I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self supporting

grumpyvette

grumpyvette

Administrator
Staff member
I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self supporting?
it takes a good bit of time and effort to post most of this stuff and any ideas that might generate some cash flow are very welcome gentlemen
I've got to find a way to make some cash flow out of some where ,either from this website, traffic, or some side enterprise,I can think up, yeah! I know we ALL have financial issues and we ALL have to budget and make choices, thats the way life works and I,m no different than anyone else,
Obviously it would help if we got a good deal more traffic flow on the site and a good deal more membership, as that would eventually make it worth while for some advertisers to want to advertize and kick in a few bucks monthly which would certainly help, but I'm a bit reluctant to go that route.
as always I'm open to ideas, and would be open to any private discussion of options, Id rather find some product, or service, I could sell or manufacture and sell. of find a few members who had some business they could promote, on the site and kick back a small percentage of sales, so,we could both benefit from, the site.there are dozens of projects I could do and detail and post pictorials on, with detailed instructions , part numbers etc. If we had the cash generated by membership donations or advertisers, paying a monthly fee, as that cash flow being available like on many other web sites allow that to happen.
as most of you know I'm hardly tech savvy, so any help you members can provide getting off site links posted else ware to increase traffic to the site is much appreciated!
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

Google ads(adsense), is a good start for a forum usually :)
It do not take much place, can be text only/no pop-up, its not too much annoying for the site user if you see what i mean.
www.google.com/adsense

And, i hope you are doing backups of the database for this nice website/forum, so if whatever happen(server crash, host out of business or whatever)and the data get lost... it can be restored in a few click anytime anywhere.
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

I have an idea to share. You have a PM.
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

I know I am new here but I would like to suggest some things I have learned over the years running websites/forums that survived on donations. As with anything your trying to sell you need to make it accessible I mean really accessible where at any moment someone gets that thought they can donate right away before the wife or kids interrupt that train of thought. I'm not saying a huge banner or anything but the site needs a spot on every page that allows the opportunity for a person to click and donate with ease. Some people may not look at the main page if they have a favorite forum. Easily recognizable Paypal buttons are available to setup and or a PHPBB mod to add a menu stating Donation next to the Login/Logout is always a nice touch as it is seen, reminding the user as they show up or leave. Also the one other complaint from members was not knowing where we stood on funds. Its funny how people assume you get rich because you have a forum and assume your not in need of support. But on the other hand they honestly do not know the bills so having a progress meter/bar is a great tool for members to gauge how serious their donations are needed.

Here are some good links to consider Paypal Buttons for donations and here is a mod for PHPBB I have used and it worked quite well Donation MOD . There are other mods that you may like but the one I suggested worked well and was simple.
I know it sounds like it doesnt matter but many of my members of my other sites said they forgot or didn't know where to go etc etc and after some changes it instantly made a difference in the income.

Also creating premium membership groups with extra features for a nominal fee has been known to create some income. Being this is a forum based on cars possibly allow these members a garage to host their race car pics and info. (gallery) or what ever you can think of that would be a bonus such as a Donator tag below their avatar, an arcade with car games, etc.

I hope this helps
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

THANK YOU!
I do appreciate the help
as most of the members know I,m not a computer savvy guy, so Ill have the guy who does my mods to the site look this over!
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

One suggestion I would make is to modify or disable auto user registration to prevent spam posts. Here's a write up from the phpBB site that describes how to prevent spam both bot and human and how to setup double activation for new users.

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/advanced_block_mod/faq/f_548

https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2122696

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/advanced_double_activation_pack/faq/f_394
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

Hi
I had some success asking dealers / parts suppliers about their interest to place ads in my former forum. At least some of them went for it.
Anothe side effect was, some dealers even offered discount to the forum members if they provide their nickname when ordering.

This discount, making the forum even more attractive to the users, could be maximised by then having "premium members" lets say paying US$ 50 per year, who would be awarded with the opportunity for discount with some dealers.

