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Sponsors?
Hmmmm... some of you might have just seen me giving T7 a plug and dropping the 'we now have a referral' link thing going with them. Anyone think this is a good or bad thing? I'd guess most are indifferent - if you have no feeling, no need to say so. 
I think most of use know about their service and what they are about anyhow. If we stuck a little 'sponsors' box on the left (under the random image for example) this would promote them to people who don't know who they are, and also provide them with that referral.
Why I mention a sponsors box, is that we've been approached by another party about this. I'm thinking that if we pick the right people this can't really hurt. I mean, let's say we are sponsored by local bike/service outfit Widget Ride. If Widget Ride mess up or cause someone grief they will get canned on the forum - it would be in the sponsors interest to serve the community well.
Thoughts?
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I first found Torp 7 here, and have since refered a couple of people and they have picked up some real bargains as well. If I referred them from this site, it certainly couldn't hurt us could it?
I've found most of my best bargains on sites that I've clicked into from bike forums, so it benefits everybody, as all good referals do.
I vote YES!
I'm fine with having a little sponsors link on the site. As long as it's not overly intrusive (popups etc). Also a little money in the piggy bank would be well justified to cover some of the costs of maintaining this great MTB site/resource.
I too found them from this site
and i dont think there are any horror stories about people dealing with them
so why not
Kurt
In Whistler BC they have a weekly Loony race (use to be $1 but these days $2 to enter). The races are organised by various stores with the money going towards a cup of soup and a beer at the end of the race. These are social events and an opportunity ride with a variety of skill levels. From moms dads and kids to pros, all in the same race in good spirit. These races are historically of a weekday evening (off course it doesn’t get dark till 10 -11pm in summer). Could this work here, perhaps fortnightly, what say the mob?
Sounds like the short track series MWMTB run!
I tried this end of last year (http://nobmob.com/node/3875). Yup - it's quiet fun.
Dunno what happens to these come winter, hopefully Alchemist will be along shortly to explain.
I for one don't think this sort of site should be getting into "sponsorship" arrangements. That implies a commerciality I don't think is appropriate. We're not a club and we don't have any costs so it's a bit of a can of worms for mine.
To me sponsorship implies some sort of contractual agreement with said supplier (whoever they are) which confers them some advertising and custom to them and importantly perhaps exclusivity and influence which wouldn't be good.
If the site gets paid for this then how is the cash used? Is there a company set up to run the site or does it go to Rob Pty Ltd... not that I have a problem with that if it goes towards your running costs, but over and above that this isn't a profiteering site and beginning to take us that way is a slippery slope.
We're already pretty good at letting each other know where's good to shop or take your bike for a tune up without introducing any undue bias.
I doubt we'd get anything much out of it anyway, look how the Phantom one went...
Anyhoo if they're giving away free bikes to all of us then fire away, otherwise I'd be for steering clear.
Ta,
Matt.
I agree with Matt's 2c. If you actually had a sponsorship deal going with a certain retailer, then a link / banner would be entirely appropriate and make sense.
Seeing this is more an arrangement than a sponsorship, maybe you should instead have a page / tab for "Preferred Retailers"?
Otherwise, I would say leave it out. You don't owe them anything mate unless you can get them to scream "show me the money!"
what if in return for the banner there was a 5% off link or something like that ????
Yes It's on again on Saturday arvo.
Check www.mwmtb.com for details
This is the last of the short tracks for the summer series.
We move over to our traditional format in conjunction with WSMTB
Commencing March 16th at Yellowmundie
Ah... come on, give us some credit!
What I'm thinking is that certain places, product and services get talked about in our forums a lot. This is basically free advertising for them so in a way we are already doing ads... but it's a bit hit and miss. If certain purveyors[1] of products and services want more people to notice them then what is proposed is a small ad. under the 'random image', in exchange for small favors. 'Small favors' in this instance range from nada, to building trails we love to ride, to a couple of beers, to a small kickback on referrals, to a few $$$ up front.
We're not talking your usual flashing banners here, and loads of em. Just a single small image that will change on page load.
And we're not talking all commercial either, I imagine we can use the space to point people towards clubs and other worthwhile stuff where appropriate.
And if the by-product of all this is that someone ends up with a small beer kitty at the end of the year that is spent at a social BBQ, are you really going to complain?
[1] Anything relating to Specialized will be banned of course!
right up to that last bit
OK, just to make things fair - no mention of Cannondale either!
