Hollywood Heroes Revenue

Hey gang,

Last night in light of some issues regarding Jordan's Prototypes sales (see Mod forum for more details) and the fact BBTS are now paying us to advertise, I sent Jordan an email.

I explained how as a non profit fan site we support trades and sales via our forum, but the situation in regard to business sellers has changed due to other partnerships (BBTS) and possible rising hosting costs. I explained that to be fair any business that now wants to promote themselves via our site needs to affiliate with us and pay for ads. I suggested $30 per month for a forum ad 468x60 (same size as the two current Google ads) BBTS have already paid for a forum ad 468x60 and now it seems I've sold the other 468x60 ad space to Hollywood Heroes! (the $30 will come in handy since the Bandai toy order ran over our credit by nearly $30! :) )

Anyway here's the dialogue between Jordan and myself:

blackiecats said:

Hey Jordan,

As your aware (from a TCL moderator), wthompson has been opening his mouth again, pm'ing at least one of our members, trying indirectly to discourage them from bidding on your auction items.

While we are impartial in regard to these sales and your business, I'm not happy about this tittle tattle from wthompson.

Furthermore, regrettably I think we are going to have to cut the advertising of these prototype auctions on the forums and site. This is mainly due to stores expressing an interest in advertising ThunderCats products via our site and forums. The first company to partner with us is Big Bad Toy Store, who are paying us to advertise.

However if we allow Hollywood Heroes to advertise sales on the forums and then make other companies pay for advertising we look kinda bad...and it will put others off partnering with us if they can just sell their merchandise freely....

With new opportunities coming our way from the launch of the new series, along with more traffic potentially pushing our site running costs up, I'm afraid we now need to take a tougher stance on this.

If you were a collector selling off one of the prototypes it would be cool, but as you are a business, we'd need to now take these steps. Your welcome to post images of the prototypes and sale items on the forums, so folks can discuss them, but any links and direct advertising we'd need to nuke.

Apologies once again for this, but I'm sure you can understand how our situation has changed.

If your still interested in advertising your upcoming auctions, let me know and we can discuss ad rates.

Neil

hollywoodheroes said:

Neil,

By all means, let me know the costs involved.

I will not advertise the auctions any further... but are they still allowed to be discussed on the forum? Meaning... are other collectors still allowed to discuss them.. since they are of a historic nature.

Also... may I suggest you also ban Wayne. He has been a thorn in my side for years, contacting my clients as well.

Looking forward to speaking with you.

All my best-
Jordan

blackiecats said:

I think Wayne will be issued with one final warning. After that anymore of his nonsense and that's it.

The ad I'd suggest would be placed at the top of the forum (in place of one of the current Google Ads) and could be changed each time you put a new auction up, in order to advertise that upcoming sale. We'd ask $30 per month, which is only $7.50 a week. I think it's a great price considering how much these prototypes will all sell for! However we are flexiable in regards to ad positioning etc...

In regard to general discussion of the items, of course we are happy with that to continue. Obviously if you take an ad with us, your free to then discuss your auctions how you choose on the forum as before.

So to clarify, chat about the items and what it was used for, its origin etc... we'd welcome. However more detailed discussion involving auctions and how and when to buy etc... wouldn't be, unless you officially advertise with us. It's only fair to us and other affiliates.

Neil

hollywoodheroes said:

Let me know where to send the money, and I will take care of it today !!!

Thank you for being so wonderful about this.

blackiecats said:

Paypal is best. My email is: [email]neil@thundercatslair.org[/email]

If you can get an ad made that is 468x60 (Horizontal), I can then put it up straight away on the forum.

Neil

I was actually against the idea of proividing Jordan with advertising, however due to our current situation with BBTS adverts it will be fitting to charge HH for advertising. $30 to him is peanuts, matter of fact the price for the amount of traffic we have could be well under what similar sites with adverts charge for. Either way a big two thumbs up...you took this ball and ran with it in a very diplomatic way. Im not keen on paying out of pocket so this advertising will put us ahead for what is to come

Chris here...

Once again, like MannyC I have to give all of this a big double thumbs up, you've done a great job with this Neil! :)

I'm not quite sure what to make of Jordan's comment about being so wonderful about this given that you haven't been, in fact you've just fleeced him of lots of money!! (And quite right too!) :D Nevertheless, I suppose having a banner ad constantly advertising Hollywood Heroes' TCats auctions is a good thing for them, much higher profile than having it buried in the Classic Toys forum! :)

So yep, again well done with this, I think you're right on top of the game here Neil! :)

Take care... :)

I agree with MannyC to an extent I could have pushed for more, but at the same time I didn't know what Jordan's reaction would be...we have to remember the big bang so to speak over the sale of these items has already occured, so Jordan might think he's got it out to the potential clients by now via our forums and now they know where I am, I don't need to advertise the fact I'm selling these anymore on TCL now my main demograph is aware.

So I didn't want to be too greedy...I based the $30 on the fact BBTS are taking 2 ads (one on the front page and the other on the forum) so it stands to sense to charge half that price roughly for one ad.

My main priority was getting at least something from Jordan and my only regret was not pushing and implementing this from day 1.

Anyway thanks guys for supporting me with this and for the praise! Much appreciated!