Subject:
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A few ideas
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.finance
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Date:
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Wed, 3 Apr 2002 18:57:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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1344 times
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Here's a few comments and ideas.
It's great news that LUGNET might go commercial. With dedicated staff and
paid part-timers maintaining the project it will certainly improve and grow.
Some of my suggestions may go against the 'charter' for this group. Don't
flame me, I've never read it. If the administrators find they need to
reinvent LUGNET to ensure its health, then they have my support, charter
notwithstanding.
Okay, on to the ideas:
Having an annual fee is a fine idea. Perhaps even better would be three
levels of service: FREE, allowing the user access to some of the LUGNET
resources; MEMBERS ONLY, which is where we are now; and PREMIUM, for which
the user has to pay an annual fee. Just what these categories entail is up
to the admins. I'd go for premium, just because I want to support LUGNET.
The reality of it is, the BIG money isn't with us users, it's with the
advertisers.
Certainly the amount of traffic on this site by purchasers of building toys,
robots and electronics, modelers, etc. has to be of significant interest to
companies like Lego, Radio-Shak, and many other toy and gadget
manufacturers. They might buy banner ads, but all indications are that
banner ads don't work so great.
The REAL value that LUGNET holds for them is in the information you have
about our interests and use of the products that are out there. Some people
cringe when they think a company like Lego might find out which toys they
like best. Others practically shout it out in the forums. Still others,
like me, *WANT* them to know. That way I only see robot-stuff and hopefully
NEVER have to spend time sorting through marketing materials meant to
shotgun a variety of interests to zero in on the stuff I want.
In addition to the value of the consumer information LUGNET has access to,
there is also the power wielded by having thousands of contstruction toy
enthusiasts passing through the site. I'd imagine a service offering market
surveys, opinion surveys, and other information gathering would be valuable
to a number of marketing departments.
You might also consider an applett that looks for keywords in the forums and
provides links (for a fee) to retailers like LEGO S@H. For example, if a
link mentions 'robots', or 'mindstorms' a link to the S@H page appears at
the end of the message, inviting the reader to check out some new product
related to Mindstorms Robots. This could be done with any of LEGO's product
lines, or (cringe) related non-LEGO products. The link could be provided
for a certain duration for a fee, or on a per-click basis. Either way, the
advertiser knows that if someone is reading the thread, they're interested
in the product type.
Well, for what it's worth, there are some suggestions!
Rich
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: A few ideas
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| (...) No, advertising has proven to be a very poor way of earning money. Just look at all the web sites with an advertising business model that died in the last year. Sure, you can get some money by delivering eyeballs to advertisers, but not as (...) (23 years ago, 3-Apr-02, to lugnet.admin.finance)
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