*** PLEASE READ*** INTEREST THREAD CREATIONS

[dangeris]

There have been a lot of controversy regarding the above subject. Honestly I am guilty of it too and didn't realize it till recently. We all know that the aftermarket industry for our cars are not as abundant as some others. ie G and Z. However creating interest threads for a perspective products for our cars can be detrimental to the existence of NICO.

Let me explain.

Scenario:
A forum members see a product which they think would benefit the Nico Community. So they start an interest thread to "gauge" interest. They then go back to the company and say, "hey, I have X amount of people interested. what can you do" The company sees the demand and comes back with an amount and the group buy begins or the members contact the company individually to make the sale. Either way its a win for the company and a loss for NICO.

HERE LIES THE PROBLEM:

After the purchasing is over, NICO is left with Nothing! That's right..NOTHING

Essentially what just happened is that the company was able to sell the products to the forum members (you and I) and make a profit without having to pay a NICO a dime. Look around the boarder of the webpage that you are reading. See those ads? Well those are sponsors that pay a fee to NICO to advertise so they can sell products/services to the NICO members. Each of those companies have a service or product that can benefit the NICO community and they realize that so they negotiate with NICO to advertise. When we create an interest thread, we are bypassing this crucial process. What?...do you think maintaining a forum is free? Do you think servers or disc space or bandwidth allocation to the site is free as well? Hells No! That cost money and it is funded by the paid sponsors on this site. I don't get paid being a moderator and there are a lot of staff on here that donate their time to this site and community because we want to be here. Because NICO is THE Best and Biggest Car forum out there!

What Should Happen and how can we Help:

If we see a product that would benefit the NICO community, approach that company and say something like "you know, there could be a big demand for this product on the car forum I belong to. It's called NICO..Nissan Infiniti Car Owners. What? never heard of them? Well you should. Check them out at NICO.com and browse around. You should also really consider on becoming a sponsored vendor on the site and then you'll have access to the biggest nissan/infinti market base out there!" The company, if they are intelligent, should see this opportunity could be advantageous to their company. If they do become a sponsor, they should go to the perspective car forum and introduce themselves and tell the members what they do and what can they offer. Basically the company should be doing their due diligence, not us for them. When we create interest threads, we take that responsibility from them. We in essence did the research they should be doing ..for FREE!

Conclusion:

Like i said earlier, I am also guilty of doing this and did not realize the impact and ramifications it can have to NICO. If we continue doing this, it surely will be the demise of NICO as we know it.

I will for now on, keep a closer eye on the threads being posted and move/delete any and all threads then contact the creator and explain to them what I just explained. But us moderators can't be policing this all day. We have lives and families too so we need your help. Let a mod know if you see such actions or if you notice members that have company logos or information in their signatures. If a company wants to sell a product, they need to be a sponsored vendor on NICO. It's not fair to the other companies who play by the rules and who do pay the fees to reach the same customer base.

I hope this clears up any and all questions regarding interest threads. If not, PM me and I will take the time to further explain if necessary.

Thanks Guys!

[SHIFT_COUPE]

Just to add to all of the great information you provided Darryl. These rules also extend to products or services being offered by our existing members. For example, the projector headlight debacle or any and all solicitations to a local business. NICO works hard to bring you what we have, we simply need to keep the lights on.

[2008AltiCoupeDan]

Nissan / Infiniti Car Owners I'm anal about that big D lol

[dangeris]

Nissan / Infiniti Car Owners I'm anal about that big D lol

Fixed!

[DReed86]

Im all for it D!! I dont want to be the one taking money out of Gregs pockets. He has saved me $5-10k on my car in install, parts, and information that I have read on NICO... No to mentions friend we have all made

Gregs the man

[AZhitman]

...as a side note to what Daryl said:

We're not ignorant to the fact that there are companies out there who really do have the best of intentions. It certainly makes sense to gauge interest in a product before bringing it to market.

HOWEVER, after being involved in the aftermarket automotive industry for nearly a decade, being a Corporate member of SEMA, and seeing the process by which products are brought to market, one thing has proven to be consistent, time and time again: Companies that do their homework already know what will sell, and what will not. Some try to take a shortcut to marketing their products, and enlist well-meaning members to do their dirty work for them (trust me, I get approached via phone and email ALL THE TIME by them).

If you've got a good product, and you've done your due diligence, then you're already aware how this process works. Those companies are run by business people. So is this forum. We provide the means and the ways for connecting consumers with suppliers, simple as that. A real businessperson will respect the effort WE have put in to provide a centralized location to market their products in, and we, in return, will do our best to promote those businesses AND help them find more and more customers through our outreach efforts to the Nissan enthusiast community.

Thanks for reading, thanks for participating, and above all, thanks for being a member here.

[insaneturbo13]

This makes a lot of sense, but there is still an issue here. youve explained to us how to do it the wrong way and why we shouldnt do it. but if there were a company who wanted to advertise on this website how would they go about doing it the right way? who do they contact?

[AZhitman]

Look up - Top of page, red bar.

[dangeris]

This makes a lot of sense, but there is still an issue here. youve explained to us how to do it the wrong way and why we shouldnt do it. but if there were a company who wanted to advertise on this website how would they go about doing it the right way? who do they contact?

What issue do you see? I didn't explain how to do it the wrong way. I pointed out an example of a wrong way that is commonly done.

Scenario:
A forum members see a product which they think would benefit the Nico Community. So they start an interest thread to "gauge" interest. They then go back to the company and say, "hey, I have X amount of people interested. what can you do" The company sees the demand and comes back with an amount and the group buy begins or the members contact the company individually to make the sale. Either way its a win for the company and a loss for NICO.

If a company that knows nothing about NICO and wants to become a sponsored vendor, give them the website: www.nicoclub.com. The correct way would be they can send an email to [email protected]. It's on the Contact Us tab of the webpage. Someone will contact them and deal with them directly.

[insaneturbo13]

Look up - Top of page, red bar.

ahh i see it now, i have never noticed that being up there before lol!

This makes a lot of sense, but there is still an issue here. youve explained to us how to do it the wrong way and why we shouldnt do it. but if there were a company who wanted to advertise on this website how would they go about doing it the right way? who do they contact?

What issue do you see? I didn't explain how to do it the wrong way. I pointed out an example of a wrong way that is commonly done.

Scenario:
A forum members see a product which they think would benefit the Nico Community. So they start an interest thread to "gauge" interest. They then go back to the company and say, "hey, I have X amount of people interested. what can you do" The company sees the demand and comes back with an amount and the group buy begins or the members contact the company individually to make the sale. Either way its a win for the company and a loss for NICO.

If a company that knows nothing about NICO and wants to become a sponsored vendor, give them the website: http://www.nicoclub.com. The correct way would be they can send an email to [email protected]. It's on the Contact Us tab of the webpage. Someone will contact them and deal with them directly.

i didnt mean to make it sound like there was error with the post, but rather with missing information, but now that i know of the important red bar all is well.