Your Input Wanted - Rules/Advertising - Self Promotion

How are you going to determine which business owners are just posting their project builds for people to look at for fun, and to help the site gain traffic. And Which are posting their project builds hoping somebody will see it, and want to get work done at their shop?

Or, how are you going to determine which businesses are posting their products and parts they make for fun and to help the site gain traffic, and which ones are posting their products and parts hoping people will see them and inquire about pricing so they can buy?

In my opinion, the line should be drawn here.... If you are building trucks, parts for your trucks in your garage at home, and you do not have a name for your shop, never mention a name for your shop, and never mention selling the parts or re-producing the parts, you do not need to pay to advertise.

If you are building trucks, parts for your trucks in your garage at home and you HAVE a name for your shop, you do mention your name for your shop, and or reference it multiple times during your thread, you should be charged for advertising.

The rest is just obvious.

Jeremy Rice nailed it. Brian Riggs nailed it. Robert nailed it....the scenario these guys are proposing/supporting works on other successful forums. I've seen it and been a part of it. Is it perfect? Of course not, but that's what mods are for. They are the forum police. Without mods, it doesn't really work.

You do not want to keep shops from posting their BUILDS if you need traffic. We are not talking about shops who are also making parts. That kinda stuff becomes readily apparent after a short amount of time. The mods should have the common sense to determine who is pushing the rules beyond the line and the freedom to make the call when they see fit.

Hey, if you guys think this will work, im all for it. But the grey area is huge, and leave much to be left to opinion.

I mean honestly, what shops arent building trucks with their own parts? I know when we build a truck here, i use as much of my own parts as possible, I dont know a shop that does not do this.

Good luck with this, I sincerely hope there is a moderation staff addressing this as it happens, because I do not know a site that hasnt gone through this before, with advertising.

If promote my Electrical construction company on here, can you target it to the Atlanta area only? Will I get a receipt for a tax write off?

I feel its going to become issues and once the line is set it will become blurry before you know it. It did in the past on this very site and favoritism happened here on this site often.

I want to see the activity on this site increase PERIOD. I think to promote that you got to find ad dollars somewhere else. If people have to pay for what they can do free on many other sites I think traffic will continue to be lower.

I agree with driving traffic in different ways as that's a no brainer but, I also don't expect to advertise for free either. I run a legit business and that is a business expense that is needed to gain new customers.

And Taylor I can tell you who is building trucks without building their own parts, it's the ones I was talking about and their mom and 3rd cousins slinging parts for beer money, who are getting some $25 business license and setting up an account with a certain company and then closing the license with the state and, never paying taxes or anything, or using their friends business license which is for something other that is not even automotive suspension related. Yes I have seen a few people do it and are still getting away with it.

One out of every five people in this scene run a a "shop" anymore. But I am getting way off topic lol.

There is a very gray area, I say let the build threads go, but if somebody tries advertising any kind of sales or naming a "shop" in repeated build threads or deliberately putting shop banners in the background of pictures they should be moderated or, have to pay to advertise because they are running a competitive business and paying for advertising is pretty much expected. Maybe this kind of thing would also help some people from taking their truck to a "shop" and getting scammed and losing a ton of money over it.

Anybody that is serious about running a legit business is going to expect to pay for advertising. I'm not saying price gouge the crap out of people trying to make an honest living but, some form of pay to advertise will weed out a lot of the scammers and so called "shops".

To weed out the so called "shops" its as easy as charging any person for advertising fees, if they give themselves a shop name, or mention a shop name while there posting. If they are not trying to be a legit business, they wont give themselves a name, or try to promote the name of their business. If they are try trying to be a legit business, and want to have the privilege of promoting their business name in any way here on the site, then they need to be charged fees.

I dont see how this can go any other way. Businesses who pay to advertise have the Right to post their business name, the products and information about themselves. Businesses who dont, get to watch.

Guys at home in their garage, building things with other companies parts are not affected, because they are not a business, they are guys at home building things in their garage. But the moment they give themselves a shop name, and state on the site that they are "so and so customs" doing the work, they need to pay SSM to be able to do that.

Everyone has made great points! I've started to draft out the rules based on every one's input.

I got to thinking though with what some one posted this morning. Businesses mainly post threads so that their thread shows up in the Hot Topics section on the front page right? Maybe the simpler solution would be to restrict which businesses show up in the hot topics section. Do you think that would work?

That is an interesting idea. I like the idea of it, I have no clue how it would work, but I do like the idea of it.

Restricting posts and threads may work and it is an interesting approach.

Something else comes to mind. We are discussing and debating the subject at hand without an important piece of info. Proposed advertising costs could greatly affect our opinions. Otherwise we are arguing based on our assumptions of what costs could be. Some forums I have advertised are hefty and only the serious heavy hitters are paying to play, while other sites are extremely affordable for ANY business, thus the small shops should have NO objections to pay.