Relevant Tercel advertisements?

[Neu]

I'm just throwing this out there, so dont get too upset.

How would you guys like to see advertisements for deals made for say like..1984 Tercel Wagon 4x4 axle seals on special or something like that?

Relevants ads that would perk everyone's attention.

Not ads for stuff that doesn't make any sense to show on this forum, like honda parts or whatnot.

Discuss please!

[ARCHINSTL]

Well...........
What would be the format (word?)?
I'd consider it only as a separate section, apart from the General and Technical sections, as a fourth item, following Meetings and Special Events.

Also - without any posts to that section showing up when the View new posts button is clicked; while our little Club would probably not be a magnet for the zillion vendors selling "Quartz-cut headlights" and the like - there could be an inundation of posts by vendor member-bots, and I'd just as soon see the "real" Club posts only.

Additionally - no huge ads in that section with umpteen colors and motion and etc. Now, don't chortle at my 'puter naivete - but would a lot of ads take up bandwidth or the allowable electrons or whatever the ether available to members is called (stop giggling now...)?

AND - the abiity for a member to make a post/addendum to the ad if a similar source has a better price. Now, granted, a vendor who is paying for the ad may not like it - but tough rocks! ALSO - if a member has a bad experience with the vendor/his products, that should be able to be noted in some way in a post in that section.

AND - don't take offense - but if you decide to move on at some point - how would the contracts be written in the event a vote/poll indicates that members do not want the ads? For that matter - what if some members object to a particular vendor because of the ad's content - or be dissatisfied (see above paragraph)?
Tom M.

[Neu]

All the ads would be small, probably under the User Control Panel link, word only.

Bandwidth wouldn't be a big deal.

They would be targeted to TERCEL PRODUCTS ONLY.

The ads would be relevant to the forums.

Seriously, if you didn't actually know I was putting them up you might miss the ads and not see them, that's how small I'm ganna make them.

Oh, and all ads would be pre-approved by you guys. I'd have voting on the company or something like that. RockAuto would be a shoe in most likely, I dont think napa or carquest would be interested in doing it, and I dont know of many other online retailers.

[GTSSportCoupe]

Hey Everyone, I think something we need to remember here, is that it costs money to run a forum like this. So far we have been pretty lucky, as web administrators have been doing it for free out of the goodness of their heart. Typically though, the money needs to come from somewhere. With our last forum, there was a 'donation' system. As far as I know, this system did not work very well. So the next option is advertising. Personally, advertising doesn't bother me, as long as it is at least related to the forum, and isn't placed in an akward location. Neu has done a lot in maintaining this forum, and is building a website, so a little extra income for him wouldn't be so bad...

Just my 2 cents!

[Neu]

I dont care about the "extra income" aspect. I just want this forum to have no dent (although it's little) on my personal income. It's only something like 13 a month or something it costs for this, but i'd rather have it covered, and maybe a few extra $$$ so I can upgrade the server, or advertise elsewhere to get more members.

Or the extra money could go to stickers!

Anyway, the advertisements would be SPECIALIZED FOR OUR CARS. Rockauto hasn't gotten back to me, but they have specials on parts all the time for our cars, so I'd figure they could advertise those specials on our forum, and it'd benefit both. we'll know about the deal, which would lead to more business for them.

so it'd be a win win for everyone.

The advertisement WOULDN'T BE LARGE. If anything it might be them coming over and posting in our forum about a special. Or they email me and I put a link up somewhere. You would seriously be able to miss it if you weren't looking or didn't know about it.

[Neu]

Hi Chad,

Thank you for your interest in RockAuto and spreading the word about us!

How about we offer you a 5% discount that last longer for you to post on your site for you and your members to use. Also I'll offer you 5$ a month for about 6 months (to see how it goes) to advertise on your site/forum. Simply our logo somewhere, a link/banner, and the right to respond to relevant posts within the forum.
What do you think?

5% discount for all the members over at rockauto, that's a great deal, on the bigger purchases anyway. Also 5 a month to the server. They will also post on here every once in a while.

