[mojoe2]

my partner and I, would like opinions on how we could make alittle money from our site, or at least re-coup our hosting fees..
http://wtv-zone.com/BannerzRus

we both love making and offering free graphics, but it would sure be nice to make a liitle money ......... thanks, mojo

[WSE]

Start an affiliate prog and sell your designs... do your free ones to get them interested but sell ones that do something a bit more, maybe flash or something?

[Rik]

You could do what some graphics sites do and sell high quality graphics in a members area or on a CD-ROM in addition to offering free graphics.

You could probably also make users become members of your website in order for them to download the free graphics. The membership could be something like receiving a newsletter from you and maybe one sponsor, just be careful that you mention somewhere (that is highly visible) that members will be receiving a sponsors message (I recommend once a month).

<IMG src=http://www.abestweb.com/ubb/icons/icon26.gif>

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

mojo2,

I was at the site a few days ago ... and after 5 pages left very quickly!

My suggestions are a few:
1. Kill the backgrounds
2. Kill the music
3. Get at a site template, work with it
4. Categorize the listings
5. Charge for specialized ads
6. Highlight paid ads (We'll be a customer)
7. make it look like it is a 2002 site not a 1996 :eek:
8. Free Template pages put relevant ads on pages (in template)

Haiko

[webmarm]

I like Rik's idea of a CD. I've purchase several over my webmistressing time. A good CD is worth it to those of us graphically challenged beings.

Haiko's suggestions are all very important.

Also, in general, once you give something away for free, it's a bit difficult to convince someone to pay for it.

[SusanBeth]

I had to tell you, your banners are INCREDIBLE. There are some gorgeous things there. I have to agree about killing the background music. I have bookmarked your site. I would be willing to shell out for graphics of high quality!

[madmanbc]

If you don't want to remove the music at least make it so it's possible for the user to kill it. Most sites that I've been to that had music, you could kill it just by hitting escape. I looked up and down your page looking for a "click here to turn music off" or a "no music" button. I'm already listening to my own music, when I can't kill the website music while surfing, I kill it by leaving. I know this has been mentioned and I might be going into overkill, but it seems to me that most people that use music on their site, just don't realize how truly annoying it is (regardless of the quality of the music, as the bit of yours I heard sounded high quality).

Brian

[TH Media]

Think of the folks who are in the office where it is quiet..then the music starts...you will never see somebody hit the 'x' button so fast...


Tom Pyles

[net4biz]

Mojo,

Here's how to make some money -

Set up a downloadable file of 10 banner or let people pick 10 banner templates and charge $5 to download them.

Have the people pay for them thru PayPal.

[SSanf]

Recommend that you change "Religious" to "Christian" which is accurate.

[Leader]

You could make it so people have two choices:

Have a banner that says "This banner available FREE at BannerzRus" at the bottom of it. Other types of graphics could have a similar line, or even a big ol' Copyright seal and your company name.

Or they can shell out for a paid version without that line.

Anybody who knows anything about trying to make a good business impression will want that FREE line off of there, and if they're suitably impressed with the banner/graphic, will pay up to have the notice removed.

They won't just doctor the image (except for a possible rare fluke person)--if they knew enough about graphics to do that, they could most likely make their own.

But there are indeed a LOT of people that don't know anything about making an impressive effect so you will still end up giving away banners to those people--BUT it gives you a chance to get those with more sense to pay.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>we both love making and offering free graphics~mojo2<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

For the record, If it wasn't for that one line, I'd have told you to eliminate Free graphics from your site altogether. Giving things away free does not match with making money... It may actually be better to make your money from a site that seems unrelated to the free graphic one, that charges 100% for everything.

[Tribune]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Recommend that you change "Religious" to "Christian" which is accurate.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Main Entry: 1re·li·gious
Pronunciation: ri-'li-j&s
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French religieus, from Latin religiosus, from religio
Date: 13th century
1 : relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity <a religious person> <religious attitudes>
2 : of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances
3 a : scrupulously and conscientiously faithful b : FERVENT, ZEALOUS
- re·li·gious·ly adverb
- re·li·gious·ness noun <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Christians are devoted to Christ (God) or to a deity which makes Christians religious, which is also accurate.

[Planetwide Exodus]

I went through and attempted to make a banner from one of the designs available. After inputing the required information I was taken to the finished product page.

My wording was not on the new banner and it was exactly like it was when I started. Admittedly I was rather hasty in doing this and may have missed something.

The finished page, where the finished banner was, is on another domain. The entire left side of the screen is filled with domain hosting offer links and such. Aren't you making any money from those affiliate links? If they are simply links, make them affiliate links. Also microhosting is a nice touch for banners ($6.00) but it seems if someone wanted a banner then they would already have somewhere to serve it.