Big Bad Toy Store want to advertise on our front page... :)

Hi again gang,

This is something I really am going to need some advice about - Neil & myself have been sent an e-mail from Big Bad Toy Store, who want to pay to advertise on our front page!! :thumbsup:

This is a tremendous opportunity for our site, as between that and the Google Adsense we have a real shot of actually making this site's hosting pay for itself, something I've long wanted to see us achieve! :)

However, I must admit I have absolutely no idea what sort of figure we should quote them - does anyone have any ideas as to what the going rate is?? :confused:

I really wish Mark was still around as he's got a lot of knowledge of this area - Mark, if you happen to see this, please can you advise?? :)

I also think Neil & I should put our heads together on this to make sure we don't both reply to the e-mail separately! Maybe using the "reply to all" feature (so that we both get any replies in our inboxes) would be a simple solution to this? :)

Anyway, I think this is really good news and testament to the success of our site - well done, guys! :thumbsup:

EDIT: Here's the e-mail I received:

"Big Bad Toy Store" said:

Hi – Bandai America has informed us that the Thundercats products can only be shipped to addresses in the USA and Canada. I believe there are a lot of international customers who are interested in these products. We’ve had to post this warning on our site:

PLEASE NOTE: This item is only available to ship to addresses in the USA and Canada. Bandai America requires that this item ships only to North America. Orders & Preorders with shipping addresses outside the USA & Canada will be cancelled; we apologize for the inconvenience.

I wanted to check with your site and see if anyone knew of forwarders or package consolidators with USA or Canadian addresses that could receive orders from customers and forward on to them?

Also – I’d like to advertise on your site, please let me know your rates

Thanks!
Joel Boblit
www.bigbadtoystore.com

Take care... :)

I wonder if we could get something like $30 per month for the forum and $20 per month for the site front page? or is that a bit too much?

The site is getting on average 55,000 visits per month in 2011. April's vistors hit 67,000, our highest amount so far I believe (but I think thats actual visits and not unique visitors!)

According to Adsense, the Google ads get around 1,700 page impressions per day. We have now earned £2.45. I think we should earn around £5 per month from Google ads....should we be charging the same to BBTS? ($10 per month?)

I'm really out of my depth with this decision! :(

EDIT:

Just found info for unique visits....I believe in May we got 26,345 unique visits!

EDIT 2:

For the $30 rate I'd also be happy to agree to no other ads from rival North American companies advertising on our forum or site.

Oh and a shame about Bandai not allowing BBTS not to ship outside the USA! I don't think we can help in regards to someone who can forward orders on....

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 43202" said:

I wonder if we could get something like $30 per month for the forum and $20 per month for the site front page? or is that a bit too much?

The site is getting on average 55,000 visits per month in 2011. April's vistors hit 67,000, our highest amount so far I believe (but I think thats actual visits and not unique visitors!)

According to Adsense, the Google ads get around 1,700 page impressions per day. We have now earned £2.45. I think we should earn around £5 per month from Google ads....should we be charging the same to BBTS? ($10 per month?)

I'm really out of my depth with this decision! :(

Yeah, likewise - who do we know who we could ask for advice about something like this? I'm sure we must know someone who can help! :)

"blackiecats, post: 43202" said:

EDIT:

Just found info for unique visits....I believe in May we got 26,345 unique visits!

That's very impressive!! :)

"blackiecats, post: 43202" said:

EDIT 2:

For the $30 rate I'd also be happy to agree to no other ads from rival North American companies advertising on our forum or site.

