What Should Santa Get Albert for Christmas?

[+Psionic]

What Should Santa Get Albert for Christmas?

 

A new edit button.

Edited November 20, 2007 by PingvinBlueJeans

[+Wonder007]

The Golden Girls was a great show. I remember going to a taping of this show.....when it was the Golden Palace which was a spin-off of the Golden Girls (only three of the four Girls reprised their roles- Bea Arthur did not return although she did make a guest appearance). The Girls were funny during the taping but it was sad not to see Bea. Cheech Marin was pretty funny too (he was the chef of the hotel the Girls ran).

[shadow460]

That was pretty funny, RT. Primarily because it's true. It would take a chunk out of the costs of AA. I've been around for a while, so I'd pay a yearly subscription to the site if that was available. I probably wouldn't take first crack at games, but I'd be curious as to what's in the members only forums. I'd probably be active in some of them, too.

 

Plus I need a place to brag about video game purchases where my wife can't see it. She thinks I paid $1 for a rarity 6 cart, and I'd like to keep it that way!

[CPUWIZ]

There are actually two servers and it's over $400 a month for them. AtariAge is sitting on its own server, and there are a bunch of other sites (such as AtariProtos.com, AtariMagazines.com, AtariArchives.org, AtariMac.com, and so forth) on the other box that I am hosting for free. I've always wondered how much could be made by putting tasteful ads on the site (tasteful as in just Google AdWords or something along those lines), but have resisted doing so.

Google text ads do not bother me and you can make more money by putting the ads on pages where people are most likely to click and leaving them off pages where hardly anyone would click, so you wouldn't need to have them everywhere. Before I shot myself in the foot by moving all of my pages in 2006, I was making over $200 a month just from Google AdSense ads and now that my web site has almost fully recovered, I'm starting to make close to that again. If my crappy web site can bring in $200 or more each month, you'd probably be able to make many times that with AtariAge. Why not let your web site pay for itself with no work on your part except the initial work of inserting the ad code? Your asset can make money for you 24 hours a day and your physical labor may never have to pay for the web site related bills again. Make money while you're sleeping, at an event, filling orders, mountain biking, or riding roller coasters.

 

I agree, put ads on the front page of AA, I never look at it anyway. lol

[Albert]

I agree, put ads on the front page of AA, I never look at it anyway. lol

The front page is an obvious place, of course, but I think the best place to put them is actually in the forums. This is because the forums get a ton of pageviews and with the wide variety of topics, a wide variety of different "topical" ads would be served. Therefore there's a better likelihood of people clicking on them (being relative to the topic at hand), and therefore a larger check from Google at the end of the month. But I honestyl have no idea how much such ads would pull in, and I don't want ads to get in the way.

 

..Al

[CPUWIZ]

I agree, put ads on the front page of AA, I never look at it anyway. lol

The front page is an obvious place, of course, but I think the best place to put them is actually in the forums. This is because the forums get a ton of pageviews and with the wide variety of topics, a wide variety of different "topical" ads would be served. Therefore there's a better likelihood of people clicking on them (being relative to the topic at hand), and therefore a larger check from Google at the end of the month. But I honestyl have no idea how much such ads would pull in, and I don't want ads to get in the way.

 

..Al

 

That's it, I am leaving!

[+Random Terrain]

But I honestyl have no idea how much such ads would pull in, and I don't want ads to get in the way.

One Google AdSense ad near the top of every thread shouldn't bother anyone too much. It would be less irritating to me than seeing those Bug Tracker things that look like a post.

 

If only a small percentage of your many visitors actually click on ads that interest them, you should still collect enough money every month to pay the bills. To me, ads are less offensive than having people pay to belong to a special 'club.'

[Albert]

But I honestyl have no idea how much such ads would pull in, and I don't want ads to get in the way.

One Google AdSense ad near the top of every thread shouldn't bother anyone too much. It would be less irritating to me than seeing those Bug Tracker things that look like a post.

 

If only a small percentage of your many visitors actually click on ads that interest them, you should still collect enough money every month to pay the bills. To me, ads are less offensive than having people pay to belong to a special 'club.'

I could do both, have ads and then disable them for people who join the special club.

