Authors Needed: Shares in VBWM.COM Site

[richardbowman]

VBWM.COM Community Development Proposal

ABOUT

VBWM.COM is one of the oldest and largest Visual Basic websites on the Internet. Since beginning in 1995, the Visual Basic Web Magazine (in its first incarnation on the AOL service), it has been a source for all Visual Basic developers, both beginners and advanced developers, providing articles and resources throughout the site. In its largest and most influential days, VBWM was bringing in thousands in advertising revenue each year and was able to pay authors per submissions ($100+ per article). Since the Internet boom has dropped off, sites are becoming scarce that can offer independent articles to the Visual Basic community.

The VBWM.COM site is currently maintained and operated by its owner, Richard Bowman, which is currently the sole contributor to the site. Currently, only a handful of successful VB-only programming sites exist, and there sites disappearing or becoming stagnant on a regular basis. The large market of Visual Basic programmers gives VBWM a perfect time to re-engergize into a leading Visual Basic portal site.

PURPOSE

VBWM.COM is looking to expand and develop new article content for the Visual Basic community. There is a necessity to have content before profits can be made from a website unlike in a booming economy, where advertising was not scarce. Because of this, VBWM.COM cannot offer money for writing articles at this time. Instead, VBWM has developed a proposal to build a stake in the site so you can contribute for future pay off.

Revenue will come from advertising as site visits continue to increase. Currently, only about 8,500 page views occur per day. We can certainly increase this figure ten-fold by providing an increasing amount of unique content, considering this page view count is occuring with no new articles for over a year. Future plans also will encourage users to subscribe to premium content which will bring in significantly more revenue. Currently, we have just switched from a private PR firm which used to provide ads, to the Google Targeted Advertising system, which automatically extracts content from pages and targets specific advertisements. The Google program has already become successful, and VBWM is now on course to pay its operating costs.

Stakes in the site will be maintained through the usage of shares. Authors will receive shares for contributing content to the site. Also, for continuing contributions, performance-based shares will be allotted based on visits and ratings of articles.

Share allotments proposed are specified below for different content contributions:

• One feature-length article (5000+ words + code sample): 10 shares
• Series (can be used to drive continuing traffic) (5000+ words each + code examples that build throughout series): 12 shares per article in series
• Extensive tutorial (3000-4000 words): 7 shares
• Short tutorial (2000-3000 words): 4 shares
• Product/book review (1000+ words): 3 shares
• Continuing contributions (contributing at least 1 feature article or 2 tutorials in a given month and having contributed at this level the month prior as well): 5 shares
• Bonus shares awarded on top-performing article monthly (visits * rating): 5 shares

The earlier you get into the community development, the bigger share you can build in the profits to come.

INTERESTED PARTIES

VBWM is looking to have at a minimum 5 authors sign up for the first month of the system and build to around 10-15 contributing authors. Writing articles can showcase your talent, is great for your resume, and can cause you to hone your skills by teaching to others. Article development is an excellent way to build your career.

PUBLISHING ON VBWM

Because the site has been around for a long time, significant infrastructure exists already for publishing articles. The VBWM Article Builder tool uses Internet Explorer to provide a rapid and powerful development area for your articles, and to ensure all articles fit the style of the site. You can upload pictures, attach software links, and add pagination.

PAYOFF

Month-end profits will be devied up by the percentage of shares each author owns. I would expect payoffs to begin within the third month of sizable contributions to the site occuring.

Example, if author 1 has 20 shares and author 2 has 10 shares, and proceits from the site equal $150 for a given month, author 1 receives 20/30 * $150 = $100 and author 2 receives $50.

TOPICS

Topics are up to the writer as long as they are interesting to VB/VB.NET/ASP.NET developers.

CONTACT ME
If you are interested in joining the development effort at VBWM.COM, please contact me by sending a private message. Thank you for your time.

[StevenHickerson]

I'm just curious if you are trying to increase site traffic again why are you limiting it to VB.NET/ASP.NET only. There are still a huge amount of programmers that stay in VB6 and dont want to move over to VB.NET. Seems to me if you want to be a true VB site you would support both still since they are both popular.

[richardbowman]

You are absolutely right, and it was an oversight on my part. I updated the proposal to include VB6. Our VB6 users are still are our strongest viewer segment, and we certainly wish to continue to support these users. Thanks for your input.