannot setup a complete affiliate program on each sponsors webpage
rwtucker wrote:An example of rotating specials might be a 5% discount good for the next 20 days on tires purchased by DAN members. The following period, the same sponsor might switch the discount to charts and cockpit accessories, and so on. This process can even be automated.
OMG, if DAN was a page with 100k members and 10k visits from unique IPs per day, I would say there is a chance a provider would be interested in doing special deals for members. But we are far away from that.
Statistics for diamondaviators.net  2016 01    main.png
rwtucker wrote:What I like about this approach is a) it is unobtrusive; we need not be bothered by it when we want to check on a reply to an important topic, b) most of us will visit frequently to see what's up in the world of sponsors, c) the revenue stream is likely to be adequate to maintain the site, perhaps much more, and d) the revenue will grow as membership grows. Instead of charging for membership, I would suggest that we employ the same "diamond" system that you developed. We would require that a new person join and participate to some level before becoming eligible for sponsor discounts.
Membership is not really growing or if at all as slowly as the number of Diamond aircraft increases. There is a period of time where DAN is useful and interesting but only a handful of members who had a Diamond 5 years ago still have it and still login regularily to this site. In the last month 152 registered users logged in to the site. From that number you have to subtract approximately 20 bots, such as the google bot which spider the site. What would be the click-through-rate of these 132 members and how much sales could be generated there?

It is a lot more interesting to target visitors and lurkers who do not actively participate and are still in the market to buy a Diamond.
rwtucker wrote:This approach might sound overly complicated to someone unfamiliar with digital marketing and sales. It is not. What I just outlined is easy to implement and rests on web practices that are more than a decade old. We could eventually migrate to more sophisticated models if the traffic and potential revenue warranted it. For example, DAN members could opt-in to receive email when a new special is added by DAN Sponsors they have chosen to monitor.
What you are describing is possible but we need to modify the phpBB script. Each time the phpBB software receives an update, we need to implement those lines of code to the updated phpBB version and see if it still works. When modifiying the script, which we have done before, we do not know anymore if it affects the functionality and the entire site needs to be tested again. An update of the phpBB software which can be done in 10 minutes might then take a few hours or many days if debugging is needed. Quite often we could not find the reasons why a feature we implemented would not work on the new version anymore.
rwtucker wrote:Finally, I would like to register my view against a membership fee. Many of us would have no problem with it but if you look at the demographics of general aviation, many pilots are reaching or are already at retirement age. Many are on fixed incomes. You can also argue for other solutions . . . no clear best path here.
Robert, if a member has a Diamond plane, I guess anything between 50 and 100 USD a year is not an amount which sets him back too far. If you can afford a plane, and you do not want to see advertising on this page, it could be a fair deal to offer an advertising-free page for a premium membership fee. It leaves the page open to anybody and if advertising is unwanted, a premium fee will allow to see the page without advertising. Again, it is one of the options I am considering but maybe someone comes up with more ideas.

It seems that no matter what I will do, someone will object. I get least resistance in the version of an advertising- and membership-fee free page where some donations cover part of it and supposing that I will do all kinds of programming, moderation and maintenance for free. Give or take, I have put hundreds of hours into maintaining this page, spent thousands of reading posts and what I got back was the joy of seeing the members of this site being happy and exchanging their wealth of insight to Diamond aircraft. That might not always be enough.

If there is anyone out there who would like to take this site over and keep it running on donations only, please, pm me. I am not clinging to my job by no means.

On the positive side, I did look up some aviation site with an affiliate program and found at least a pilot shop which seems to offer also products which the visitors and members of DAN might be interested in.
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Derek
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Re: Advertising

Post by Derek »

Kai, you run an invaluable service for us (thank you) and I'm therefore in complete support of a once or twice a year donation ask. You tell us a few choices for amounts you'd like to see per person and let's try the voluntary system. That way the guys who are tight for whatever reason can abstain or give a small amount and still participate and the guys who happen to have some extra cash can feel good about pitching in and supporting.
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Fred
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Re: Advertising

Post by Fred »

Hello Kai, I donate a couple times a year and saw this thread and the link is no longer where I can find it. I'd support/suggest placing the Donation link back up. If you are keeping the ads then take the donation link down after the costs are all covered.

This forum as you know I love, support, and find it extremely useful for all the registered users. Let me know what I can do to help!

Thank you, Fred
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Kai
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Re: Advertising

Post by Kai »

Some people have asked for the donation link. I took the donation page down after upgrading to phpBB 3.1 in August or September and when overhauling the site because I have had the intention to install a marketplace and some advertising a long time ago. I thought it was unfair to accept donations when I planned to generate income with the marketplace.
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carym
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Re: Advertising

Post by carym »

Kai,
You have done a remarkable job in running this site. I am amazed at the time and effort you have been willing to spend. You deservedly should be very proud. While I don't know how much longer I will be a Diamond owner I would be more than happy to contribute for both the past use and any future use of this site. Please put the donate link back up, even if for only a short time til the advertising comes thru.

Cary
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Kai
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Re: Advertising

Post by Kai »

Cary et al.,

thanks for the support and your kind words. If you want to donate, follow this link https://paypal.me/diamondaviators
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carym
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Re: Advertising

Post by carym »

I did send a donation just now. Thought I better do it today before I win the $1.5B lottery tonight and will be left with no more money :D
Cary
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Kai
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Re: Advertising

Post by Kai »

carym wrote:I did send a donation just now. Thought I better do it today before I win the $1.5B lottery tonight and will be left with no more money :D
Thank you so much! Also, other members have kindly donated. Here is an overview:
PayPal  summary.png
I really appreciate the support. It helps to keep this site runnnig.

Taylor has bribed me successfully to place the ad of his plane. :D
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johnu
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Re: Advertising

Post by johnu »

Kai,

I think advertising when done well will add to the breadth of the forum and potentially draw more people to the site. Any chance you would also accept advertising from companies? Nothing big but maybe a small tasteful banner on the forum home page?
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Kai
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Re: Advertising

Post by Kai »

Johnu,

I am thinking of that. But a banner on the top of the page? That goes more into the idea of one or many site sponsors. I would like to keep the look and design of DAN the way it is. So there are 4 slots for the ads on the lower part of the front page and it is meant for aircraft to be advertised and it should be Diamond aircraft. For right now there does not seem to be much interest. Will wait for another month and see what to do with it.

To another point, this thread has drawn much interest and after I added the donation links in my sig and mass mailing , many of you have donated. I guess my idea to forget about donations went into the wrong direction.

Thank you very much! :bow :bow
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