Site Columns
By ChristianJanuary 14, 2001 - 11:24 PM
Hello World!
I already wrote something about this at SlipstreamWeb last week, but after receiving lots of mail from people asking how this would affect TrekToday, I figured I'd write a bit about this here as well. I hope that after reading this you won't think of us as being far too ad-oriented/corporate/evil, but I thought it would be best to just be honest and keep you updated on our current situation.
As you may have read, the internet advertising industry isn't doing particulary well at the moment. Several purely gaming-related advertising networks have already shut down over the past few months, share prices of really big advertising companies like DoubleClick have lost much of their value, and entertainment ad networks like Snowball/IGN and UGO Networks, with which TrekToday is affiliated, have had to implement cost-saving measures.
Unfortunately for us, one of the measures UGO has had to take, besides cutting staff, was reducing the fees for all its affiliates - including, of course, us. Needless to say, we're not particularly enthusiastic about this, though it also wasn't completely unexpected after all the problems the internet sector has had to face over the past year. However, what this also means is that we've had to think of a few measures of our own to again increase revenue from the sites, so they can continue running. Here are some of the things which we'll be doing or trying to do over the coming months:
- Starting the coming week, ad banners will start running on SlipstreamWeb. So far, it was possible to just keep the site running using the ad income from the Trek Nation, but now we'll have to have banners there as well.
- We'll also try to add more original content to the site, and promote it a little better. We've already tried to do this over the past week with a few a bit more in-depth articles, and by sending out more news announcements to other sites. This is something on which we'd definitely appreciate feedback - please let us know how you think we should improve the quality of the site and let more people know about it.
- As promised long ago already, this week we'll be integrating the Trek Nation and TrekToday a bit tighter, so that we will no longer need to post separate news items about Trek Nation features on TrekToday, but you'll instead be able to click directly through to them.
- We'll be looking harder for other sources of income. We'll try to promote our Amazon.com affiliation a bit more (perhaps including text links below news items or so), though we of course won't let that affect our editorial independence (you won't hear us saying that a certain book or game is any better than it is just to get you to buy it). In addition, we've been thinking about maybe trying something like selling TrekToday T-shirts or so, if there's any interest in that (do let us know if there is!)
- Finally, there's a chance we'll have to do things like adding ad buttons to the right of the page (where there is now the button advertising SlipstreamWeb), or, if the need arises, perhaps even host a few pop-up banners. I know this is not something most of you like, so we'll definitely try to avoid or at least minimise this as much as possible, but perhaps at some point in the future it will be required by an advertising campaign. In the near future, though, this at least will not be happening yet, and we'll try to avoid this as long as possible.
If you have any suggestions or thoughts about this, please send them in. Also, my apologies do go out for this - I wish none of the above was necessary (with the exception of adding more original content, of course, which is always good), but unfortunately most of these are steps we'll need to take to keep the site running. Thanks for your support!
Trek BBS Today
Below are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:
-Why did Siddig el Fadil / Alexander Siddig change his name?
-Do any of your family members remind you of a Trek character?
-Who do you think the Star Trek X villain will be?
More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!
Poll Results
Below are the results of the most recent TrekToday poll:
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45.1% - (470
Votes)Thanks for voting! In the new poll, which was actually put up yesterday already, you're asked which upcoming Voyager episode you're looking forward to the most. And before I get any more mail about this - yes, what you think might well be a joke in the below poll is indeed just that. Oh, the Sacrifices my mailbox has to make to satisfy my esteemed co-editor's somewhat unusual sense of humour...
Happy Birthday!
Friday was the 49th birthday of Kirstie Alley, who starred in 'Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan' as Lieutenant Saavik, before being replaced for the next two films by Robin Curtis.
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