It might be my professional bias but, frankly, it’s been quite amusing (no pun intended) to read eg about - potential - ads on Beoworld, or elsewhere, being annoying or not. Don’t misunderstand me. There certainly are many bad ones which are just that but I mean it’s like the advertisers are queuing to spend their money or something. (Even if they were, just weed the bad ones out then.)

Seriously: it generally seems to escape the attention of some there really is no free lunch … I think it’s pretty obvious that Lee should go out and try to find some advertisers in addition to sponsorship/membership income, simple as that. I do not believe in membership contributions being enough to cover the expenses of running a good forum …  Still (= even if I’m wrong), I can’t see any reason why not. Advertising is information and any open-minded person appreciates a bit of information. That said, the information has to be relevant etc, of course. Fortunately, there seem to be a lot of proud owners/seekers of good design/life-style from various perspectives such as housing, furniture, watches, cars, travel – you name(d) it - it on Beoworld.

I have heard it so many times here, the references to people who got more money then sense, that it would surprise me if any of those who got sense missed my point.

Moreover, Lee, I think that it could be a nice experiment to continue your policy of openness regarding the cost v benefits of running the site etc.  – from several perspectives. I mean we could eg even vote what kind of particular advertising we like/want. Now, as I/we have no doubt about Beoworld’s global presence in the internet that would (potentially) be some food for thought for marketing departments of many renowned companies!

What do you think?

 

saf, thank you for your input!

I'm actually already on the case, and we have been discussing it behind the scenes for some time now.  We have agreed that advertising from suitable companies, one per genre, with no pop-ups or garish adverts may be acceptable.  The whole moderating team would rightly refuse to let BeoWorld become some kind of flashing cash-cow, but at the same time it's a very costly site to run and every penny helps.

I will of course keep everyone informed as to what's happening. At the moment i am looking at extending BeoWorlds bank loan to fund the purchase and implementation of Community Server 2008. This will cost around £6,000 (7200 Euro, $11,400) to do, but i will simply extend the length of the loan so we aren't paying an extra per month. That keeps the pressure off, and if we end up in profit (he says wistfully) for a time, then i will just pay the loan off early.

Once CS2008 is up and running, we will all be able to enjoy some pretty fancy 'bells and whistles' along with a superb gallery - and then we can tastefully implement some paid advertising in there too.  All this should happen fairly soon.

Lee

Lee, on the subject of money. How about a poll of members annual income. I would like to see where Beoworld members fit into Bang & Olufsen target audience.

below 25,000

25,000 - 30,000

30,000 - 40,000

etc 

Way I see it is that if you want the best than you have to pay for the best.  Something will have to give.. all the big fan based sites have some form of advertising and I see no reason why Beoworld should be an exception to this, moreso if it pays for the site in more ways than present.

 

britops:

Lee, on the subject of money. How about a poll of members annual income. I would like to see where Beoworld members fit into Bang & Olufsen target audience.

below 25,000

25,000 - 30,000

30,000 - 40,000

etc 

Britops - £1,000,000 +

I've heard rumours about your swiss bank accounts...

 

britops:

Lee, on the subject of money. How about a poll of members annual income. I would like to see where Beoworld members fit into Bang & Olufsen target audience.

below 25,000

25,000 - 30,000

30,000 - 40,000

etc 

Richard, are we talking pesetas, lira or zlotti?

9 LEE:

Britops - £1,000,000 +

I've heard rumours about your swiss bank accounts...

 

Not so much millionaire, more milli-pound as in 0.001 of £1

 

Not sure I want to know what everyone earns - but I suppose that is my English reserve! Sufficient is how I would usually describe my income!

Insufficient is how I would describe mine!

It might still be worse, eg in 'złotys' (devided by ~ 4,25)