WikiFur:Advertising


 * This page is about advertising WikiFur, as opposed to non-monetary promotion.

Promotion is usually very effective. However, there are some people who would be interested in WikiFur if they knew about it, but who can only be easily reached by paid advertising. The objective is to get the attention of these people while not spending money on those who will not be interested by WikiFur. Price is important, as WikiFur has very limited resources (currently whatever GreenReaper is willing to spend, plus other donations :-).

This page is for the description and maintenance of current campaigns, suggestions for their improvement, and ideas for new ones.

Megaplex 2006
GreenReaper has taken out a half-page ad in the Megaplex 2006 con book. If you happen to be there and notice anyone being interested in it, please feel free to mention what a great site this is and why people should check it out. ;-)

Anthrocon 2006
Anthrocon is the premier east-coast furry convention. Furries will be attending from around the world. It may well be worth advertising at it.

Con book
Obviously, the AC2006 con book would have been be a nice place to advertise. Rates were not made available for a while, and unfortunately they didn't make it to GreenReaper before the deadline, so that idea didn't work out. Instead. ..

Flyers
The backup plan was to have flyers distributed at the con - ideally, one to each attendee in the con bag. This worked out great, right up to the point of printing. Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of the printers and the gullibility of the person ordering expecting their turnaround time to be accurate, the flyers only left the printing shop the Friday before the con. They eventually arrived late on Thursday. The con staff did their best to add them to as many of the bags as they could from that point onwards. Many flyers (around 3000) were distributed at later conventions, most notably Further Confusion 2007.

Buttons
One other idea being considered is to have some buttons that could be distributed (perhaps only to contributors?) at Anthrocon, and possibly at other conventions if popular and while supplies last. The most likely size is 1 3/4 inch, as that tends to be large enough in visibility terms but small enough to be economic. Buttons would have to be ordered in large numbers - over 100, probably more like 250 to get a reasonable rate.

There are various potential providers of buttons.

Ribbons (ConClave 31 & Midwest FurFest 2006)
100 conbadge-attaching ribbons have been ordered for pickup at ConClave. They are intended to identify WikiFur editors and administrators to other con-goers, and spark discussion of the project. They will be used for at least MFF 2006 as well, since the number of furries at ConClave will be relatively small. The total cost was $29 (2 designs @ $2 + 100 ribbons @ 25¢).

Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search
Google offers a system of paid placement (AdWords) by the side of search results, and on affiliated websites (including WikiFur). Similarly, Yahoo! offers "sponsored search" results. These adverts cost money, though they are reasonable. Specific furry-related keywords (e.g. Anthrocon, as opposed to furry) are generally available for $0.10 a click, or sometimes less, and we can get far cheaper clicks via their "content network". Our average is about $0.03 a click. There is no charge for ad impressions that do not generate clicks, but those that fall below a certain click-through percentage have their minimum cost-per-click raised (and similarly, those that receive lots of clicks get a reduced rate).

Ads are restricted to a maximum of 25 letters for a title linked to a particular page, and 35 words each on two lines below it. All of them have an unlinked URL at the bottom, which is likely to be WikiFur.com for most ads. It is recommended that pages linked to be relevant to the ad and the search, and that the ad title or text contain the keywords specified. Note that it is possible to have multiple ads for the same keywords - the ones that perform best are automatically shown more.

Google also offer CPM ads, which are sold on the basis of impressions rather than clicks. As few people want to advertise on furry-specific sites, these are often available at the rate of $0.25/1000 impressions. Initial tests suggest a favourable rate of return for generic "furry fandom" messages; despite a significantly lower clickthrough rate, they cost less per click. Of course, people who click a specific search term are more likely to be interested in the content. ..

Yahoo! suspended
I have suspended advertising using Yahoo!, because Google offers consistently better value (mostly because Yahoo is not willing to reduce clicks below $0.10). Yahoo! gets a good clickthrough rate, but that doesn't help much if there's no discount for it and the clicks cost three times more than Google's.

Here are the stats over a three month period:

Yahoo! Search Marketing is also significantly less usable than Google's system, although this was not a factor in my decision to end coverage, just to start it in the first place. --GreenReaper(talk) 21:08, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Current ads
Note: Not all these ads may be visible for all selected keywords, depending on Google's current assessment of ad quality and the bid rate set for the advert.

2 the Ranting Gryphon
For: "2 the ranting gryphon", "ranting gryphon", "2 gryphon", "2 ranting gryphon", "2 sense", "LSD files", "dear 2"

2, The Ranting Gryphon 2 Sense, LSD Files, Dear 2 and DVDs Read more at the furry encyclopedia

Anthro art
For: "anthro art", "anthropomorphic art", "anthro artwork", "anthropomorphic artwork"

Anthro art at WikiFur Looking for anthropomorphic art? Learn how to find or create it!

Anthrocon
For: Anthrocon

Anthrocon at WikiFur Learn the history of furry fandom's most popular east-coast convention!