 

..Al

[+Random Terrain]

I could do both, have ads and then disable them for people who join the special club.

Now that would work. Good idea. If you don't like ads, pay. If you don't mind ads, don't pay. Much better than having something like a snooty VIP forum and other distasteful things.

[Albert]

I could do both, have ads and then disable them for people who join the special club.

Now that would work. Good idea. If you don't like ads, pay. If you don't mind ads, don't pay. Much better than having something like a snooty VIP forum and other distasteful things.

Well I wouldn't exclude having those other things.

 

..Al

[accousticguitar]

I could do both, have ads and then disable them for people who join the special club.

 

..Al

That is a great idea!

[keilbaca]

I definitely would not mind contributing to the site, gaining VIP status.

 

I suggest that idea for sure.

 

P.S. Isn't it kinda funny that a poll that has nothing to do with Atariage other than Albert, bring back website ideas?

Edited November 20, 2007 by keilbaca

[Cassidy Nolen]

Well, that's part of the reason I run the store, is to help pay for the hosting costs. There are actually two servers and it's over $400 a month for them. AtariAge is sitting on its own server, and there are a bunch of other sites (such as AtariProtos.com, AtariMagazines.com, AtariArchives.org, AtariMac.com, and so forth) on the other box that I am hosting for free. I've always wondered how much could be made by putting tasteful ads on the site (tasteful as in just Google AdWords or something along those lines), but have resisted doing so. There's also the possibility of creating a subscription system where people can pay a yearly subscription or something and get some additional benefits (maybe exclusive areas to the forum, first-crack at new game releases, some sort of newsletter, etc.) but I haven't pursued that just yet.

 

Al,

 

I read Corvetteforum.com daily as well and they have a free service to most members. The supporting vendor status allows you to sell mass-produced items or resell at a fee. If you have a single item, then its free to sell. If you want to sell a bunch of stuff, then you pay for bandwidth. Not a bad way to do things here...the lurkers and daily readers stay free but the sellers that are making money from your site have to pay. Makes some sense.

 

Mind you, their structure is insane on pricing....its $300 a month to be a vendor. Does not matter if you sell stickers or 100K turbocharger conversions....maybe yours would be tiered and, well, slightly more affordable for each person.

 

I would gladly pay to be a member. You have a wonderful site that has its own bizarre little culture.

 

BTW, GG is a good gift. I actually voted for that for you before reading the post. Meeting Rose on the lanai, man thats good stuff

 

C

[homerwannabee]

I personally think a good place for the Google ads would be the rarity guide. Tons of non members probably search that everyday.

[joeybastard]

Put ads wherever you want Al. They won't bother me in the least.

[Christophero Sly]

I'm going to have to go against the prevailing opinion and say that I really hate the idea of advertisements being placed in these forums. And VIP clubs... bah!

 

Most of the content in these forums is user generated. Not everyone would appreciate seeing the contributions they've made to this forum in a spirit of unselfishness and community become suddenly commercialized.

 

Nevertheless, I don't expect anything for free. I'm more than happy to directly donate money to help maintain these forums.

[Albert]

I'm going to have to go against the prevailing opinion and say that I really hate the idea of advertisements being placed in these forums. And VIP clubs... bah!

I don't like advertisements either, which is why AtariAge has been running so long without them (since early 2001!) I do like the idea of a club, though, but I would not call it a VIP club. I would not remove any existing content or forums or anything that's already visible for free, but come up with some new stuff to give people something in return their subscription. Not saying I'm going to do anything either way, just thinking out loud is all.

 

Most of the content in these forums is user generated. Not everyone would appreciate seeing the contributions they've made to this forum in a spirit of unselfishness and community become suddenly commercialized.

That's true, although there are quite a few sites driven entirely by user-generated content that have ads plastered all over the place (Digg and Slashdot come to mind). Pretty much every big gaming site has ads anywhere they can shove them, and many smaller sites as well. I'm not saying that just because everyone else is doing it I should do it as well..

 

Nevertheless, I don't expect anything for free. I'm more than happy to directly donate money to help maintain these forums.

Those who contribute donations voluntarily are great, but unfortunately I don't think that would go very far.

