This website is entirely free to use, and the running costs are supported by advertising. When I originally set it up, I didn't expect it to become as popular as it has been.
Success comes with its own challenges, though, one of which is increased costs. We do use adverts provided by Google Adsense to help offset those costs, but it's not a particularly reliable source of income. It's also not a particularly good fit for a website like this one, which has a very specific audience.
So what I want to do is move away from Google as my main source of advertising revenue. I also want to give more opportunities to UK based retailers and organisations.
I am a modeller, and not just a web developer. If you're on RMweb, you'll find me there under the handle 'MarkSG'. Like practically every website I've created, this one was initially created because it reflects my actual interests, and then updated and extended because it seemed to meet other people's needs as well.
One of the most popular sections of the website is the product database. And almost all of this traffic comes from search engines. At the moment, the biggest beneficiaries of this are Amazon and eBay, because they pay me a small affiliate fee for sales generated from the traffic I send them. I'd prefer to be sending that traffic to British businesses, and particularly those which supply and support our hobby.
It isn't just the product database, though. The event listings are increasingly popular, helped by the fact that it's now commonly returned as a recommended source by Google's AI search assistant (which possibly makes up for the fact that it seems to think Perth is in Warwickshire, but we'll let that slide for now). Other than the event organisers themselves, nobody gets any traffic out of that. But I'd be perfectly happy to send it your way, too!
So, what's available? To begin with, I'm focussing on retailer banners on the product pages. These are available now, at a price competitive with what you'd pay to advertise on other websites or to use Google Adwords. But if you have any other idea for mutually beneficial website sponsorship, then feel free to let me know - I'm sure we can work something out.
I'm working on a self-service system where you can buy advertising and upload your own banners directly to the site. But, in the meantime, drop me an email at [email protected] if you're interested and we can go from there.