I must admit, for myself I'd rather take a slightly lower amount and limit that to no rival North American companies on the front page, with us encouraging folks on our forums to purchase from BBTS - I'd prefer not to get into a situation where we're deleting threads and posts from people that contain links to other companies who sell the Bandai ThunderCats figures, even if the post with the link in question is linking to some other product. From a practical perspective it's so much work, from a personal perspective I'd prefer not to get too strict with people. :)

That said, if that's what we end up deciding to go for I'm certainly happy to go along with it - if we were able to get $360 - $600 per year out of them, that would be worth considering for sure! The biggest headache we'd have then is figuring out what to do with the leftover money! ;)

"blackiecats, post: 43202" said:

Oh and a shame about Bandai not allowing BBTS not to ship outside the USA! I don't think we can help in regards to someone who can forward orders on....

Unfortunately I think the only member of the team left who's based in America is Matt, who I know has quite a lot on his plate - otherwise I find myself wondering whether this site could have somehow acted as a "go-between" in exchange for a markup? ;) He-Man.Org had their "He-Store" (at least I seem to remember that's what it was called), it would have been amazing if this site could have developed something similar, but as I say, aside from Matt we're all now based in Europe. :(

Take care... :)

"He-Fan, post: 43208" said:

Yeah, likewise - who do we know who we could ask for advice about something like this? I'm sure we must know someone who can help! :)

You could try Danny Eardley...I believe Pop Culture Network affiliates with BBTS?

"He-Fan, post: 43208" said:

That's very impressive!! :)

To be honest it sounds a bit high really...but then if you count in all the spammers etc... I'll double check to see if I'm reading it right ;)

"He-Fan, post: 43208" said:

I'd prefer not to get into a situation where we're deleting threads and posts from people that contain links to other companies who sell the Bandai ThunderCats figures, even if the post with the link in question is linking to some other product. From a practical perspective it's so much work, from a personal perspective I'd prefer not to get too strict with people. :)

Unfortunately for us to get a continuous revenue from BBTS on this we'd have to be strict I'm afraid. If the ad is up and we allow potential buyers to go off to another store, then it defeats the point of BBTS paying us! Also if they don't get sales directed from us they would likely drop the ad within a few months. We really do have to be professional about this and it means getting tougher with certain things.

"He-Fan, post: 43208" said:

That said, if that's what we end up deciding to go for I'm certainly happy to go along with it - if we were able to get $360 - $600 per year out of them, that would be worth considering for sure! The biggest headache we'd have then is figuring out what to do with the leftover money! ;)

Depending on the revenue, I'd suggest a 2 year hosting renewal, then what's left over, perhaps an Amazon gift voucher each? (the reason a gift voucher is because I don't want to get into the mine field of paying people cash considering we are a non profit site!)

We could also budget some cash for Bandai Toys to give away as prizes? Actually we could even ask BBTS to donate a couple of toys as part of the payment?

"He-Fan, post: 43208" said:

Unfortunately I think the only member of the team left who's based in America is Matt, who I know has quite a lot on his plate - otherwise I find myself wondering whether this site could have somehow acted as a "go-between" in exchange for a markup? ;) He-Man.Org had their "He-Store" (at least I seem to remember that's what it was called), it would have been amazing if this site could have developed something similar, but as I say, aside from Matt we're all now based in Europe. :(

Yep we'd need a USA contact to send the stuff over here, but then it's a big undertaking and we once again enter a mine field as that would be a business? 10-15 orders is a hobby, but 100's of orders definately makes you a business!

Either way I think we need to nail this down tonight. I suggest we ask BBTS what they are willing to pay, mentioning that we are only just recently putting an advertising program together. Be honest and say it's new to us.

I'd really prefer we don't go in and make an offer of $30 and they think we are taking the **** and say it's too much.

Chris can you come on chat so we can write a reply? Your better at wording it than me, but I'm probably better at deciding what points to put forward....let me know! I do think we should reply back tonight if possible!

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 43215" said:

You could try Danny Eardley...I believe Pop Culture Network affiliates with BBTS?

