Selling but no price?

[Soner]

Wow, this is a good forum, this thread is helping me make some decisions as to what to do, so thank you all for your contributions.

Just to make clear, the forum has made a loss in the first 3 years and I have still managed to give pretty much all monies made through selling advertising space to charities. However, I am hoping that I can still give to charities this year but hope to at least cover my costs of the forum and eventually gain some form of profit too. I do have a web business of which I am currently winding down and have not taken any new business since Aug 2014. This business has been vital to the funding of running this forum and although I still host for a few companies, the numbers are slowly dwindling, so this form of funding will no longer be possible. Hence, the push forward to boost advertising income and somehow try and get sellers to contribute.

I feel that he forum has good potential and is growing at a fast rate, it may be just a matter of time that everything pans out and all ends well. If it were not for the companies advertising on the forum then there would be no way of me keeping it going, that is why I ask members to support these companies whenever possible as they are in fact now the main contributors to keeping this forum up and running.

£100k per year would be nice, but that is unfortunately not the case. Even 10% of members selling then contributing would be nice, but again nowhere near. I am in process of developing an Auction site, and know that this too will be another risk, but that is who I am, a person that will take risks in life to try and achieve. So, I have come to the conclusion that if members selling do not contribute on the forum then why would they contribute to using a paid service for selling on an online auction? I believe the main issue out in the TRNC is that people do not like to use Credit Cards or PayPal services, can't understand why this is still the case as I have been happily been using these services for almost 20 years without any issues. Maybe, it is the case of still being a "matter of Time" before there is more confidence in the use of these services out in the TRNC.

So, with the risks I take, I will most definitely still go ahead with creating the online auction but believe I will still need to put all my efforts in trying to get more companies to support and advertise on the forum. I will leave the Sales category to continue and run the auction alongside it giving members the option as to which they prefer. Selling on online auctions can be fun and may help maximise profit on the the final sale of an item. So, it being available hopefully will entice members to try it out.

As for the Kibkom Forum, do not worry about it going, I do believe in it and know if not yet a success story, it will not be too long before it will be.

Thank you all for your kind support and for continuing to use Kibkom.

[Groucho]

The issue is that the majority advertising items for sale have no intention of making a donation.

No it's not - the issue is, some people advertise items with every detail bar the price!

[Keithcaley]

The issue is that the majority advertising items for sale have no intention of making a donation.

No it's not - the issue is, some people advertise items with every detail bar the price!

We've moved on!

Do try to keep up...

[PoshinDevon]

Initially the topic was about advertising items for sale with no price, which some people disagreed with and others gave reasons why this would happen. Personally I can understand why people are reluctant sometimes to put a price on display and ask anyone interested to make contact to discuss further.

The discussion quickly moved on and grew into how the forum could make more revenue given that those selling items very rarely make a donation to the running of the site. Many have made suggestions and there has been some good discussion and ideas put forward. I think this is now the main part of this thread.

Things have definately moved on over the last few days.

[turtle]

Well its highly unlikely that I would sell anything on the forum as I don't live there but I am quite prepared to make a donation for the upkeep/running of the board.

[Mollie the cat]

I am a regular visitor to a football fans forum, its run not unlike this forum, in the top right hand corner there is an option to voluntary give a contribution to running the forum, it simply says add paid days, its a great idea to keep it on line which I know the people who run it really appreciate it. And before anyone asks yes I do contribute, as Tesco say "every little helps"