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| Joined: | 03-12-2005 |
| Location: | Cary, North Carolina USA |
| Posts: | 339 |
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I would suggest of having a "For Sale/Trade" sub forum of the website and generate revenue using other methods. I run http://www.gt40s.com (and have run other forums) and like you I need the site needs to break even for me to justify the time to run it. The most highly successful method I've seen is to have a Supporter Status icon that appears beside a person's name on the forum for a period of time (1 year is common) after a person donates to the site. People can click on a link and donate money to the site via PayPal and it works extremely well. The "For Sale/Trade" sub forum will attract traffic, which in turn will attract revenue through supporters.
Alternatively you can make this sub forum only postable to by forum supporters, as we do on the "Cars For Sale" part of GT40s.com.
Either way, if you had the Supporter Status icon option I'd donate $25, $50, or $75 to the site right now and I don't want to sell anything. So, revenue will increase via people that simply want the forum to continue and be healthy. Since we went to this method some years ago the site generates a little bit of positive revenue, which I in turn use to hire programmers and purchase add ons for the site to make it more feature rich.
While this isn't a whole lot different than the "pay for Marketplace" advertisement, a "For Sale/Trade" forum will be be viewed by many more people than the marketplace and help generate more revenue. And, it'll foster a healthy JH trade community and active board.
Just a thought for consideration as the site continues to grow and be successful.
Ron
Last edited on 05-04-2007 07:38 pm by Ron Earp