Good suggestion - I'm currently chatting with Dan about some other stuff so might mention this to him and see what he says - although as you say, we really need to jump on this ASAP! :)

"blackiecats, post: 43215" said:

To be honest it sounds a bit high really...but then if you count in all the spammers etc... I'll double check to see if I'm reading it right ;)

Well, with all of the interest in ThunderCats recently, it wouldn't surprise me! :)

"blackiecats, post: 43215" said:

Unfortunately for us to get a continuous revenue from BBTS on this we'd have to be strict I'm afraid. If the ad is up and we allow potential buyers to go off to another store, then it defeats the point of BBTS paying us! Also if they don't get sales directed from us they would likely drop the ad within a few months. We really do have to be professional about this and it means getting tougher with certain things.

You're right of course, it's just a shame to have to lay down the hammer with folks who are likely to post links thinking they're helping other fans. But I'm not disagreeing with the point you're making. :)

Are we saying then that, for example, if someone links to a product (such as a ThunderCats book or something) at www.amazon.com that we should nuke that link because Amazon will have the new ThunderCats toys for sale? If the idea is purely that we nuke links that link specifically to the ThunderCats toys (for example if someone links to another online e-tailer's ThunderCats toys page), then I could live with that quite happily. :)

"blackiecats, post: 43215" said:

Depending on the revenue, I'd suggest a 2 year hosting renewal, then what's left over, perhaps an Amazon gift voucher each? (the reason a gift voucher is because I don't want to get into the mine field of paying people cash considering we are a non profit site!)

We could also budget some cash for Bandai Toys to give away as prizes? Actually we could even ask BBTS to donate a couple of toys as part of the payment?

I like all of these ideas, and I agree completely about paying cash - I'm definitely not looking to make money out of this site (even though it would be nice, LOL!), but was thinking more in the realms of whether there would be anything we'd like to do to develop the site that we could utilise the funds for. For example, you can actually invest money into Google to up your ranking - stuff like that. :)

It would be good if we were able to get some stock from BBTS to give away - could this also be a means of getting you & MannyC some of the figures to photograph for this site's Bandai toy section? ;)

However, surely if BBTS can't ship the figures outside of the US or Canada, this would torpedo that idea? :(

"blackiecats, post: 43215" said:

Yep we'd need a USA contact to send the stuff over here, but then it's a big undertaking and we once again enter a mine field as that would be a business? 10-15 orders is a hobby, but 100's of orders definately makes you a business!

Again you're absolutely right, I was kind-of thinking out loud, LOL! It would be impossible anyway without a team member with loads of spare time based in the US. :)

"blackiecats, post: 43215" said:

Either way I think we need to nail this down tonight. I suggest we ask BBTS what they are willing to pay, mentioning that we are only just recently putting an advertising program together. Be honest and say it's new to us.

I'd really prefer we don't go in and make an offer of $30 and they think we are taking the **** and say it's too much.

That's fair enough, at the same time we don't want them to "low ball" us by thinking we don't know what we're doing - but we can certainly go in and say to them "make us an offer" and see whether we like the sound of what they come up with. :)

"blackiecats, post: 43215" said:

Chris can you come on chat so we can write a reply? Your better at wording it than me, but I'm probably better at deciding what points to put forward....let me know! I do think we should reply back tonight if possible!

Yes, I definitely agree, and I could probably make it online for 11pm if that was any good? Which chat would you prefer to use, MSN, Skype, Facebook, etc.? :)

I will have to be very, very strict and log off at about half-past midnight as I'm fighting off a cold and need to try and be well for tomorrow night, so can't stay online till 2:00am like I normally would, LOL! But yeah, I could certainly give you a good couple of hours to try and get this nailed down - LMK what you'd like me to log on to! :)

Take care... :)

Just to keep everyone in the loop, I'm now negotiating a deal with BBTS, which will also possibly allow us to get the toys in order to review and photograph for the site!

I'm sure everyone would agree this is an important aspect we need to tackle, especially if we are all only collecting the Classic style toys! lol

Will update with progress...

