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<h3 align="center">Funding an Online Presence</h3><img src="/images/columns/wheelspin/wheel_rob.gif" width="175" height="85" border="1" alt="wheelspin column" align="left" /><font size="+3"><b>I</b></font> know it's been quite a while since I have written an editorial, but with everything that I've had going on this year, my time has been pretty limited. I'm hoping to change that and get back into writing a monthly editorial column again.
While cruising through other automotive related forum web sites, I've been intrigued on how the site owners handle company advertising on their site and forum participation from companies that do and don't advertise on their web sites.
Based upon my observations, it seems like there are two distinct camps that have evolved:<ol type="1">
<li><b>"Care-Free":</b> This type of group runs a free-for-all type of community where anyone and everyone can advertise their wares and services.</li>
<li><b>"Protective":</b> This group tends to abide by strict rules where "supporting vendors" who pay to advertise on the site and in the forums are protected by the owners of the site by preventing non-paying companies from advertising their business to the forum members.</li>
</ol>Both groups tend to be pretty vocal in their beliefs.
The "Care-Free" group believes that everything on the web should be free to anyone and everyone while the "Protective" group tends to want to protect those who help support their web site.
In some forums, both groups end up clashing, members leave, and the "Protective" site is given a "snobbish attitude" from the members who jumped ship.
While both groups have both valid and invalid points, I have found that the "Care-Free" group is a bit disillusioned in their thinking.
<b>Nothing is for free and you get what you pay for. </b>
This is one of the largest misunderstandings I have seen on the web.
The web is not free. Someone - everyone pays for it. Someone has to pay for the servers, the routers, and overall hardware. Someone has to pay for the software to run it all. In some cases, those expenses, can be quite high.
If the owner of the site is providing key data/information and a venue for people to partcipate in, why would you expect the site owner to do it all for free?
When you want to open up an office for your business, or start a coffee shop, do you buy/lease the property, or do you go to the property owner and expect them to give you something for nothing. Chances are, if you do, you'll be laughed right out the door. The same goes for web sites and electronic data which is basically nothing more than intellectual property.
Depending on the nature of the site, if data is provided, or software is used to run a particular part of that site, someone has to pay for that software and someone has to pay for the time it took to input and organize that data.
It all basically boils down to "time" and in the business world we live in, "time is money."
I've also seen some people make the remark of: "it doesn't cost much to run a web site." That leads me to ask, how much research did you really do before making that statement?
It doesn't take much research to realize that depending on where you host, what type of servers you use, bandwidth consumption, etc., you can spend anywhere from $5.00 per month to $500.00 per month.
If you run a popular web site that is getting over 5,000,000 unique visitors per month and your site is lightning quick powered by solid database and hardware architecture, the site owner is going to pay for it BIG TIME.
So always remember that while anyone can start a web site on a shoestring budget, "you get what you pay for".
<b>"He said, she said, they can't do that."</b>
While the vendors that do pay to support a site, have every right to voice their opinions when an unsuspecting vendor joins the forums and starts to advertise without paying for support, as a site owner, where do you draw the line and establish guidelines that everyone can agree to?
The problem then boils down to members helping members. If Member A tells Member B about a great deal that a non-supporting vendor is carrying, should the supporting vendor, a direct competitor to the non-supporting vendor, cry fowl and complain?
Personally, I don't think so.
In my opinion, that is what competition is all about and it gets to the root of our country and what it stands for.
Lets look at an example:
If Vendor A (non-supporting) offers a product or service cheaper than Vendor B (supporting), which vendor would you buy that product from? Chances are, you're going to go to Vendor A because being the frugal person that you are, you want to save as much money as possible.
If Vendor B has a hard time accepting that, then it would seem logical that Vendor B needs to rethink their business strategy in terms of connecting with their customer and making the sale.
In summary, the web is nothing short of amazing. It has literally revolutionized how we think, how we work and how we interact with one another. While the web is somewhat invisible to most of us, always remember someone is paying for what you are seeing on your computer screen.
