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Archiver > ELLER > 2005-06 > 1119152079


From: Erin Bradford <>
Subject: Announcement regarding the website
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 20:34:39 -0700 (PDT)


Hello everyone, it's your list monitor here. I wanted to let everyone know
about changes I am currently making to the website (and for those who don't
know about it, introduce you to the list). As most of you know, I maintain a
site called "The Genealogy Depository" (see signature below) that acts as a
supplement to the list. A lot of the material on the site has been submitted
to me by list members or I have asked list members for permission to post data
from an email to the pages if I felt it was relevant.

For those of you who've been on the list since March 2004 or earlier, you know
that I left my Rootsweb site back in April 2004 and now have my own domain,
which I pay for out of my pocket. I graduated in May with my MA in Public
History, concentration in Archival management, but due to the fact that I
cannot find a job yet, I'm having a hard time scraping all the money for the
site together. I'm not asking for money from anyone, please understand that.
What I have done is to sign up with Google Adsense program, which in short
means I put ads on my page and everytime someone clicks on one, I earn a
percentage. Money I earn goes directly to help pay for the site. I've had ads
up on the page for about 2-3 weeks now, fine tuning, etc. and earned $1.44 so
far (yay!!).

Also, there is a new search box, which works the same way, if you use that box
to perform searches (including regular searches you would normally go to the
google homepage for), the site earns a percentage of those as well. So far,
the site hasn't earned anything from the search box, but it wasn't working
properly before. I finally tweaked it so that search results will be displayed
that includes specific pages on the site as well as the internet. So now, if
you do a search for "Richard Bradford" it will return all pages on the
Genealogy Depository AND on the www. This is an improvement over the old
search box. That one only returned matches on the Depository and not the www.
It took me a while to figure it out, but finally got it and it's up and running
and I've tested it out, so feel free to use now.

Both the ads and search box will be on the sister site, http://www.ncalhn.org.

Ok, another thing I have done is also signed up for being an
associate/affiliate for Heritage Quest, Willow Bend Books, and Amazon.com. If
you see a book linked from my site, it will take you to one of these sites and
as with the google ads, the money earned go towards paying for the site. The
difference with google ads and associates of the bookstores is that with google
you don't have to buy anything, you just follow the ad, but with the
bookstores, nothing is earned until a person actually purchases an item. It
doesn't have to be that item you clicked on though.

Also, I know that ancestry.com has an affiliate program, but I have no plans at
this time to get that because the Genealogy Depository is FREE and will stay
that way. There are too many sites out there that say something like, follow
this link to see a ship list or something and then it takes you to ancestry and
you have to sign up and pay for it. I HATE that! I will not do that to you
guys. IF I ever do go with ancestry, it would only be to take you to their
books, like with Heritage Quest, etc.

Lastly, I know that some of you will have a problem with not only the ads on
the website, but for me getting money for them. I am sorry if you have a
problem, but it's really the only way I can keep the site going. It's just a
way for the site to basically pay for itself. I know when I first signed up
with Amazon 5 years ago and informed the lists about it, I got some very angry
responses to it. I just can't please everyone, so I'm sorry if you're upset
about the changes.

Ok, this is long enough, so I'll sign off now. Please continue to submit
information for inclusion on the website. Remember, I can't do dig up a lot of
this info, about 90% is submitted from others. You maintain the copyright to
the material (at least the portion that is copyrightable), and I do give credit
where credit is due, in other words, if you submit information, I will say
that, I will not claim it as my own. Good luck everyone with your research.

Erin Bradford

http://www.gendepository.com (The Genealogy Depository)
List monitor: Barringer, Black, Bradford, Coventry, Eller, Hackett, Hupp, Kern

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