Yep, believe it or not, ning.com can cost money - especially given the traffic this site has started to generate (including various member's storage of videos, photos, etc..) It's a great resource, and it's up to all of us to help preserve it.
Premium services include (per month) -
o Premium support $10 (probably not worth it)
o Own domain $4.95 (needed if folding into realbeer.co.nz domain - which I think is warranted)
o More storage/bandwidth per unit $9.95 (likely will need this)
o Ad-Free $24.95 (sorry, but beerstore is a *lot* better than Google - perhaps those interested in selling around NZ can chip in)
o Remove promotion links for Ning $24.95 (probably not really needed)
Someone has to pay for it, and I think that's Luke's point that he's fit the bill previously without anyone acknowledging - thanks Luke, I at least appreciate having this forum, it's helped me be a better brewer and more aware of the NZ beer scene.
Hahahaha. Nice. I think Luke was looking a little genocidal last time I saw him. There was also some twitching, random shouting/ranting, and a small moustache growing in.
Here's some video I took of Luke when he tried to get a Pizza out to Hallertau after a hard night and the kitchen had shut...
Luke, I believe I have spent over $1000 advertising on this site in the past, but I chose not to renew this... I'm not a complete freeloader.
I've changed my username and profile image, as per your request, but 50% of my latest posts get deleted, even if they contain no links, and only reply to the question asked.
We do link back to Epic's website from ours. We do sell your product, and Armageddon is currently in our top selling products (actually its curently number 1).
When we started a bit over a year ago.. your advertising proposal was $1000 + GST per month. We declined this and we finally agreed on banner advertising at $200 per month. The commercial reality was that it wasn't worth that much, With less than 0.1% of traffic converted into sales.
I half expect this post to also get deleted. Anyway, unless you post to say that that I am welcome here, this will be my last post.
what would you expect a reasonable click thru conversion rate to be. this is the internet.
maybe you could quantify RealBeer.co.nz users sales as a percentage of total sales. I'm sure that is significantly more than 0.1%
a quick look over this thread of some of the shopping lists being quoted and amounts spent with you, I'd say you may well not have bothered importing those US beers with out these guys.
so you are doing me a favour because Armageddon is your number one seller?
(hold on just laughing, sorry this has got too serious)
look i know how hard it is to sell beer online in this country as I have lived that. i just feel a little taken advantage of. Appreciate the initial advertising, but it felt like "haha i now have the realbeer audience and screw you, so don't need to advertise any more"
you are welcome here, but currently still feel I will delete your attempts at putting links to buying beers on your store.
i would like to find a way to create a relationship where we can get beyond that which is beneficial to the community, as i just feeling a little defensive of the community that has been created here.
i'd like to offer small batches of variants of Epic beers exclusively via the beer store, as i believe it is a good way for me to quickly make available limited release beer.
ok open for suggestions for moving forward. currently don't have anything in mind, specifically. but this thread is becoming fun, and kind of don't want it to end.
i agreed that - beer store is a valuable tool for the NZ beer community
i disagree that - you can come and solicit to the members of this site, without paying something for that privilege. obviously you realise this is your target audience, and they are only one click away.
note: any advertiser on this site I give them the freedom to unrestricted promote their business in the forums and do as much as i can to help promote their business through the forums, blog, tags, linkbacks.
i need a new controversial thread to get my teeth into as this feels like it is coming to an end