That sounds great, all I have to do is simply link to them on the site, which i'll add soon.

What do you guys think of that?

[Neu]

Link is now on the site, and this is the "discount code" : 8580EACEAF44

Enter the code in the "how did you hear about us" box that's on your shopping cart.

[brianp]

Looks fine to me. You seem to be picky about what ads you will allow, so I don't have a problem with it.

[keith]

I like the way rockauto is doing it. It would be nice if the link took you directly to the Tercel parts, but that might be a little more involved than they want to go. Maybe autopartswarehouse might want to do the same thing.

[ARCHINSTL]

You might also contact Butler Toy in Indy. This is a huge multi-brand company, as I discovered.
My contacts there in the Toy Parts department have been Kyle and Mark; they have truly been quite helpful - and the prices have been better for OE than other Toy dealers, and have on occasion been better than aftermarket non-OE sources.

http://www.toyotaoemparts.com
If you contact them, mention my name - dunno if it would do any good, but who knows? There can't be that many folks who buy OE parts for T4WDs anymore!

I know I've recommended them often, but believe me, for OE, they sure beat these robbers here in STL! And there has been free freight on orders over $200 (at least there was last Fall).
Tom M.

[sdoan]

I'm a definite maybe

I have no problem with Chad covering his costs and perhaps getting some compensation for all his work. But because advertising dollars have the potential to pit the owner against members it's worth considering a worst case scenario:

OK here's the deal. Imagine if a member has a problem with an advertiser and makes an announcement to the forum of the problem. The advertiser reads it and threatens to pull the advertising and the $, because one member had a bad experience. Does Chad let the advertiser walk away, or does he shut down the complainer. Accusations and counter accusations can be difficult to verify, and judgment becomes difficult if 2 versions of the situation are posted. If the judge is getting paid by one of the parties then it becomes even more difficult to make clearly impartial decisions. Repeated disputes of this nature could result in loss of members or competition from another site.

Here's a concrete example. I ordered a transmission mount for my 4wd Terc on line. I went through the vendor's catalog and found the trany mount and ordered it. It was clearly for the 4wd Terc. When I received the part it was the part I ordered but it did not fit. When I went back and looked the online catalog showed the same part number for both the 2wd and 4wd Tercs. I called the vendor and told them their catalog was mistaken - that the 2wd and 4wd have different trany mounts and suggested they change their catalog. The guy on the phone told me he would do some research and call me back. When he did call back he said every aftermarket catalog he could find shows the 2wd and 4wd trany mounts are the same (he apparently did not have access to a Toyota catalog). His conclusion was that their was no problem with the vendor's catalog. I was told that there was probably something strange about my car (i.e., they didn't want to change their catalog). He agreed to refund the purchase price and shipping one way, but I had to pay shipping to return it to the vendor. This is the only thing I have ever ordered from this vendor, so despite the fact that they have good prices and a good reputation they have cost me about $7 and left me very cautious. $7 isn't much, but shipping could be $50 or more.

I haven't checked, but I'd bet the vendor's catalog is still incorrect and that every person with a 4wd Terc that has ordered a trany mount from this vendor had to return it at their cost. If I name the vendor and make the statement that the vendor's catalog is incorrect and that the vendor's error costs me money I could save some of us some time and $ - but will the vendor object? (the vendor's rep still thinks I have an odd car) Will the vendor want my post deleted or the thread frozen, or threaten to pull their advertising? The risk is that advertising could divide the Tercel faithful, and that would be a bad thing.

BTW, when this originally happened I posted on here and Tom in StLouis sent me the correct Toyota part number for the 4wd and confirmed the difference between 2wd.

Advertising $ has the potential to divide loyalties. In a dispute who has the benefit of the doubt, the Tercel4wd.com member or the advertiser? Just my thoughts.

BTW, I really like the work Chad is doing to this site. The changes looks good and the forum seems more dynamic.

All the best,

Shawn

[Neu]

Hey shawn, unless the member is being a dipshit, I'll side with the community over an advertiser. That's pretty much the way it goes.