You guys are rockin...I cant put much of my insight as to how much people are paying these days fro advertising so it may be good to contact other similar sites for advice or better yet just be honest with BBTS that it is something new to us and we're willing to work it out to the benefit of both of us. Nothing wrong with being honest here and often times companies do appreciate it. Who knows, their offer may even be more than what we though was good

Chris here...

Again just to update on what Neil's saying, the deal on the table from BBTS is looking very promising and well worth pursuing! :)

Neil is currently trying to get a deal laid down whereby part of our payment for the advertising revenue is free samples of the Bandai TCats product line which we can use for review purposes, and also for the photos for our toy guide! :)

Failing that, BBTS are suggesting between $50 - $75 per month! :eek: Obviously if we end up getting samples in part payment that will drive this figure down, but even in that eventuality I would have thought, say, $25 per month was a possibility, which is $300 per year! Not too shabby!! :D

So yeah, this is shaping up very well - we'll keep you guys posted! :)

Take care... :)

An update from me! :)

The deal with BBTS is finalized and this is what we get:

-$40 BBTS store credit per month
-$30 cash per month

I pushed for the store credit so we can buy the new ThunderCats toys for review and photographic purposes. With all of us outside the USA, we'd be at a disadvantage (compared to other US based sites...) as stores won't ship the Bandai toys outside the USA...

However I have a friend who was part of Pop Culture Network on board to do the reviews for us. I believe this cuts us some slack when we have little time or the set up to make reviews. It also helps us to have someone who can then send on the toys to us (so they can then be photographed for the site!) Otherwise we'd have to buy from eBay or wait for a European release!

BBTS have just paid us the first installment (they plan to pay every quarter) So in Paypal we have just over $86 (after fees) and our store credit is $120. With the cash we have nearly 3/4 of the money needed to renew the hosting for another year! (and it's not up for renewal until Feb 2012!)

So my next question is...what toys should we order first? I'm thinking the 4" complete set of 7, Classics Lion-O and Tygra and the role play Sword of Omens. I think those are the most anticipated? Ideally we should get the bulky items of the playset and Thundertank, but not much of a review for those without the set of 4" figures to demonstrate them? I guess we miss out on Snarf though without the Thundertank...

Although it would be great to get other thoughts on this! ;)

EDIT: Damn! I have to pay VAT on the hosting fee now! Damn Tory government! The hosting cost to renew is as follows:

-1 year = $128.88 (including VAT)
-2 year = $228.96 (including VAT)
-3 year = $300.24 (including VAT)

Will have to see what everything makes combined, but maybe the money should be spent on 2 years of hosting foremost?

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 43489" said:

An update from me! :)

The deal with BBTS is finalized and this is what we get:

-$40 BBTS store credit per month
-$30 cash per month

I pushed for the store credit so we can buy the new ThunderCats toys for review and photographic purposes. With all of us outside the USA, we'd be at a disadvantage (compared to other US based sites...) as stores won't ship the Bandai toys outside the USA...

However I have a friend who was part of Pop Culture Network on board to do the reviews for us. I believe this cuts us some slack when we have little time or the set up to make reviews. It also helps us to have someone who can then send on the toys to us (so they can then be photographed for the site!) Otherwise we'd have to buy from eBay or wait for a European release!

BBTS have just paid us the first installment (they plan to pay every quarter) So in Paypal we have just over $86 (after fees) and our store credit is $120. With the cash we have nearly 3/4 of the money needed to renew the hosting for another year! (and it's not up for renewal until Feb 2012!)

Neil, I'm really sorry not to have replied to your e-mail about this yet! :(

I think you've done a superb job here, mate, really outstanding! :thumbsup: I think this deal hits so many different bases, and the fact that you've been able to tie this into sorting us out with official video reviews is even better! I'm really chuffed with the way this has worked out, and it's thanks to your skill and smart thinking, Neil! :thumbsup:

"blackiecats, post: 43489" said:

So my next question is...what toys should we order first? I'm thinking the 4" complete set of 7, Classics Lion-O and Tygra and the role play Sword of Omens. I think those are the most anticipated? Ideally we should get the bulky items of the playset and Thundertank, but not much of a review for those without the set of 4" figures to demonstrate them? I guess we miss out on Snarf though without the Thundertank...

