reducing ads and covering costs

ok the under mouse ad was very annoying so we are reducing that a ton although it is covering 1/2 our site costs now1/2 or 1/3 as often, stay under the mouse 1/2 as long then slide off into the corner out of the way there it will stay either 30 sec or till u change pages (not sure about whiccxh yet)the other ads the 1 slowing down the site load is the top big bannerthat brings in nearly 1/2 of the revenue from google but annoys me how it shifts everything down on loadthe problem is the clicks on google ads have been very lowyesterday we made 1.67 of the 6 bucks a day we need to cover costsid still like to reduce those ads but wont just yet till i see how things progresswe have had a few donations this month which have covered lil more then 1/2 of this sites costs..but the other 2 sites are not getting the support they need!if 10 ppl posted 1 well written post a day there in a week or 2 they would get the trafic and search suport they need to start growingbut as it is now they are getting next to nothing and thats a problem i will need to either close them soon or they will have to start getting used.everyone says what a great site.. how important they are etc but noones putting any effort into helping them growe (except jack roth asnd neil coe and 1 other on the legalization site)but they need more help then they are gettingsolutionwell we can do 1 of the following1 somehow increase the clock rates on google ads while reducing the number of ads they average 0.07% now they need to be between 1 and 55 to be around what an average site should geti can play around with treying to get em more relevant and stuff2 fully paid ads didj and umm washername butterfly had some but stopped paying for em so i removed em we can replace the cost per click ads with ads for members businesses at a base rate per month or per 1000 or 10,000 impressions3 we can hope donations increase i can add the app on the right that has a way of tracking donations and so u can see whats needed monthly to cover costsor 4 i can close the other 2 sitesreduce ads to the 1 and hope for the besti removed all inline ads already the ones with underlined wordss that trigert a popup adso what should we do? make suggestionsand if u know anyone whos wanna advertise here that would be awesomemy idea solution would be for ppl to just reallllllly make an effort at getting the other 2 sites to pull theyre own weighteach site would only need to generate 2 dollars a day1 ad on each site can do that so ez if they are just getting trafici want to make a better experience for all but without going broke at the same timegetting just 1 discussion on each of the other sites in a top 5 position on google would really get things kick startedif they dont do better by the end of the month i'll have to close em both


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1
updated by @soaring-eagle: 02/15/15 03:45:27AM

Hmmm...do other similar more established forums exist for the other two topics? Is that why there's no traffic?Personally, I would be active in the other forums if I knew more, but I'm not as knowledgeable.I think there's already tons of advertising going on, but it's been given away for free or there's been an occasional 10% kick back or something. I myself bought a few bars from Maylee's and I know someone just ordered and mentioned it in the chat room. I imagine we generate lots of sales for those in our shops and those that we discuss in forums. It would be great to make it mandatory to make a portion of the sales contribute to the forums. I wouldn't enforce it with our current shops (they can be grandfathered in or choose to do it on their own accord), but future ones wanting to joinIt might be cool to have some sort of code to mention and if you're a member of the forum, making a purchase $25 or more that you get $2 off and $3 goes to cover site costs or something like that.Other factors, when I first visited this forum I avoided it after my first click, because the site didn't look professional. But I ended up caving when every dreadlock search for information led to here. The background reminds me of awful 90's Windows desktop wallpaper. Something like this: http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/view/source=archive/id=3325/ or http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/view/source=archive/id=3359/ or http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/view/source=archive/id=3591/ look more streamlined or realistic if a natural rock texture is mandatory. There are lots of other options on that site. The heading text can be altered to white or black to pop rather than the current issue of blending in and being hard to read. And I have noticed the improvement on the quality of the header image. It's not stretched, looks a bit better, but there could still be improvement. The dreadlock pictures to the sides could be higher res and not be repetitive. I would love to tweak it so it's flanked with high res images of your dreads.From a potential advertising customer standpoint, one that is barely just browsing the forums...the grammar and spelling is off putting. I'm not saying that everything has to be perfect, but the initial discussions can be edited and be more presentable. Also, this page http://www.dreadlockssite.com/page/advertise-with-us definitely without a doubt needs to be edited for spelling errors and grammar in order to be taken seriously by a new business person looking at the site.Lastly, does ning have an option for members to upgrade to a premium membership to remove ads? I would upgrade in a heart beat. Or members that go above and beyond with quality posts, pictures and videos, with enough content could receive a free premium membership or one with only one advertisement rather than several.Hehe, I've been told that I'm too over zealous and come up with too many ideas/solutions. I hope you're not too overwhelmed, but I'm willing to help.

ive been wanting to give it a faceliftand the other sites are www.greentechnologyforums.com www.legalizecannabis.ws


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1
updated by @soaring-eagle: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

not sure im happy with that yet i had gitten the other background there toowould u want to edit the advertise page?


