Subject: Administrivia: Banner advertising end of life Dec 31, 2013
vanderaj
A.k.a.: Andrew van der Stock
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posted on January 9th, 2013 at 05:07 PM
Administrivia: Banner advertising end of life Dec 31, 2013
As of now, I will no longer be accepting any more sponsorships of the forum, and as sponsors' campaigns come to an end, I will not renew them. The
last campaign ends on December 31, 2013, so that is the last day of sponsorships on the forum.
I thank all sponsors past and present for their tremendous support over the years, this place could not have done it without you!
Timeline
Jan 9, 2013 - No new sponsorships accepted as of now
June 30, 2013 - All but one of our current sponsorships end
July 1, 2013 - the last remaining sponsor banner will be moved to the bottom of the page, and Google ads moved to the top
Dec 31, 2013 - Last sponsorship ends
From July to December, the sole remaining sponsor will be getting 100% of the impressions and clicks for six months, so the fact that it's on the
bottom should still work out more than fine.
[size=4]FAQ[/size]
Q. Does this mean the forum will be shutting down?
A. No. It costs less to run, and this is one less thing I have to do to keep it running.
Q. I'm a current sponsor. Does anything change for me?
A. No. You can still ask for new banners to be placed up, you can advertise your specials in the Business section, and you will continue to receive
impressions and clicks until your package runs out. Once it runs out, you can move to AdWords if you wish.
Q. If I move to AdWords, can I still advertise my specials in the Business Section?
A. I will have to think about this and talk it over with the other moderators. For now, only existing sponsors can use this section. I will have a
more definitive answer by June 30 when the majority of packages finish up.
Q. Why are you removing sponsorships?
A. The factors in removing sponsorships include:
a) Renewal of the AVDS business registration is due in February
b) Costs of working with my accountant on getting all the income from sponsorships and expenses documented and taxes paid exceeds the income from a
few sponsorships
c) Costs of running the forum have reduced over the years and now its not that expensive
d) I don't really want to make a profit running the forum as this causes me tax pain
e) I'm moving banks soon, and don't want to establish an account just for this purpose as I had at my existing bank
Lastly, I'm getting to the point where I really want to move forum software as I don't have time to maintain this one. Finding a forum package with
a banner addon that is secure has been tricky, whereas most have a Google addon that just works.
Q. Hey wait! I still want to advertise here! What can I do?
A. If you're an advertiser with us or want to advertise with us, all is not lost - you can buy Google AdWords and run your marketing campaign that
way. This works today. Your ads will appear at the bottom of the screen until July 1, and at the top of the screen after that.
Q. I only want to advertise here, how do I make sure most of my ads appear here?
A. The AdWords to place bids on is "Aussieveedubbers" and "AVDS". I'll be reducing our metatag to just those two terms in the next few minutes to
maximise your chances of getting on here, and not a RX-7 forum. But it's still likely that you'll be on other car sites and forums, too. This is no
bad thing as it gets the word out about your business.
Q. I don't know anything about AdWords. How do I do it?
A. I don't use AdWords except to place a banner, so I don't buy advertising and thus don't know how it really works best. I heard that a good way
is to bid low and see in your statistics at Google if you're being viewed or clicked. Increase the bids until you get the results you want, or can't
afford to blow that much money. I could be totally wrong too, so please don't take this as gospel. If you need advice on how to best use Google
AdWords, I suggest asking your website designer, search the Internet, or going to the library and borrowing a book on SEO / AdWords.
Q. I heard that AdWords can be expensive. How do I keep my budget to around what I paid in sponsorships?
A. You will need to regularly monitor and manage your marketing expenses as otherwise, you could easily blow $1000 pretty quickly. Your ad will be
visible on many other sites and search terms and probably will attract new customers as well, so even though it will be more expensive, you will get
more viewers of your ads.
Our sponsorship packages were very minimally priced, and I often extended them when I goofed up, as I didn't want to make a profit and wanted to
maintain good relations with you all, whereas Google AdWords is run professionally and thus attracts real world commercial rates.
