Wanting to set up as a Vendor

[Bon Voyage]

If a vendor’s ads would go where we already see ads in the side of the screen, then why not. They’d probably be more relevant to us.

 

[baadpuppy]

I find myself agreeing with much of what the OP posts. To imply via the rules that there are vendor accounts and also say "no vendor accounts allowed" is confusing at best.

I suspect the bigger issue is one of workload (being nice here). The easy way to add advertisements to a site is to use a service like google's and just add a little block of code to your templates. Hosting your own ads is more work, not as simple, and bucks the status quo. That's not even addressing any possible conflicts with contracts for the advertising service they're currently using.

Regardless, even if they won't allow a vendor account and actual advertising, I'd like to see an explicit permission to point to the OPs products in relevant threads, and perhaps let them have a sticky thread in the right mechanical section of the site for a reasonable subscription fee. It's easy to set up a subscription with any number of services, including just getting a check in the mail periodically.

It seems that the OP has approached the forum reasonably and respectfully, attempting to work within the guidelines established by the forum and community. They want to support the forum financially, support the community with information and products, and don't seem to be simply out to squeeze money out of the people.

I wish I had a navistar engine now, so I could take advantage of these products.

Just my humble opinion.
Jim

 

[Power Hungry]

As I've said, it's really not about placing ads or trying to blatantly sell something. That's not what we're trying to do. We just want to be able to discuss what this application is and see if anyone would like to beta test for us. Once this gets released, it would be an extremely helpful package for for skoolies that feel they could use a little help in the performance and economy areas. We just want to get some feedback from folks before we get to that point.

As an industry, we've always used the forums as a way to reach a target audience, and with that comes a specific cost. The forum helps support us, and we support them in return. When we've developed products for Power Strokes, F150s, Mustangs, etc., we've always gone on those particular forums to discuss with interested folks what would be some desired features, who would be interested in testing, and also provide any downstream support. It's just the way it has always been done.

Again, I appreciate the responses. Y'all have been really cool.

 

[EastCoastCB]

I think you're over-thinking this, then man. Just start a thread in the tech section telling people about what you do.

 

[ACamper-SKO]

@Power Hungry - vendor accts / forum marketing

Many forums do not offer “vendor accts” or similar marketing avenues on their forms for some very good reasons. Basically it turns forums into a spam boards, puts a bunch of corrupted information into the community and inspires community members(with non-commercial agendas) to leave.
I have seen good community forums change to offer “vendor accts” and turn into internet SPAM trash bins.

The model of a community forum offers some great avenues for presenting commercial products if someone is willing to spend the time to do it. You have to be helpful and add some quality information= giving to the community= not just tossing in a few bucks and seeing how much you can take.

 

[Janet H]

@Power Hungry - vendor accts / forum marketing

Many forums do not offer “vendor accts” or similar marketing avenues on their forms for some very good reasons. Basically it turns forums into a spam boards, puts a bunch of corrupted information into the community and inspires community members(with non-commercial agendas) to leave.
I have seen good community forums change to offer “vendor accts” and turn into internet SPAM trash bins.

The model of a community forum offers some great avenues for presenting commercial products if someone is willing to spend the time to do it. You have to be helpful and add some quality information= giving to the community= not just tossing in a few bucks and seeing how much you can take.

I agree but am willing to try some small step in this direction. There's announcement here: https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f12/commercial-participants-change-32499.html#post400347 and there are some BIG limits on this. The Site rules have been amended as well.

The forum is basically for the exchange of info and we would like to keep markety content out of discussions. That said, we have a few members who have Skoolie related businesses and contribute an awful lot of great content and help out newbies especially so we're trying to find some balance here.

 

[EastCoastCB]

Just make sure we don't have "skoolie converters" embedded. THAT would create a real problem, imo.

 

[Native-SKO]

I agree but am willing to try some small step in this direction. There's announcement here: https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f12/commercial-participants-change-32499.html#post400347 and there are some BIG limits on this. The Site rules have been amended as well.

The forum is basically for the exchange of info and we would like to keep markety content out of discussions. That said, we have a few members who have Skoolie related businesses and contribute an awful lot of great content and help out newbies especially so we're trying to find some balance here.

Thank you!



This is the community in action and the forum responding. I sure hope this experiment works out well for all.

 

[musigenesis]

Just make sure we don't have "skoolie converters" embedded. THAT would create a real problem, imo.

I feel like they would get way too much abuse here to stick around.

 

[Booyah45828]

I feel like they would get way too much abuse here to stick around.

As thick in the head as some of them are, do you think they'd care?

 

[Booyah45828]

I don't see an issue with vendors, as long as they're good people and not spammy. It can be policed relatively easily too, IF a vendor turns out to be a negative here, kick em off. It isn't a right to be here, if you can kick out members, you can kick out vendors.

 

[cadillackid]

id rather see vendors with useful stuff and noit just new cars and campgrounds

 

[ACamper-SKO]

I had an acct on a webmaster forum once, I got a private message saying “I noticed you are not using your signature link” “I will give you $1usd to put my company in there” I said “No Thanks”

I then look around and realized their was a market for the signature links, $1-$3usd. I also started to realized that people would set up multiple accts just to sell the links. The forum was popular with 3rd world webmasters/hackers trying to hustle a few bucks. lol

 

[Janet H]

I had an acct on a webmaster forum once, I got a private message saying “I noticed you are not using your signature link” “I will give you $1usd to put my company in there” I said “No Thanks”

I then look around and realized their was a market for the signature links, $1-$3usd. I also started to realized that people would set up multiple accts just to sell the links. The forum was popular with 3rd world webmasters/hackers trying to hustle a few bucks. lol

It's a balancing act to be sure - hopefully this change will go well, if not, we can pivot.

The forum isn't set up to accept $$ in the traditional way for sponsorships and frankly generating ad revenue via google ads is a lot simpler to manage. This change is about giving a little boost to those amongst us who are in the skoolie related biz and participating regularly.

 

[Power Hungry]

From my viewpoint (for whatever that's worth)...

I think this a a huge step for the forum to take. They are looking at the situation from all directions and clearly understand the needs of the community, both from an informational aspect as well as from a product aspect. That they are willing to explore this avenue says a great deal about their desire to support the community.

In the meantime, we will refrain from any direct links in our signature as there really isn't any need for that. Also, any links that we do post will only be to instructional or informational videos relating to the device we are testing.

It is our sincere hope to be of service to the skoolie community and we greatly appreciate the support we've been shown from both the members and the administrators of skoolie.net. Y'all are awesome!

Now... let's get this party started! :biggrin:

 

[ACamper-SKO]

It's a balancing act to be sure - hopefully this change will go well, if not, we can pivot.

The forum isn't set up to accept $$ in the traditional way for sponsorships and frankly generating ad revenue via google ads is a lot simpler to manage. This change is about giving a little boost to those amongst us who are in the skoolie related biz and participating regularly.

I think this is a good move and can possibly turn into a nice clean way people can advertise and the forum can recoup some hosting costs.

A lot of forum users do not understand that most forum owners end up paying hosting costs out of pocket, end up spending massive amounts of time in moderation and administration tasks.

It is nice to see forums possibly make a little bit to cover costs, especially in a way that doesn't feed Google.