Agent Johnson's Holiday Message to the Kids....

To all of you,

There are like over 12,000 of you who are not Coasterbuzz card carrying members. That bothers me. Its only $20. Think about the wasted time all of you spend on Ebay buying some used sweatshirt from Cedar Point that 6 people wore, or some paperback back that was in someone's bathroom for weeks. How much have you spent?

$20 is a good deal, and you get the track record. With my age, I would forget most of those coasters by now. And none of these stupid pop ups for online casinos. Save you hard earned money and spend it in real casinos. Not the unregulated Indian ones, but like Atlantic City and anywhere in Nevada.

Tell your parental units to look this site up. Nobody gets any more free admissions to my park until I see those numbers grow. If kpjb gives anymore out, he goes to Compounce. Merry Christmas. *** Edited 12/9/2004 7:14:20 AM UTC by Agent Johnson***

LOL That was pretty funny :)

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Agent Johnson said:
And none of these stupid pop ups for online casinos.

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Firefox is my friend :)

Personally, I'll stick with the "free" version, I track my rides elsewhere... huh, is my sig still around, oh yea, there it is.

It would be a good idea for those without their own websites though, but I do have to ask, do you work for the site?

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RamblinWreck said:
Firefox is my friend

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How nice of you to do absolutely nothing to support the site.

(and no, I get not a friggin thing if you join - or even let the occasional pop-up through)

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RamblinWreck said:
...but I do have to ask, do you work for the site?

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Because the concept of supporting something you use and enjoy is that foreign to you?

I don't know. It doesn't seem like much to me to close a few extra windows if it helps defer the costs of running a site like this.

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Lord Gonchar said:
How nice of you to do absolutely nothing to support the site.

(and no, I get not a friggin thing if you join - or even let the occasional pop-up through)

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So I guess the ads to the right of this and the one above this don't count?

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Because the concept of supporting something you use and enjoy is that foreign to you?

I don't know. It doesn't seem like much to me to close a few extra windows if it helps defer the costs of running a site like this.

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I was being serious, I wanted to know if this was genuine appreciation, or some sort of push to get new customers, thats all. I use Firefox for other reasons too, but I never liked popups, so to me, its just an added bonus. Again, Im already looking at three ads as I speak, do I need another window every time I click a new page? I wouldn't mind it, but my stay on the site may last longer (as in duration per visit, meaning more revenue from the banners ;)) if there weren't as many popups. Let's see, in IE, I got two popups and I saw three ads, then on the page to the forums, there was the redirect page (granted only once per visit I believe), then on the forums home page there was one and then an inline one, plus three banners, and more banners on every other page. If I happen to use a browser that kills the popup ones (but still leaves 75% of the ads in total), is that really a major problem? The site is still getting its revenue out of my visit, whether I am in IE or Firefox, so I don't see the problem. I'd support the site, but to me, joining doesn't get much, especially since I don't care about the banner ads.

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Because the concept of supporting something you use and enjoy is that foreign to you?

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If the students I see at Michigan are representative of the Youth Of Today, the answer is yes. Most believe that everything they want should be freely available on the web.

*** Edited 12/9/2004 1:23:01 PM UTC by Brian Noble***

Some of us dont have the money for it. My X-mas has already been paid for. Neitherwise, I use Coaster-Counter which is really good at counting them. And SBC Yahoo DSL blocks out all popups.

-Cal

Any of us who has a web/business knows how much cost and time it takes to keep the site running, updated, and evolving.

Twenty dollars is a VERY reasonable fee, think of it like this if don’t go to Burger King 4 times, you have paid for this site for 1 year, save that 1.29 on a pop at your convenience store, its only 15 bottles.

Been meaning to upgrade here for a while and never got around to it so thanks for the reminder and the kick in the pants to make me do it :-)

$20 is a very good deal for the Coasterbuzz club. I know myself I already got more than $20 worth out of the site. That doesn't count the several events(Beastbuzz, Superhero Celebration, and Coastermania)that my family attended that we wouldn't have been able to had we not been members(We aren't members of any other coaster club.)

The way Coaster Art Guy explained it is a good way to look at. $20 is so little for an ad free site, and plenty of other events to enjoy.

Although from time to time I read other coaster sites, Coasterbuzz is by far my favorite. It is the one I read daily, and it is the BEST! At least my opinion.

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if don’t go to Burger King 4 times, you have paid for this site for 1 year, save that 1.29 on a pop at your convenience store, its only 15 bottles.

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Not to mention the weight loss benefits!

Which brings in more, the $20 for a year, or allowing the pop ups and occasionally clicking on them (but of course, immediately closing once the page comes up ;) ). I honestly do have a hard time rationalizing the $20, but I was hoping I was doing some of my part by allowing pop ups on the site.

Just curious how it works!

allowing the pop-ups _do_ get Jeff some money, but a year of them per user comes nowhere near the $20 for membership...

There's no question that $20 a year is a good deal. You don't get pop-ups, you get to keep a track record, you can upload games and you get perks (special events at amusement park).

Still, it's NOT mandatory. There are some people who just don't want the perks, receive the pops (I have no pop-up blocker), and aren't in desperate need for a track record. THOSE people may not be ready to become a member.

Like I said, there's no doubt that $20 is a great deal and you get a ton for your money. It's not like you pay $20 and that's it though. You get an ad-free site and goodies to go with. You pay for SOMETHING. Right now I'm not paying so I'm not "getting" anything. I don't feel bad.