Although it would be great to get other thoughts on this! ;)

My thinking mirrors yours, except that I think the Thundertank is also one of the most anticipated items. I'd probably have swapped the Thundertank for the roleplay Sword of Omens on your list, because of the vehicle itself and because of the Snarf figure, but otherwise I agree. :)

"blackiecats, post: 43489" said:

EDIT: Damn! I have to pay VAT on the hosting fee now! Damn Tory government! The hosting cost to renew is as follows:

-1 year = $128.88 (including VAT)
-2 year = $228.96 (including VAT)
-3 year = $300.24 (including VAT)

Will have to see what everything makes combined, but maybe the money should be spent on 2 years of hosting foremost?

Again, I'm 100% with you on this, I would spend the money on sorting out the hosting side of things and then look at what we have over after that - I think the hosting is the no.1 priority. :)

Once again, Neil, your work on this has been second to none - well done! :thumbsup:

Take care... :)

Just to pinch in that even though I am outside the US my APO address (Army Post Office) is actually an address with a US zipcode. Because I am military all my mail technically goes to a US address (based out of New York) and then gets sent to me. While items do take slightly longer than continental US addresses the items do get here usuallly about 3 to 4 days later than normal mail. I'd be more than happy of course to be the recipient of the toys and can take on the task of photographing them since i have a pretty good camera now and I can also do the editing of pictures.

Up to you guys if you want to have the toys sent to me and I can take care of pictures and editing. Only thing is to make sure if they ship to APO.

@Neil...awesome job at what you have done. If you can contact BBTS to see if they ship to APO we can have the toys sent to us...however you feel its best

"MannysCollectibles, post: 43506" said:

Up to you guys if you want to have the toys sent to me and I can take care of pictures and editing. Only thing is to make sure if they ship to APO.

@Neil...awesome job at what you have done. If you can contact BBTS to see if they ship to APO we can have the toys sent to us...however you feel its best

I've already set the deal up for the toys to go to Jason first. I know how keen he is on this stuff and it will enable us to compete with other sites reporting on the new toys and their release. I have other US contacts the toys could have gone to, but this was purposely done to get video reviews out of them (which should send traffic our way) and not get scooped on this by ThunderCatsYesterday! :D

That said, we can still get the toys sent over to either of us from Jason ;)

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 43511" said:

I've already set the deal up for the toys to go to Jason first. I know how keen he is on this stuff and it will enable us to compete with other sites reporting on the new toys and their release. I have other US contacts the toys could have gone to, but this was purposely done to get video reviews out of them (which should send traffic our way) and not get scooped on this by ThunderCatsYesterday! :D

:thumbsup:

I'm guessing Jason has his own YouTube channel these will be going out on - and, also guessing that these will have the ThunderCats Lair "branding" on them too? :)

Again, well done with what you've done here, Neil! :thumbsup:

MannyC: Really appreciate the offer, my friend - for myself I'm totally cool with whichever one of you guys wants to sort out the photos side of things, so I'll just leave that side of things up to you two, whatever you think works best. :)

Take care... :)

"He-Fan, post: 43513" said:

Chris here...

:thumbsup:

I'm guessing Jason has his own YouTube channel these will be going out on - and, also guessing that these will have the ThunderCats Lair "branding" on them too? :)

Again, well done with what you've done here, Neil! :thumbsup:

He said he'll be putting up his own toy review site up just before SDCC. I think he will be attending SDCC so it stands to sense he'll be posting up all the various toy news that comes out of SDCC on the new site.

and yes the ThunderCatsLair.org logo will be on the reviews. That is a stipulation of offering the toy samples for him to review. I think both parties will get equal returns out of this deal :)

I also think he will be a good contact to have, as he might help us out with content from SDCC. However don't quote me on that as I'm not 100% certain he is attending SDCC.....I know he did last year, but that was as a staff member of Pop Culture Network I believe...

