Google has informed me that all my ads (and revenue) have been terminated. They require me to have a special .txt file in the host domain witih my AD ID information. Activeboard put it in a subdomain which seemed to work for years however for some reason Google cannot "authenticate that I own" the forum so I've been canceled.
What does this mean for the forum? The site will need more member contributions, swag purchases and other means of income. Do you know an auto related business who would benefit from advertising on Canadian Poncho? Let them know we have prime space available. I'll also considor being a Vevor affiliate to earn some extra $$ for the site.
On the bright side we won't see any banner ads anymore.
UGH! Anyways, just made a donation, great stuff going on here! Not sure if it's my work PC but just tried the Swag Store and get the home page loaded but no individual items. Also, could you give us a refresher on monthly / yearly costs for the website?
I recently cancelled hosting after waiting way too long to find someone who could repair the database, but other than annual domain registration, the monthly hosting fees were something like $20(usd);
converting that to canadian and rounding up, multiplying by twelve, and adding domain registration my annual cost was probably under $400/year.
I have no problem donating to keep the site running, but maybe you need to look at using a different web host?
__________________
1970 Formula 400 Carousel Red on black (std) interior "no drivetrain option" car (same base drivetrain as GTO) 1:411 1970 Firebird Formulas originally sold in Canada
I don't think we should be looking at just covering Todd's actual cash outlay for this site. The hours and hours he puts into it have to be worth something.
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Last years totals to run the site were just over $2800. That's not counting my time. We covered the costs with a few bucks left over which I applied to my time. Of course that extra is considered "profit" and I'll have to pay income tax on it which is fine. Some say I should move the forum to one where I can do the hosting but with the amount of hacking these days I don't want the hassle. I've been there and done that with another venture and had to shut down the website as my web host was complaining about the constant hacking and DDos attacks slowing things down. Basically as long as my operating costs are covered I'm happy. I don't have an old Pontiac and don't know if I'll ever be able to swing another one so I'm basically doing all this for you guys. Thankfully my wife did all the book keeping for me (which took her several hours) so I saved some $$ there.
I understand compensation for time, but unless you've modeled this (or any other venture) as a 'for profit' endevor, I would think that there is no expectation of return - and if there's no profit, you don't need to file anything.
I think it's honorable of you to keep this up even though you no longer own a Poncho.
I have been involved with several forums where select members were given 'backdoor' access to assist in keeping up on site maintenance - which if implemented, reduces your workload to a bare minimum.
I have also observed other forums where there's only one guy who does maintenance ect, and if for what ever reason he goes offline, the site languishes and dies;
I type the following acknowledging that I am clueless as to how many people are administrators or moderators;
At the very least I hope that you have someone else who can step in if you need a break ect.
__________________
1970 Formula 400 Carousel Red on black (std) interior "no drivetrain option" car (same base drivetrain as GTO) 1:411 1970 Firebird Formulas originally sold in Canada
Thanks to James and everyone else who has contributed to the site. It's much appreciated! I might reach out to some Canadian automotive companies like Parts Avatar to see if they'd be interested in advertising on here.
Thanks to James and everyone else who has contributed to the site. It's much appreciated! I might reach out to some Canadian automotive companies like Parts Avatar to see if they'd be interested in advertising on here.
That would be an excellent one.
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
