OK Guys....Briefly, the reason why we do it the way we do is because the only way to sell the forum at this point in time is through the banners. The banners being at the top and on EVERY page is a big plus for our advertisers/sponsors. I like Chris' idea about a separate page of banners. As a matter of fact Rich and I have discussed this. To provide a separate page with all of the banners listed linked to their websites could be an option BUT this brings up a whole set of new problems. Do we list them in alphabetical order, how much they spend with us, top dealers, by brand, location in the country, etc. Folks have a tendency to start at the top of a list and those at the bottom would have a good reason to be concerned.... How do we achieve fairness. Next thing you know, we would be automating them so that their positioned changed so everyone would get their chance at the top of the page....back to square one! This is one reason why we rotate and move most of the banners as they appear currently. Now...I don't have a problem with having a list of sponsors somewhere on the forum so that members can quickly find out who is a sponsor but for now, the membership will have to refresh the page, or go to other pages, to see the many sponsors we are honored with having on the forum.
Not to seem self serving here guys, but I have worked as hard and quickly as I can to provide the membership with as many options for point of purchase as possible with more to come. I'll admit, we are rapidly approaching a time that we are going to have to present the banners in a different way as the design and layout could use improvement but as an advertiser, there is no where else on the forum that gets the traffic that this forum gets. With 7 million pages views, 70 thousand plus unique visits, click through rates several times the national average, and ads being served 100K times...all of these stats per month, most of our advertisers/sponsors realize the value.
And....Pappy....I have given this topic much more than just lip service. Seems we have plenty of folks that are quick to criticize but slow to analyze...
Alan
