Lud
11-28-2001, 20:38
This was brought up in another thread, but I get inquiries about it all the time so I wrote a detailed reply and I'm just going to post it here:
Dali has a banner ad because I liked what he was doing. In the interest of "full disclosure," Mark did let me use his green NSX for 10 days in '99 including NSXPO and Laguna Seca, as well as a few days of personal use. I paid him for tires and brakes and I took it in for a couple oil changes (before and after the track event), but I did not pay any actual rental fee. I have bought many products (thousands of dollars) from Mark since the Dali banner ad has been on the site and I paid the exact same price as anyone else.
I added the SoS banner because I liked what Chris was doing. In the interest of "full disclosure," he gave me a bit of a deal on some parts I bought, but not below cost. I'm not exactly sure how much off to be honest; it was his idea and I just said "ok." His margins are pretty slim on most stuff to begin with as far as I can tell.
I basically run banners for people because I like what they are doing. Sure I've gotten a couple favors from some of those people, but nothing drastic and I've never pressured them (i.e. if you do X for me, I'll give you a banner ad). In fact, RM Racing has send me some stuff for free in the past and Comptech has helped me out and done me more favors than all the other NSX vendors combined(!) - yet they do not have a banner here. Hmmm.. Maybe that should change now that I think about it!
A member of the forums recently e-mailed me to discuss advertising for a new car-stuff company he is working on launching. The agreement we came up with was that we'd have some contests on the site and give away some product to the site members and I'd run him a banner ad in return. If things come together for him as planned you'll see it in a couple months when he is ready.
Basically:
1. I don't want the site to be full of banners. I think that's annoying and tacky and slows the site down.
2. I am not looking to turn the site into a source of revenue; I already have a career.
3. I don't want anyone to think the information on this site is biased due to ad revenue (like many magazines).
So, I run some banners for people who I think are doing good stuff and leave it at that. Maybe I'll cycle the Dali or Sos banners out and add a Comptech banner and the banner for this other guy who is going to give away some product to members of the site... who knows.
I am open to discussion on any of this, and if anyone thinks I should handle it differently, please let me know.
[This message has been edited by Lud (edited 28 November 2001).]
Dali has a banner ad because I liked what he was doing. In the interest of "full disclosure," Mark did let me use his green NSX for 10 days in '99 including NSXPO and Laguna Seca, as well as a few days of personal use. I paid him for tires and brakes and I took it in for a couple oil changes (before and after the track event), but I did not pay any actual rental fee. I have bought many products (thousands of dollars) from Mark since the Dali banner ad has been on the site and I paid the exact same price as anyone else.
I added the SoS banner because I liked what Chris was doing. In the interest of "full disclosure," he gave me a bit of a deal on some parts I bought, but not below cost. I'm not exactly sure how much off to be honest; it was his idea and I just said "ok." His margins are pretty slim on most stuff to begin with as far as I can tell.
I basically run banners for people because I like what they are doing. Sure I've gotten a couple favors from some of those people, but nothing drastic and I've never pressured them (i.e. if you do X for me, I'll give you a banner ad). In fact, RM Racing has send me some stuff for free in the past and Comptech has helped me out and done me more favors than all the other NSX vendors combined(!) - yet they do not have a banner here. Hmmm.. Maybe that should change now that I think about it!
A member of the forums recently e-mailed me to discuss advertising for a new car-stuff company he is working on launching. The agreement we came up with was that we'd have some contests on the site and give away some product to the site members and I'd run him a banner ad in return. If things come together for him as planned you'll see it in a couple months when he is ready.
Basically:
1. I don't want the site to be full of banners. I think that's annoying and tacky and slows the site down.
2. I am not looking to turn the site into a source of revenue; I already have a career.
3. I don't want anyone to think the information on this site is biased due to ad revenue (like many magazines).
So, I run some banners for people who I think are doing good stuff and leave it at that. Maybe I'll cycle the Dali or Sos banners out and add a Comptech banner and the banner for this other guy who is going to give away some product to members of the site... who knows.
I am open to discussion on any of this, and if anyone thinks I should handle it differently, please let me know.
[This message has been edited by Lud (edited 28 November 2001).]