Right now I have $20 to my name BUT I haven't even started Christmas shopping (my parents are going to KILL me). I never get money "handed" to me. However, the one time I get cash really is at Christmas. This year when I get some money I DO plan on becoming a member. I really want to upload a game on CBGames. Why not do it at another site for free? Coasterbuzz is LEGIT. I know the site is professional and the members are serious. It's a great place to share my RCT creation. I WILL pay $20 for that when I get the money. That is worth it to me.

So, to conclude I think $20 a year is wonderful. When it's an "option" though, that provides special perks, it's not always necessary. Personally, I'm going to become a member at the end of this year. Still, I would never look "down" on anyone if they weren't paying for the site (unless they had a pop-up blocker I guess). After all, they get the ads, can’t upload games, can’t keep a track record and can’t go to special events at parks (for a discount that is).

I've really thought long and hard about joining this club (as well as the Metallica Fan Club) at Christmas time...depends all on how much money I have, as well as what I have to pay in student loans and bills and such.

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RamblinWreck said:

I wouldn't mind it, but my stay on the site may last longer (as in duration per visit, meaning more revenue from the banners ) if there weren't as many popups.

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Generally, one pop-up nets as much as approximately 10 banner ads. (give or take a little)

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If I happen to use a browser that kills the popup ones (but still leaves 75% of the ads in total), is that really a major problem?

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But those 75% of the ads only account for 25% of the revenue.

My problem isn't with people not joining. I'll even go as far as saying I can see where to many it just isn't feasible. I joined for three reasons, the events (even though it's not necessary, but I have no desire to join ACE so this is a nice alternative), CB Games and to just help out in general.

The general annoyance comes with the wry "I have a pop-up blocker :) " comments that appear everytime someone mentions ad blocking as a feature of joining.

Just seems smug to me.

Yeah, I'm not sure I understand the pop-up blocker making it's way into everything either.

Sites HAVE to cover costs and all these tools for viewing sites keep trying to kill them - "We make a tool for viewing websites, but we're going to add features that make it as hard as possible for those sites to exist"

That's exactly why I think interstitial ads (those redirect pages) are the future (and sadly, much more annoying that a simple pop-up or pop-under). Won't it eventually get to the point where you're going to be forced to look at two or three of those in a row (like a commercial block on television) in the middle of multi-page articles or every 15 minutes on forums, or to get to downloadable content or whatever because there's no other reasonable means for generating enough revenue to cover site costs when all the companies keep building ad killing features into their web browsing products?

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Impulse-ive said:
Which brings in more, the $20 for a year, or allowing the pop ups and occasionally clicking on them?

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I measure ad revenue in terms of effective cost per thousand (eCPM), which is the number of pages you serve divided by the dollars you generate. Calculating all ads that appear, as of yesterday, it's about 60 cents per thousand. A lot of that has to do with the recent Citibank campaigns. September to November were pretty horrible months, and it hit bottom at 30 cents eCPM. This takes into account every page served. When you start seeing "take our survey" ads or ads for CoasterBuzz Club, those don't pay, but are figured into the average. It varies wildly.

So at 30 cents, you'd have to view 66,666 pages in a year to generate the $20 you'd pay for a club membership.

With the IE updates and growing market share for FireFox, obviously the pops are less effective. I use FireFox too. Marketers are a little disturbed by this because, annoying as they are, they're more likely to be clicked on and more likely to build brand recognition. Still, there's a push now to move to the large banners you see at the top, and the 300x250 box ad (only one here, on the home page).

CoasterBuzz is part of my job now. While money is really tight, I decided after finishing my book that I would make a go of developing my sites and software I've been sitting on. The only part I really struggle with is the huge debt I racked up back in the days that I self-hosted the site. I make enough to pay the mortgage, but I'm not getting ahead.

I'm not going to be hurt if you don't join the club (though right now it would ease the pain of having to order another printing of membership cards). I know some people are outright offended by the idea that I can do this for a living. (Personally, I'd like to be this kid. If you can afford it, great, I appreciate it. For me it's not about the money as much as it is seeing that someone finds value in what I'm doing.

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Lord Gonchar said:
Generally, one pop-up nets as much as approximately 10 banner ads. (give or take a little)

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Well, I didn't know that and Im really sorry that my browser kills revenue :(

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But those 75% of the ads only account for 25% of the revenue.

My problem isn't with people not joining. I'll even go as far as saying I can see where to many it just isn't feasible. I joined for three reasons, the events (even though it's not necessary, but I have no desire to join ACE so this is a nice alternative), CB Games and to just help out in general.

The general annoyance comes with the wry "I have a pop-up blocker :) " comments that appear everytime someone mentions ad blocking as a feature of joining.

Just seems smug to me.

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Well, I believe (Im still sorta new) that most of the events are in the Ohio/Midwest area, and I dont get up there enough to go to some events. I don't really care to pay to upload games files, 1. because I don't play too much anymore, and 2. because there are thousands of sites that will let you upload for free. I didn't really mean to be some sort of a smart ass by saying "Firefox is my friend", it was somewhat of a joke.

Jeff gave some good reasons for the ads, and I appreciate it. *** Edited 12/9/2004 6:35:35 PM UTC by RamblinWreck***

No sweat, as usual - just something I'm not sure a lot of people really ever think about.

Basically, nothing in life is free and it's one of my little pet peeves when people think it isn't their problem.

My apologies for any mistunderstanding.

That's fine, I just wanted to make sure that my comments weren't taken the wrong way, thats all.

Oh, and nothing is free, you are absolutely correct.