trenchmonkey wrote:
I've been forkin' since I joined. Cheap price to pay for the best photo site on the net.
Well said as usual Will. This is still and will be in the future the best photography site on the web... just look at POTN, no subtle grey and purple there! I like FM much more.
Ads are not going to change the people or the tenor of FM, IMO, I say go for it Fred. Lots of noticable improvements over the past year, especially SPEED of the site...that alone was excellent and all that has to be paid for.
I still want a classy unstructured FM ball cap...might give you a few extra bucks too, I'd buy a few.
Forget the polo shirts tho, they don't look good on Budda bellies. How about some nice cotton button-down-collar short sleeves. Denim, canvas type. We older fellows and wear those too.
Wunderground has a 5$ members option that removes all the adds. I would suggest this for the current image uploaders / buy sell owners. I feel that in already contributing ive "done my part" and shouldnt be blasted with ad's (I will look into another ad blocker as well)
just my 2 cents..
I never realized i could buy Camera/lenses from Freds "Store" link. Great way to support Fred if you're buying from B&H etc, go through the STORE button the FM.
Sunny Sra wrote:
I never realized i could buy Camera/lenses from Freds "Store" link. Great way to support Fred if you're buying from B&H etc, go through the STORE button the FM.
Is that how it works? What is the compensation arrangement for this kind of link? It is based on hits or sales...must be hits...?
I have run several forums of decent size since 2001. We use banners. My advice is that you should be making money with all the work you've put into this forum. There will always be a few people that don't like it and balk at ads. You will never make everyone happy. I have tried many different approaches and learned a lot over the years. I would be happy to share my experience of many years of ads on forums if you wish... just send me a PM or email and we can discuss. I think that my forums are very conservative in our approach to advertising and I've had very few real complaints over the years. Like I said, there will be a few people that are annoyed by it but honestly the quality of your forum here is such that it will have very little effect on your traffic. Anyone that can't handle seeing an ad has some issues ... seriously.
Sunny Sra wrote:
my first thought when i saw the FM site this morning was "F**k FM got hacked!!" i had just woken up..turned the computer on and hit F5 on fredmiranda.com
trust me..i was not fully awake but the banner woke me up.
Ditto here...I've kind of slipped into "lurkdom", but nevertheless hit FM every day to view the pics, read up on stuff and of course check the B/S threads for gear items I am interested in. I saw them creep in on the B/S and thought that actually made sense. This was a little bit of a shock. But, as others have said, we can adjust if necessary.
You have done us proud over all these years and it's obvious that running a site like this is an huge expense. Personally, I would rather pay a subscription, rather than have ads; but I also appreciate your argument against that! It's a great and valuable site to many of us - and if needs must advertise......then so be it! Whatever - thanks for the site!
trenchmonkey wrote:
Oui oui, not in my cab ya don't!
As the frenchmonkey I took liberties, I know it's Touché but I had to get 'freakin in there somehow.
Yeah, that's better....Touche is spelled like...err...Douche.
An alternative to great ugly banners (that people block anyway) is a section for sponsored links. With the prospect of "Hot Deals", interested members will scour the page, and sponsors get more real estate to customize the offerings.
How about some nice cotton button-down-collar short sleeves. Denim, canvas type. We older fellows and wear those too. 
!!!! life goes on..