Not unless you want to get me in some trouble. I'm supposed to handle all forum issues and bump only the ones that require it upstairs.
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Not unless you want to get me in some trouble. I'm supposed to handle all forum issues and bump only the ones that require it upstairs.
And whilst these boards cost money to run it would appear that JM is making it quite easilyQuote:
March 10, 2005
Instant Million Dollars
How would you like to create $1 million of revenue virtually overnight?
We just did this at Jupitermedia. We created a new stock photo Web site called Comstock 1700k Subscription Plan in about 8 working days. We populated the site with Comstock stock photo images that were selling on a pay per download basis - in other words we had no inventory expense in populating the new Web site - only a manpower expense of several developers working several days. We used existing software created by our Tucson image subscription team.
The 1700k product allows a subscriber to download up to 50 images per day for any of four subscription periods (one month, three months, six months or a year). The prices range respectively from $299 a month up to $1199 for a year. 1700k images refer to each being 1.7 megabytes.
We launched the site a few weeks ago and sales are moving in on $20,000 per week and building. Our promotion effort was nothing more than running banners on our various image Web sites as well as some of our developer sites in the JupiterWeb network.
This is an example of terrific organic growth for virtually no cost. It is also an example of how amazing the Internet is as a distribution channel. No promotion cost, no inventory cost and very little effort.
And finally the great thing for JupiterImages is that we are doing similar launches every few weeks with results that look to be comparable to the 1700k launch!
I will keep you informed about some of these other launches in forthcoming posts.
Posted by Alan Meckler at 01:20 PM | Comments (1)
Yes, the company is growing. JupiterImages division is doing extremely well.
I just had a quick look at the Datamation forums Nix mentioned, and I got one of those rectangular ads. See the first two screenshots.Quote:
Originally Posted by JPNYC
Yes, screenshots. Plural. I've got a 1024x768 monitor with a reasonably small browser footprint and the ad doesn't even fit on one screen. It wouldn't even fit with the browser in kiosk mode.
The third screenshot is of the same site at 800x600.
Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't the point of ads to be readable by the end user?
I will be blunt here.....This is like a company running a 1/2 page ad in the New York Times about how great a company they are and how good investing in their company would be...all the while covering up 1/2 of the daily stock reports with the ad. They are turning off and angering the very people that the ad is targeting. Does Jupiter realize this? Just exactly WHO is their target audience if not the regular members of VDr? If not,who ELSE is the target audience? The occasional 'drive-by" lurker? Awful lot of money being sunk into someone who is probably not paying attention to the ad anyway.
I mentioned this to my dad who is a retired professor and dean of the business school of a major university...he specialized in marketing. The way he put it..."sounds like they are killing the goose who lays the golden egg". I couldn't agree with him more. Do they or do they not realize that they are killing these sites with their indifference? :mad:
I assure you there is no indifference to the members wishes.
Interesting.
I take it then that we are stuck with the new format and we may as well end the discussion on it in all threads now and be done with it.
Just as there was always a blanket response to off topic forum a few years back, ie NO, there should be the same in regards to the compaints about the ad positon.
The impression was given in one of the many threads where this issue has been raised that the ad was moved to the side to appease the people who complained about the ads being at the top ebcause they then had to scroll down.
In reality though it was obviously a pre-planned design to allow for the "flex ads".
Tuttle, the ad is viewable before you scrolled down.
The 800x600 screenshot? Yeah, you can see all of the top half of the ad before you scroll down... if you also scroll right a bit. That screenshot was just a reminder that despite what the ad creators seem to think, we don't all have quad Xeons with 1920x1440 displays on our desks. We've had flash ads that cause 100% CPU usage, we've had Java banners that redraw constantly and max out a system if more than a few windows are opened at once, and now we've got an ad that won't even fit on a rather common 800x600 display without showing up a horizontal scrollbar. :rolleyes:
Well the top half is where the info is. Also, our stats show that the average user visiting our site has 1024x768 screen res., whereas a mere 3 yrs ago it was 800x600. Screen res. are increasing. Anyone know anybody still using 640x480? I sure don't. But that was the industry standard once.
How can you tell that ?Quote:
Originally Posted by JPNYC
Easily. You can get the screen res with any number of scripting languages, including javascript, the most commonly used one. You can also do it with PHP, VBscript, and Java. In fact I think you can with virtually any scripting language, client or serverside.
This is rediculous. At this point one can only conclude that the intention all along was to ram this down the member's throats and take the attitude of "they'll complain, but they'll have no choice but to accept it." And that attitude towards customers is crap. Clearly this change was one that one might reasonably expect to get a rise out of the members. Yet nothing at all was said about it happening. In fact, it seems even the mods (or most) knew nothing about this change taking place (clearly they were never given the opportunity to test and experience the new software and look on the development/test system). All we ever were told was about an upgrade of the board software, and we were assured it would be seemless and transparent. It seems a fair bet that the members weren't told ahead of time any of this because the powers who were in the loop on this knew if the changes could be gotten in before warning members then it would be much harder to get them undone/changed.
And in this post-upgrade environment I am left feeling we have been being stalled all along here. I see so many instances where questions/suggestions have been glossed over or never answered. It is even unclear at this point how far up the chain (in terms of decision makers) this was carried. The members have not said "no ads". They have tried to find a suitable compromise. I still do not see why what it see at the codeguru forums is so unworkable. All tht has been said is that they (codeguru) will eventually look like us, not why the codeguru layout is not viable.
Joe, I realize you are suppose to be the first line of contact (or BJ) in to Jupiter. But I do not see that something like the request Nix made (another contact in Jupiter) is either slighting you or unreasonable. You clearly cannot make a decision here, and that is fine. But if the members are displeased they have the right to voice that displeasure to someone who can respond/act. This like a customer with a problem being told by a person in a store "I can't do anything for you" and then when the customer asking to speak to the complaint department being told "you can't/shouldn't, you need to talk to them through me".
As I've said before, there are indeed some things users can do from their to try and make things workable: ad-blockers, change browsers, change resoultions... But some of these are really not reasonable things to expect members to do. Besides, all that has been offered are things that members can do, no talk/offer of something Jupiter will do (even talk about).
For those that may think it, this has not been a case of members being unreasonable, being picky, being ungratefully that Jupiter even allows them the priviege of having vdr. This has been a case of the members being treated like they count for nothing. Oh the postings they do that drive this site are desired, but that seems to be about it.
What this has been is the members becoming increasingly angry as their complaint is increasingly disregarded. We are told that, "Not only is this board not going to change, the board you said you could accept is going to become like this one." We are told that you cannot do anything about our complaint and that we cannot take out complaint anywhere else. The fact is, no matter how unwilling you are to state it, "this is the way the board is going to be and we can learn to live with it ot leave."
When I first complained I said that I would not leave in any sense of pique, but rather that gradually the alloyance of the appearance would cause me to use it less and less with a sense of regret. Now there is a rising sense of pique, not so much at the appearance as at the attitude of the ownership.
The Internet is an amazing place. Historically a seller has had to appeal to a market in order to sell to it. In this medium you can insult and annoy and make a mint. That seems, in fact, to be the main thrust of advertisers is to make their ads as annoying as possible. That's why we use ad-blockers in self defense.
I believe industry average is still a greater percentage 0f 800 x 600, certainly that is the case on, my site. Granted, this site draws a high percentage of tech users who might be expected to have larger monitors, but still...Quote:
Also, our stats show that the average user visiting our site has 1024x768 screen res.