Clue me in folks

[Rocketdog]

Not having a web site myself, or working in any way with such things, I was wondering something. How does that work? How does one solicit ads for your page aside from the obvious "Want to advertise here" logo. Like the Mustang ad or Hot-Rod Hell on this page. Oh and Enviros too. Not to leave you out Jeremy.

[90GTVert]

The ads you see just below the banner etc... are ads that the forum host puts there. Proboards provides free forums and in exchange for using their software and servers they place banner ads unless you pay a fee, which can get pretty hefty with a large forum. Their software uses the content of the page to decide what to display.

I helped Rebel design this place and I own Hotrod-Hell. I stuck the banner there to fill up space at first, just to have something to rotate. I made the register today and wanna advertise banners and Rebel said it was fine if my site's banner stayed. Whenever there is a need for another banner there, mine should go. So there's how that one worked.

Usually a website or forum will put out advertising links, as Rebel has here, that allow someone to contact whoever is in charge of advertising. Web business owners are always looking for targeted traffic. Properly targeted traffic will result in much better click to purchase ratios and a much higher percentage of people that click through the ads will become return guests/customers. A good example of poorly targeted advertising is my Hotrod-Hell banner. This is a scooter forum so modified cars and bikes aren't going to interest a lot of forum members. Enviro sells parts for scooters which obviously interests a lot of scooter owners that visit this forum. If they can find a forum or site that will provide the kind of traffic their site will benefit from potential advertisers will use the links to find out about advertising. Of course a larger forum with more members or a site with high traffic will attract advertisers much more easily and the site/forum owner can charge more for advertising.

I'm sure some sites/forums use more aggressive marketing techniques, but I don't think this forum does.

[Rebel]

If you notice each one of the banner ads are also a link to a web page. So the one asking if you want to advertise is actually a link to me for a PM so all the person is really doing is sending me a PM to ask about an ad. FYI, at this point all the ads are free, should we ever get to a big enough membership and enough views per day to make the ads valuable to businesses, a charge will be assessed. We are at this point scratching backs so that we have friends that might return the favor in the future.

Now on the other hand if you do a google search for scooter related items you may very well see an ad that I bought, this is being charged per click and per exposure, every time it is shown I am charged and each click on the ad is another charge. So if you see it great, but since you already know how to get here, it would be nice if you didn't click it. Currently it has been shown tens of thousands of time and a little less than 50 people have clicked it, I've paid a little less than 50 cents per click to get people to notice the forum.

[Rocketdog]

Thanks 90GT, Rebel. Interesting stuff that. I'm no longer ignorant, of this subject anyway hehe. Rebel I haven't clicked the link at all. Don't make it a Big Red Button with "Don't Push" written on it. You know what will happen then . And I suspect the membership will come in time. My Dad always said, "Rome wasn't built in a day". In the meantime I'll pony up some cash or have a CVT cover bolt raffle. Hey if we took all our spare part we could raffle off a whole Scooter. Not very doable but it's an idea.