Unless the site owner is a multi-millionaire, with extremely deep pockets, the site owner needs to do all he or she can do to protect the best interests of the companies that have given that web site a chance by paying to advertise and help support the online presence of that web site.
Comments? Post them here.
While cruising through other automotive related forum web sites, I've been intrigued on how the site owners handle company advertising on their site and forum participation from companies that do and don't advertise on their web sites.
Based upon my observations, it seems like there are two distinct camps that have evolved:<ol type="1">
<li><b>"Care-Free":</b> This type of group runs a free-for-all type of community where anyone and everyone can advertise their wares and services.</li>
<li><b>"Protective":</b> This group tends to abide by strict rules where "supporting vendors" who pay to advertise on the site and in the forums are protected by the owners of the site by preventing non-paying companies from advertising their business to the forum members.</li>
</ol>Both groups tend to be pretty vocal in their beliefs.
The "Care-Free" group believes that everything on the web should be free to anyone and everyone while the "Protective" group tends to want to protect those who help support their web site.
In some forums, both groups end up clashing, members leave, and the "Protective" site is given a "snobbish attitude" from the members who jumped ship.
While both groups have both valid and invalid points, I have found that the "Care-Free" group is a bit disillusioned in their thinking.
<b>Nothing is for free and you get what you pay for. </b>
This is one of the largest misunderstandings I have seen on the web.
The web is not free. Someone - everyone pays for it. Someone has to pay for the servers, the routers, and overall hardware. Someone has to pay for the software to run it all. In some cases, those expenses, can be quite high.
If the owner of the site is providing key data/information and a venue for people to partcipate in, why would you expect the site owner to do it all for free?
When you want to open up an office for your business, or start a coffee shop, do you buy/lease the property, or do you go to the property owner and expect them to give you something for nothing. Chances are, if you do, you'll be laughed right out the door. The same goes for web sites and electronic data which is basically nothing more than intellectual property.
Depending on the nature of the site, if data is provided, or software is used to run a particular part of that site, someone has to pay for that software and someone has to pay for the time it took to input and organize that data.
It all basically boils down to "time" and in the business world we live in, "time is money."
I've also seen some people make the remark of: "it doesn't cost much to run a web site." That leads me to ask, how much research did you really do before making that statement?
It doesn't take much research to realize that depending on where you host, what type of servers you use, bandwidth consumption, etc., you can spend anywhere from $5.00 per month to $500.00 per month.
If you run a popular web site that is getting over 5,000,000 unique visitors per month and your site is lightning quick powered by solid database and hardware architecture, the site owner is going to pay for it BIG TIME.
So always remember that while anyone can start a web site on a shoestring budget, "you get what you pay for".
<b>"He said, she said, they can't do that."</b>
While the vendors that do pay to support a site, have every right to voice their opinions when an unsuspecting vendor joins the forums and starts to advertise without paying for support, as a site owner, where do you draw the line and establish guidelines that everyone can agree to?
The problem then boils down to members helping members. If Member A tells Member B about a great deal that a non-supporting vendor is carrying, should the supporting vendor, a direct competitor to the non-supporting vendor, cry fowl and complain?
Personally, I don't think so.
In my opinion, that is what competition is all about and it gets to the root of our country and what it stands for.
Lets look at an example:
If Vendor A (non-supporting) offers a product or service cheaper than Vendor B (supporting), which vendor would you buy that product from? Chances are, you're going to go to Vendor A because being the frugal person that you are, you want to save as much money as possible.
If Vendor B has a hard time accepting that, then it would seem logical that Vendor B needs to rethink their business strategy in terms of connecting with their customer and making the sale.
In summary, the web is nothing short of amazing. It has literally revolutionized how we think, how we work and how we interact with one another. While the web is somewhat invisible to most of us, always remember someone is paying for what you are seeing on your computer screen.
Unless the site owner is a multi-millionaire, with extremely deep pockets, the site owner needs to do all he or she can do to protect the best interests of the companies that have given that web site a chance by paying to advertise and help support the online presence of that web site.
Comments? Post them here.
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