# how is this site funded?



## everything

i was just wondering, how is this website funded? it must require a fair amount of bandwith and there are no adverts. are user browsing patterns sold to companies? is it all coming out of the webmaster's pocket?


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## cuchuflete

Hi Everything,

It is coming out of the Administrator's pocket.  The forums are totally and absolutely non-commercial.  No member lists are sold, nor are browsing patterns.  The associated translation dictionaries generate revenue, and the Administrator diverts some of that to support these forums.  

I think it's damned generous of him to give us all of this.  His staff...the mods and forum developers...are all unpaid volunteers who believe in keeping the forums non-commercial.  Many of the foreros (members) help by notifying us when they see anything commercial...spam, clever (!) signatures, links, etc.  It's a total community effort to keep this place free of commercial intrusions.

Regards,
Cuchuflete


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## josama

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Hi Everything,
> 
> It is coming out of the Administrator's pocket. The forums are totally and absolutely non-commercial. No member lists are sold, nor are browsing patterns. The associated translation dictionaries generate revenue, and the Administrator diverts some of that to support these forums.
> 
> I think it's damned generous of him to give us all of this. His staff...the mods and forum developers...are all unpaid volunteers who believe in keeping the forums non-commercial. Many of the foreros (members) help by notifying us when they see anything commercial...spam, clever (!) signatures, links, etc. It's a total community effort to keep this place free of commercial intrusions.
> 
> Regards,
> Cuchuflete


 
Well, yes, I think it's a good business for everybody:

-We can stick to a hobby which we enjoy so much.
-People can ask questions and receive prompt answers.

BUT I don't think this forum is set up just on pure generosity:

-It generates traffic towards WR
-The doubts not solved by the dictionaries on WR can be solved on the forum -> This forum increases to a great extent the performance of the WR dictionary, which is not necessarily the best one out there.

That's just what I think...


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EDIT:

I forgot to adhere to the rest of what Cuchu says, which is that there really is a spirit of helping other people here. And that's what I like the best!


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## VenusEnvy

josama said:
			
		

> BUT I don't think this forum is set up just on pure generosity:
> 
> 1. -It generates traffic towards WR
> 2. -The doubts not solved by the dictionaries on WR can be solved on the forum -> This forum increases to a great extent the performance of the WR dictionary, which is not necessarily the best one out there.


Sorry to butt in. I wasn't going to, but I must!
1. Unless more traffic generates more money, how is not generous?
(Does more traffic generate more money?. . . . )

2. I think the WR dictionary _is _ the best out there (the Internet). It's multilingual and provides examples of usage, pronunciation, idioms, colloquial usages, and links to discussions about ambiguous meaning and grammar.

Sorry to sound like a WR cheerleader, but I haven't been able to find an on-line dictionary that even comes close.


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## alc112

VenusEnvy said:
			
		

> Sorry to sound like a WR cheerleader, but I haven't been able to find an on-line dictionary that even comes close.


 
In fact, there is one that would have the same quality but the problem is that you can just look for two words per day


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## josama

Hi Venusita



			
				VenusEnvy said:
			
		

> Sorry to butt in. I wasn't going to, but I must!
> 1. Unless more traffic generates more money, how is not generous?
> (Does more traffic generate more money?. . . . )


 
Well I think so:

a. If you guys look, there are "ads by Google" on the right side of the dictionary entries. I dare say WR customers pay for those ads... (I guess WR is not a non-profit organisation)

b. The added benefit for WR for maintaining  the forum is that if you google a question and it turns to be something on the forum, then that generates traffic towards the forum, and very likely to the website as a whole (dictionary and stuff) Moreover, I guess some people will get hooked on (as we are ) and we addicts will be generating traffic over and over again (like we in fact are doing right now) -> Thus, the likelihood of those ads being clicked on is increasingly higher.



> 2. I think the WR dictionary _is _the best out there (the Internet). It's
> multilingual and provides examples of usage, pronunciation, idioms, colloquial usages, and links to discussions about ambiguous meaning and grammar.
> 
> Sorry to sound like a WR cheerleader, but I haven't been able to find an on-line dictionary that even comes close.


 
Well, sorry to dissent from you.

For me, each dictionary has its own strengths, WR's being the multilingual capability thumbsup: ) and the forum thumbsup:  I wouldn't be so addicted to it if I didn't find it of great help and amusement)

But regarding the span of its definitions, examples of use and multitude of entries, my choices are other dictionaries (which, of course, I won't mention)
Several times has happened to me that I don't find suitable definitions or translations on WR, but I do find them anywhere.

