First of all, a definition:

Vendor - any individual or company that sells a service or item for the purpose of profit, regardless of the volume or dollar value of that sale, whether incorporated or not.

As this site continues to get bigger and bigger, the number of vendors, in particular on the Lightning forum, is continuing to increase. So far, none of them have contributed a penny back to F150online. This is, frankly, unacceptable.

Here is a fact, since dumping the About.com banner advertisements for this site, revenue for F150online is less than $2000 per month, pre-tax. My expense to operate the server alone is over $1000 per month. After my time and taxes, I am essentially losing money on the site now.

It is more than fair to request that vendors start to give something back since to date all they have done is take from the site. I am going to be taking a very hard stance on this issue in 2001. Three strikes and you are out. No exceptions. If this means the loss of technical resources, fine. What is fair is fair.

If you have any questions, please contact me offline, not in this thread. Thank you.

Steve

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of E-commerce.

 

why dont you charge a $12 a year member fee?

that would be close to $10,000 a month youd be pulling in.

 

Steve has said it many times that he does not want to charge people to use his site.He just wants them to use it appropriatly.

 

Personally I think a $12 a year fee would be fine by me. Only for the people that want to post on here though.

 

Let's get this idea out of everyone's heads ... there will be no annual or monthly fee. I've been saying this publicly for four years now.

Can someone give me a logical explaination of why a company that is leveraging the membership of F150online to increase, build or in some cases create their business, even if it is very little money, should not have to give something back to the site?

[This message has been edited by webmaster (edited 02-02-2001).]

 

I definitely agree that the vendors should be giving something back to the site. Business is business, not personal. It's a simple concept.

Good luck Steve. I hope the vendors come around to seeing why it'd be in their best interest to contribute to F150online.

James

 

Wait a minute...there's someone here from Texas that actually AGREES with me??

 

OK How about taking the donations and buying him a Lightning!!! Then there would be no car payment to worry about!

 

Steve -

I have been putting my $.02 worth in for about two years. I must have contributed at least $1.00 worth to this site by now or something.

[This message has been edited by sixpipes (edited 02-02-2001).]

 

I do agree with Steve on this one. But what is Patron? Sorry, I guess I'm too much of a 'hick-boy' beer drinker.

I think it would be cool to pitch in and get the webmaster a little something foor his efforts. sssshhhhhhh, don't type too loud or he's sure to find out about it.

Later,
Jake...

 

For more info, see:

http://www.hotelpatron.com/patron.html

 

hey MRBBQMAN.. lets send the webmeister some crawfish.. live of course, sans ice too.

 

This is Web site is a fantastic resource, in fact, the information I found here helped me decide to purchase a 2001 L, instead of waiting or Ford to get off it's butt to build Cobras without "issues." Steve is justified telling vendors to ante up for the increased traffic he helps generate, which will only get better thanks to his site and Ford's increased production numbers for a great product.

While I would agree to pay a membership fee, the free and open exchange of ideas and comments is what the F150online community is about. If users pay a fee, we let vendors off the hook. As it currently stands, we, f150online and it's posters, are fronting a large chunk of the marketing and promotions costs for vendors. We do it whenever we discuss their stuff, either online or elsewhere, and we directly support them if we or someone else decides to purchase their goods or services because of what we learned from this site--a double whammy. Meanwhile, vendors have paid nothing for this business.

Perhaps you could try making this a two-step process for vendors. First, require ALL vendors to purchase site banner advertising (in packages: monthly, quarterly, and yearly). Based on click-through sales, similar to what Amazon.com does for book publishers, you also would see an improved cash flow with minimal involvement. Then, permit authorized vendors to post on the site with restrictions on blatant self-promotion and competition bashing (your three-strike rule would apply here). They can reply to information requests on their goods or services or provide insight on other posts but they could not post why their "New and Improved Lightning wax is the best thing since apple pie, just call this toll-free number," for instance. Also, you could offer vendors packages for a "Vendor Link" on your navigation bar and/or offer them the opportunity for additional promotion via you Products Review section, along with the requisite banner ad. The f150online community could help out by making sure everyone follows these simple rules.

This way, vendors could continue to participate in discussions and the community would continue to benefit by having the best possible information and you get some dough for your hard work.

Just some quick thoughts,
Dave

 

Steve,

are you kidding me that you could not get Vendors to advertise on this site? With such a loyal following eager to spend money on their trucks, I cannot beleive vendors would not gladly pay a small fee to sell their products. Without your site, they'd sell 100% less. I am going to buy two products by unadvertised vendors that I'm sure would advertise if asked.

Do you have a deal exclusively with lemiere enterprises?



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00' Lightning/ Black
99' Lightning/ Red
94' Lightning/ Red
96' Cobra Convert/ Red