Zoomba Zoomba

Weekly Poll: Site Sponsorships

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Weekly Poll: Site Sponsorships

An incredibly important poll for subscribers!

https://www.wincustomize.com/webpoll.aspx
from WinCustomize Forums

This week's poll is a little different from what we usually talk about.  This week it's all about how we support and fund the site.  Currently we support WinCustomize primarily through subscriptions and web ads.  However we have repeatedly turned away the much more profitable ads because they're just so darned annoying.  We know that at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how well an ad pays if it drives users away.  That's why you'll never see pop-ups, hover ads etc on WinCustomize, even though they pay extremely well.

That said, we are still looking to find additional revenue sources, especially as the cost of the site continues to climb.  One of the ways is through a "Site Sponsorship" program.

A "Site Sponsorship" is basically where a company decides to sponsor WinCustomize for a month or more at a time.  They would get something akin to the image to your left as a static image placement on the site.  In the case of the example here, it would be a box added to the WinCustomize sidebar.  It's not a typical ad.  It doesn't bounce, flash, play sounds or in any way impact your browsing.  It's merely a logo placement, perhaps with a brief text message that would be a part of the site.

There's a catch though (there's always a catch).  If we were to secure these sponsorships, they would have to be displayed to ALL users, even subscribers.

That's where today's poll comes in.  For all of you who are subscribers, or who are thinking of subscribing.  Would a sponsorship placement like what I've described be acceptable to you?

Of course, you'd get something in return for such a placement.  Sponsorships like this one, run over the course of the year, would directly fund projects like new Subscriber Suites.  We could actually afford to hire skinners from Stardock Design to draw up and build several Subscriber Suites in the course of the year.

So, if you were to get additional subscriber suites, would that make the sponsorship placement more acceptable?

Go ahead and vote.  We'll tally it up next Monday.  And please use the comments here to discuss the proposal, and what would make the addition acceptable to you if it were to happen.
43,725 views 127 replies
Reply #126 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I would first like to say Thank You to everyone who has posted on this thread. Not only has it been a very interesting read but also a very civil one. This fact and the quality products ( free & purchased) that I use are the reasons that I will continue to call this place home. :CONGRAT: :D

One *flaw that I do see in Zoomba's statement is the reference to only 1 sponsor or 1 discreet ad that we the subscribers would see. Take a look into the future. The facts are that as others have stated, is that costs will always increase. So I would expect that it will become necessary to have more than 1 sponsor as costs increase. So how about getting that out of the way now? Acknowledge that it may in fact occur so that we are not having the same discussion in the future. I would expect that discussion would be more heated as people would then be taking quotes from this thread. ;p

It definitely is very bad timing to start a subscription drive and in the middle of it change the terms of it.

But in the end I will always support within reason ways to increase revenue for this site so that I do not have to pay more to enjoy what I have now. I understand the push to try to get more subscribers by including more premium skins. Read through and responded to a poll asking what would either keep me subscribing or cause me to subscribe. I do really like Mr. Supra4's idea of having some of those premium skins come from the community skinners. Maybe having a contest would be a great way to initiate this.

Clearly the benefits of this site are too good to pass up even for non-subscribers who see all of the ads. And I do not have an answer other than to lower the download amount. So whether it be though taxes that I pay or some sponsored ads that I must see we will always be paying for others. :p

ps. Mr. Supra4 there is no need to use either a credit card or paypal to purchase products or subscribe to the site. I do not use either, instead I pay by using a money order. After ordering simply choose *other ways to pay, (do not recall if that is the exact wording) Simply printout or write up the order form, fill it in and include your money order made out in US funds. As soon as Stardock receives it, you will receive an e-mail with a link to download your purchases. :)

It's My Secret
Reply #127 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sorry to bring this back, but In the interest of completeness and accountability, I needed to return and review this statement.

Members were actively encouraged to promote subscriptions to other people off-site, including friends and family. We were linked back to the charity page which amongst the FAQ section, stated "What do I get for my subscription?You get ad-free browsing," . It wasn't qualified in any way. These were the terms we were invited to use as sales points.

While I don't feel that there's anything in the realisation of the proposed change that if implemented, need necessarily cause additional surfing issues for subscribers. I do feel that the principle of putting members in the position of promoting a benefit that hasn't even made it to the end of this drive without being up for review, isn't acceptable, and however unlikely it is to happen again, should be challenged as a matter of course.


While this poll has sought to review the way subscribers understand the site is to be experienced, which would differ from the original understanding - I felt a need to add this for clarity:-

That subject to working within a set of guidelines, which - while never offered here, (variations of which are generally available around the web *see below for example), I wanted to acknowledge that the presence of a commercial logo as part of a sponsorship deal, may be said not to constitute an advertisement.

Consequently, within the terms of the previous sentence, I wanted to state that there is no 'corporate' reason why Wincustomize shouldn't have used the term 'ad-free' as a sales point and any suggestion of fault or error by myself was inappropriate.


* Example of limitations of use

· No comparative statements (e.g. the best, bigger, faster).
· No qualitative statements which involve subjective evaluation of quality (e.g. fine, great, rich, superb).
· No price information (including "free").
· No call to action statements which direct the audience: to call, to visit, to try,to compare.
· No inducement to buy statements which direct the audience to purchase the product (e.g. free trial period, 2 for 1).

Well, ya never know if this subject will return in one form or another - and I likes to pay me dues and takes me knocks......

Tks.
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