Ads on BR2

The folks over at BlogRolling HQ have provided a little more information about the ads they will now be displaying on the blogrolls of non paying customers. Below is from their update site:

More about ads...

A few of you have asked for more information about the new advertising model that we will be launching on Monday to coincide with the release of Blogrolling 2.0.

The purpose of these ads is to attempt to create a semi-sustainable business model around Blogrolling to ensure that Tucows can continue to invest in the ongoing development and maintenance of Blogrolling.

Blogrolling.com serves well over a billion blogrolls per year to tens of thousands of customers, across hundreds of thousands of blogs. It requires some fairly serious bandwidth and hardware just to keep it running. We think it deserves more than just “keep it running” and with a sustainable business model around it, I believe we can fully realize the potential of this awesome service. Blogrolling.com was one of the original blog “widget” services, and even with the recent challenges, still probably one of the largest in terms of actual usage. We really want to make sure that it gets even better.

So, we’re going to try and sell some ads.

The go on to give screenshots and an explanation of how the system works, so do suggest you check it out to see what is to come...

... but having said that, I am opting to pay the $20 bucks to remove the ads from our system. With it only being that much for an entire year, it seems worth it to make the investment. Not only will it remove these ads, but it will also show the folks at BR that we appreciate their service. I have no problem paying for something I like, and I'm sure we can all agree that BR is something we all enjoy!

In the meantime, I am going to throw out there the idea of donating to the Newfoundland and Labrador BlogRoll. This could help me pay for the service or it perhaps could be a tip for the extra promotion I do for all our blogs here. Of course, this isn't necessary. I will continue to do everything I've been doing here and be adding more goodies over the next few weeks whether you decide to donate or not. But, if you do have a buck to spare, I would certainly accept it with smile and a thank you.

Donates are accepted via PayPal. If you can help, please do. If you cannot or do not wish to, I completly understand.

Thanks!

Now that that part is out of the way; 2 days to go!!!!


Newfoundland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, BlogRoll, Blog, blogrolling, blogrolling 2.0

BR2 on March 2nd!!

Just when I thought that all hope was lost with BlogRolling, a little good news shines through. Finally, after checking the update site at least 3 (thousand) times a day, today (about 3 minutes ago) I learn that the BR2 system will be released very, very soon; March 2nd to be precise.

Wow, did you all hear that collective sigh of relief?...

I know, it is truly a huge lift of my bloggin' spirit and I'm sure you all feel it. It's been a long time since we've been without, but in a few short days we'll have our beloved system back... and with that I can finally get to work with all the other goodies I have in store.

Check out what they have to say:

The Skinny on BR2.0

In point form for maximum impact…

… BR2 will be released on March 2 (yayfinally!!)

…. all your old Blogrolls will be imported into the new system, you won’t need to change a thing.

… the system was recoded from scratch, from the ground up. This fixed a ton of old bugs (and probably introduced a ton of new ones)

… the “pay” option is back. All customers get all features, except Pay customers won’t see adverts in their links.

… “adverts in links” is our way of helping us pay for the cost of running blogrolling.com.

… it costs a lot to run blogrolling.com - last year alone we served over a billion blogrolls - that means a lot of bandwidth and a lot of gear. Without a way to recoup some of these costs, it is tough for us to properly invest in it.

… without proper investment, BR2 will fall into disrepair like BR1 did. I’d prefer to charge a little for BR2 so that we can build new features and improve the service, rather than just let it sit there.

Questions? I’m sure there are, please catch us @blogrolling on twitter.

I haven't decided if I'm going to pay (it depends on how much it costs) for the premium service but I can figure that out when I see what we have to work with but it is very good that there is no maintenance involved on both your end or mine. That'll let me get strait to work on the extra promotions and other special items of interest. Things are certainly looking up. Stay tuned for what's come!

11 days and counting...