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

I tweaked it. I'm excellent with spelling and capitalization (although I purposely kept knotty boy, etc. lower case because they're not important), but not grammar, so it could still be further edited. It's ready to copy and paste except for the portion in bold. An e-mail address should be included.Dreadlockssite.com is not profit driven, however, we will be accepting one or two reasonably priced advertising opportunities to help cover the cost of running and maintaining the site.We reserve the right to refuse to advertise any services or products that do not match the general philosophies of our members. if you would like to advertise with us, please e-mail us at [is there are professional looking dreadlockssite e-mail? example: dreadlockssite@gmail.com or advertising@dreadlockssite.com] with a short description of the business product or service you wish to advertise, a link to the site the ad will be directed and the desired compensation terms.We will review all applications quickly. Those we find acceptable will have an ad placed on the site for a two month trial basis that will then then have the option to be extended to six months or one year.Products that will never meet advertising criteria include dread wax, dread kits, dreading instructional materials or websites that suggest the use of dread kits or dread wax.Services that will require extensive review before consideration are locticians, dreadlock salons and dreadlock maintenance services.We will consider advertisements from many non-dread related fields however we prefer ethical dread related businesses.We are a non-profit driven website, we also reserve the right to take into consideration the ethics of products and services offered.Ethical green or earth conscious businesses will be most welcome.Why advertise with us? We are now the number one dreadlocks site. We now reach more people than popular (yet misleading) companies such as dreadheadhq and knottyboy.We are also a more ethical site and we have very flexible terms. Our only goal is to provide the best information available.

Haha, done! Ooo and I didn't expect those two to be together, but definitely works better than the old background. I would make the background stay put like my profile so there's not so much woozy movement.For the avatar header portion that lists this stuff:soaringeaglereducing ads and covering costs* Posted by soaringeagle on August 6, 2010 at 1:35pm in site suggestions and comunal site management* Send Message View DiscussionsI would either put a gray background same as the discussion box or make the text a blue or orange color to play off the blue and orange in the stones in the background and for a clearer contrast and readability. Probably blue since it's more professional and a calming color.Do you have the original lion picture?

I agree, but the old background was outdated and unprofessional. Instead of the light colored stones is there a way to make it a single gray background?I'm all for moving, but is it expensive and what are other options?I absolutely agree with the last statement that donations for this site should be solely used for this forum. Those that feel strongly about the other topics should donate and specify. If not, it shows the sites are not sustainable and should be closed. Knottysleeves said:

My opinion? The new textured backgrounds make it even harder to read things. Content is what this site's all about, and tIhat should be the focus. Look at the design and colour schemes of most popular, high-traffic forums -- graphics are kept to a minimum, there are rarely any distracting backgrounds, and the focus is on navigation (finding things easily) and the actual discussion content.
I love this site... but from a design and usability standpoint, it's painful. The new navigation buttons at the top are a huge improvement (thanks again SE!) but there are so many distracting widgets, ads, sidebars, etc. I'm not an expert on Ning sites, but from my limited understanding there is only so much customization you can do with them, and the basic functionality remains the same -- for example, there's no indicator for "new topics since your last login", which almost every other forum system out there has. Features like that would make a huge difference for regular members. I've suggested before that we move to a proper forum system and host it somewhere other than Ning, but that is totally SE's call of course.As for the ads (both inline and google ads) I don't even see them because I use Firefox with NoScript and Adblock. Regarding the other two sites, I'm not a member on either of them. I strongly believe that any revenue generated for dreadlockssite.com through donations should STAY with dreadlockssite.com, rather than being used for other sites that our members here may not participate in or want to support.

any better? and ofcourse donations stay here ads tho pay for all 3 because theres just 1 ad account spread over every ad on every siteit would be a nightmare to track which sites making what and alland it dont matter anyway all 3 gotta be paid for or closeddonationd here this month have been 35 of the 50last couple months lucky to get 5 or 10 in donationsonly the 1st month we did donations did we bring in more then needed and then bought gifts for members with the excessand as for closing the other sites its extremjely prematurethis site wasnt getting 10,000 hits a day in the 1st weeks and we had every member of a dying forum move here that site existed 2 years and the entire membership helped get this goingplus messages were sent to every person in jinnycleans myspace freinds so we had a few hundred ppl ro jump start the sitethe other sites are real new they are very very slowly getting there but just need way more suport then they are getting now because i am trying to get them going fast like this site got going fast.if they got 1 single post that made it in the top 10 slots on google they would do fineit took this site a couple months to get there


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Oh hey I like the new stones in the background. But maybe you could use the same stone for both background. I like the darker bigger stones better than the smaller slightly blurry ones.I agree the black on gray is a bit hard to read sometimes...maybe change the black text so it's either bolder or lighter than the gray..The white text is definitely the easiest to read..though it could be confuse with the links so those would need to be changed aswell

haha love u paula u read my mind i was spending the last 15 minutes trying varius color combos and settled on white text and yellow links altho the link color i may change as well but the white is east to readand i was gonna play with the backgrounds more still


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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1