Paying For LiquidNinjas.com

[Player0]

For over a year and a half now, LiquidNinjas.com has been running on a donations model of finance. I would love to thank all of our current Sponsored Members for their support. LiquidNinjas.com has been growing by leaps and bounds since we started, and so has our financial responsibility. Most of the costs for running this site has fallen back on me and the other admins. The cost of bandwidth, electricity, and hardware keeps growing, and I expect this cost to run about $200-$300/month by around May, 2004, our second anniversary.

We love running this site for you guys, and although it seems that sometimes it goes unnoticed, we take pride in our work and know that we run one of the best overclocking sites on the net. Of course, we wouldnt be where we are with our members. I look on these forums, and see all the new faces thanking us, and telling us how great of a board we are. We do get your questions answered pretty good ususally.

We are at a critical stage however. Our increasing popularity is causing increasing costs, and LiquidNinjas.com is a non-profit site. Our goal for year two was to be able to break even as a site, and that's not going to happen without some changes. In terms of donations, I hate going in to a store only to be blasted by people asking for hand outs. So I don't like doing it to you guys. I don't want to ask for donations. However, if we got 50 $10 or $20 donations per year from our members, we would be doing really well. We get some good donations from time to time, but I would rather see smaller donations regularly.

There are absolutely no plans set in motion right now. We've been discussing merging with another site, or maybe adding a subscription service to the site. Maybe try and get some more advertising deals, or find some rich uncle to mooch off of. We don't really know what might work in the future, but we know that what we're doing now doesn't seem to be working. And, I know, I would hate to bring money in to the equation. If I had it, I would pay for everything myself, but with the bad economy these days, that's just not possible.

No, LiquidNinjas.com isn't going anywhere. We've worked to hard, and I will personally do everything I can to make it not go away. But how it changes, I'm not sure. Do you guys think we can raise some more money, or should we do something like add a subscription based service to the site?

Thoughts? Comments?

[mdzcpa]

I am totally for the idea of members stepping up and contributing. I am willing to that, and will do so, in short order.

LN has few advertisements, and none that are obtrusive. We don't do Pop Ups. We don't do re-directs. We keep this site clean and user friendly. This is to keep the site free of annoying advertisements and junk content for the benefit of our members. To me, I'd rather donate a few bucks than have the site go "commerical" or require a subscription.

But....we have to pay the bills. That's a reality folks. Let's step up and see if we can't all lend a hand to finance the site we enjoy so much. Only a few bucks from most of our members would go a long way to getting the bills paid!

What do you say folks??

[Cabal]

i've donated in the past, and i have no problems helping out some more. Could someone add an address or paypal to where we can send our donations. I also asked around my family no rich uncles here :(

[Player0]

Hi Cabal, yeah, you have helped out a lot, beleive me. I appreciate you and Mike offering to lend more help, and hey, I certainly won't stop you guys. But, some of the guys here have been shouldering too much of the burden, I would like to see some other members adding a buck or two in.

PayPal is prefered. There's a donation link on the front page, there's also a ton of information in the Sponsorship forums. But, I can accept PayPals directly at player0@liquidninjas.com. Other forms of funds can be snail mailed to me, PM me for a mailing address.

[WesM63]

Tom and the rest of the Ninjas,
I have never donated any money to the site per se, I have donated over a few hundereds of dollars worth of hardware to help with the sites servers ect. I love this site and would hate to see it require a membership fee. Like tom has said as we all go thru this econmic depression it wil be hard to donate money for some of us, I am one of those people. As soon as I become finacially stable (well quit wrecking vehicles at least) I plan on donating money each month to help with LN's expenses.


With that said, FOLD ON :D

[Player0]

Hey, I know we have a lot of people who are on tight budgets, or are students, or are temporarily unemployed, or have wives. And again, ya know, I don't like asking for money. I know who as given a lot to the site, and those who have helped us out, have helped a lot. Unfortunately, LN.com is beyond the need for old desktop hardware now, and needs some serious professional equipment. Thats not to say that we can't hold charity auctions for those who do give hardware. Certainly, there are a lot of ways people can help us out, doing reviews, getting more people on the site, referrals, etc.

But, again, I can't change the bottom line, things cost money to run. Ive seen boards raise thousands of dollars to help running costs. Why is it easy to do on a cross-stitch board and so difficult on a hardware board? I don't know. Girls vs. guys I guess.