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 43517" said:

He said he'll be putting up his own toy review site up just before SDCC. I think he will be attending SDCC so it stands to sense he'll be posting up all the various toy news that comes out of SDCC on the new site.

That's awesome! :)

Would he have an objection in principle to us posting these up on our own ThunderCats Lair YouTube channel as well (with his site's branding on them as well as our own)? :)

"blackiecats, post: 43517" said:

and yes the ThunderCatsLair.org logo will be on the reviews. That is a stipulation of offering the toy samples for him to review. I think both parties will get equal returns out of this deal :)

I completely, 100% agree! :)

"blackiecats, post: 43517" said:

I also think he will be a good contact to have, as he might help us out with content from SDCC. However don't quote me on that as I'm not 100% certain he is attending SDCC.....I know he did last year, but that was as a staff member of Pop Culture Network I believe...

I think you must be psychic, my friend, as I've just posted up a thread about this exact subject here on the team forum! :)

Take care... :)

"He-Fan, post: 43519" said:

Chris here...

That's awesome! :)

Would he have an objection in principle to us posting these up on our own ThunderCats Lair YouTube channel as well (with his site's branding on them as well as our own)? :)

Nah, it stands to sense we'd post them up on there as well.

"He-Fan, post: 43519" said:

I think you must be psychic, my friend, as I've just posted up a thread about this exact subject here on the team forum! :)

The force is with me tonight! :D (to quote mcss aerocoupe):D

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 43522" said:

Nah, it stands to sense we'd post them up on there as well.

Cool! Now the only hurdle to jump is that Google changed the login details for this site's YouTube channel so that they're the same as for Mark's personal e-mail address - so, he's now the only member of the TCL team who can access our YouTube channel!

"blackiecats, post: 43522" said:

The force is with me tonight! :D (to quote mcss aerocoupe):D

As long as you don't try any Jedi mind tricks on me, then we're good!! :D

Take care... :)

"He-Fan, post: 43524" said:

Chris here...

Cool! Now the only hurdle to jump is that Google changed the login details for this site's YouTube channel so that they're the same as for Mark's personal e-mail address - so, he's now the only member of the TCL team who can access our YouTube channel!

WHAT? :o:rolleyes: It never rains, but it pours doesn't it? :( This could be a major problem that needs sorting immediatly! :(

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 43526" said:

WHAT? :o:rolleyes: It never rains, but it pours doesn't it? :( This could be a major problem that needs sorting immediatly! :(

Yeah, this is what Mark told me - the last lot of videos we posted up there, I actually uploaded them to the team forum and then Mark added them himself. So yeah, this too needs sorting ASAP - not quite sure what we can do to get over that if Mark doesn't have the time to upload them? :(

EDIT: Just tested this myself and confirmed it to be true - the YouTube account wants me to sign in with Mark's gmail address and password. So yeah, one of us will have to get in touch with Mark and ask him about this, as we need to be "on the ball" with getting video reviews up. :)

Take care... :)

"He-Fan, post: 43527" said:

Chris here...



Yeah, this is what Mark told me - the last lot of videos we posted up there, I actually uploaded them to the team forum and then Mark added them himself. So yeah, this too needs sorting ASAP - not quite sure what we can do to get over that if Mark doesn't have the time to upload them? :(

EDIT: Just tested this myself and confirmed it to be true - the YouTube account wants me to sign in with Mark's gmail address and password. So yeah, one of us will have to get in touch with Mark and ask him about this, as we need to be "on the ball" with getting video reviews up. :)

Take care... :)

Unless we get access then the reviews will just have to be posted on this site only. Maybe you could message Mark on Facebook? I think we need to open a google account for the Youtube channel which all 4 of us have access to.