• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Free advertisement for hobbiests?

1

1Bob

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Does anyone know of a website or forum that you can advertise leos for trade or sale that does not charge a fee. The cost is prohibative at most places.

Thanks

[email protected]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
There are quite a few sites if you look around. I have edited your post to remove the advertising in it and have moved it to a more appropriate forum.
 
Now that I think about my original wording it definately sounded wrong and I apologize. Sorry Sorry Sorry!!!

On another note.
A hobbiest or amerature membership would be nice on this forum. Whether they would have a seperate section or just a visible designation for posting classifieds. People would know what tyoe of dealer/breeder they are dealing with, expect a larger variablity in customer service and quality. But then people of this designation could not expected to demand top dollar. It could give a person a chance to build a reputation one way or the other.
 
1Bob said:
Now that I think about my original wording it definately sounded wrong and I apologize. Sorry Sorry Sorry!!!

On another note.
A hobbiest or amerature membership would be nice on this forum. Whether they would have a seperate section or just a visible designation for posting classifieds. People would know what tyoe of dealer/breeder they are dealing with, expect a larger variablity in customer service and quality. But then people of this designation could not expected to demand top dollar. It could give a person a chance to build a reputation one way or the other.
Click to expand...

Bob, Do you really feel that paying twenty-five dollars for a whole year with the ability to post unlimited ads and rate other members is out of a hobbyist budget?
 
Let's see.
Fauna is $25 for a year of posting unlimited ads.
KS is $20 for a month of posting limited ads.
BP.net is free to post ads you are limited to how many you are allowed to post.
Reptile Auction only charges a small fee similar to Ebay to post an ad but that site has a tendency to attract less desireabe elements to it.


When you weigh the options, Fauna is the cheapest way to advertise with the most options available for your advertising.
 
Is it cheap for a whole year? Definately! I would say very cheap, as far as advertising goes. The cost prohibative part is more mental. As a hobbiest, not a professional, can I justify spending another $25 this month on my hobby when I'm already spending the most my wife will permit (wife part a joke) but you get the point.

thanks
 
This is something I always think. If a site has the traffic that the owner pays for the bandwidth and server to have. It is only right to send a few bucks to make money on their site.

Fauna membership has actually really worked out well for me. 25 bucks well spent. To tell you the truth fauan paid for itself.
 
1Bob said:
Is it cheap for a whole year? Definately! I would say very cheap, as far as advertising goes. The cost prohibative part is more mental. As a hobbiest, not a professional, can I justify spending another $25 this month on my hobby when I'm already spending the most my wife will permit (wife part a joke) but you get the point.

thanks
Click to expand...

You have agreed, above, that the $25 this site charges is reasonable and gives value.

The justification to yourself is something only you can do, since you have already agreed that it is money well spent, and you have heard from others that the services are more than worth the fee.
 
Unlimited advertising is one of the perqs of the Contributor level membership (see, when you look at it that way, it doesn't sound nearly as bad...it's all a matter of perspective). Other benefits include the ability to post an avatar, increased message storage, unlimited (photo) attachments in forums, the ability to bump and highlight ads, eligibility for the GCC program, ability to edit your posts, see other members' info, and give trader ratings (there are a few others, but you get the idea).
 
1Bob said:
Is it cheap for a whole year? Definately! I would say very cheap, as far as advertising goes. The cost prohibative part is more mental. As a hobbiest, not a professional, can I justify spending another $25 this month on my hobby when I'm already spending the most my wife will permit (wife part a joke) but you get the point.

thanks
Click to expand...

I look at it this way.....all of the other "perks" of contributor membership aside, I can place ads on so-called "free" sites, which seem to have rather limited traffic, (other than those Nigerian scammers that seem to somewhat favor those sites) and perhaps sell an animal from those ads. Transaction done.

Or, I can spend the $25 here, and reach a much more specialized shopper and a good amount of traffic, and sell an animal. Once I sell an animal here, I can leave feedback for that buyer, get feedback from that buyer, and if they leave me a "Good Guy" note on the BOI, hey, that's just more advertising (at no extra expense or use of my time), and helps me to get my name out there and noticed, as well as speaking for the quality of my animals. If there is a problem with the animal or transaction, there are folks here to help myself, as well as the buyer, whether it be a health or husbandry issue with the animal, or if that buyer tries to rip me off in some way, I have the backup here to get things righted. Of course, that works both ways, I had better make sure I'm doing MY job as the seller as well, or the word WILL get around here. ;)


$25 a year, $2.08 a month, however you want to divide it up, it's money very well spent IMO, even if you are only selling a few animals. :thumbsup:
 
A reasonalbe per add charge to non-member could be another option, maybe $1. When you're looking at posting only a couple ads per year to help support a hobby it would be nice to be able to do this at a very low cost. I do not feel entitled to this but was wondering if such a place existed on the internet. Once you're taking in more money than you put out then it's a buisness not a hobby even if your not a proffesional herpetologist/breeder.

