Hiya!

OK, out of the 54 active members in the group I've heard from 12 of you.

so far I've gotten these results

VERY favorable 4
OK but neutral 4
Not really 2
VERY much NO 1
undecided because of exclusion issue 1

Thanks for your input!

I REALLY want to get more feedback about this. And I want to clarify a few
points.

This has NOTHING to do with the AOL groups. I was just using the websites
from a couple of their programs as an example.

I just proposed to set up a website where the ads were placed in categories.
Everyone's ads would be placed in the appropriate categories. Your ads
would remain the same as they are now, unless you update them. Some groups
ads would even end up in different categories (like humor lists that also
are heavily into tags & tubes would go in both).

Surfers could go and find whatever they are interested in by seeing all the
categories.

What would be required to participate is to run an ad something like this
once a week...

-----------
Do you like interesting stuff in your mailbox?
Here's over 100 great FREE mailing lists
covering a WIDE variety of subjects.
Categorized for your ease,
Varied for your specific tastes.
(LINK TO SITE HERE)
----------

The ad will probably change monthly to keep it fresh and varied, using
different keywords to grab the members interest.

Or you can run an ad you make up yourself which you feel is better tailored
to your members. For example a recipe group runs an ad to the page of
recipe groups links. The surfers will see when they arrive that there are
many more categories which will catch their eye.

Even something simple to make it look more like you are providing THEM a
service (which you ARE), like:

----------
Here's more of our favorite groups for you to check out!
(LINK TO SITE HERE)
-----------

Or I may just post a page with a bunch of different ads, text and html,
including ones you folks propose, that you can choose from. Actually, that
sounds even better.

Like I said before, this can be run and promoted in many different ways.
Some of you already put in a link to the entire ad pages in the program,
which isn't as effective because the surfers see a LONG list of ads, and get
bored after reading so many. The categories will chop the ads up into
smaller bites on subjects they are interested in.

Verification is nothing more than just letting me know that you are still
interesting in being in the program and still running ads to the site. You
can take a week off and it wouldn't matter...just run a couple ads the next
week. If you'll be gone a month we'll just pull your ad while your list is
on haitus.

Now, with that further verification, let me hear from the rest of you. Of,
course, if this changes the viewpoint of anyone who has already written, do
let me know.

(I'm including the original message I sent out on this below for reference)

Cheers!
Papa Thorn

Listmasters...a few goodies here for you!
http://able2laugh.com/master/

======================================================
ORIGINAL MESSAGE
======================================================

IMPORTANT!

I'm considering changing the format of the Ad Swaps to something which will
be easier for ALL involved. This is NOT set in stone...just under
consideration depending on how you all feel about it.

I've been finding some AOL groups that have swap programs set up in quite a
different way. The members of the program simply put in a link to a website
with all the ads for all the groups into their mailings. Here's a couple
examples...

http://www.freewebs.com/adztraderweb/

http://www.freewebs.com/polliwog707/index.htm

This can be set up in a lot of different ways. The categories give your
members an easy way to find quickly just exactly what groups they want to
join.

The easy part is that your mailings won't be cluttered up with a lot of ads,
just a small ad with a link to the website.

Also, you won't have to send copies of your mailings to other listmasters to
verify. Something like a quick note to me with "Ad Swap A22 done" in the
subject would be it.

Or for those with a magazine format one could place a link into the template
of their issues so that it always appears, and you won't have to send me any
weekly verification at all. How YOU insert the ad to your members is
totally up to you. As long as you send the link to your members once a
week, you're in the program.

I've been writing to some of the participants of these programs and find
that the listmasters not only find these easier, but with everyone's ads
going out to everyone's lists at once, the number of new members becomes
quite good.

It would also save me about 6 hours of work a week.

Being an easier format, it will also be easier to get other groups to join
the program, thus giving a larger membership pool looking for new lists to
join.

I'm also toying with the idea of putting in a "vote for this group" thingy
so the Top Lists will be featured prominently. But that would be later.

So, I'd like some feedback from you ALL as to whether you'd like to change
over to this type of system, and what you would feel would work well for
you.

Like I said, it WON'T happen if you folks are outraged by the idea. It also
wouldn't happen for at least a couple weeks while I make up the website for
these.