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The cost of advertising on this forum

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2021 9:30 am
by rdearman
You may not have noticed (but I bet you have) that there aren't any advertisements on this forum. It doesn't mean people don't advertise. Long-standing members have mentioned their blogs, podcasts, commercial websites, or whatever. But unlike Facebook where the cost of advertisement is simply to pay money, here we charge much more than just money. Here, if you want to advertise, you have to participate. Firstly, you have to have worked hard enough to not just be a member, but long enough that other members don't report you as a spammer. And if you're a long-standing member and your advertisement is language related, you're forgiven your commercial tendencies and members may try your product or service. If they like it, they will report back here, and if they don't, you'll hear about that too!

In theory, marketing types would love this place with hundreds of truly engaged potential customers, but they don't. Mostly because it isn't as easy as just throwing money at us because we won't take it. We've had offers to buy the forum outright, so the company could run advertisements on it. We politely declined the offers. No, here you have to spend something worth a lot more than money, you have to spend TIME. You have to participate, you have to engage with your potential customers on a level that is unthinkable in most companies. Likewise, you can't bury bad reviews or promote the good ones. Your product will be reviewed warts and all and have to stand on its own merits.

You can't as one ex-member/spammer discovered get around the rules and post some rubbish until you're a member then advertise your spam. We've been doing this a long time, and the first spam advertisement was deleted and the spammer removed. Sadly, if they had been honest and said they were Spanish with a Spanish course for beginners instead of pretending to be an educated English speaker from York, they wouldn't have been banned. They could have participated, they could have reaped the rewards of having feedback from hundreds of polyglots and learners. But no, they decided the price of advertisement here was too high, and they would try to circumvent the system.

But if you pay the price and participate? If, finally, you get to put your link in your signature block or in a thread? Well, you still have to participate! Because, unlike Facebook or other platforms, your advertisement will "compost down" into the ancient threads that nobody reads. If you want to keep your links and advertisements where people would see them, you have to continue to participate.

There is one other form of payment the moderation team will consider when someone wants to advertise. Politeness. Perhaps consider asking politely if you can link to your language related product? You'll still be required to participate and respond to reviews and critics of your product, but politeness is a lower cost, but still too high for some.

The cost of advertisement is high, but for some it has been worth it and these people continue to discuss, participate and enjoy the forum along with all of us. I'm sure many members are aware of other members who offer various products and services for sale. But it is low-key, and they always report back when they have had problems or issues reported. These are the types of advertisers we prefer here.

So if you want to announce your product here, please ask the moderation team first. If you didn't ask, then it is just spam, and the message along with your account will probably be removed. If your product is deemed to be of potential value to our members, then it will probably be allowed. But if you don't keep returning and participating, then it will compost down into the historic threads. If you do return and take on-board feedback, then you're probably going to like it here and wonder why you bothered to advertise anywhere else.

Re: The cost of advertising on this forum

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2021 9:58 am
by lysi
rdearman wrote:We've had offers to buy the forum outright, so the company could run advertisements on it. We politely declined the offers.


Wow, that's crazy. What they should do instead is pay individual respected forum members to make advertisements for language courses in guise of honest reviews. My rates are $500 per advertisement, and I can be contacted by email.

Re: The cost of advertising on this forum

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2021 11:25 am
by smallwhite
I will space out their ads for them in the most cost-efficient way. In post 1, post 2, post 4, post 8, say.

Re: The cost of advertising on this forum

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2021 12:03 pm
by rdearman
That would certainly be one way of reducing the membership if members were to do that. :twisted:

The company who made the offer buys up popular forums and then plasters them with ads. You may have seen this happen to other places before. Since they run about 30 forums on a server they reduce the usability while putting 5 or 10 ads per page.