More Bandwidth and Revenue Needed

Org Profile · Post by **Phade** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:54 pm

Hey All,

As a result of this thread, there has been a nice spike in the number of donations. This is very good (thank you to all who recently and generously donated!), but we also need something that will be there every month (7, 8, 9 months from now).

I am happy that all of you have come up with many suggestions. After looking through them all and contemplating what could be the best solution, I came up with this idea.

The one thing that costs the site the most by far is local downloads. The download system currently works slightly differently for donators and non-donators. Whenever a donator goes to download a local video, the download start immediately for them from the local video download page. Whenever a non-donator goes to download a local video, they must sit at the local video download page for 10 seconds looking at a message saying, “Your download will start in 10 seconds...” before the download actually starts. This was originally meant to be something that would encourage non-donators to donate.

What I have come up with is a slight tweak to just that one single local download page. For donators, the page will look and act exactly as it does now. However for non-donators, the new setup will have them looking at paid ads along with the “your download will start...” message. This would passively generate some revenue from non-donators without them having to do a single thing in order to help pay for bandwidth. If the page can generate a mere $15 of additional revenue per day on top of regular donations, it would easily cover the cost of the additional bandwidth. Anyone who donates would not see the ads.

I’m not a big fan of useless ads. The ads here would be targeted from companies who provide anime, music, and video related items, which are hopefully things that interest members of this site. The page will not have ads for pr0n, bootlegs, booze, popups, trackers, or any other kinda crap ads things. I want to have nice, pleasant, useful, targeted ads that will hopefully be useful to some people. There would be no paid ads on any other page of the site, just the local download page for non-donators. The current banner ad contest will continue exactly as it is now.

Of all the suggestions given, this seems to be the most likely to continuously generate revenue, have the least amount of impact on the server and members, and is easiest to implement.

So the question comes to this: Would paid ads on just the local video download page for non-donators be a good idea in order to get revenue from members who are just leeching bandwidth and not giving anything back?

Remember, this is just a proposal. Constructive feedback is encouraged.

Phade.

Pwolf · Post by **Pwolf** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:13 pm

i think thats a decent idea.

Pwolf

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:54 pm

Out of the many idea's suggested, I think this one sounds like the best. Would increasing the wait time for non-donator's help at all with the bandwidth, like 20 seconds instead of 10? Before I donated, 10 never bothered me, since I'd probably be doing something else, but with a slightly longer wait it might encourage people to donate more, or at least let the ad display longer.

YouTube · Post by **derobert** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:58 pm

Corran wrote:
c97 at php.net wrote:Simple script to limit browser download speed using fread function.

Nope, our downloads don't go through PHP. Plus, if we did it, it really should be a priority thing...

YouTube · Post by **derobert** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:14 pm

Phade wrote:However for non-donators, the new setup will have them looking at paid ads along with the “your download will start...” message.

As I've said before, I just worry this will make it look like we are out to profit off of copyrighted material (in particular, I worry about the music). Trying to say:

yeah, every time someone goes to download this quite-possibly-illegally distributed copyrighted work, we make X cents, but, no, really, we're not profiting off your work! We're just a fully non-commercial fan site! Really!

is not an argument I'd like to have to make.

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:17 pm

I'd say that's a great idea. I'm almost always against advertisements, but this is only for one part of the site and for less than thirty seconds. If it gives you the extra revenue without any real cost to the site's members, great. I think all of us non-donaters can put up with a few advertisements.

kagome5646 · Post by **kagome5646** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:07 am

That's pretty a good idea.. having the non- donators to wait and look at ads for a while before their download starts .. but will it work .. i mean I don't think 20 sec is long enough i mean hell they'll probably wait 2min before they can download a vid

.. Who knows .. Maybe it would work ..only one way to find out.. oh to those people who r uncomfortable useing paypal or bipay etc.. just mail it.. if u don't have a checking acount send a M.O. (money order)..
PHADE I have a question.. ok so in a nutshell :the non-donators when they download a vid.. they have to sit through ads.. for at least 20 sec ?
and then it would ask them to donate before the vid starts or during.. u mighthave something there.. but i think the wait time should be longer like .. 2min.. now that might wrk..just a suggestion..

anneke · Post by **anneke** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:24 am

I think that's a great solution. Then for those of us who don't download, we won't get bugged by having ads popping up. As for the length of the ads...just find out what the minimum is at other sites. What companys generally require for their ads.

-Anneke

godix · Post by **godix** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:25 am

kagome5646 wrote: That's pretty a good idea.. having the non- donators to wait and look at ads for a while before their download starts .. but will it work .. i mean I don't think 20 sec is long enough i mean hell they'll probably wait 2min before they can download a vid

A person might sit in the same window for 10 seconds till the video starts downloading. Set it higher and you can almost guarentee the secnod they get to the waiting page they're off in another window doing something besides looking at the ads. So in a way increasing the waiting time would actually probably decrease the time anyone actually sees and gets interested in the ads.

pen-pen2002 · Post by **pen-pen2002** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:45 am

Bandwith caps: +
Forum Titles: +
BBcode in more places: ++
Non-regressing donator status but regressing privilages: ++
Ads: I object on princible more than any real reason.
Upload size cap: +++
OT forum: +
Bittorrent supplement for extremly popular videos: +

A lot of thease reward suggestions are great, although a lot of people just download lots of vids and never really use the forums. I assume you don't want to restrict the dateabase, so you will have to do something to the hosting to affect these people.

Though to be honest I'm supprised more of the forum regulars havn't donated. Perhaps people think there is plenty of money and their donation is not needed?

This should not be a hard problem to crack. People care pretty deeply about AMV's, make donating easier and more rewarding andit will quickly become the norm instead of the exeption.

Paying to upload: - some people can't pay, would be detrimental to the site.
paying for banners: -