LAST MODIFIED:
If you are reading this page then you are aware of the financial difficulties of maintaining these rapidly expanding sites. Over 90,000 people a month (that's over an average of more than 3,000 individuals a day) are now looking at nearly 300,000 pages each month. There is an insatiable demand for more and more newer material.
From 1st January, 2002 I have had to double the site's bandwidth requirements simply because of the sheer volume of traffic. This has led to an increase of over 90% in site costs.
Over 2,000 people subscribe to the twice a month newsletter, over 30 new people a day continue to wish to subscribe.
At around an internet standard advertising rate of $5.00 per thousand impressions, the sites should generate advertising revenue of around $US 1,500.00 per month. I wish...
I have no doubt, with these worries behind me, within twelve months the sites can have quadruple the existing valuable content with over 250,000 visitors a month looking at one million page views every month, that's the voice of experience speaking.
I MUST continue to upgrade my server facilities. This is simply just one problem of sites which have grown totally beyond my control and expectations. [Footnote: because of the practical support I am beginning to receive from USA residents, this has kept the wolf at bay for the moment].
Please understand, this is NOT a commercial or e-commerce site. It is a FREE valuable resource providing FREE education, not only to the developed countries but more important, also to the poorer sections of our world where the need is greatest.
When I started out several years ago teaching on the internet it was a sort of a part-time hobby, I never anticipated the response and growth which I have since experienced, particularly since last October.
Continuing the present growth rate is overcoming my capacity to financially support it. Both of my sites and the monthly newsletters have become relatively huge. What of future projected expansion? Numerous tutorials need "fleshing" out, greater detail is required, questions need to be answered.
Today it has also become almost a full time job as far as time is concerned. It consumes not only my time, but also precious financial resources in forced retirement.
I have investigated many avenues of deriving internet revenue to offset all of the costs involved, plus having some money left over for upgrades of hardware, upgrades of software and the 101 other necessary requirements.
Initially I tried advertising, this has become almost non-existent today. I tried "click" programs, some were O.K. but, in todays climate, most have slashed payouts by up to 80%. Many have since been found to be quite fraudulent, they don't pay and had never intended paying. Lesson learned.
Amazon books offer a reasonable program with modest 5% commissions (paid quarterly) but book sales through the site are not terribly stunning. HOWEVER, I do sincerely thank those people who have supported me by buying their reference books through Amazon. Please continue to do so.
I have many qualified people who are prepared to write further valuable tutorials far beyond my level of expertise. I can not expect them to do this for free.
Having explored nearly every other avenue of deriving internet revenue I have come to the conclusion, as suggested by a number of people, that "page or site sponsorship" seems to be the only way to go.
I've had a number of private conversations with people whom I not only admire, but whom I totally respect for their views and judgements.
The universal answer from everyone, is that if my sites can not be made self supporting AND, some have added, "including some modest recompense for your time involved to brighten your lifestyle", then I should either close them down or at least limit access.
Did you know this site is regularly visited from just this random sample selection of the following organisations (some even proxy serve my sites):
In the main, these following domains (among many others) come up with monotonous regularity.
nasa.gov; hughes.com; harris.com; nokia.com; boeing.com; ratheon.com; intel.com; tamu.edu; sony.com; ohio-state.edu; cisco.com; clarkson.edu; cmu.edu; uft.edu; nipr.mil; ucr.edu; uta.edu; toronto.edu; honeywell.com; motorola.com...... etc. etc.
Did you know my sites are regularly used by many organisations for in-house training of technicians and other professionals?
I only know of the very few organisations where people actually bother to write to me for permission or, to just generally thank me.
How about you speak to your employer? If your employer is in the electronics industry and they believe ongoing technical education is worthy of practical support, then they might consider sponsoring one or more pages if you recommended the idea to them. Think about it.
My problem is, if I write to organisations similar to the ones above, the first question would be: "who IS this person?" It literally baffles me that none of the "big" names come forward. It might also prove to be an investment in the long term with so many college, university students as well as technicians and engineers reading these pages.
I have written to every large electronics manufacturer (the "who's who") that regularly appear in my site logs as caching my sites (proxy servers) - the silence is almost deafening.
