Donations to ISML

[Crisu]

http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/donate.php

We have opened our donations page for any who are eager to help contribute to the ISML Project. ^_^

ISML will continue to continue to be free to the voting community, but maintaining the server does cost some money. For now, the Staff are happy to pay for it out-of-pocket, but we wouldn't refuse a generous gift from any of you. All donations will pay for present and future hosting and registration services. And if we are fortunate to collect enough, a server upgrade may be possible, so we can expand our capacity and not have any more of those 503 errors.

Again, this is totally optional; we love you already for being here and voting. ^_^

Donating will get your name on the donations page (unless you request to be anonymous) and many thanks from us. At the moment, we don't have a reward system for donors.

[Crisu]

http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/news ... l-reached/
News post, quoted in part below.

I'm happy to announce we have met our donation goal for ISML 2012. Thank you so much to all of our contributors and all who have voiced their support for our tournament and spread the word to friends and communities.

Our latest gifts came from MiiNiiPaa, superunature, and adorend_1990. Our current total is now USD $361.48, completing our goal of $350.00 for the year. This means our server and domain registration will last through the end of the ISML 2012 year, which is great news since we are currently not even halfway through 2011. Thank you again.

On the donation page, a new Affiliate Shopping section is open. Some community members have wanted this feature to complement their usual online purchases. By shopping with an affiliate ID, they help ISML earn a small commission -- effectively a donation at no additional cost. Currently we only have Play-Asia listed, but if anyone has a suggestion for additional affiliate links, please let us know.

[superunature]

ok, so now it takes $450 to maintain?
looking at the donate page, every year the majority of funds comes from few big donors.
and so far this year, there is merely $25 in donations.

I suggest doing something about it now before having to scramble for funds next year.
maybe add more affiliate referral (Amazon,CDjapan etc.) (play-asia is a nice referral site , but everything there is just......higher priced)
or even a ppc/ppv ad that displays once a week/month on the very bottom vote page. We have to wait 180seconds and likely browse away from the tab anyways.
I know there isn't any "danger" right now, but this is a year after year thing.

Anyways, just something to think about, having it run self-sufficiently without having to rely on a few (or the already dedicated staffs) would be best.

[xcrossfacekillahx]

I agree, we need either more people donating or put more ads if needed just to lessen the burden on the staff. Play Asia is fine though.

[Crisu]

I can look into more affiliates. I'm not too concerned about money, as it's still early in the year. And I want to avoid ad banners as long as possible. I suppose if it looks bad by the time Postseason starts, we can do one then. J-List is pretty popular, and I hear it pays a fair amount, so I could position it at the bottom of the voting page as you suggest. So it won't get in the way when you want to take a screenshot of your votes.

[superunature]

I can look into more affiliates. I'm not too concerned about money, as it's still early in the year. And I want to avoid ad banners as long as possible. I suppose if it looks bad by the time Postseason starts, we can do one then. J-List is pretty popular, and I hear it pays a fair amount, so I could position it at the bottom of the voting page as you suggest. So it won't get in the way when you want to take a screenshot of your votes.

J-list isn't any cheaper, affiliate sites better to put on the donation page since most people don't look at the bottom of the voting page anyways.
If you can get Amazon.com affiliate by sunday, I plan on spending $3060 Sunday night and $765 on Wednesday. which 4% commission would be quite a bit.
and possibly the same on the following week as well.

[Crisu]

I added some Amazon Associates widgets. http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/donate/ Would this be something you could use?

There should be two widgets (make sure you allow Amazon if you have an ad-blocker!!!). The one on the left is a dynamic search box. The one on the right is their "Omakase" widget, which supposedly gives you customized results depending on your browsing habits.

[KholdStare88]

Hey guys. To follow up on Crisu's post, I'd like to remind you all that if you have Adblock (Plus) for Firefox and Chrome, then chances are the Amazon widgets are blocked. You can disable Adblock for ISML since aside from these widgets, we have no ads anywhere on the site.



Also, for ISML to get credit for the purchase, you have to search within the widget and click on the product inside the widget. For example, if you get redirected to Amazon and search within the site, then we no longer get credit, so please start/continue searches inside the widget on the donation page. If you see &tag=intlsaimoe-20 on the URL of the product page, then you're good!

[superunature]

purchased through Amazon in the amount of $3,615.01 over 12 items using the widget, hope I did it right lol

[Crisu]

So far, all I see is just one item successfully reported: a set of shipping labels. Hopefully it's just delayed, and more sales will be listed tomorrow.

[superunature]

So far, all I see is just one item successfully reported: a set of shipping labels. Hopefully it's just delayed, and more sales will be listed tomorrow.

yeah, I bought that too, $8.xx
on a seperate orders.
the expensive orders has been charged but actually has not been shipped yet.
on cashback sites, usually it is reported a day or two after shipped.

[Crisu]

Good news! A bunch of purchases appeared on the earnings report. Over $200 raised so far. Thanks, superu.

[superunature]

made another $700 purchase + some dog biscuits.
probably that will be all thou, unless amazon has another canon camera deal within the next few days (not very likely), cuz resources isn't unlimited.

[Crisu]

lol, yes, the dog biscuits. I was wondering if they were yours. (If I may ask, are you running a small business with the cameras?)

This amounts to about $280 so far in commission for ISML. Amazon will send payment about 60 days after the end of each month, so when that comes in I'll list it as a donation from you; this will get us very close to completing the 2013 goal. Amazing.

[superunature]

yeah kinda

06-02, made another purchase of $698.00
06-05 purchase of $101.54 order returned due to defect
06/16 purchase of $1,115.27
06/16 purchase of $759
06/30 purchase of $764.61
06/30 another purchase of $764.61
06/30 purchased of $835
07/12 purchased of $1175
---------------

last purchase

[Crisu]

superu is heroic. I'll update the main page soon, but you may have singlehandedly paid off a whole year (or more) for this site. Best idea ever, really; we all thank you!

[CrowKenobi]

If you're looking for more affiliate links, have you looked at Rightstuf.com's Affiliate Program?

[superunature]

lol no problem. Hopefully this sites lasts many more years to come.
with the current high maintance cost though, should always be looking for ways to earn revenue, especially ones that members can contribute to without direct donation.

[superunature]

bought another item for $1,238
I want status bar for 2014

[Crisu]

Thanks again, superu. I don't want to project that far ahead on the website, because anything could happen between now and 2014.

However, here on the forums, I can say we have also met the quota for 2014, assuming current hosting rates stay the same.
It's pretty crazy; there's really no need to upgrade at this point. Gonna have to spend this somehow... But Amazon has really been a great affiliate.