Getting sponsors to help pay the bills...

[Jason]

I am thinking of starting another website and being a bit larger, I'd like to find a way for the site to be self supporting or at least take some of the cost burden off myself. Does anyone have any tips or ideas on getting sponsors? Or does anyone have any tips on affiliate programs? From most of what I've seen, if you don't have thousands of vistors a day, there is no real way to make any money off of affilate programs.(but I could be wrong?)

Any info on this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Rodzilla]

Pardon me while I laugh hysterically...

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH...AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...AHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

/me looks at his own cost vs revenue chart

Pardon me while I weep miserably...



If you haven't realized it by now, that's going to be a bit difficult to do unless you can come up with some sort of service to sell. It takes a *lot* of traffic to even generate a sale, and almost every single ad campaign these days relies on either sales or leads. The days of pay per click banners are long gone. Feel free to get ideas from here - http://ads.seriouszone.com/all.php - and good luck, you'll need it ;)

[bellgamin]

I am a non-profit so have no real experience.

I have noticed that many sites solicit *donations* via paypal or similar. If your site has value & content, then some of your visitors might donate if given a click spot to do so.

Another way -- if you have the tech know-how, gutz, & business acumen to pull it off -- is to become a reseller. As I understand it, a reseller buys disk space & bandwidth in bulk, uses some of it for his own site [if he has one], & then sells the rest.

I think there are some resellers who use AOH [I'm not one of them]. Probably one of more of them would give you advice on how to get started if you posted a thread expressing your interest.

Shaloha.......bellgamin

[Gade Terbob]

The free internet might be going away. Here is a link from How Stuff Works:
I found it interesting reading.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/penny-per-page.htm

[bellgamin]

Gade - Thanks for the interesting link. I AM glad I read it, but somebody needs to tell those folks about the inverted pyramid of journalism.

Also, it took them much too many pages to get to the point. Obviously, they wrote the article as though they ALREADY were getting a penny a page. ;)

[Gnomercy]

Along the lines of advertisments and how to make them profitable.

clickasaurus (http://boston.com/dailynews/052/economy/Marketers_increase_use_of_soun:.shtml)

[Gade Terbob]

Bell, I'll admit it. I'm just not sure that the advertising model that served TV and Radio for so many years is the right way to do the 'net. I think good content would be well worth paying for. But, its got to be GOOD content.

[Gnomercy]

You know, I'm wondering how much it actually costs to provide internet access to an individual. AOL can't seriously be charging $20+ per month and not have the vast majority of it be profit. Maybe the penny per page model would work just fine if they took those pennies out of what people are already paying to have internet access in the first place.


yeah, I know, fat chance of an ISP agreeing to this without passing the charges to us somehow. It's still a nice thought.

[bellgamin]

Gade- Every time I see one of your posts I note you are located in W. Texas. I am originally from El Paso, but have lived in HI for many years. What I miss the most about TX is the freedom to get in my car & drive & drive & drive & drive. Best way I ever found to shake the blahs was just drive.

Gnome- MY ISP charges me $10/month for unlimited use. Local folks. Great tech support [rarely needed] by live people. But they don't have to support a layer of fat-butt vice presidents with 6 figure salaries & stock options. AOL does.

[Gade Terbob]

Bell, I know exactly what you mean. I lived in Puerto Rico for about 5 years. All the land in sight was 125 long and 45 miles wide. The first year we did lots of things. The second year we went back and did the fun ones again. The 3 rd year is when "island fever" set in. I still enjoy the priveledge of living in the United States again. I might not live exactly where I want to live, but at least I can drive there!