ATS how do you make your money?

I would like to know the details of your marketing, who pays and whats in store for us at ATS.

This is never talked about but I'm sure we would like to know and a question of how much is made?

Where does it go?

Thanks

reply to post by Elfworkz


One word Advertisements. Well that would be my guess any was. Good luck getting an answer though as I don't think there marketing plan would be something they would share with the general public.


O and the CIA FBI KGB etc pay them for info on the members....obviously I'm joking or am I?

Right, I'm not the only one thinking...........


Thanks for the reply!

not 800 your minus 400

The mods will destroy me I'm sure

I want to believe......................

Please help!

reply to post by Elfworkz

This is never talked about but I'm sure we would like to know and a question of how much is made?

WTF....

Dude, who are you to ask these questions? A member...? So...

They do not ask you for any donations, nor do they tax you - except mentally...but that is a good thing.

It's quite obvious how they make their money, and as to whether they "sell" our information to 3 lettered org's. - well....

Deny Ignorance isn't just with TPTB, it's also words to live by in your daily life...try it.

Easy I just asked a question................

Ever seen a spread sheet? Ever seen are IP adresses?

I don't think they have anything to hide. All the advertisement stuff is freely available on the above net work site

www.theabovenetwork.com...

Have a look at the media kit pdf.

files.abovetopsecret.com...

Some of the rates are at the bottom. It's all pretty standard as far as large sites selling advertisement goes.

I think it's a good idea, the ads are vetted and unobtrusive and ultimately the money will go into improving the site.

Which will benefit us all

See, thats what I want to here! Positive and negative!

Voice out cause the ads really bother me in this forum but I guess it must be so!

It's not difficult to discover some rather "deep" information about us and our aspirations...

At the bottom of every page is our corporate logo, which links to our corporate website:
www.theabovenetwork.com...
Which details our plans...
www.theabovenetwork.com...
...our revenue source...
www.theabovenetwork.com...
...and news...
www.theabovenetwork.com...

Also at the bottom of every page is a link to a firm that sells our ad inventory...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

There are also several discussions where we detail our technology infrastructure (five high-end enterprise-class fully-managed servers with high-capacity load balancer) that provides more than enough information for someone to calculate the rather high technology cost we experience every month.

We're not going to reveal our profits and losses to the general public until such time as we're required to do so because of our entity status. However, you can be assured that every possible investment is being made (within our means) in making certain the content posted by our members is seen by as many people as possible.

reply to post by Elfworkz


Yeah your not the only one. I wondered about it myself. One thing I thought of was the gear section. I don't think they can make there fortune of it but they do sell some merchandise.

reply to post by Elfworkz

Easy I just asked a question................

Well, no you did not just ask a question...you actually seem like you are calling them out. But let's move on from that and focus on the content...

You want to know about: marketing, what's in the pipe-line, where THEIR cash goes...

Come on dude...you HONESTLY don't think you could have worded that better? If you want to know this information, you could have presented a more suitable set of questions, not too mention possibly emailing the site owners to find out the answers that way.

Imagine if you had set up a site similar to this, made some cash off of advertising (you really didn't know this..?), then had a member who signed up voluntarily and had no monetary interest in the site, question you about your business doings...you'd be pissed...or maybe not.

As to your questions to myself:

Yes and no...if there is an issue with the IP addresses, point it out, but don't beat around the bush...

reply to post by chapter29


I was making a joke based on the threads that say the mods are dis info agents. Glad you caught it though =p.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I bow too you...................................

Sorry I have greater respect to ATS.

reply to post by hILB3rT


I'm glad (cough, cough) you caught that I never responded to your post...only his...I added that to put it to bed.





content edit!

[edit on 10/13/2008 by chapter29]

I dont call out ATS just posed a question.............

Why not pose an answer?

Where does the money go? Where is ISP info go?

Originally posted by hILB3rT
One word Advertisements. Well that would be my guess any was. Good luck getting an answer though as I don't think there marketing plan would be something they would share with the general public.

Since Skeptic Overlord has posted the links (which are pretty prominently displayed at the bottom of every page on the site), this is clearly not true.

C'mon folks, deny ignorance. I'm not asking for a lot of research, just scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page you're already on!

I admit I don't have any idea what the bandwidth and server costs here are, but they must be astronomical. Check out the stats page for how many connections they get. As for gear, at $20 to $25 per tshirt, they can't exactly be raking it in. How many people even buy them? I suspect that's more in hopes that people will spread the word about ATS by wearing and using the logo, rather than profit.

And I'm confused by the reference to IPs. Do you mean a spreadsheet of our IPs? as in the IPs the users connect from? I guess SO has those, but I can't imagine that he'd post them publicly.

For IPs that host ATS, how about just looking it up?

Just clearing my mind please don't be insulted just looking for truth and in these days truth is not common place.

Look around you see honest people?

I want to make sure ATS is REAL!

I bow to ATS real people...

Sorry I got defensive on ATS' behalf.

It's just that I think the ATS administration has taken extraordinary care to make their organization as transparent as we can reasonably expect, and they get accused of either fronting for the CIA or shoveling money into their own pockets on a fairly regular basis.

So it's not so much that you asked, as that everyone asks, they put links on every page, and still get asked.

If you want to find out, there are lots of websites that can give you at least a vague idea, but you would also have to keep in mind that ATS has/is more than one site.

but you can go here and type in the address of any website (even your own) and find out various information about it.

for those too lazy to do so, I'll post what I found.

The estimated value of www.abovetopsecret.com... is: $251,600.00

This value is calculated based on several factors shown above, including: Links, Traffic (Alexa), age of the domain, site category, domain keyword popularity, and overall occurrences of the domain name on the web.

Now I'm not one to think these sites (website value calculators) know exactly what's going on and how and what is worth what, but at least it gives you a vague idea.

Keeping in mind that this is an estimated VALUE, not what it makes.

[edit on 10/13/2008 by PuRe EnErGy]

[edit on 10/13/2008 by PuRe EnErGy]

reply to post by Elfworkz
Wow!!!! I can't believe you asked those questions. I would have thought you would have been seriously flamed by members. You were actually treated decently.

I would have told you it was none of your business and you have a lot of nerve asking such questions.

I have questions for you. Why did you need to know this information? Do you work? How much experience do you have with a P&L statement? Do you have a problem with people making money? Do you have any idea how many hours the owners put in working on this free site? Do you realize the dangers of signing onto the Internet on any site no matter how careful the owners are?

This hit a tender point with me as before I retired last year I had a business. You would not believe the number of people that tried to tell me how to run my business better. Even worse, they acted like I was their enemy because I made money.

Personally, I wish the site owners the very best and hope them great success. I appreciate this site and the manner it is operated.

I suggest you enjoy the free ride and be careful putting your nose in other people business.