I hear that a lot about the moves I make.
I know there’s a lot of money in banner ads, I can acknowledge that. However, believe me when I say that I would rather make less money than have ads up on this forum. I don’t have anything against anyone else putting them up on their sites or even putting their own banners in their signatures (I see that as their space), but there’s something that doesn’t feel right about putting my own ads in the header, footer, sidebar, etc.
I know that’s not common to hear or do in this industry, but I have turned down money and more lucrative opportunities in the past if I did not agree with them. Some people might think that’s stupid, but I am always glad I’ve made these kind of choices. In fact, the last lucrative opportunity I turned down back in 2018 would’ve paid about 120k/year. I turned it down to help a friend as I saw she needed it, and took that 40k/year position at the other forum instead. Even though I was not happy working there, I was happy about helping a friend, and it led to me meeting my wife.
I will need to properly sort out monetisation for this forum at some point as I do have my own expenses I need to cover, but even the alternate forms of monetisation we’re looking into would provide enough for us and to be able to invest in the forum.
If anything, I’d say I’m very good at finding creative solutions to these kind of problems, at least.