The one I love most is a paper copy of what for me is the best Spanish-English-Spanish dictionary ever.


¡Saludos y un abrazo!


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## cuchuflete

In very general terms, Josama is on the right track.  To the extent to which the forums send additional traffic to the dictionaries, they increase the potential for those to earn something.  However, viewing a dictionary page generates no revenue.  That comes if and only if a viewer clicks on an add. 

In the aggregate, the traffic from the forums to the dictionaries is a very small percentage of the total dictionary traffic.  Most dictionary queries come from other sources.


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## cuchuflete

PS....



> I dare say WR customers pay for those ads...



Not correct.  

Advertisers, and not WR customers, pay for those ads, but only if they are viewed actively, by a conscious act on the part of a viewer.  This is no different from most other internet advertising.


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## josama

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> In very general terms, Josama is on the right track. To the extent to which the forums send additional traffic to the dictionaries, they increase the potential for those to earn something. However, viewing a dictionary page generates no revenue. That comes if and only if a viewer clicks on an add.
> 
> In the aggregate, the traffic from the forums to the dictionaries is a very small percentage of the total dictionary traffic. Most dictionary queries come from other sources.


 
Thank you Cuchu, interesting facts 

I don't know how this Internet business works, but it seems you know something about it. Could you explain this to me please?:

-Is it true that the more pages with links to a site, the higher it ranks in Google? In such case, the more forum posts there are, the easier it is for WR to rank high in Google searchs.

-I don't know if this somehow mimics other media businesses. But, for example, a TV ad is more expensive if the show is popular, so I don't know if puting an ad is more expensive the more hits the website has... Do you how it works???

Thank you all.


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## josama

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> PS....
> 
> 
> 
> Not correct.
> 
> Advertisers, and not WR customers, pay for those ads, but only if they are viewed actively, by a conscious act on the part of a viewer. This is no different from most other internet advertising.


 
OK. I was writing my other post when you posted this! Sorry. I guess this answers some of my questions.


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## cuchuflete

Hi Josama,

I know quite a bit more about broadcast and print ads, but I'll try to address your questions.

In print and TV/radio ads, advertisers pay for *reach*. The more viewers or readers a program/publication have, the higher the cost of the ad. With internet ads it's a little different. Reach is not the basis of the charge in some cases, though it may be for others. Often, an advertiser may pay a tiny sum, say once U.S. cent, every time a viewer of a web page clicks on a banner ad. 

It behooves the owner of the site to increase the number of viewers, as that will, in turn, increase the likelihood that more of them will click on the ad. 

Your assumptions are all pointed in the right direction. The mechanics are just a little different. If the dictionaries get....I'm inventing these numbers...half a million page views per day from all sources, and we have one or two thousand forum members signed on in the course of a day, some forum members will use the dictionaries, and of those, some will click on ads. Thus, in theory, more active forums will make a small positive contribution to the revenue generated by the dictionaries.

I'm still guessing, but I suspect that the revenues attributable to the forum members don't cover the cost of the servers. If they do, it's still not likely to be a very profitable proposition at this time. As the forums grow, and we keep on improving the dictionaries, of course it's possible that things will turn more positive. I'm operating on the assumption that Mike is subsidizing the forums out of his own pocket right now. 

I could be wrong here. There are web sites that track volumes for forums. From what I've seen of their data, the forums are growing, and have good rankings, but are still a relatively small source of dictionary traffic.

un saludo,
Cuchu





			
				josama said:
			
		

> Thank you Cuchu, interesting facts
> 
> I don't know how this Internet business works, but it seems you know something about it. Could you explain this to me please?:
> 
> -Is it true that the more pages with links to a site, the higher it ranks in Google? In such case, the more forum posts there are, the easier it is for WR to rank high in Google searchs.
> 
> -I don't know if this somehow mimics other media businesses. But, for example, a TV ad is more expensive if the show is popular, so I don't know if puting an ad is more expensive the more hits the website has... Do you how it works???
> 
> Thank you all.


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## Beautiful Princess

I am amazed of how you dedicate everything for the cause of this site and for that I pray that God will continue will continue to bless you and magnify your worthwhile endeavor... 







Saludos..


Beautiful Princess...


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## Merlin

Beautiful Princess said:
			
		

> I am amazed of how you dedicate everything for the cause of this site and for that I pray that God will continue will continue to bless you and magnify your worthwhile endeavor...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Saludos..
> 
> 
> Beautiful Princess...


The best place to be! To learn and share things.


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