I remember when this was able to be done here. Was the operation of this site loosing money? If so then I completely understand. I don't want a free lunch by any means. But I probalby view enough banner ads in a week on this site to more than pay for the server space and bandwidth of a couple classifieds a year.
 
I suspect that most of the advertising here is by hobbiests...especially if we use your criteria of income vs outflow.
 
I apologize for the typos above. I ran my post through the spell check after I posted. I do not have the ability to edit my own post. Sorry.
 
1Bob said:
I apologize for the typos above. I ran my post through the spell check after I posted. I do not have the ability to edit my own post. Sorry.
Click to expand...
it's too easy...I can't bring myself to say it
 
hhmoore said:
I suspect that most of the advertising here is by hobbiests...especially if we use your criteria of income vs outflow.
Click to expand...


Tell me about it lol..........................

To the origanal poster.

I am not sure if I am reading your post wrong but I think you are saying you selling animals is supporting the hobby. I do not agree with this. If you gave your animals away to people maybe but selling them means that you do make money on that animal. Maybe not a yearly profit but you are making money on that said animal. So what I am trying to say is you are looking for the hobby to support your hobby. And there is nothing wrong with that.

I do know where you can post free classifieds. But I do not want to advertise them in this thread to take away from fauna but a quick search will give you many places.

25 dollars............. I spend more then that on a night out. Just blowing it on nothing. Shoot that is a little more then a DVD. And in return paying the 25 makes you money. Helps you move your stock.
 
I do thank everyone for their replies. This is one of the better on-line communities regardless of topic that I have come across. I respect many of your opinions and advice. I guess I'm in the minority on this particular issue. No free classifieds has all but solved the little scam ad problem that may have existed. That's good. Most likely raised the over confidence someone who has never dealt with reptiles can have in purchasing an animal listed here, but the BOI took care of that if they only would check it. In addition to not being able to post, I find there is less diversity of sellers now. I do not have data to back my observational trend. So take it for whatever you think that's worth. This diversity helped me out as a buyer as well. If I took a chance on a less known source, I could get burned or I could get a super high quality animal either way for a much lower price and feedback could be posted to inform the community.
 
1Bob said:
A reasonalbe per add charge to non-member could be another option, maybe $1. When you're looking at posting only a couple ads per year to help support a hobby it would be nice to be able to do this at a very low cost. I do not feel entitled to this but was wondering if such a place existed on the internet. Once you're taking in more money than you put out then it's a buisness not a hobby even if your not a proffesional herpetologist/breeder.

I remember when this was able to be done here. Was the operation of this site loosing money? If so then I completely understand. I don't want a free lunch by any means. But I probalby view enough banner ads in a week on this site to more than pay for the server space and bandwidth of a couple classifieds a year.
Click to expand...

I understand what you are saying here, but really....have you looked at how many registered members there actually are here? If each member thinks they should be given a couple of free classifieds per year, that is over 80,000 ads. Not that I would expect all of the members to post ads by any means, but for the sake of arguement, that's a whole lot of ads if they were to each want to share your view.

There are MANY hobbies that generate a bit more cash than you put in to them, if you are lucky and do things right. I think this year....for the FIRST time, I may bring in more than what I've spent. Does that make me a business? Or a hobbiest who made a meager profit? And what difference, really, does it make by defining what you want to call yourself?

But really, if you sell ONE animal from an ad here, you would recoup that $25, wouldn't you? Anything after that, you could probably classify as "free advertising", if you want to simplify it to that.
 
1Bob said:
I do thank everyone for their replies. This is one of the better on-line communities regardless of topic that I have come across. I respect many of your opinions and advice. I guess I'm in the minority on this particular issue. No free classifieds has all but solved the little scam ad problem that may have existed. That's good. Most likely raised the over confidence someone who has never dealt with reptiles can have in purchasing an animal listed here, but the BOI took care of that if they only would check it. In addition to not being able to post, I find there is less diversity of sellers now. I do not have data to back my observational trend. So take it for whatever you think that's worth. This diversity helped me out as a buyer as well. If I took a chance on a less known source, I could get burned or I could get a super high quality animal either way for a much lower price and feedback could be posted to inform the community.
Click to expand...

Bob, you continue to debate the issues here even after several people have told you that what you seek is available elsewhere.
Why?
 
I am by no means trying to debate. Just discussing. Asking questions and answering questions asked. As this responce is just a reply to the question you asked. As I said, I value the opinions expressed. They are valid opinions in my opinion. I feel mine is valid as well.
 
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