Fundraising idea for Boards.ie

Oracle

Just a suggestion for how to raise a little extra cash to run Boards.ie. I'm not sure how it all gets paid for but it must cost a lot.

I post on Bargain Alerts regularly and I'm happy to post bargains I've found that might be of interest to others. The Bargain Alerts charter does not allow affiliate links that give percentage of the spend to the referrer. I agree with this policy but I think there should be one worthy exception.

I've often thought it a waste that so many people, (sometimes single threads get hundreds, even thousands of views) click though to buy the bargain but no one gets the potential affiliate cash from their purchases. Boards.ie should get the affiliate cash percentage, and use it to fund the web site for us all. For example, there's a West Wing box set posted on BA now, it's £50 plus delivery. I know Amazon give affiliate fees for referrals, so on that thread alone there's possibly hundreds of euros going to waste, that Boards could be getting. In my view it's fair and reasonable, because these online shopping companies are benefiting from the Boards.ie Bargain Alert forum, but are giving nothing back.

It should be easy to set up some sort of small script into the posting interface that would convert a normal link into an affiliate one for Boards. For example, a button that displays a small window where you'd enter a BA shopping link only. These would be the only referrals links allowed, the current policy of no individual member referral links would continue.

Sabre0001

???

Did you not see the Daft purchasing a share in Boards story? Plus current advertising revenues...Somehow I don't think boards.ie is doing badly at all...

Boston

This affiliate idea was thought of before and dismissed. I can't remember why

Oracle

No I didn't see that story and I know nothing about the finance of Boards. Maybe they don't need the extra cash.

Sabre0001

Oracle wrote: »

No I didn't see that story and I know nothing about the finance of Boards. Maybe they don't need the extra cash.

Sorry, post was supposed to come off more light-hearted <--- One of these would have helped...

AckwelFoley

Nice idea.. I think ur heart is in the rite place. Suggestions are always welcomed im sure.

Kinetic^

How would you feel about raising funds for my weekend drinking sessions? Drop me a PM and we'll get on with the planning.

Jay P

The thing about that would be that the company would just put up what they think are actual bargains, even though they may not actually be, which kinda defeats the purpose of the forum.

Zascar

If you've ever seen the prices for advertising on baords.ie, you'll see they are doing just fine

Sully

Zascar wrote: »

If you've ever seen the prices for advertising on baords.ie, you'll see they are doing just fine

Unless I have old prices, its not that expensive. Iv dealt with far more expensive advertising in the past. I know when they had a company handling the advertising, it was verrry expensive but I think they sort it themselves now (bar using other ad agencies to display adverts)

homerjay2005

as far as im aware, boards is a company and has some money....and these forums dont cost a whole pile in all fairness. admins/mods dont get paid either!!

Sully

homerjay2005 wrote: »

as far as im aware, boards is a company and has some money....and these forums dont cost a whole pile in all fairness. admins/mods dont get paid either!!

vBulletin is the most expensive software (and I think its ****e and bloated) out there, isnt it? Plus, you gotta look at server costs (hardware, hosting (if they pay for that?) etc.) plus they have two full time employed staff (Vex and CuLT). Not that cheap to run a site like Boards.. you go try.

I for one am glad of the advertising and recent investment. Boards was hanging by a thread prior to raising cash and plugging it in. Getting CuLT on Board then was another great decission as he has done wonders for the site.

AckwelFoley

Vbulletin may look dated but whether its the board itself or the ppl maintaining it.. It works pretty flawlessly compared to the downtime u will get with a comparible ipb board

Boston

Cult is a devote catholic, he blesses the servers in holly water every night.

Sully

snyper wrote: »

Vbulletin may look dated but whether its the board itself or the ppl maintaining it.. It works pretty flawlessly compared to the downtime u will get with a comparible ipb board

IPB is an excellent piece of software. Downtime would be related to the server and not the script