Just wanted to report on some upcoming changes you may notice soon. We finally finished the WF directory, which is the first section of the new resource area here. Brandon put it up live today, nothing is listed in it just yet, but we are in the process of signing up advertisers for it at the moment, so you will soon see it getting filled up. Finally, a source of revenue for us.
We're going to be adding one banner, a 728 I believe to the top of the forum and it will also be listed on all of the pages of the forum and resource areas (as they launch). We are going for a humorous/sarcastic satire approach, not the usual boring ads, so feedback on it is always a plus. They will be rotating banners, and we'll be launching pixel drops with them, so if you click on it, you could win something like a free ASE pass or a free tshirt, or some free Adwords/MSN traffic. Everything will be randomized too. Just to keep things fun and interesting.
We are planning on doing a server move. Not sure if we are going to continue our account with ThePlanet, although they have been nothing but good to us, I think we may change it over to a new, smaller firm with better management and quicker response times. We want to expand and get some load balancing or something suped up to handle at least 2,000 users on here at any given second of time. As our resource area unfolds we expect a lot more traffic to hit us. Currently we have seen tremendous growth, and according to Alexa we were in the "fast" loading zone just two months ago, and now in the "slow" (2 seconds) zone, so we want to stay in the fast zone at all times. I doubt there will be any downtime, but if there is, we'll give everyone the heads up on it, and if there is any it will be for a very short while and probably in the wee hours of the night.
WickedFire will have an affiliate program for ad sales too. We want to pass the chance for you guys to make money with us, so that as the directory increases in views and participation, we want to offer everyone $100 for signing up a new advertiser. As long as they pay, you will be paid right away via Paypal or for you foreigners, Epassporte. We'll have an affiliate program tracking sales and contacts live shortly. The directory is not limited to just ad networks, we plan on rolling out one for software, seo, design firms/freelancers, stats, services, hosting, etc. So if you have contacts for people you think would benefit from a listing/review, send them our way and get $100 for it. Ding ding! --- By the way, this is the only type of selling we will ever ask anyone to do, and it's not mandatory. We have our own in-house sales staff that will handle it for you, all you have to do is send it over, and we handle the rest, and if they are signed, you get paid. Simple as that.
I know I said we are making rule changes, and I still have it on my huge to do list. Nothing drastic, just going to make some adjustments to things some people may overlook. Also need to redo what we consider spam to be. Affiliate networks and affiliate programs are NOT ALLOWED to advertise within the forum, so if you see an AM or someone doing so, please report the post immediately. Users can mention it, but we have a pretty seasoned team of mods on staff and we can pickup on who is really advertising and who is just a curious affiliate. The directory is there for advertising, so we want to keep that shit off of the regular forum and keep the forum information packed, not advertiser packed. Helping affiliates is allowed and encouraged, but plugging "we have this and that offer" is considered spam/advertising and is not allowed. More rules and adjustments will be posted sometime this week, and I encourage everyone to read it when it's posted so that you don't fuck up and wonder why you were issued a warning or a temporary ban when it's clearly stated in the rules. I'll give everyone a one week grace period until we start enforcing it.
Keep the posting up, we surpassed the 110k post mark, and the 4k member mark already, so I'm psyched to see everything growing. When we deliver our new point/rep system members will be rewarded for posting good article style posts in the other forum sections as an incentive. You'll be able to do things like gain access to secret areas of the forum we are setting up, and to more information not accessible to the everyday user.
The next resource area section to launch is the WickedFire Newswire, where we'll be listing news from within the industry and some articles here and there. The majority of it WILL BE actual news that no one else is reporting. We've been hiring people with a journalist background to go out, dig around and find news, and to also respond to the huge number of insider leaks we get sent. If you ever do have something juicy you want people to hear about, we comply with the anonymous tip report and you will not be mentioned (unless you want to be), but we also have a verification process to find out whether it's just a rumor, or real news. No blog shit here guys, just straight, by the book news from the industry the way it should be. This will be replacing the "Industry News" section, but we plan on keeping it, just having a bot create a new thread automatically for people to respond to news. Also setting up a direct RSS feed "widget" so you can add it to your blog, signature on forums, or newsletter/email sigs, for free of course.
