Making HL better

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by Capper

...and of people complaining endlessly about 2-3 banner adds....so to me, it just wasn't worth the trouble.

These people complained about 2-3 adds as opposed to what? Other sites that feature a dozen or more? Meh. Personally, you have to break a few eggs if you want an omlette. Unfortunately for this business, advertisements are the most viable means of income in order to pay for the site itself. People just need to accept that and move on. Personally, I enjoyed the Newegg ad's. I mean, people universally use the Newegg site for their computer hardware needs; whenever I needed stuff, I'd always use the HL referral link to Newegg.

[Capper]

I'll be bringing the Newegg banner ads back to the forums as soon as we switch over to the new VBulletin......I'm also looking at a better way of integrating shopping and price ads. We used Price Grabber for awhile but they didn't pay us, so I'll never work with them again. We recently tried another one that I set up to rotate different categories (motherboards, memory, graphics, etc), but they complained and started telling me how they wanted the site set up....which ain't gonna happen.....it was more to pimp their service than to help customers.

I'd be open to putting together some sort of page or ad that shows the prices of products at different retailers. As to banner ads for companies, if a company approaches us, the Wife and I talk about it (she handles all ad stuff and money). HL isn't here to make money.....alll I care about is breaking even and paying for testing equipment, any money we make goes right back into the site.

As to video reviews, I have an awesome HD Camcorder, the problem is that its such a pain in the ass to edit video and post it.

[OcciferFriendly]

I think anything that stimulates discussion and gets the community talking is a good thing - vibrant forums that have something going on would seem to attract more people.

I like the way HL is now. Great people, good info, and I like the red/black color scheme so it even looks good.

Perhaps discussions to get everyone talking and keep the level of forum activity up. More contributors to the site might help too by making things more varied and interesting. I don't know how you'd do that, but if you need help, I'm in!

[Tech Geek Deluxe]

I would like to see more reviews targeted at price to performance best buy.

• Because this is where I like to do my buying based on value and reduced depreciation. [And it is the larger consumer piece of the market.]

I would like to see more articles on new technology and its development.

• From the news brief, press announcement to the technical paper that has a Scientific American to a Popular Mechanics clarity of read.
• A "Technologies of tomorrow" section that actually had sufficient excellence to be an online presence.
• Because it is where we all are going and where I am investing as well as a whole lot of other people.

[oldman_gamer]

Originally Posted by Capper

I'm not talking about making money, per say....I just want to know what you guys want to see.

We used to have a few ads, but I honestly got tired of companies not paying their bill and of people complaining endlessly about 2-3 banner adds....so to me, it just wasn't worth the trouble.

Going back to the game server, I may throw up a donation link for that, as I have it coming out of my PayPal account.

I have done my part by way of the "About ME" page in my seller profile on eBay.This site is listed along with a short "About HardwareLogic" site write up.It don't seem like much,but I know people read that area...curiocity does the rest.
As far as companies placing ads,why link banners on the home page where not many people read them if any....How about this : instead of advertising links there,why not link it,where people will read or see it ...for example, a power supply company puts thier promotion in the power supply thread? Or, a motherboard company/supplier puts the ad in that specific thread..and so on. Every time someone would read that thread,they would see that promotion.I would think that promotions could be updated.Just an idea to throw out there.I have been thinking since last night when the thread was posted what could be done to make the site better.....I keep drawing a blank,could it be that the site can not get any better? It is a possibillity,there is always room for improvement in any thing.There are alot of great thinking minds here,I am quite sure something will come into view.

[Elysium]

Rich, you need to talk to some of your "industry expert" friends and bring them over to the HL forums. I'd be really nice to get the inside scoop on some of the stuff going on in the computer industry.

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by oldman_gamer

How about this : instead of advertising links there,why not link it,where people will read or see it ...for example, a power supply company puts thier promotion in the power supply thread? Or, a motherboard company/supplier puts the ad in that specific thread..and so on.

This is actually a good idea, one that I have seen other sites utilize to great effect. Keywords can be bolded and double underlined, and prospective customers can hover their mouse over the keyword to have a little window pop-up over the word with what the advertiser is trying to sell. It's fairly unobstrusive and it works pretty well. Something like this:

[Parker]

Originally Posted by garetjax

This is actually a good idea, one that I have seen other sites utilize to great effect. Keywords can be bolded and double underlined, and prospective customers can hover their mouse over the keyword to have a little window pop-up over the word with what the advertiser is trying to sell. It's fairly unobstrusive and it works pretty well. Something like this:

Well, I personally, don't like sites that have that. It's annoying and I never even look at the ad.
Over at [H] they have that and it's nothing close to helpful.
It's because this: Whenever I accidently hover over it, the little ad pops up which makes it so I can't read whatever I was reading in the thread.

Also, I don't think HL needs any ad's up top or on the sides.
Only on the main page of HardWareLogic should there be ads, not on the forums.
Kinda like XS has there forum. It's most attractive because of it's ad-less design.

Just my opinion.

[Capper]

Originally Posted by Tech Geek Deluxe

I would like to see more reviews targeted at price to performance best buy.

• Because this is where I like to do my buying based on value and reduced depreciation. [And it is the larger consumer piece of the market.]

I would like to see more articles on new technology and its development.

• From the news brief, press announcement to the technical paper that has a Scientific American to a Popular Mechanics clarity of read.
• A "Technologies of tomorrow" section that actually had sufficient excellence to be an online presence.
• Because it is where we all are going and where I am investing as well as a whole lot of other people.

We do that, all of our reviews are based on one of three categories, budget, mainstream, or enthusiast......we don't lump everything together.

Originally Posted by oldman_gamer

As far as companies placing ads,why link banners on the home page where not many people read them if any

I sure hope people are looking at the front page, and reading our reviews......barely 20% of our traffic comes from the forums, just over 79% comes through the front page and our reviews. again, I'm not talking about advertising, or making money....I am talking about content and the site in general.

Originally Posted by Yellowhello

Rich, you need to talk to some of your "industry expert" friends and bring them over to the HL forums. I'd be really nice to get the inside scoop on some of the stuff going on in the computer industry.

We've tried that, but as we've seen from our monthly interviews, companies don't want to participate, or put real information out there....they want marketing material....which is something they can do with press releases and such......in the four months we ran interviews, not one company wanted to answer real questions, and some of the stuff they wouldn't answer was ridiculous.....I'd rather we posted guides or blogs than post that kind of crap.

[oldman_gamer]

Originally Posted by garetjax

This is actually a good idea, one that I have seen other sites utilize to great effect. Keywords can be bolded and double underlined, and prospective customers can hover their mouse over the keyword to have a little window pop-up over the word with what the advertiser is trying to sell. It's fairly unobstrusive and it works pretty well. Something like this:

I think you missed what I meant....but anywho....what I mean is,they would enter a thread with the ad that was the size of your sig.They could also have typed in a monthly/week/daily special.
But as Capper said,some are deliquent payers,in that case we need a panel of collectors,a couple real big grizzly adams hillbilly types like drew and myself to make the pencil neckers pay.