I dont know what the right answer is. But I do know that if we got small donations from a larger pool of people on a annual or biannual basis, we would be sitting pretty. Maybe the LN.com admins have to ask for donations more often, maybe people dont realize that yeah, we struggle. Wed love to make the site faster, better, add features, update the look, do more reviews, contests and stuff. But we're just guys like the rest of you. None of the admins here are any better or any worse off financially than anyone else on the board. I lost my job recently, I know Alex is looking for a new one, Lee had been laid off when he was around. But we love this site, so we made a commitment to try and keep it running. But maybe the ones who have given really are the only ones who can or care too. But if thats the case, we'll have to do something other than donations.

[mdzcpa]

Originally posted by Player0
But I do know that if we got small donations from a larger pool of people on a annual or biannual basis, we would be sitting pretty.

This is the key IMOHO. No one person, or small group, should have to burden the brunt of the expense. As the saying goes "there is strength in numbers". If a majority of those who frequented this site could spare even $10 or $15 that would really help. I don't beleive anyone needs to contribute large donations (although that's always welcome), it's getting more members to contribute small amounts. If anyone thinks their simple $10 donation doesn't matter....think again. We need to make everyone understand that we can fund this site $10 at a time!

[ralf_c]

i am all for helping, been on a tight budget though. i can for sure donate a few bucks here and there from time to time and will do in the near future.

[Player0]

Yeah, it's like Mike said, $10 here or $15 there. And we're not asking for donations now. If you can afford to send $10 our way in 2 months, or next year, it doesnt matter. Its about more people chipping in more often. Doesnt mean we need it all now.

Well, I dont know hehe.

[naxos]

I wouald be happy to donate to LN when i get a little more money in my account. These boards, in the short time i have been posting, have really helped me learn and appreciate the hardware addiction! I appreciate it guys. Some of the friendliest boards i have ever posted on. No one flames anyone for asking dumb questions (im sure some would love to flame some of my questions from time to time) but they dont, and thats the important thing :)


I really do appreciate all the help here, and enjoy the community. So i would be more than happy to dontate to help keep things going smoothly.


~Naxos

[tripodal]

Well Tom, they saying goes, dont put off tommorow what you can do today.
I appreciate LN.com. The best time is showing up here after not being around for 2-3 days and having 100's of new posts to read.
Amazingly we dont have too much trash spewed forth.

Althogh I do know of one thread....

[tripodal]

I just thought of something rather creative. Im assuming that any new hardware would be rather swift....

A means of generating revenue may be selling off
F@H wu's, a doubly productive way to pay for some nice hardware.. I know I would pay for S@H units :)

[WackyComputer]

How much would you pay?:D

[Drake]

This place is a great home for all things computer on the net. I'd hate to see anything happen to it that would change it in any way for the worse.

Seeing how I have no source of income other than the odd lawn or computer job, I can't pay much, but if it would help even in the slightest I wouldn't hesitate.

[Gabriel]

Well, me personally, I dig these boards, not for the hardware tips and overclocking faqs, but because of an underlying family atmosphere. You all are so nice to eachother, and most times, I am just lurking, reading all your posts, but thats what I get for being a graffix guy, and I do look forward to each new post, no matter the relevance to what I am doing or am concerned with. I may not always have alot to say, but I am definitely willing to chip in to the cause, no matter how poor my *** has been lately.

Chaching

Gabe

[tripodal]

Hey P0, the banners we do have, are they per click or commision?

[tripodal]

I seem to remember that some Seti@home accounts were auctioned off for about $.02 a woot a while back. So something inthat area.

Originally posted by WackyComputer
How much would you pay?:D

[MrP]

Tom and co,

whats the best way to get some money to you??
pay pal or what??

also, is it worth having a "thermomiter" with how much we need and how much we have on it?

failing that, how can we make adverts work better, is there a way of making them more prominent and generating more revenue without distubing the site too much?

i know sites like anandtech use something that highlights certain words, or can you stike a deal with a hardware manufacture which involves some money and stuff to review?

just some thoughts

toodle pip

[Player0]

Theres no thermometer because there is no set goal. We just need everyone who uses the board regularly to chip in $5-$10 here and there. And that doesnt mean just now, but if people can make a small donation once every 6-12 months, thats all we'd need.

Again, my paypal address is player0@liquidninjas.com. Thats a ZERO, not an Oh. I will be adding a donation button to the bottom of every page so people can just click that and do whatever.

We are definitely going to be working with more advertisers. Thats coming when gabe finishes the new site design.

As for manufacturer deals, we want to desperately keep our integrity as a site. It comes in to question enough as it is, even though tha I beleive we are completely unbiased. I want it to stay that way.

[notoriousformula]

I'll continue my donations every six months :)

Best Regards to Mods/Reviewers/Admins.

