Donate my Brothas

I thought OMP were picking up the tab for the forum -- at least that's the offer they made.

No one single company will be picking up the tab. BH will sell banners to any company that wants to buy one.

How much is it costing to run?

I stay out of money. You gotta ask BH.

I started this web site when I thought that the Bros should be the real deal. That was August 2, 2002. I also started the Yahoo Groups at the same. Since then my spare time has been spent working on the site, answering a lot of emails from Bros and potential Bros as well as designing the logos and putting the shirts and hats together. My wife says that the Profile Brotherhood is my second job.
While it was nice of OMP to offer to pay for the site no one company will ever foot the bill for the site. I will keep this site rolling even if I'm living on the street. I promise that. There are some things I want to do to make this thing better and with the help of Quicker I'm pretty sure we can make anything we want happen on here. I'm really excited about all the new activity and the posts on here. It's too damn cool.
Billy

Quicker said:

No one single company will be picking up the tab. BH will sell banners to any company that wants to buy one.

Click to expand...

Hey... if OMP are offering to pick up the whole tab (and I saw no strings attached) then why not accept that offer.

You could still sell banners to others if there are additional expenses to be covered.

I know from experience that the amount of time that is involved in chasing, organizing, billing and maintaining ad-placements can quickly consume much of the revenue they generate unless you're getting really good money and have long-term contracts.

A sponsorship setup is a *much* better option.

Given the choice between sponsorship and ad-banners I go for sponsorship *every* time and it works out to be far more profitable in the long-term, even on one of my sites that gets over 120K visitors per month.

Never look a gift-horse in the mouth

Something from Virgil's Aeneid might be timely right about now.

Chuckies talking over my head again.

I don't think it's about profit... More about staying an autonomous group. While I really appreciate omp's offer- a really nice gesture on their part- I think it would be in the brotherhood's best interests to stay independant. whether real or implied, sole sponsorship wouldn't look too good; would make it look like a fan club rather than an independant organization.

at least, that's my opinion

BINGO!

I have to agree with that as well.

Better to not make money and be independent than in the hip pocket of any one or many vendors....thats the lesson from RC-F-U

Which was my point if we donate whats needed Billy wont be forced to take moneys he prefers not to as we grow. If every bro kicked in only 5 bucks it would be wayyyyyy more then enough.

I was just going to donate my $5 but the way the thing is set up there's no indication (apart from the claims on the PayPal website) that the form is secure -- or even that it's a genuine PayPal form. No little padlock in the lower left of the browser border :-(

It would pay to ditch the frameset when people click on the "Donate" button so we can be sure someone hasn't hacked the TheProBros.com and gone a phishing for CC numbers or PayPal logins.

Just go to paypal.com an sent it to [email protected] an earmark it for the site. Thats what I did as I didnt care for the link either.

I will donate 5 bucks and buy a T-shirt

I agree Billy. Best to keep the site independent. So how much does this site cost to run per year. You know for roughly $100 per year, through IPower, you can have the same capability. The forums run themselves automatically. So basic overhead costs are very low. So if you got 5 advertisers at $20 bucks each, you'd have your site paid for.

I also appreciate that OMP offered to pick up the tab. I think it shows that Bro blood pumps through the heart of OMP.

I also appreciate that the site ownership stays independent.

I'll support OMP in the future, no doubt, but I think I like this site as it is.

Thanks to Billy and Quicker for the work. Thanks to Mike for showing his colors.