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Perff
Administrator
Posts: 1677 |
Dedicated server for CSDb -> ads
Ok. I guess the secret is now out. What some of you might have seen was just a little experiment. It is not permanent in any way - yet.
Ok. Here goes: (a long text coming up.)
CSDb have up untill now been hosted for free at the place I used to work - a small hosting company. However the machine CSDb has, and currently is running on, is a test server with no backup or anything, a quite slow internet connection, and a lot of other stuff hosted on it too. Besides that I have personally no control over the machine. If it fails, or the people who owns it desides to throw it out, I can do nothing. :(
For some time now I have wanted a REAL dedicated server for CSDb which was mine to control 100%. This would give a lot of advantages which I will not list here, but I guess you can imagine. :)
I now got an opportunity to get this!
This server will be redundant, backups will be taken and everything. Also the bandwidth will be much higher resulting in much more pleasent feeling surfing on CSDb.
However, this is of course not free. I also feel like I owe the little hosting company something for hosting this site for more than 4 years now.
The bottom line is that we need some money to pay for this, and here I got an idea, which I have seen on other sites like slayradio.org, to put up some discreete ads which will ONLY be displayed for people who are not logged in. This means that all of you who are reading this now, will never see these ads (except if you hit the "log out"). Only random surfers will see these ads, which I will not let dominate the site.
The ads will be text only, and using the same colors as the rest of CSDb.
So far this idea is still in it's early stages, but before I can go all the way, I need to check if this will pay off at all, so in the near future I will put the add's online for a few days up to a week, to get an idea of how much it would bring in. Remeber that if you are logged in there will be NO ads! After that I will take the next step.
You are welcome to check the ads out, and give your oppinion about them, and perhaps come up with some ideas.
I will point out that these ads it not a way for me to try to earn a lot of $. It is only ment to pay for the hosting. If it should turn out that it would bring in a lot more than needed, we will think of a good way to spend the rest of it. :) But that will be sometime into the future.
So, any comments?
PS. It is true that people have been offering free hosting to me for CSDb, but I must admit, that I would prefer to have it under my control still. ;) Hope I don't offend anyone by saying this.
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Mason
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 461 |
I dont bother about the google ads. As long it aint flashing logos and other spyware crap and google aint that.
I know alot got offended on other c64 sites if the google ads contain selling c64 stuff, but thats possible to block in the ads-settings.
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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
Sorry for blowing the secret :(
It's a great idea IMO; I've used Adsense before and they've paid me in US funds which is nice. I did nothing to earn it except for inserting some ASP code.
I'm all for it, and will gladly click the odd banner that interests me, if I'm offline.
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Jon
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2005
Posts: 247 |
No backup or anything? Yikes. So if this machine fails or gets tossed, that's it?
Wow. The damage would be irreversable. I'd log out just to click the ads.
-Ninj |
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Perff
Administrator
Posts: 1677 |
About the backups I might have been a little to quick there. :) It's true there is no backup of the server as it is, but I manually make a backup of CSDb from time to time, but as I can only do this manually it is not that often. :( |
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MRT
Account closed
Registered: Sep 2005
Posts: 149 |
Redundancy is good.
Backups is good.
Bandwidth is good.
Banners sux. :-)
But hey... It's for a good reason.
As long as they don't pop-up!
Oh, and ever thought of asking ppl for a small contribution? It's for a good cause, so I can probably reduct it from my income tax!!! :-) |
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Perff
Administrator
Posts: 1677 |
I have thought about asking for donations or the like, but then I would have to ask every time I get a bill, or just hope that the I will get enough donations to pay the next one. I don't find that very stable, which I hope the ads will be. |
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WVL
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 896 |
fine with me :D
It would be really super to have extra bandwidth for csdb :D |
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CreaMD
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 3048 |
Quote: I have thought about asking for donations or the like, but then I would have to ask every time I get a bill, or just hope that the I will get enough donations to pay the next one. I don't find that very stable, which I hope the ads will be.
you could set a value which is needed to be achieved to pay e.g. for 5 years in advance.. and make a counter for how much is already collected. ?
as far as adds are concerned, fine with me. I was also thinking about something like that for C64.sk but nobody is kicking me out of my hosting (yet). ;-)
roman |
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jailbird
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1578 |
I wouldn't mind Google ads even in the member area - it's an easy and painless way to support the CSDb admin crew with some cash.
Currently I run three sites featuring adsense, and I'm getting around $30 per month. I'm counting ~300 unique visitors and ~1000-4000 hits per day and usually I have 5-10 clicks on the ads, which means about a $1 per day.
If you'd have 20-30 or even more click on a daily basis, you'd easily reach $100-$200 per month. That should be enough to cover the expences for the standalone server.
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Wanderer
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 478 |
One reason I'm content to take down my webpage is because I know CSDB is here. I no longer have to worry about having a "one source" for all of my ex-group's releases.
I know that CSDB will be up, and hope it will be up for years to come.
I'd gladly send in a donation now and again if the option was there. As a webmaster, I know that the costs can add up quickly.
Pave the way for a donation system and see who takes the detour :)
Cautionary note:
Adsense is also open to abuse, if one person is too excitable and clicks every single ad they see, it could result in termination of the service. One person gets upset at CSDB, clicks banners for an hour, Google can, and will, terminate. Donations on the other hand, you can't abuse.
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