ConFurence
For: ConFurence

ConFurence at WikiFur Learn the history of furry fandom's first, longest-running convention!

DMFA
For: "dan and mab", "furry adventures", DMFA

DMFA at WikiFur Find out about the characters of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures

Eurofurence
For: Eurofurence

Eurofurence at WikiFur Find out more about Europe's biggest furry convention!

FurNation
For: FurNation (paused)

The Furry Encyclopedia There's more to fur than FurNation! Try something new. Find it here.

Furry art
For: "Furry artwork", "Furry drawing" ("furry art" is out of range at $0.20 due to eBay ads)

Furry art at WikiFur Looking for furry artwork? Learn how to find or create it!

Furry fandom
For: "furry fandom"

The Furry Encyclopedia Curious about the furry fandom? We're writing the book about it.

Furry fans
For: "furry fan", "furry fans"

Furry fans at WikiFur Want to learn about furry fans? Find them at the furry encyclopedia

Furry fanzines
For: anthro APA. anthro fanzine, anthro zine, furry APA, furry fanzine, furry zine Furry fanzines at WikiFur Looking for info on furry fanzines? Check out our historical listings.

Furries
For: furry (I tried, but I'm not paying $0.50/click!), furries, furre, furres

The Furry Encyclopedia Curious about the furry fandom? We're writing the book on furries.

FurryMUCK
For: FurryMUCK, furry muck, furry mush

FurryMUCK at WikiFur Learn the history of furry fandom's longest-running multiplayer world!

Fursuit
For: fursuit, mascot costumes, fursuits, mascot costume, mascots costumes, animal mascot costumes, school mascot costumes

Fursuit at WikiFur Resources for building or buyers. Lists of makers, wearers and more.

Miss Mab
For: "miss mab", "DMFA mab", "mab DMFA"

Miss Mab at WikiFur Find out about the characters of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures

Second Life
For: Second Life furry, SL furry, Second Life avatar, Second Life furries, Second Life wiki, "Second Life"

Second Life at WikiFur Furry fans make everything cooler. SL is no different - learn how!

Uncle Kage
For: "uncle kage", "anthrocon kage", "kage anthrocon", "kage cockroach", "kagemushi", "kagemushi goro", [unknown furry]

Uncle Kage at WikiFur Learn more about Kagemushi Goro, furry fandom's renowned cockroach.

Yerf
For: yerf art, yerf archive, squeeky clean furry archive, yerf furry (yerf itself is $0.20)

Yerf at WikiFur Learn the history of furry fandom's favourite all-ages furry art site!

Yiffing
For: yiff, yiffy, yiffing, [furry sex]


 * Yes, I know . . . however this gets a depressingly large number of impressions and clicks. --

The Furry Encyclopedia There's more to life than yiffing! Learn more about the furry fandom.

Proposed ads
'' Got any thoughts on what keywords we should advertise under, and/or new ad text? Ideally we don't want to advertise where we are already in the top ad results - the whole point is to get people who wouldn't necessarily get to WikiFur to come visit. :-) --''

How about fursuit and fursuiting? The Furry Encyclopedia Just what are fursuits, anyway? -- Siege 21:49, 19 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I did consider fursuit. The trouble is our article on it isn't that good - it came from Wikipedia, and seems to have improved more there than it has here. Indeed, that's why I put it up for today's furpile! -- 02:49, 20 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Can we advertise the fursuit article now? Contributors have added a lot of content. --Rat 23:51, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Amusing commentary
WikiFur's advertising has not gone without notice - both from sources close to home and somewhat further afield. :-)

Diesel Sweeties 2007
Per a user suggestion, Greenreaper bid on several days worth of advertising at dieselsweeties.com using the Project Wonderful system R. Stevens is trying out there. The eCPM was &lt;insert details here&gt;


 * Some suggested 117×30 banner icons (using the pixelated style of the Diesel Sweeties comic itself). --Splarka (talk) 02:15, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
 * [[Image:Dieselfurry1.gif]] [[Image:Dieselfurry2.gif]] [[Image:Dieselfurry3.gif]]
 * might be better without the green —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.112.118.208 (talk • contribs) 11:26, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Confuzzled 2008
ConFuzzled kindly donated a 1/2 page slot in their conbook.

Slogans
I've seen two seperate instances where someone has remarked that creating and editing articles is "addictive". I think advertisements based on the addictive nature of WikiFur might be helpful. --Dmuth

For example:


 * WikiFur. It's cheaper than crack!
 * WikiFur. Like Heroin but without withdrawl symptoms!
 * WikiFur. There is no legal limit.
 * WikiFur. So much fun, the DEA wants a piece.
 * WikiFur. It's still legal!

Of course, some of these may be offensive to people. Care should be used.

