Your advertising policy is actually one of the main reasons why I feel ArtistServer is still one of the best music-related sites out there.It is very refreshing to actually visit a site that has little advertising on their site. Even on my mainly hobby-driven websites, I do put some ads to cover what little costs I have,I don't even want to know how much more costs you have while running AS. Respect for keeping with your beliefs. :)

I respect your decision to keep your site ad free. However, I also think you are right about being fined for stubborness.

The fact is that many sites these days offer "Ad-Free" versions, and they come in the form of paid accounts.

There HAS to be a balance between making money and being hung up on pride. Yin and Yang, man.

I think you would do well if you put more ads for the freeloaders to have the site pay for itself and gave the paid users a break by placing less, or no ads, when paid users visit.

This will also give people another incentive to sign up as a paid subscriber of A.S.

You may even consider allowing slightly more access to features for free users as a way to offset the annoyance of ads. An example would be to up the number of songs an artist could host on the free account. This will entice people to sign up for a free acount and deal with the ads. Hey it is free afterall. If they like the service, and are on the fence about paying, less or no ads would be one more benefit for them to consider when making the decision to join.

I think one thing that would help site traffic is re-tooling the page layouts and usability of the site. The site has a lot of great content and services, but it just doesn't have the "polished" look that a lot of other sites do. I'm not saying turn the site into a cheese-fest, but I think the way different font sizes, outline boxes to highlight certain content, the use of white space, etc. are used to draw attention to various areas could be improved dramatically. Look at the way sites like cnn.com, salesforce.com, and rhapsody.com highlight their different content.

Also, have you thought about trying to promote the site through viral marketing campaigns, like a goofy ArtistServer YouTube video?

Reply to STEFAN:

>>>Your advertising policy is actually one of the main reasons why I feel ArtistServer is still one of the best music-related sites out there.

Thank you Stefan - greatly appreciated :)

>>>Respect for keeping with your beliefs.

Again, thank you :) - now I just need to find a bank that will let me make a 'respect' deposit! "Yes, sir, I'd like to deposit 1 unit of respect..."

Reply to IBROW:

>>>I respect your decision to keep your site ad free. However, I also think you are right about being fined for stubborness.

Actualy, it's not ad free, there's google ads on nearly every page of the site. I just don't have an excessive amount, nor do I have any of the annoying ones that fly out or animate.  I would allow graphic ads, but google's ad service doesn't separate animated ads from flat graphic ads. I've tried AdBrite, but that didn't seem to do much.

>>>The fact is that many sites these days offer "Ad-Free" versions, and they come in the form of paid accounts.

Yes, we do have upgrades - and with that, you can remove all the ads from your pages, or even enter your own google Ad ID and leave them on so you earn from the ads on your pages.  I could strip all ads out of the site for those who upgrade. But I'm not so sure that would be a big motivator unless the site took on a bunch of annoying ads. I don't want to introduce more pain on the site simply to elicit a greater monetary support.

>>>There HAS to be a balance between making money and being hung up on pride. Yin and Yang, man.

Yes, I agree. Although, I can tell you that some of this has to do with me 'not' spending any time on marketing. I'm still doing contract work for other people, working on the code AS runs on, and working to keep my marriage happy - after all that, I find I don't have the time to market the site. Ideally, I'd have another person working with me who focused on the marketing aspects. I have no doubt in my mind that if there was someone with even a decent set of marketing skills, that we could grow much faster and generate enough revenue to more than cover the bills.

>>>I think you would do well if you put more ads for the freeloaders to have the site pay for itself and gave the paid users a break by placing less, or no ads, when paid users visit.

While I do like the idea of no ads on the site for those who upgrade - I just can't slap more ads on the site as a means to push people into upgrading. I also don't think it would get very many to actually upgrade. In terms of ad revenue - the additional amount could help, but I'm not sure if more ads would increase my CTR (click through rate) - which is used to determine how much you'll get paid.

>>>You may even consider allowing slightly more access to features for free users as a way to offset the annoyance of ads. An example would be to up the number of songs an artist could host on the free account. This will entice people to sign up for a free acount and deal with the ads. Hey it is free afterall. If they like the service, and are on the fence about paying, less or no ads would be one more benefit for them to consider when making the decision to join.

I've been wanting to increase the song count - but I first have to scale the site so the streaming isn't happening on the Web server any longer. My concern is that after I increase the song count, that the server will get bogged down trying to handle all the new uploads and streams. Soon my friend. :)

Thanks for the reply Todd - I appreciate it. I think the answer would be a marketing/advertising director, someone who could drum up contests, partnerships, sell ads, and market the site to a wide range of parties. I'd rather have the site become proactive in it's revenue streams than rely on ads alone.

Hi John

>>>I think one thing that would help site traffic is re-tooling the page layouts and usability of the site.

It's interesting that you say this, I'm in the middle of a redesign right now and just posted to my blog about it today. I'll be sure to include more white space in the new design.

>>>Also, have you thought about trying to promote the site through viral marketing campaigns, like a goofy ArtistServer YouTube video?

Yes, I've talked with my wife Lou about it. Originally I was going to produce intro videos to show how to use the site and hilight certain areas and tools. Then I felt it would be better to do a series of videos about the artsits and content on artistserver - which is where I'm at right now. Ideally, I'd like to do a regular show that features artists from the site - maybe interviews, footage from live shows, music tips, etc. It's just a matter of having time and getting something rolling. Honestly, I'm so burried with development that I don't know when I'll be able to do something like that - which may mean I need to scale the idea down to something far more casual. Anyone in San Diego want to start a show about indie artists?

Thanks for the reply John, and your suggestions on fixing up the site design, I'm sure there are many people out there that feel the site needs updating - inclding me :)