[4wdchico]

I'm a definite maybe

I have no problem with Chad covering his costs and perhaps getting some compensation for all his work. But because advertising dollars have the potential to pit the owner against members it's worth considering a worst case scenario:

OK here's the deal. Imagine if a member has a problem with an advertiser and makes an announcement to the forum of the problem. The advertiser reads it and threatens to pull the advertising and the $, because one member had a bad experience. Does Chad let the advertiser walk away, or does he shut down the complainer. Accusations and counter accusations can be difficult to verify, and judgment becomes difficult if 2 versions of the situation are posted. If the judge is getting paid by one of the parties then it becomes even more difficult to make clearly impartial decisions. Repeated disputes of this nature could result in loss of members or competition from another site.

Here's a concrete example. I ordered a transmission mount for my 4wd Terc on line. I went through the vendor's catalog and found the trany mount and ordered it. It was clearly for the 4wd Terc. When I received the part it was the part I ordered but it did not fit. When I went back and looked the online catalog showed the same part number for both the 2wd and 4wd Tercs. I called the vendor and told them their catalog was mistaken - that the 2wd and 4wd have different trany mounts and suggested they change their catalog. The guy on the phone told me he would do some research and call me back. When he did call back he said every aftermarket catalog he could find shows the 2wd and 4wd trany mounts are the same (he apparently did not have access to a Toyota catalog). His conclusion was that their was no problem with the vendor's catalog. I was told that there was probably something strange about my car (i.e., they didn't want to change their catalog). He agreed to refund the purchase price and shipping one way, but I had to pay shipping to return it to the vendor. This is the only thing I have ever ordered from this vendor, so despite the fact that they have good prices and a good reputation they have cost me about $7 and left me very cautious. $7 isn't much, but shipping could be $50 or more.

I haven't checked, but I'd bet the vendor's catalog is still incorrect and that every person with a 4wd Terc that has ordered a trany mount from this vendor had to return it at their cost. If I name the vendor and make the statement that the vendor's catalog is incorrect and that the vendor's error costs me money I could save some of us some time and $ - but will the vendor object? (the vendor's rep still thinks I have an odd car) Will the vendor want my post deleted or the thread frozen, or threaten to pull their advertising? The risk is that advertising could divide the Tercel faithful, and that would be a bad thing.

BTW, when this originally happened I posted on here and Tom in StLouis sent me the correct Toyota part number for the 4wd and confirmed the difference between 2wd.

Advertising $ has the potential to divide loyalties. In a dispute who has the benefit of the doubt, the Tercel4wd.com member or the advertiser? Just my thoughts.

BTW, I really like the work Chad is doing to this site. The changes looks good and the forum seems more dynamic.

All the best,

Shawn

Shawn the exact thing happened to me on the tranny mount issue. The vendor was Rock Auto.

[ARCHINSTL]

I certainly do not disagree with either sdoan or 4wdchico on their experiences with that vendor re the tranny mount, since Shawn and I covered this last year, as he notes.
I just now checked RA's, AZ, O'R, NAPA, and ADV. All, save AZ, (now) differentiate between AT and MT mounts (RA now has the Beck-Arnley at a closeout of $17!). AZ has some correctly described and some (Duralast) incorrectly described.
I have a feeling that the vendors relied on the description they were given by their vendor (but no slack to AZ, as DuraLast is the "house" brand).

I realize that we (I) am picking on a specific part, but I think the key with dealing with parts for our old crocks for which (non-OE) vendors do not frequently encounter requests is caveat emptor; if you are looking for a driver-side widget, look at all of the vendors (plus the online only) and compare numbers.
I discovered this last Fall concerning the KYB front strut inserts, as detailed in several threads; virtually all vendors (RA doesn't carry KYB) listed the 2WD part as being OK for the 4WD. I checked with KYB and discovered the correct model (Shock Warehouse had it listed correctly-and the best price, at the time).
Again, the moral here, if dealing with non-OE vendors is to check several, and not just for the best pricing.
Tom M.
P.S. I'd still check with Beck-Arnley if going for the tranny mount, even though it's in the MT section!