Future of SaabWorld and automotive forums in general

[SaabKen]

Doesn't SaabsUnited take in members donations (or used to) ? I never paid attention to SU's posts about # traffic per month and the support SU conversations. AFAIK SU wasn't a legal entity when Swade owned and ran it.

Just a thought.

[Aero]

This one seems like a viable option to me. I don´t like ads on forums, and I think the site could go on with members´donations, but a list of sponsors looks more "solid". Relying on donations only you would be subject to the ups and downs of members willing or possibilities at a certain moment where the money might be needed.

So a mix of the two seems sensible.

[Shazam]

I like the idea of sponsors, but I don't think any company would go for it. What the company would want for their money is to have a advert that gets actual exposure. Not just a section you have to click several times to get to. I think if we had just a few small and well placed ads, that would bring in more money than a sponsor program. As of right now, I don't think either will bring in much because the site is currently so small.

[nordwulf]

The funding part is really not important right now. It's more about how we can protect this forum from going the same way as the majority of other forums.

We used to have a Sponsors section. It's enabled again so you can see what it looks like. You basically click on one of those links and any sale is made on that website, they'll return a small percentage or set amount to our site. I think with tires through Tirerack, it is about $10-15 per set of tires. With this, you don't have to see ads all the time and you can support the site when you buy parts/tires etc. And they are products most of us are interested in. Not Chrysler, Cadillac or Ask a Saab Mechanic.

[Brewmaster]

Sponsorship can work very well for a small up-and-coming forum, as well for enterprising members with good ideas and fresh products

At [previous forum I moderated], it was pretty small when I started there. We set up a sponsorship program and not only got some decent-sized companies to jump on, we also had some forum members (me included ) that developed a product, sponsored the site and took off pretty well. Sponsorships can be win-win-win