Although - have you seen that picture on the splash page at the mo? How cool is that?
Rob
how much are we talking
or can we get a group discount
or
do you get to a point where you get a registration card for NoBMoB with a number to use in their data base that will go back to the NoBMoB beer fund
?????????????
opens a large can of worms
however i do agree that every second question on this site gets answered with look at Torpedo7
with Specialized?
LOL... the standard 'in' joke is pi$$ taking between Specialized and Cannondale owners. Don't worry about it, they are both decent bikes (OMG - did I just say that?!)
As I have always said Specialized and Cannondale are the Holden and Ford of the mountain biking world.
It's a friendly rivalry between these two tribes that have'nt experienced the joys of a high end machine.
Touche, Paul
Those with BM's and Mercs don't bother themselves with such frivolities
i personally think after all the hard work rob's put into this site that he's not gonna flatten us all with cheap looking pop ups and and crap cheesy ad's. have a little faith people, im sure it'll be all just fine and will probably benefit most of us.
I think is good to have some advertising to cover site costs, especially if we can only advertise companies who we believe to be doing the right thing by the consumers, we all need retailers so why not help the good ones and give the flick to the bad guys.
I have no idea about how much sites costs are, but I was thinking they should be shared by the users of this site, possibly by a voluntary annual membership fee, which I would happily pay.
I would support T7 as they do provide fast, courteous service at the right price. (Ah some new chainrings will be fine)
Cheers John.
personally mate i think you should do whatever you want if you think you can get a bit of back scratchin' for all your hard efforts, so be it, you sure deserve it!
fwiw also the sites that seem to be recomended here are due to everyone having good experiences with them and users helping others to find out about them. i cant tell u how many people ive recommended to places like t7 etc because they save people sooo much $ and trouble, and i only know about them through nob-mob really..
as for cannondale adds, the trouble is they wont be able to afford to advertise because of their new revolutionary cork finish, square wheel, 2009 line up sending them broke
Or you might not? It's a bit subtle, eh?
Are there any complaints?
Looks fine not obtrusive at all.
Hi Rob,
How about mention for Cyclinic. I know a few of us have been to one. I would highly recommend it.
Cheers
Evan
a links page would be handy too
LBS's
pop net stores
community sites
related homepages
(user submittable)
with the sponsored ones listed special separate at the top.
I dont believe any money should change hands. Opens up a complete can of worms with accountability,impartiallity etc. Any benefit, such as discounts, should be available to all members equally or go into the sport. Anything appearing on the site represents all of us but not all of us have input in the decisions which is my main concern.
Evan, you just gave a plug! and thats the best way for it to happen.
Craig
With 115 guests online (!!! - is this working?) then that's a lot of one persons bandwidth thats being chewed.
Having said the above Rob and I have knocked back all, of the many offers, for ads/sponsors we have received over the years. This is the only advertiser we believed to be appropriate - Rob and I have discussed this particular party for 3 months! Someone who offered a service a lot of folks here use / ask about anyway.
We're talking less then you would spend on a dinner out (not including grog) - any advertising will cover bandwidth and that's it. Should there be anything left then perhaps a case of beer at the NobMob xmas party - but these are the penny-ante sorts of $$$s involved.
Craig, everyone here has an input into the site - if there is any issue whatsoever with any ad, let us know.
as a relatively johnny-come-lately to this site, so to speak, I think some folk are being a bit silly about this.
The sponsor plug is very unobtrusive, and after all all of these folks get plugged on the site regardless.
Given about 99% of the work is done by Rob, you should do what you think right mate. If anybody seriously thinks that any funds acquired would be used for Rob & Co's personal gain, they have a screw loose.
Looks good, go for it.
Mark
Third entry in the "Navigation" box, left hand side of the page.
Yeah, and in fact I was going to sort this out so people can post links in various categories and have them listed on that page. Something else on the ToDo list.
Having just seen tis all good, not too obtrusive and lots of clubs etc on there. I also agree on the links bit, maybe that mini-ad at the top left should link to the links page and have icons and categories on that.
And if this gives you a bit of beer money over and above running costs we can't say you don't deserve it, thanks Rob.
Ta,
Matt.
(20 minutes away from the coolest MTB park (Woodhill Auckland) and unable to ride cause I've done my back in... grrrrarrrgh... I'll just have to content myself with fitting my new set of Lyrics ;-})
For clearing things up with some more details as to what went on behind the decisions. I think there was some missing the point in there....
Craig