[tripodal]

I dont think we are unbiased...
I believe our bias' are based on whatever is fastest.
Or perhaps breaks least often.

[Sech]

Just dropped a envelope in the mail with a small donation......just wanted to post saying that I have enjoyed Liquid Ninjas since its inception and have obtained a hell of alot more valuable information than any amount of money I could send....Iam a casual poster , however there is not a day that goes by without me browsing all of the forumns and absorbing tremendous amounts of knowledge from normal everyday folks that are more than happy to give any tips or tidbits on anything from overclocking to advice on car repairs....You folks rule and deserve a pat on the back and a hearty thankyou.....Come on folks.....there are many many people just like me that "use" the forums on a day to day basis....sacrifice a take out meal from Mcdonalds and send 5 bucks for a worthwhile cause....lets say Thankyou for a job well done and provide fianancial assistance so that the site can continue to grow and provide a great resource for us "do it yourself" computer enthusiasts.....


Sech.....:elefant:

[dicki]

hi sech, you've been about since the begining havn't you? its good to see your still lurking :)

[Player0]

Thanks for the support guys, and especially those who already made a donation. We've gotten some good ideas, some support from some new potential advertisers, and maybe a revitalization about actually running the site.

But thats not to say that this should stop. I'm still a bit short on funds for new site hardware. It was never budgeted out of the admin payments (and if any admins wish to advance their next payment, that would be a-okay in my book). I still need to pay for the dually server board. I need to buy a high-quality 8-port 100bt switch. I need to buy a good quality Cisco firewall/router. And I need to buy some high quality NICs for the new servers (mine are quite old and shameful). I would also like to renew my vB liscence for upgrades, and extend my registration on the LiquidNinjas.com domains. In the last rounds of donations, I only got about 1/4 of the funds I need to persue just the hardware portion. This makes adding new features such as Webmail almost impossible in our current time frame. I also would like to be able to give Gabriel something since he will be designing the new site (a very important step to further our advertising revenue).

I still want to see LN.com be mostly self-supported by May, 2004. I would still like to see if this sponsored member deal will work, and we'll try to keep adding new features for sponsors, and try hard to remove features for our regular members. If it was up to me, Id give everything up for free. But, it isnt always possible :)

[jimmyang]

I would like to help, really but financially I am really tight. I am studying and living on my own at the same time. No rich dads or mums. If there is any other way (besides financial) I could be help, please tell me and I will be more than willing to take time off study to help.
It would be a shame to see such a tight community go down the drain. I speak from my heart and wish to help whenever or however I can. If I have any extra cash by the end of next semester, expect to hear from me.
:drinky:

[Player0]

Well, reviews dont pay much, but theyd sure be a great addition ;)

[jimmyang]

hehe....
well taken into note:2guns:

[Spazzonater]

I helped, i really hope it helps keep this web site up ad running, if you need anything else just let me know and i'm there!

[Gabriel]

that time is sometimes just as good as money. This site will flourish, not out of it's pockets, but out of the time and effort those of us put into it. Each one of us has our talents that can help the site grow. Mine don't lay in the watercooling field, or the tech field whatsoever, but we all still should find a way to contribute. I , personally (as opposed to I, impersonally) really put a hearty toast up to all the admins who watchover the boards, ad keep things in line. I know it can be a thankless job sometimes, but all the effort, from all the corners, makes us what we are. I just feel that there is so much across the board talent in these boards to give rise to something awesome (not saying we aren't already) Give what you can, whether it be time, money, or advice, and we will succeed. It's the spirit of the people here that keeps me coming back, and that's what is going to differentiate us from the rest.

My $.02

G

[jimmyang]

Originally posted by Gabriel
that time is sometimes just as good as money. This site will flourish, not out of it's pockets, but out of the time and effort those of us put into it. Each one of us has our talents that can help the site grow. Mine don't lay in the watercooling field, or the tech field whatsoever, but we all still should find a way to contribute. I , personally (as opposed to I, impersonally) really put a hearty toast up to all the admins who watchover the boards, ad keep things in line. I know it can be a thankless job sometimes, but all the effort, from all the corners, makes us what we are. I just feel that there is so much across the board talent in these boards to give rise to something awesome (not saying we aren't already) Give what you can, whether it be time, money, or advice, and we will succeed. It's the spirit of the people here that keeps me coming back, and that's what is going to differentiate us from the rest.

My $.02

G

I second that

[unacceptable_risk]

I fall into the category of putting off the smaller donation till I have a descent sum....which never really happens. I will curb my ways and try to take advantage of the current exchange rate.

As soon as I get a job, I look forward to making regular contributions.

Many thanks to those who have supported LN all this time.