The US Message Board is now approximately 3 years old and we're still going strong. The USMB started out as an intended place for a small amount of people to discuss the happenings of 9/11, the War on Terror & a place to just chit chat. The underlying idea still remains but with a whole lot more members & posts than I ever imagined in the beginning.
We are nearing 400,000 posts & 1,800 members. Over the past 3 years there have been over 3,500 registrations to the board, and a few thousand "zero" posters were pruned from the database. We are averaging over 12,000 page views a day from over 1,100 unique visitors.
I can't say enough praise about the core members of this board. One thing I've heard many, many times throughout the years was that "The USMB has a lot of intelligent members who engage in thought out debate" or always something similar. I have seen this first hand, from members who support different parties. I believe a big part of this is allowing the members themselves to assist running/maintaining the board and implementing what it is our members would like to see. I always ask for feedback and try to make my decisions based on what others like and dislike. I am always open to new ways to make the board better for all of us.
Over the past year the board has been able to make $827 based on supported ads and member donations and/or membership upgrades. It costs around $240 per year for a VPS server to host the site. I guess around another $10 for domain registration. The rest was spent on software/scripts and advertising. Actually, I've spent about $1k over the past year on advertising both banners and text links. I grab these on a monthly subscription through a service I use and it's fairly easy to track what I've spent on various campaigns. So even though I ultimately lost about $400 or so out of pocket, the board certainly isn't losing any money. The advertising is nice because it really does help to get some fresh faces in here. The problem with a political board, or most boards for that matter, is that you don't get much of a return on investments (ROI). People come here to chat, not to see ads or purchase anything. The board will remain exactly like it is, but unfortunately I will have to let income/memberships dictate how much advertising I do and what upgrades/software installs I can perform.
With that said, I am still very open to hear what members might like to see done with the board. New additions? Appearance? Things you've seen on other boards?
I would like to update everyone with a 'State of the USMB' post at least once a month so that everyone is involved and we can all work together to keep this great board going.
We are nearing 400,000 posts & 1,800 members. Over the past 3 years there have been over 3,500 registrations to the board, and a few thousand "zero" posters were pruned from the database. We are averaging over 12,000 page views a day from over 1,100 unique visitors.
I can't say enough praise about the core members of this board. One thing I've heard many, many times throughout the years was that "The USMB has a lot of intelligent members who engage in thought out debate" or always something similar. I have seen this first hand, from members who support different parties. I believe a big part of this is allowing the members themselves to assist running/maintaining the board and implementing what it is our members would like to see. I always ask for feedback and try to make my decisions based on what others like and dislike. I am always open to new ways to make the board better for all of us.
Over the past year the board has been able to make $827 based on supported ads and member donations and/or membership upgrades. It costs around $240 per year for a VPS server to host the site. I guess around another $10 for domain registration. The rest was spent on software/scripts and advertising. Actually, I've spent about $1k over the past year on advertising both banners and text links. I grab these on a monthly subscription through a service I use and it's fairly easy to track what I've spent on various campaigns. So even though I ultimately lost about $400 or so out of pocket, the board certainly isn't losing any money. The advertising is nice because it really does help to get some fresh faces in here. The problem with a political board, or most boards for that matter, is that you don't get much of a return on investments (ROI). People come here to chat, not to see ads or purchase anything. The board will remain exactly like it is, but unfortunately I will have to let income/memberships dictate how much advertising I do and what upgrades/software installs I can perform.
With that said, I am still very open to hear what members might like to see done with the board. New additions? Appearance? Things you've seen on other boards?
I would like to update everyone with a 'State of the USMB' post at least once a month so that everyone is involved and we can all work together to keep this great board going.
