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advertising on the site, your thoughts

Hi Everyone,

We all know the running ads are how iKC helps pay the bills. These are dealers and manufactures with good reputations that we trust to do right by you and not interfere with discussions. Help me refine the rules, this is OUR community, not mine.

Right now it is pretty simple. Ads are available within groups and on the front page. Advertisement is limited to the ad space and most of our advertisers are people you know as friends within the community, they come on and talk with us about their companies, future plans and knives. What I ask of them is not to interfere with discussions by talking sale. This seems to have worked very well. It has given us all the opportunity to get to know these folks, keep up with their companies and know what is coming...I love this interchange!

Our custom makers put their knives up for us to see and they have a link on their page if anyone wants to contact them about one. I also love this idea. It allows us all to get to know makers, their style and in most cases the types of materials they use. Again, a good many of them have become our fellow knife nuts in the community.

Any sale from either of these types are taken off site and handled directly between the buyer and seller

What I need help with refining is the folks that join just to ask us if we want to buy their knives.

So share with me your pet advertising peeve and let me see if I can refine the grey area and keep you from feeling like your favorite site is allowing advertisers to "bug" you

Thanks for the help!

Jan

Tags: advertising

6 members like this

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on October 28, 2013 at 5:27

ooops, forgot to mention. Regular members placing knives in the for sale or trade...not only is it allowed it is encouraged! Regrettably we all have to sell a knife now and then. We have seen some wonderful trades this past year also

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Permalink Reply by Alexander Noot on October 28, 2013 at 5:41

Maybe there could be a group created for the "just sellers"?

I know that personally I'd like to put the knives that I've made up for sale here. We've talked about that before. Maybe you could charge a small fee? A couple of bucks per year to weed out the freeloaders? Much more incentive to participate in a community once you've committed some $$$

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on October 28, 2013 at 7:44

Jan, this sounds like a good idea to me. A member could go to that group or not as he wished. If he wanted to see what was for sale he could. If not he wouldn't be bothered by the sellers. And some of the sellers might become participating members once they get to know the site.

Alexander Noot said:

Maybe there could be a group created for the "just sellers"?

I know that personally I'd like to put the knives that I've made up for sale here. We've talked about that before. Maybe you could charge a small fee? A couple of bucks per year to weed out the freeloaders? Much more incentive to participate in a community once you've committed some $$$

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Permalink Reply by Ken Spielvogel on October 28, 2013 at 8:07

Jan, I am fairly new to IKC (less than 6 months) but IMO, I like it just the way it is.

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Robert Burris on October 28, 2013 at 11:34

I agree, some join our sight just to sell their knife or find out if some knife they just got for free is worth a million bucks. I am sure most of these people are okay, it just takes away from the real knife enthusiast and his knife.

I like people selling knives, though and showing off their work. The things that help, pay the bills are good for the club.

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Craig Henry on October 28, 2013 at 17:13

Like Alexander said, maybe there should be a "Seller" or "Knife Sales and Trades" group? Some other forums do that and keep all sales confined to that section.

And I think the dealer ads are just fine.

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Parham on October 28, 2013 at 17:19

Thanks for asking for opinions on this subject. I would like to see advertisements allowed as long as they aren't overblown, or not allowed to be sent to us as private messages on our personal pages unless the page holder ok's it ahead of time to the individual advertiser. This way Jan can more easily control what goes on. The advertiser should also have to sign an agreement that if they violate the site's rules they would forfeit the remainder of their contracted time and the balance of the prepaid amount. That should discourage some from sneaking something prohibited into the site. Just my thoughts on the matter. And even though it's my two cents worth, you can have it FO' FREE!

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on October 28, 2013 at 19:06

Thanks Guys! Your opinion is everything to me. I have to think about the sellers group and how that would work for us. Maybe it is time we added something along those lines, even for the members that are ebay sellers. The ad would still run on the front page and within the groups, honestly I screen who we accept for those. Lets get some more opinions and see where we are

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Permalink Reply by Steve Scheuerman (Manx) on October 28, 2013 at 21:38

I would like us not to lose the community feeling we have here. Other sites have turned into a sale site, and discussions seem to always revolve around sales. Mostly negative or snippy. What we have here is fairly unique. We are friends first, knife lovers first, and care about our fellow members first. I would hate to see us turn sour and be just a sale site. Members sharing this and that for sale, as we have it now, is perfect, in my opinion. The personal touch is what makes this site the joy that it currently is. There are a thousand sites on the 'net to buy and sell...this is a rare bastion of caring and humanity, and I think we would be mad to change it. That being said, having a "for sale" section is a handy and nifty thing for our members to show their stuff, find a few deals, and show their wares. If we can find a quiet corner of the site for buy/sell, I'm all for it...but if we start losing the personal touch because of sales, then we have a problem. Big time. People first! Money 10th or something...lol.

A group for showing your listings on sale sites might be good. Let the majority of sales be done elsewhere. Let's keep this as an info/friends/helping/caring/personal site, and let the sales be mostly done elsewhere. The more people that come here just to buy and sell is where we will lose out site individuality and personality, I think. And I would hate like hell to see that happen. Sales for sale sites, and iKnife for friends and family! A bit of a mix is fine, but let's keep our priorities straight!

And for those that simply join for advertising or pushing their product beyond what we have now...well...the door is over there. Nothing worse than having a great conversation interrupted by "Buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff!" I'll make sure the door hits them in the arse on the way out!

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on October 28, 2013 at 22:10

Very good Manx. I agree with you. Too much selling on the site would ruin what has been built up.

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Permalink Reply by J.J. Smith III on October 28, 2013 at 23:04

I think that Manx said what I was thinking.

I've got no problem with the paid ads that run on the main page and within the groups. These paid adds help keep iKC on the web.

Perhaps a "Sellers Corner" group or page could be started, where members could list their wares, though I believe the actual sales should be conducted "off site".

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Permalink Reply by Alexander Noot on October 29, 2013 at 3:02

Here's the thing though. It's hard to get someone from a company or a custom knifemaker interested in participating (and keeping participating) if they're not allowed to sell their goods here..

If your buisiness is knives which you love....but you can't do your buisiness somewhere.....you're gonna go and spend your time on other forums where you're allowed to socially interact AND do your buisiness.....

Why spend time at that ONE forum where you can't make any money where there are a lot of other forums out there where you can have a good time AND make some money.

If you just want the collectors involved...that's fine. But if you want dealers/makers involved....you're going to have to let their buisiness in as well otherwise they won't stay, no matter how great everyone is over here (And they are, this is my favourite forum).