The Sponsor

mercedo's Journal (2554)
The Sponsor
2006.01.08 18:53

When I started posting journals and comments on Technocrat.net in December, last year, I was unable to find an advertisement at the upper part of the site. Soon after when I found the advertisement, I still remember I was glad to see it.
I have no idea how much cost it takes to maintain the site like this - non-profit and based on a benevolence and conscience with the aim of spreading knowledge and enlightening, it takes money to mantain it but nobody's willing to pay for because of only the reason this site is such a nice site.
There must be several ways to bring money to the site. Subscription, Fundraising, Advertisement. We can't expect too much on subscription. We want to use it without paying basically, besides sharing knowledge, interest, hobby ought to be run in an exchangeable base - I was able to know it through your journals, comments, submissions and I will contribute them in exchange, thus both sides are beneficial.
Wikipedia- type fundraising is one of the best ways to collect fund from unspecified users and it is completely based on freewill of the users, it's not compulsory, it is based on voluntary, but still very motivated from the user's intention -Eager to maintain the site, but it's a little bit difficult to demand such campaign in such a small community like this. Fundraising campaign would only invite similar to semi-compulsory subscription. -If you can't contribute some fund, you would not be allowed to use the site any more. - That's opposite to the spirit of the liberation of knowlegde firstly aimed at at the beginning of the foundation of the site.
In the end, we end up resorting to the help of sponsors who're willing to pay and show their advertisement and expecting to gain more profit and advantage by paying money and showing their advertisement at the site.
The most successful example is of course 'Slashdot', since this site attracts tens of millions of users, it can find more and more sponsors who are willing to pay for it. The solution for us to find more sponsors is to try to make this site more and more attractive by contributing lots of interesting journals, comments, submissions.
Simple but it's difficult, that is the question.