The FastDay Forum

Hey Moogie, I was against having banners on the forum because I find all the flashing lights a pain and distracting but to be fair the one at the bottom of the page it fairly unobtrusive so if thats all they would be I'll change my vote on having google ads and say go for it.

[Moogie]

Thanks shazzam! I didn't think they'd be too in the way there and actually as I type this I'm seeing an advert for the 2 day diet book - pretty relevant I think

There is also an ad at the top of the individual topic pages for unregistered/not logged-in users, with a message encouraging them to sign up or log in to remove the ad.

I say go for it! You have put a lot of hard work into this site so why not make a little money along the way. We are all used to seeing ads while browsing and I'm sure most off us hardly notice them anymore and those that do use an ad blocker.
I'd trust you not to overrun the forum with ads but if this site takes up a lot of your time (which I'm sure it does) why not get an income from it.

[carorees]

I've just downloaded an ad block app for my phone and I have ad block on my PC, so now the ads don't bother me at all. You should not be our of pocket by running this site, so I agree that you should allow ads. It might be worth filtering/excluding certain ads though. It would be inappropriate to include ads to other types of diet I feel.

[carorees]

...Or supplements, fizzy drinks or meal replacements or any of those things we are recommending people avoid!

[Moogie]

I'm hoping that once the ads have had time to become relevant to the site (apparently it can take a few days for Google to work all that out) I'll be able to specify which ads to include/exclude - but it's all quite new to me!

Ideally I'd like to make enough to be able to move the site onto its own server so it isn't competing for resources with my other site. If by some fluke it ends up making some half decent money then I'd want to share it around with the other team members here!

Hi Moogie. As it is right now, with just one banner at the bottom of the page, it isn't too obtrusive. My understanding of this kind of marketing (known as 'netracking') is that you ultimately may not have full control of what your users are seeing however and I think it really depends how 'principled' you/we are about the content and credibility of the site overall. I do think it quite right that you should be looking into ways to fund the site and the time, skill and effort you personally put into it. How about a trial over a predetermined period of say 4 weeks ? This could potentially give you enough time to see how much income it could realistically generate, balanced against any negative feedback the ads may or may not generate. How about setting up a poll.....? For, Against, Indifferent...(to a trial that is). One other idea-could you generate any commission from the link to the book sales ?

Funny, guess what my add is?

5:2 recipe cards!

Hi Moogie

Bit late chipping in - personally very happy you put ads on the site, though I too don't see the one at the bottom as I have a flash blocker. Running something like this is not free and if it makes any extra for you then good on you! I would also consider offering a paypal donate button to help to contribute to the running costs if the mood hits people - since you're not making any ad revenue from me, I'd donate instead if it was via Paypal.
Final thought - how about offering paid memberships? £10 a year or something. It's a lot cheaper than weight watchers, and I think quite a few people might be interested.
Anyway, thanks for all your hard work on the site and helping to create such a lovely community
Cheers

Ian

[Moogie]

Thanks Ian, I'm really glad that most people don't seem to have a problem with the ads!

I don't feel right directly asking for money as it looks as though the banners should cover the hosting costs - which would mean that donations were just a sort of payment for my time. Doesn't seem right somehow!

As for paid memberships, I'm not sure folks would want to pay to use this site, unless perhaps the paid/premium accounts had some kind of extra features (I don't know, maybe the ability to blog or something?).

It's so nice to know that people are enjoying using this place. I'm looking forward to future developments like the recipes area etc which hopefully will make this place even more useful. Perhaps one day I'll get around to making some nicer graphics for the topic icons and stuff... but I've got to do some work this weekend >.<;;