Legit Reviews

I just wanted to make mention of the "new look" of the main website. It looks more like other professional websites. The scrolling news topics are very cool. That is the single best addition. The new fonts, etc. are nice. The worst addition is the increased advertisements and their size. I understand it is likely a necessary evil. ;) Keep up the great work guys!

I wont speak for Nate about Legit Reviews but the 2 sites I do cigar stuff for, people would be shocked to see how much it costs to keep running them! SR I am just a contributor but Stogie411 I am full on partner. If we could have 5 paying ads on the site for a year at $2500 we would probably be able to regain all the money we put into the site and maybe have enough to pay the bills for the next year ;)

Ads suck but without charging a membership fee they are the only way to try and stay afloat. Website hosting can get crazy depending on how big you are! Don't even try to host your own HD video unless you are willing to pay out the wazoo!

CoachAub wrote:I just wanted to make mention of the "new look" of the main website. It looks more like other professional websites. The scrolling news topics are very cool. That is the single best addition. The new fonts, etc. are nice. The worst addition is the increased advertisements and their size. I understand it is likely a necessary evil. ;) Keep up the great work guys!

Thanks and glad you like the layout!

As for the increased advertisements and their size... Actually nothing changed! I swear!

The old site had three columns with two 160x600 ads on the left and two 160x600 ads on the right. The top had a 728x90 banner.

On this new template there are just two columns, so all the content form the old sites two outside columns were combined into one. I placed the banners side by side on this layout so we could rotate in 300x600 banners. Over the past couple years I lose ad contracts because we couldn't offer site skins or 300x600 banners. This new layout means we can do both!

Like you said ads aren't ideal, but there really is no other income for the site. We make a bit when people buy stuff through the site, but we just got kicked out of the Amazon program and there really is no replacement. http://www.legitreviews.com/amazon-disc ... uri_120982

With the PC market in decline, web ad banners in decline and no revenue stream from product sales... The future is going to be tough. This website re-design is the first of many more changes that will be done to make sure the site lasts another 10 years. If these changes didn't happen, I can assure you the site wouldn't have a desirable future.

KnightRid wrote:I wont speak for Nate about Legit Reviews but the 2 sites I do cigar stuff for, people would be shocked to see how much it costs to keep running them! SR I am just a contributor but Stogie411 I am full on partner. If we could have 5 paying ads on the site for a year at $2500 we would probably be able to regain all the money we put into the site and maybe have enough to pay the bills for the next year ;)

Ads suck but without charging a membership fee they are the only way to try and stay afloat. Website hosting can get crazy depending on how big you are! Don't even try to host your own HD video unless you are willing to pay out the wazoo!

Yes, it is expensive and highly time consuming. Without the help of some companies and a small group of people donating their time, this site change wouldn't have happened. Some of the bids to move over the site to a new backend/template reached over $100,000 (customized drupal). There were also lawsuits and trademark issues last year with the site, so last year was the most costly of the sites history. Gotta pay to play, but I'll be honest... There were one or two nights last year were I almost sold the site to other companies that wanted to acquire it. I just can't let it go though

Apoptosis wrote:There were also lawsuits and trademark issues last year with the site, so last year was the most costly of the sites history. Gotta pay to play, but I'll be honest... There were one or two nights last year were I almost sold the site to other companies that wanted to acquire it. I just can't let it go though

Care to elaborate on the lawsuits? Copyright troll(s)? I can say personally I'm glad you didn't sale. This site feels like a community as opposed to other tech sites that feel like the Hatfields and McCoys.

Major_A wrote:

Apoptosis wrote:There were also lawsuits and trademark issues last year with the site, so last year was the most costly of the sites history. Gotta pay to play, but I'll be honest... There were one or two nights last year were I almost sold the site to other companies that wanted to acquire it. I just can't let it go though

Care to elaborate on the lawsuits? Copyright troll(s)? I can say personally I'm glad you didn't sale. This site feels like a community as opposed to other tech sites that feel like the Hatfields and McCoys.

Nah it's over and done, but it was costly and consumed much of my time. And, I won them all