 

..Al

[Albert]

This is not looking good..

 

 

I guess I'll have to selectively ban the IP addresses for everyone who is voting for this option.

 

..Al

[uosipa llamxew]

I'm not a big fan of big flashy ads, but Google's text ads don't irritate me... in fact, quite frequently if something interests me, I succumb and click in. I bought a book advertised on RT's page earlier this month.

 

One idea would be to have the advertisements could be listed at the bottom of each thread in a section similar to the "Similar Topics" table? Another might be to have the ads visible to guests only...

 

Jay Bibby (http://www.jayisgames.com) has Google ads on his page. In my opinion, they don't detract from the quality of the page at all.

[Christophero Sly]

Most of the content in these forums is user generated. Not everyone would appreciate seeing the contributions they've made to this forum in a spirit of unselfishness and community become suddenly commercialized.

That's true, although there are quite a few sites driven entirely by user-generated content that have ads plastered all over the place (Digg and Slashdot come to mind). Pretty much every big gaming site has ads anywhere they can shove them, and many smaller sites as well.

Yes, but I believe those sites were ad-supported from the beginning.

 

To be clear, my fundamental objection with ads appearing on these forums isn't about them being ascetically intrusive. It's about having one's contributions to this forum suddenly co-opted to serve commercial interests that one doesn't support.

Edited November 20, 2007 by Christophero Sly

[Albert]

To be clear, my fundamental objection with ads appearing on these forums isn't about them being ascetically intrusive. It's about having one's contributions to this forum suddenly co-opted to serve commercial interests that one doesn't support.

I don't know if either Digg or Slashdot had ads when they started up, I believe they were added later as the sites started to grow. But I understand what you're saying. I am not fond of advertising myself which is why AtariAge still has no advertising when just about every other site out there (that gets any reasonable amount of traffic does). Your contributions to this forum are already being co-opted in the form of search engines like Google. AtariAge is heavily indexed by Google, including the forums, and results that dive into AtariAge will be presented with a helping of ads. Not much that can be done about that, at least if you want people to find your site.

 

..Al

[crunchysuperman]

I could do both, have ads and then disable them for people who join the special club.

Now that would work. Good idea. If you don't like ads, pay. If you don't mind ads, don't pay. Much better than having something like a snooty VIP forum and other distasteful things.

 

That's what Rage3D does. I subscribe over there so I don't have to look at the ads, and I'd be happy to do the same thing here.

[+Random Terrain]

It's about having one's contributions to this forum suddenly co-opted to serve commercial interests that one doesn't support.

This is not an attack, so try not to take it the wrong way. If your contributions are so special and precious, maybe you shouldn't be adding them to this web site because you never know how the content will be used when Albert dies or if he ever sells the site and runs off to Canada. Pretend that Albert provided a physical place for everyone to hang out for free. If Albert decided to place an ad on the wall, how would that taint your contributions to the hangout?

 

You can't count on donations and memberships to pay the bills, but you can count on ads if you own a web site that gets enough visitors who are willing to click on ads that interest them. Ads consistently allow a busy web site to pay for itself. The more money the site can make on its own, the less tap dancing Albert has to do just to pay the bills. Maybe I would feel differently if I actually contributed something to the site, but I don't believe I would. I think that I would be happy to allow ads to be shown above my contributions. Why not let my contributions help Albert pay the bills? I don't see a problem with it.

[128bytes]

@Albert -

 

I agree with you -- it's nice that the contribution we make as users isn't directly related to selling ads or products.

 

I would be OK with revenue raised by charging for "member", "supporter", and "lifetime" status (which would be off on the side instead of "stargunner", etc. to raise funds for bandwidth, though, and I would also be OK with reserving access to non-Atari related forums as "members only". If membership fees help preserve free, ad-free, and profit-free access, including full posting rights, to 100% of the Atari-related content on atariage.com/forums, it would be for the greater good and I am for it.

Edited November 20, 2007 by 128bytes

[+remowilliams]

AtariAge is heavily indexed by Google, including the forums, and results that dive into AtariAge will be presented with a helping of ads.

That's almost an understatement, I've seen countless times AA come up as the top 5-15 search hits for stuff.