Well that's all from your fearless leader for now. So far 2007 looks to be one hell of an exciting ride for the WickedFire community, and I am so proud of the way things have been going, the good and the bad. It's a fun ride, and I look forward to meeting more of you at Affiliate Summit East (we already have a booth there!!).
Jon
We're going to be adding one banner, a 728 I believe to the top of the forum and it will also be listed on all of the pages of the forum and resource areas (as they launch). We are going for a humorous/sarcastic satire approach, not the usual boring ads, so feedback on it is always a plus. They will be rotating banners, and we'll be launching pixel drops with them, so if you click on it, you could win something like a free ASE pass or a free tshirt, or some free Adwords/MSN traffic. Everything will be randomized too. Just to keep things fun and interesting.
We are planning on doing a server move. Not sure if we are going to continue our account with ThePlanet, although they have been nothing but good to us, I think we may change it over to a new, smaller firm with better management and quicker response times. We want to expand and get some load balancing or something suped up to handle at least 2,000 users on here at any given second of time. As our resource area unfolds we expect a lot more traffic to hit us. Currently we have seen tremendous growth, and according to Alexa we were in the "fast" loading zone just two months ago, and now in the "slow" (2 seconds) zone, so we want to stay in the fast zone at all times. I doubt there will be any downtime, but if there is, we'll give everyone the heads up on it, and if there is any it will be for a very short while and probably in the wee hours of the night.
WickedFire will have an affiliate program for ad sales too. We want to pass the chance for you guys to make money with us, so that as the directory increases in views and participation, we want to offer everyone $100 for signing up a new advertiser. As long as they pay, you will be paid right away via Paypal or for you foreigners, Epassporte. We'll have an affiliate program tracking sales and contacts live shortly. The directory is not limited to just ad networks, we plan on rolling out one for software, seo, design firms/freelancers, stats, services, hosting, etc. So if you have contacts for people you think would benefit from a listing/review, send them our way and get $100 for it. Ding ding! --- By the way, this is the only type of selling we will ever ask anyone to do, and it's not mandatory. We have our own in-house sales staff that will handle it for you, all you have to do is send it over, and we handle the rest, and if they are signed, you get paid. Simple as that.
I know I said we are making rule changes, and I still have it on my huge to do list. Nothing drastic, just going to make some adjustments to things some people may overlook. Also need to redo what we consider spam to be. Affiliate networks and affiliate programs are NOT ALLOWED to advertise within the forum, so if you see an AM or someone doing so, please report the post immediately. Users can mention it, but we have a pretty seasoned team of mods on staff and we can pickup on who is really advertising and who is just a curious affiliate. The directory is there for advertising, so we want to keep that shit off of the regular forum and keep the forum information packed, not advertiser packed. Helping affiliates is allowed and encouraged, but plugging "we have this and that offer" is considered spam/advertising and is not allowed. More rules and adjustments will be posted sometime this week, and I encourage everyone to read it when it's posted so that you don't fuck up and wonder why you were issued a warning or a temporary ban when it's clearly stated in the rules. I'll give everyone a one week grace period until we start enforcing it.
Keep the posting up, we surpassed the 110k post mark, and the 4k member mark already, so I'm psyched to see everything growing. When we deliver our new point/rep system members will be rewarded for posting good article style posts in the other forum sections as an incentive. You'll be able to do things like gain access to secret areas of the forum we are setting up, and to more information not accessible to the everyday user.
The next resource area section to launch is the WickedFire Newswire, where we'll be listing news from within the industry and some articles here and there. The majority of it WILL BE actual news that no one else is reporting. We've been hiring people with a journalist background to go out, dig around and find news, and to also respond to the huge number of insider leaks we get sent. If you ever do have something juicy you want people to hear about, we comply with the anonymous tip report and you will not be mentioned (unless you want to be), but we also have a verification process to find out whether it's just a rumor, or real news. No blog shit here guys, just straight, by the book news from the industry the way it should be. This will be replacing the "Industry News" section, but we plan on keeping it, just having a bot create a new thread automatically for people to respond to news. Also setting up a direct RSS feed "widget" so you can add it to your blog, signature on forums, or newsletter/email sigs, for free of course.
Well that's all from your fearless leader for now. So far 2007 looks to be one hell of an exciting ride for the WickedFire community, and I am so proud of the way things have been going, the good and the bad. It's a fun ride, and I look forward to meeting more of you at Affiliate Summit East (we already have a booth there!!).
Jon