Or maybe have some advertements that make WikiFur appear "forbidden". For example:
 * WikiFur. Parental guidance NOT required. (maybe with a graphic that resembles the PG rating seen in USanian theaters)
 * It's 10 PM. Do you know where your Wiki is?
 * The strongest Wiki you can get WITHOUT a prescription!
 * WikiFur. More than you wanted to know about furry.  Really.
 * The Wiki THEY didn't want you to see!
 * WikiFur. Our users can beat up your users!

Some of these are a little on the silly side, however.

Finally, we may want to consider poking a little fun at ourselves. For example:
 * WikiFur. We've only had 6 vandalisms this past week.  And that ain't bad!
 * WikiFur. Something Awful likes us.  They REALLY like us!
 * WikiFur. YTMND vandalized us and all we got was this banner ad.

Then maybe some strange ads:
 * WikiFur for President! "At least we're honest."
 * WikiFur. More furries than a lame CSI episode!
 * WikiFur. All Furry.  All the time.
 * I (heart) WikiFur.
 * All your base are belong to WikiFur.
 * WikiFur. Come on Lowtax, SHOW US SOME LOVE!
 * WikiFur. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of facts.

We've got to be able to do something like Wikipedia's ads. Maybe something to appeal to the geeks in the fandom involving fursuits, plushies and/or computers? Or the PafCon (CSI) sign? We could use them to link to featured articles or to the front page. -- 06:13, 7 Oct 2005 (UTC)

WikiFur is . ..
''Inspired by HAP's radio ads. To be read by different people.''
 * WikiFur is . ..
 * an encyclopedia
 * by and for the furry fandom
 * an international community
 * a place to send others
 * collaborative
 * compassionate
 * a neutral point of view
 * here to stay
 * yet ever-changeable
 * It's how I found the fandom
 * and the reason I'm a fur today

WikiFur Is Love
Read - Create - Discuss - Move - Expand - Know more?

WikiFur Merchandise
WikiFur could extend its advertising to physical media as well as internet based advertising. This would also be a source of income for the general operation of WikiFur as profits from their sale would be reinvested into the general operations fund (see Ledger).

On-demand printing services
The following is a review and evaluation of various on-demand printing services that WikiFur might use to manufacture/distribute its products.

Cafepress
Review:
 * Products: Product Listing by Category
 * Pricing
 * Store front cost: Free (Premium store front: $6.95/month with reduced prices for longer subscriptions) Basic Vs. Premium
 * Product base pricing: Base pricing list
 * Profit policy: Cafepress allows users to price their products at any price above the base pricing cost and all profit is mailed as a check to the designated party monthly.

Spreadshirt
FAQ Review:
 * Products: Product Assortment
 * Pricing
 * Store front cost: $10 per month or prepay $100 a year (Premium shop costs extra)
 * Shipping: Price list
 * Product base pricing: Base pricing list - includes only single print, single color
 * Profit policy: Spreadshirt allows users to price their products at any price above the base pricing cost and profit is then disbursed by a paypal payment two weeks after end of every calendar quarter - See payment policy

Zazzle

 * Products: Overview
 * Pricing
 * Store front cost: not available - published designs are put into a commons area
 * Shipping: Rates
 * Product pricing: apparel, mug and drinkware, stamps, posters, greeting cards and postcards
 * Profit policy: Products are sold at a fixed price and a 10% royalty is paid to the creator (WikiFur). Payments take place only once a certain balance has accrued (see royalty policy).

99dogs

 * Products:
 * Pricing
 * Store front cost: Available but Unknown - Most likely expensive (see integrated associate details or storeowner associate details)
 * Shipping: Fee schedule
 * Product pricing: Associate Base Pricing
 * Profit Policy: unknown and not stated

Keitei
Wikia:User:Keitei helps to distribute materials and items for Uncyclopedia and other wikias - The IRC conversation regarding distribution of materials is located on WikiFur Talk:Advertising.
 * Pros
 * Cons

Encyclopedia Dramatica
Yeah, yeah. I know. But before you decide this is vandalism or us playing some kind of prank, read the rest, ok?

Reasons Wikifur should advertise on ED:
 * ED sees a lot of furry traffic. As of right now, ED's page is #13 in Google's search results for furry
 * ED has furry contributors and users. Several are regulars in IRC.
 * ED wouldn't censor your ad. If you wanted to post one slamming us, even.
 * We could also give you guys a discount if you take out a week long ad just for putting up with our shit for so long. =)

If you didn't immediately dismiss the suggestion, we are selling space through Adbrite and if you enter the promo code ED at the checkout, it will give you the discount. Prices are pretty reasonable anyway.

OK, knowing ED, you probably are going "wtf, is this a setup?" and it's really not. ED has had a huge increase in users and traffic and we've been hit with some overage for bandwidth. We'd like to not see that come out of GirlVinyl's pocket.

Merry Christmas, Wikifur. =)

Fchan
Just wanted to drop this offer: http://www.furaffinityforums.net/showthread.php?tid=2133

Feel free to poke me if there's interest or questions. :) --Xenofur 22:00, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

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