Question for users that could help marketing

[admin]

Well I have been talking about the new affiliate system for awhile and it is almost ready to go live.

Now I need some feed back...  Bidjunk does not charge fees for user to list auctions ( never have never will).  I was thinking about making the affiliate system give credits to users.  The problem is right now Bid Junk doesnt require any credits or money for the upgrades.  So I am thinking about adding fees to the upgrades.  I actually would hope no one ever has to pay one so I will probably give all new and current users credit to start.  This will make an incentive to new and current users to use the affiliate program.  The upgrade fees would be small, but completely avoidable.  And like I said so users dont get irritated we could credit new accounts with credits.  Also users could come to the forums and ask for some if they wanted as well as I would like to have more people talking on the forums.

Surge..  What do you think?

Here are the different ways we could add this:

 Home Page Featured           Category Featured 
 Highlighted Item                  Bold Item 
 
Like I said I would like to have it so no one would ever actually pay anything.  So I was thinking of making them lik 50 cents and giving everyone who signs up 5 bucks and then they could also ask for more credits in the forum.

Let me know what you think.  This is not intended to make money just help motivate people to invite friends and family.

[Surge Awe]

I think it could work... take a look around the other auctions and get a feel for what they charge for upgrades on average and then cut that in half...  I think that would drive more people in your direction.  As for the forum chatter, your X amount of posts the member could get Y amount of credits... Is this anywhere on the same page you are on?  If you do this you know someone has to be here 24/7 to hand out these credits as well as make sure the postings here are legitimate.  This would mean the need for more Forum Moderators, Global Moderators, Hosts, Customer Service Staff and so on... A group of which I am a seemingly lone member of as of late.  I could hold it down on odd occasions but when the traffic picks up again like it did not too long ago... I'm not so sure...  Overall, I think it's a good idea.  As I said before I would put some research into the cost of each upgrade though.... I would also offer up the idea of the Administrator setting up a Credits Store on the auction side so the credits are readily available. (Something like the automatic download)

Just so you know, I am still advertising bidjunk on all my current sites and forum.  I also think it's time the Surge Awe Studios Banner on the auctionside may need to be updated ...   

Post Ya Later,

~Surge Awe~

[Surge Awe]

     I have done a bit of thinking and research on the matter and have come up with a few ideas. 

BIDJUNK UPGRADE ITEMS & PROPOSED COST IN CENTS

• HIGHLIGHTED ITEM ~ .10
• BOLD ITEM ~ .05
• HOME PAGE FEATURED ITEM ~ .50
• CATEGORY FEATURED ITEM ~ .25
• CUSTOM START / END TIME ~ .05
• ADDITIONAL CATEGORY LISTING ~ .05

In a previous post these were posted as the upgrades available here... I was glad to not see a price for having a store among the upgrades.

If you use the above prices for the credit system you are proposing I would suggest adding a bundle offer of all upgrades for 75 cents worth of credits. 
Now, as for acquiring credits... One idea is to reward sellers who sell... basically items sold using upgrades are elligible for discounts on future upgrades. For example:  If you sell an item using 50 cents worth of upgrades that should at very least gain the seller a credit discount toward their next auction upgrade.

The posts are a bit tricky to reward... I know there will be some who just come in and post something like a one word post and think they will gain credit for it like those of us who post at least something pertaining to the subjet it is posted in.  I think that if we have more moderators (new moderators should start out with less access until they pass through a "probationary period" so we know they are legit.) I am not sure how much credit each post would be worth or could be worth... I think that would depend on the quallity and the content of the posts made by each member.