My major rule for ads: They must not spam the forum, banners must not cover half of the pages :D , ads must be related to the forum content. (no dish washers to be sold here)- hey let's wait a second, the ladies might be interested to get a forum premium account :D

Just some food for thought

Carlos
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

keep the ideas coming gentlemen I really would rather have this web site make a few measly bucks each month rather than be a constant drain on finances., if we could actually see some consistent positive cash flow that allowed some interesting projects to be done, photographed and posted that would be ideal!




and for the few member donating to support the site may I say
THANK YOU ITS VERY VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

I think the first step is to increase membership. Perhaps we should start brainstorming about that?

Getting sponsorship will be easier with more traffic
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

DorianL said:
I think the first step is to increase membership. Perhaps we should start brainstorming about that?

Getting sponsorship will be easier with more traffic
Click to expand...

THATS VERY TRUE!

WE need a larger reader and contributor base!






I could easily allow 30-50 spammers a day to register that I currently delete each day but that seems rather counter productive!
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

Few aspects promote in our Car Hobby in my experience as Racing out in the real world.
Race on Sunday & Sell on Monday.
Just times are getting tougher now.
Stupid Politicians, Retard Osama & his no show healthcare, & dumb sheepies.
My gig for years was building Race Rear differentials for years. Few are racing today.
Gladly donate more if I had more work after hours coming in.
Good thing I diversified and repair & build more.
Watching & waiting like others here.
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor


There will be Very Very Little increase in traffic until someone can find this forum!

I've tried doing searches specific to this forum by using exact wording, and still, all I get is hits on other forums where Grumpy has posted. You can use Google to search a specific website by using the "Site" option. Then after that, it will list other hits from all websites.

For example:
site: http://forum.grumpysperformance.com "a good deal of info"
Click to expand...
[We all know Grumpy has said this a few times]

But there is no hit for this forum, just on "Chevy Talk", "Digital Corvette" and the Chevelles forum where Grumpy made this statement.

If no one can find this forum, then why would a sponsor want to spend money here.

I believe Grumpy is doing everything he can, but this site needs help from someone knowledgeable in website configuration and maintenance. It's just the reality of the situation.

With great respect for Grumpy and everyone here, I submit my comments above!

 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

yeah, and having the site indexed into google is a huge asset, much easier to find something + it will bring new members am sure.
just need to set the phpbb forum to allow google/search engine bot and then submit the url to some search engine(google).
I forgot how to do that, but i did it in the past i know its pretty easy.
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

The wife is in IT like you Rick. She ran her own forum for years. I can ask her.

Teaming up with Car Craft or Hotrod Magazine would solve $ issues.
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com and http://grumpysperformance.com/forum/ are the same Rick, its just the way to access it, with a sub-domain(when a sub-domain is set by the admin) or with /forum directory.
yes people who host website can use something else instead of "forum" in the url/folder name or sub-domain, like phpbb, board, or whatever they like. forum is more common probably because its more obvious.
fusionbb, is another community/portal (just like phpbb that's being used here)and they used that name "fusionbb" to access the board(board folder name) for the link you posted.

subdomain look like this (without php)
server {
listen 80;
server_name subdomain.somesite.com;

location / {
root /var/www/some_dir;
index index.html index.htm;
}

also most of the time you dont need the index.php in the url, because the webserver and php handler are setup to index automatically on file named index.php or .html depend of the webserver setting and website but php is more common.
usually with nginx and php(wich this site is using) it look something like this

location ~ \.php$ {
root /srv/http/root_dir;
index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
include fastcgi.conf;
}
this is just for exemple.
And usually when you rent webhosting you have a control panel making thing easy and that stuff cannot be changed by the user(factory preset by the provider) or for a sub-domain it can be changed easily with a few click in the control panel if your subscribtion allow.
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

Thanks Mathieu for that explanation, you should be be an advisor for Grumpy on website growth!

Any insight into why I cannot search this website with Google using the "Site" option?
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

maby the site is not submitted into google, and if it is, maby the phpbb forum block the google bot so it cannot index the site page into its search engine.
There can be other reason to, i just woke up lol.
i dont know what version of phpbb this is.
 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor


The "Google [Bot]" was just on the Index page of this forum for 10 minutes.
Would that mean that this site has been submitted to Google???

Grumpy, what version of phpBB are you using now?

 
Re: I could REALLY use ideas ,make this web site self suppor

3.0.10, the latest version is 3.0.12 but its a very minor upgrade
 
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