poll .. should the site gather demographics to help raise ad revenue?

[keyclone]

this is an excellent thread. gives us a better idea of our community.

http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index....&threadID=5391

i think it'd help Ellay / the site to get some demographics together... so he could use that when approaching advertisers... basically being able to quantify who we are as a group... thereby helping to pay for the site.

any thoughts on this? anyone see it as an invasion of privacy?

i wouldn't mind giving up some limited info. ie:

age range: (8 year spans) 12..20, 21..29, 30..38, etc
region: (country/state)
profession: (pick from a list of industries)
income: (US dollars, range) $ 0..25k,26..50k, 50..100k, 100..250k, 250k+
number of computers in use: 1..n
number of characters played at once: (normal # in your multi-box group)
total number of characters: 1..n
most played game: pick from a set (wow, eq, eq2, lotro, guild wars, etc)
2nd most played game: pick from a set (wow, eq, eq2, lotro, guild wars, etc)
# hours played per week

10 questions. too much?

[Eteocles]

Make them all optional so we can fill in the ones we're comfortable sharing(aka some that would rather not state their wages; best we just leave it as "We can afford to multibox with little worry" ;p)

The # of chars boxed wouldn't be worth taking, as anyone below 5 tends to upgrade eventually or some stop at 4 and let a 5th heal or they shift up and down constantly; wouldn't be accurate enough to be worthwhile

[bugilt]

Imo use google adsense to advertise. They don't require any of that and it's easy to setup. I setup my old guild webstie and ran adsense on it with no problems.

[Eteocles]

Google ads are nice but would require a little policing...when Scott Kurtz of www.pvponline.com had them and he mentioned WoW in his newsposts(being the Leader of the Horde side part of the Penny Arcade vs PvP "War" on Dark Iron server, with other comic fanbases, and comic makers aplenty, grouped up on both sides; I was part of Penny Arcade's team from the first week of the server, was quite fun to run into Gabe and gank Scott...but I've digressed), it would more than occasionally pull up Gold-seller ads; would have to filter those out lol

[Khazrael]

Make them all optional so we can fill in the ones we're comfortable sharing(aka some that would rather not state their wages; best we just leave it as "We can afford to multibox with little worry" ;p)

This sounds like a good idea as well. I personally have no qualms answering the example questions given, but I can certainly see why some people would. I'm sure some people would get turned off to a survey if they were apprehensive about filling out even one question, especially when related to financial/work information.

[Kedash00]

just dont get any of those "but wow gold cheap! from www.i'mchinease.com" sites, i'm so tired of seeing them ingame i've sworn them off every where else too. just my opinion though, do whatever is good for the site.

[Zutok]

I'd say, until the site generates AT LEAST 100K unique visitors per month... focus on content, etc. Don't bother w/ the ads atm! Traffic = revenue, but ONLY in strong numbers! Ads, too early, will just annoy people to go somewhere else, or they'll just create a competing start-up, and you WILL start to see a decline in growth. Again, ads are a smart revenue source... it's just not the right time, imho. Focus on GROWTH... and, so far you've been playing your cards right. Don't make a mistake now!

Atm, this site would probably qualify for the ads that generate revenue based on "we pay you IF a vistor clicks the ads, then buys something from our site". Think about the last time you were visiting a site, and actually clicked on an ad and bought something? I personally can't remember a time I ever have!

Again, in my opinion, let the "boxing" crave set in a bit more... and focus on content. People are coming, and the site is getting bigger. I, personally, am promoting the site w/ every person that inquires about boxing. And, I know from reading here... others are as well!