[Consortium] Advertising Policy - linuxaudio.org

Ivica Ico Bukvic ico at vt.edu
Sat Apr 21 21:29:09 UTC 2012


Patrick,

Arguably the only reason you have someone interested in putting ads on your page is because it is a part of the linuxaudio.org ecosystem that typically gets over 1TB of traffic every month. If you wish to do your own page/domain that is fine but you cannot put ads on a page that is even remotely associated with the University as that would imply that the University endorses the said ads and that is simply not the case at all.

More so, even if the current ad is marginally acceptable those can change at any point in time and as such cannot be easily controlled and even more importantly have to be continually monitored.

Long story short, if you wish to try to make some money with ads, please register a separate domain (which I believe you already have) and do whatever you wish to do with them. Based on the majority of the consortium members the current linuxaudio.org site will remain ad-free.

HTH

Ico

> -----Original Message-----
> From: consortium-bounces at lists.linuxaudio.org [mailto:consortium-
> bounces at lists.linuxaudio.org] On Behalf Of Patrick Shirkey
> Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 6:00 AM
> To: consortium at lists.linuxaudio.org
> Subject: Re: [Consortium] Advertising Policy - linuxaudio.org
> 
> 
> On Fri, April 20, 2012 11:10 am, Daniel James wrote:
> > Hi Patrick,
> >
> >>>> I would like to proceed with this first "customer" and will need
> >>>> to migrate the subdomains to the new location first.
> >
> > I agree with Ico that the value of the support and goodwill that we
> have
> > from Virginia Tech and other educational institutions is far higher than
> > what we could reasonably expect to earn from Internet advertising.
> >
> 
> I don't see how advertising on some of the subdomains will stop any of
> those institutions from continuing to support the goals of the Consortium.
> If that was the case then all Universities would have to do *everything*
> using not for profit solutions. I seriously doubt that the Universities of
> the world want people and businesses to do everything for free. While
> that
> is a personal political choice should the Consortium have a political
> agenda against capitalism?
> 
> 
> > If there are new companies that would like to support our work, there
> > are other ways for them to do that - such as becoming an active
> member
> > of the consortium, hosting LAC, sponsoring conference trips and the
> > like. This will earn them more kudos than advertising, which would have
> > a pretty low response rate anyway. Free Software developers don't buy
> > much, they build what they need instead :-)
> >
> 
> We should be offering those options already as that would give them
> access
> to our immediate community. How then do we let the world know about
> their
> support? One standard way is to provide promotional opportunities
> across
> our online content.
> 
> Advertising and online promotions through a Linux Digital channel will
> give companies exposure to anyone who happens to drop by any of the
> online
> locations we place their advertisements. If we are going to restrict
> ourselves to only focusing on institutions and people who are already
> part
> of the community then we are missing a big opportunity for growth.
> 
> While a large part of the Linux Audio community is built on the efforts
> and support of Universities and volunteers it seems like cutting our nose
> to spite our face by restricting ourselves from providing support and
> marketing opportunities to businesses that want to have that brand
> association or leverage off the SEO potential from our combined and
> continuing efforts on building out our content over the years.
> 
> 
> > The online video channel idea sounds like it could be viable, but
> > looking at the economics of YouTube advertising and what it takes to
> > become a content partner there, I don't think our existing community is
> > large enough to make it pay.
> >
> 
> Youtube advertising relies on mass market principals. Our core "selling"
> point is that we have valuable brand association. This gives us the
> ability to set specific rates for allowing companies to associate their
> brand with ours. Another opportunity we present is access to a
> dedicated
> bunch of eyeballs. However it will work to our advantage too if we have
> highly recognised brands associated with our content. Whether you like it
> or not people who are new to Linux Audio will feel more confident in
> taking a leap if they see brands they recognise.
> 
> 
> > I would suggest looking at creating video tutorials on cross-platform
> > Free Software like Ardour or Audacity as a related possibility. See:
> >
> >
> http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=8283
> 9#AU
> >
> 
> That could be useful but I don't have the time to make many videos
> myself
> at the moment. However there is scope for other people to contribute
> content for this purpose. There is already a lot out there in that regard
> but I haven't had the time to collate it all and post it anywhere. I have
> considered a section on lmv for tutorials but I am leaning towards a new
> subdomain for that purpose. i.e journal.lao
> 
> > You may need permission from software authors to monetize videos
> > containing screenshots (there is no allowance for Free Software in the
> > policy):
> >
> >
> http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1381
> 61
> >
> 
> That is a very unusual take on things. It might become an issue but I see
> that as a very low risk. If anyone was upset about their software being
> used to make videos or articles that are also hosted on sites with paid
> advertising then we could provide a contact form for them to get in
> touch
> with us for removal.
> 
> Did you or Dave have any issues with clearing rights for screenshots in
> the books and articles that you have published professionally? That
> would
> be useful information for an FAQ.
> 
> 
> >>> Next to that, my personal take on advertising on linuaudio.org is that
> >>> the Net is already crippled with ads. Online marketing techniques
> come
> >>> with strings attached such as the general development of pervasive
> >>> tracking systems
> >
> > I agree that Aymeric made a good point there.
> >
> 
> Sure, we can have our own tracking/analytics if we choose to. I haven't
> made any plans for any analytics or tracking but I think we have an
> opportunity to provide a complete solution for any member of the
> community
> to integrate into their website and help the channel expand. That would
> have to come at a later date though and would be dependant on
> making some
> cash first.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Patrick Shirkey
> Boost Hardware Ltd
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> Consortium at lists.linuxaudio.org
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/consortium



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