I've already done battle with Intel's email auto responder as well as Hewlett-Packard's in Singapore, are there any real "human beans" left out there?.
These places advertise on their sites that they support education, particularly those providing education to areas of the world much less fortunate than most of us.
BUT how do you get to talk to a "real human bean", the one person who actually makes intelligent decisions?
Could someone please telephone someone, for the price of a local call and establish a "human" email contact? Someone who is genuinely interested? Consider sending them this page in its entirety.
Also sending your personal note to your favourite magazines, your favourite kit suppliers etc. just might carry a lot more impact than you may well imagine.
Several people have done this already. I'm very buoyed when people band together in a spirit of mutual co-operation.
There are a lot of other "did-you-know" trivia I could bore you with, but I won't.
It has been suggested to me that:
1. For small donations e.g. $US 25.00 from US residents, they could simply make a donation toward maintaining the US site. See site costs donation page. I thank those people who have made or, indicated they intend to make a donation. It certainly helps.Here is a listing of donors to date. Our grateful thanks.
AND WHERE POSSIBLE:
2. The monthly newsletters ought to attract sponsorship of $US 1,000 annually or; $US 600 total for 6 months or; $US 360 total for 3 months. Certainly I think it is reasonable for those organisations who use my pages for in-house training to support this annually. Wouldn't be more than petty cash to them.
SIMILARLY:
3. The main entry pages ought to attract sponsorship of $US 1,000 annually or; $US 600 total for 6 months or; $US 360 total for 3 months. Again ideal for those organisations who use my pages for in-house training to support annually.
4. The most popular directory pages (basics, filters, oscillators, receivers) ought to attract sponsorship of $US 500 annually or; $US 300 total for 6 months or; $US 180 total for 3 months.
5. The lesser popular directory pages ought to attract sponsorship of $US 300 annually or; $US 180 total for 6 months or; $US 110 total for 3 months.
6. The most popular individual pages ought to attract sponsorship of $US 250 annually or; $US 150 total for 6 months or; $US 90 total for 3 months.
7. The lesser popular individual pages ought to attract sponsorship of $US 170 annually or; $US 100 total for 6 months or; $US 60 total for 3 months.
All payable in advance by bank check (cheque). What do you think?
Each sponsor has a 468 X 60 banner (with possible link) placed at the top of the page and, at the bottom after the text of the lecture. No other advertisements allowed except perhaps reference to an Amazon book relevant to the context of the lecture.
In the body of the lecture, a paragraph text statement thanking that sponsor and acknowledging the importance of that support.
With "content sponsorship" I am happy to disseminate any useful information to readers PROVIDED it is of the type I would personally endorse.
Well obviously we have come to the cross roads. Several people have already pledged practical support and this is very heartening indeed [Footnore: see above]. The esteem in which I am held is very humbling indeed.
If nothing comes to fruition then reality compels me to do something constructive by 30th May. Probably put the newsletter into hibernation, cease new subscribers, remove all "contact me" and feedback information to cut down my email volume and, find some way to restrict site bandwidth to less than 5 giga-bytes a month. Paid subscribers only? [Footnote: Thanks to donors this is deferred for the time being]
I've had to accept the bitter fact that if I receive no practical support then obviously no one believes they are losing a valuable educational resource and an informative (may I say even entertaining <G>) newsletter. Pretty simple!
Finally I do sincerely thank you for taking the time to read this page.
CONTACT IAN
Ian C. Purdie VK2TIP,
76 Sunrise Avenue,
BUDGEWOI N.S.W. 2262
Australia
Tel: 61-2-4399-3228 between the hours 21:00 to 0900 U.T.C.
the author Ian C. Purdie, VK2TIP of www.electronics-tutorials.com asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this web site and all contents herein. Copyright © 2000 - 2001, all rights reserved. See copying and links.
These electronic tutorials are provided for individual private use and the author assumes no liability whatsoever for the application, use, misuse, of any of these projects or electronics tutorials that may result in the direct or indirect damage or loss that comes from these projects or tutorials. All materials are provided for free private and public use.
Commercial use prohibited without prior written permission from www.electronics-tutorials.com.
Copyright © 2000 - 2001, all rights reserved. URL - https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/sponsorship.htm
Updated 30th April, 2001