I'm really liking the credit transfer idea. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but it is a great idea.

Along the lines of gaining credits as a reward for helping, I was thinking AstaHost could benefit from other credit awarding systems.

We already get credits for posting and we get more credits for posting tutorials. Now we also might get even more credits for helping our fellow members with their problems. I was thinking about awarding credits on a Pay Per Click basis. Set up AstaHost ad accounts for users to earn even more hosting credits.

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Here's how it would work:

Set up an ad server like the Google ad server and hosted members can signup for an account. They can choose from some ad parameters and get a unique code to place on their website. Then the ad server will rotate between a few different AstaHost, Trap17, and ComputingHost banner ads. I figure 0.25 credits or something per unique click or 0.10 credits per 1000 unique impressions. (tracking could be varied)

This could potentially create a lot of new member or paid hosting clients. And as a special bonus, other ads could be served on a limited basis to actually generate additional income from our members traffic.

Of course this would be on a voluntary basis and the hosted member can decide how and where to show the banner. Keeping in mind that the better the banner position, the better the chance to earn hosting credits from it.

I don't think that anyone would earn enough credits to completely stop posting but I think the members would be interested in the idea just the same. Besides, we don't want them to stop posting. We may need to limit the ammount of credits one can earn from the ad server as well. Maybe a maximum if 15 credits per month or 4 credits per week so they'll have to continue to post.

This would be a fair way to reward those members that promote AstaHost, Trap17, or ComputingHost.

One other thought about rewarding credits. If it were possible to track new client signups at ComputingHost, I would suggest rewarding more credits for confirmed new account signups. And that should have no maximum limit to it.

If anyone has any ideas about this, please let me know.

vujsa

Sounds good, but as you say, the trick is limiting how many credits people get through it. I think .25 credits per click sounds good, and no more than 15 credits per month. I like that limitation. I think to the ad-server we shoul ad a googleads type thing, where if person A's site is about topic B, we could place direct links to posts at astahost relating to topic B. I know this would mean a lot more work (especially on Opaque's part, unless he lets others help him with the code), but I really think it could help bring astahost more visitors.

~Viz

ADS = Spamming. Thats all I have come to know from my experience. There are many ways to spam it. besides, it will require a powerful server because it will possibly attract many people and hence many sites too. Anyway, we are planning to setup a new company and redirect members who dont mind having ads on their sites.

Sounds cool, the new server, and I see your point about spamming, still, if we can work out a way to prevent that, I like the idea. Perhaps, like benevolent dictatorships, it only works on paper.

~Viz

Even if it's astahost, I still don't like ads too much though... Also, even with that 15 credit limit, wouldn't it affect the activity on the board?

Yes, it would affect activity on board, and in response to your first point, it would be optional, so if you don't like ads, you don't need ads. If OpaQue ever decided it was worthwhile to look into this, and from what I understand of his opinion now, it's a no go, the first thing we would need to think about is exactly how would it affect the boards. 15 credits per month would mean people would still need to earn 15 credits a month by posts.

~Viz

Yes, it would affect the boards activity. That was the point of the idea was to bring new members in. Theoretically, the more members, the more activity. This wasn't meant to be a revenue generating proposal. The idea was to serve Xisto network banners to member sites hopefully to attract new members to the forums and or the paid hosting site. It would be possible to slip a paid banner ad into the rotation in vey limited quantities from time to time but the overall idea was to bring in new members

I thought that rewarding our members by giving a small number of credits out each month to help spread the word about AstaHost was worthy of at least suggesting to OpaQue.

It turns out that due to various reasons, OpaQue has declined the proposal. This is his website and I respect his point of view. So far he has done just fine with the various sites he operates so I see no reason to argue the point any further.

vujsa

[note=vujsa]Topic Closed! Please Do Not Reply![/note]

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