PA -- Should get advertising

[andicap]

Here's a walking advertisement for PA's site and why he should sells some ads.
Charles Judge on another thread about "Track Judge" program:
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"I noticed a jump in my website traffic the other day, and it seems to have been stimulated by discussion of my reports here.

I will be happy to add comments or discuss the reports with any board members. If you want samples for any particular track or card, please drop me a line at

info@trackjudge.com

or check out my website at

www.track-judge.com for the newer material, and........"
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Nice that Dr. Judge got a free ad from our discussion, but with that endorsement of this site generating traffic, I can't believe PA can't sell ads.

PA, do you know how many independent (non duplicated) hit you get each day on average here? In other words, how many people check in here over the course of a day or a week??

[GameTheory]

PA could easily start making $100's a month instantly if he signed up for Google's AdSense program. Of course, most of the ads would be for on-line casinos and what not, which might annoy some people...

[PaceAdvantage]

But then I will lose that aura of 'purity' that comes from not having ones hands too soiled with dirty 'ad' money!!! LOL

Seriously though, with the way I'm overstepping my disk space and bandwidth limits at my web host these days, I'm going to have to start thinking about a source of revenue.

I'm quite the altruistic little bugger, aren't I? I've got vendors left and right all around here, and I have LetItRide.Com using General Handicapping Discussion as their "USA Racing Forum"

Of course, LIR told me I can't run off shore casino ads if I want them to continue to use my forum as their forum. but then again, since they started using my forum many, many months ago, I haven't gotten anything from it (I guess I may have a few more international users). No $$, no synergism that I can perceive (at least on my end).

I haven't run my server logs in quite some time, so I don't know what the latest stats are for this site. Maybe that will be my weekend project....

So GT, what were you saying about making $100s a month?? LOL

[GameTheory]

The Google program is very nice because it only runs non-obtrusive text ads (no animation, no images even). However, they don't accept gambling/casino sites. But on the flip side, I've heard they do run gambling related ads, and those pay very well.

A horse racing forum may or may not qualify. There are similar programs, but Google is the best performer.

The info is here:

http://www.google.com/adsense


I would sign-up and see if they will approve your site. If so, run the ads for just a few days and you'll get a good idea of whether it is worth it to you (they have daily reports available so you can see how much money you made every day). They target the ads for you based on the content of the pages (forums keep the Googlebot very busy because it is always "reading" the new threads) -- you basically have no control over them, although you can block specific advertisers, for instance if you were selling something you would want to block your direct competitors. It is all pay-per-click, which means some of us would need to be enticed into clicking on something once in a while (you are not allowed to "encourage" that, however). Since you've got a group of regulars coming back day after day I don't know whether you could maintain a consistent level of revenue, but it is worth a try.

If approved, I would surprised if you were not able to make enough for the site to pay for itself, if nothing else. Could be a lot, could be a little, depending on your traffic.

If you are really overstepping your bandwidth and disk limits, you should probably upgrade your host. I pay $30 something a month for hosting (a virtual private server on which I run more than one site) and I get 75GB of bandwidth a month (of which I use only a tiny fraction of). How much bandwidth are you using?

[PaceAdvantage]

Using the quick and dirty stats available on my hosts web page, I've used 16.5 GB of bandwidth so far this month and I'm only allowed 21 Gigs for the entire month at $30 a pop. Last month I was charged an extra $46 for overusage (I'm over on both disk space AND bandwidth) on top of my $30 per month regular bill....

My plan is $29.95 a month and includes 700mb/day bandwidth usage (21gb per month), and 700mb disk space.

Their $49.95 per month plan isn't much better with 850mb/day bandwidth (25.5gb/month) and 850mb of disk space. I wouldn't last long at these limits either given another year or so.

Sounds like you have a better deal. I will say though my host has been rock solid, especially in the last 12 months.

[Tom]

PA...charge by the post. $.01 per post would be meaningless to most everyone but me! :D
Or charge by the word. $.001 per word would only affect Secretariat and Hcap, but you would rake in millions!:D

[Dancer's Image]

PA,
While I have no idea what you just said in either of your posts in this thread, (I am a comp-idiot), I gather that you are responsible for this site. I just found this site recently and I already think it is the best horse-racing information site on the web. Thank you and keep up the good work!

[BillW]

Originally posted by Dancer's Image
PA,
While I have no idea what you just said in either of your posts in this thread, (I am a comp-idiot), I gather that you are responsible for this site. I just found this site recently and I already think it is the best horse-racing information site on the web. Thank you and keep up the good work!

PA is the sole owner and keeper of this assylum. He finances the whole thing. Hopefully an inmate or 2 toss him a couple of sawbucks every once in awhile to help keep this great site going.

Bill

[Pace Cap'n]

I agree PA should not have to dig too deep in his pocket for our fun.

I also agree advertising sucks.

My solution: PA, get a Paypal account and put up a link titled "donations". Many people who get enjoyment from this board would gladly hit the link once a month or so and kick in five bucks.

Your altruism has kept everything going thus far, so you evidently are not in this for profit. Any excess proceeds could be earmarked for an end-of-year contest prize fund.

This would allow those that can to pay according to their ability, let you get in a couple of extra bets a month, and maintain a hassle-free environment on the forum.

[cj]

Great idea Pace Cap'n

Go for it PA!

[Tom]

Great idea!
:p

[kenwoodallpromos]

Don't be fooled! PA is making millions from all the selections and tips like our predictions of last years' BC!LOL!! / $$$Vacuums- Have one thread just for ads and charge to post; Make an encyclopedia of tips from your site and sell as a book.

[ceejay]

Originally posted by Pace Cap'n
I agree PA should not have to dig too deep in his pocket for our fun.

I also agree advertising sucks.

My solution: PA, get a Paypal account and put up a link titled "donations". Many people who get enjoyment from this board would gladly hit the link once a month or so and kick in five bucks.

Your altruism has kept everything going thus far, so you evidently are not in this for profit. Any excess proceeds could be earmarked for an end-of-year contest prize fund.

This would allow those that can to pay according to their ability, let you get in a couple of extra bets a month, and maintain a hassle-free environment on the forum.

The "donation" model works on some other boards that I use. They offer editing perks for the donors (like longer edit periods).

[Tom]

Originally posted by ceejay
The "donation" model works on some other boards that I use. They offer editing perks for the donors (like longer edit periods).


Hmmmm. Maybe we could edit OTHER people's posts as well???:D

[JustRalph]

Originally posted by Tom
Hmmmm. Maybe we could edit OTHER people's posts as well???:D

I would toss a few bones for being able to edit out users.....

[ljb]

I like the Paypal idea. Only extra i would like is spellcheker . ;)