Advertising/ Expansion

[PsYcHo]

So I have an idea, and I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on it. Jump in lurkers, no one will bite! (It's mostly Vegans here, so you're pretty safe. )

The site is starting to get more active, and I think it has an appeal to Vegans and Non-Vegans alike. I think we could build on this by advertising on other sites. However, advertising cost money, and the easiest way for a site to make money is to well.....advertise for others.

A lot of sites go way overboard with their advertising, and many people use an ad-blocker to avoid the legions of auto-play videos screaming at you, or lagging the site down so bad you can't actually read what you went there for in the first place. But the most popular ad-blocker programs allows certain ads, providing A- They are non-intrusive, so no auto play videos, B-They do not block what you are trying to read, or move around when you try to close them, C-Specifically state that they are an advertisement, and not a news story on how "product X" is the only thing that can save your family from certain doom. These are the kind of ads I was thinking Philosophical Vegan could use to generate enough income to be able to put similar ads on other sites.

Is this a good idea?

Are there any local Vegan or otherwise ethical businesses that you think would like to advertise here?

Do you have some artistic talent, or ideas on how an advertisement should appear on the site? Would you be willing to help out?

Would you be willing to promote the site on your social-media accounts?

I'd love as many responses as possible. They don't have to be long but any and all input would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Minos]

I think, that using space on this site to promote related sites / businesses is a good idea that can be beneficial for both sides as long as it is non-intrusive.

From technical point of view. Do you want to manage all advertisements by yourself? I think that Google has good algorithm for that and it is easy to manage.

Unfortunately I closed all my social media accounts, but I promote this site whenever I can I'd be even willing to donate some money directly so maybe Patreon account could be worth trying? (I didn't read their Terms of service, just throwing out ideas).

[miniboes]

Putting google adsense on the site would be easy enough. I'm not sure about advertising on other sites. More people is a double-edged sword. If there's too many people it becomes impossible to keep track of all the threads. The "active topics" button becomes useless (because it shows way too much), and the only way to navigate is through using subforums. People tend to then stick to a narrow set of subforums and/or threads. Discussions become weird, since one person (somebody with a diverting opinion within the forum, such as user_id right now) will post something and then multiple people keep replying to it, making the one person require to respond to increasing amounts of arguments, which can fatigue him/her. For these reasons, I would be hesistant to advertise a lot.

[Minos]

That is true, I personally have problem to catch up with new posts even now.

[_Doc]

Well here read this post.

I'd like to implement advertising here so the site can pay for itself (and so we can afford to pay to advertise elsewhere)

http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2270

[PsYcHo]

More people is a double-edged sword.

For these reasons, I would be hesistant to advertise a lot.

Thanks for all those that responded! I'd like to address these two points, because these are the same ones I considered before proposing this thread.

More people can be great! But.... it also means more trolling and people who don't actually want to debate, just yell really loud. But I think making the forum more noticeable would bring many people here who are actually curious and want to learn about Veganism or even just Philosophy and morality.

A possible solution to the negatives could be more moderation. Also a double-edged sword, but effective if used properly. If someone is here obviously to troll or refuses to abide by rules despite warnings, banning could be used, or a "just don't feed the trolls" type of approach that is already in use.

I'm not advocating advertising a lot, just enough ethical ads to expand a bit to bring more people into the conversation. I do like the Patreon suggestion as well.

So if ads were subtle and minimal, but brought people here on a incrementally larger scale, would this be better than blanket advertising?

What other ideas does anyone have to increase the traffic a bit, but not overwhelm the users who want a civil debate?