Lapidary Zone Q & A
When will the site be online? Where?
The site will be uploaded during the first week of April, 2004.The URL/Domain will be the same that you are on right now: www.lapidaryzone.org
Who can submit a free ad/listing?
Any legitimate business or person who provides any service that is related to the Lapidary/Jewelry theme of the site. This includes, but is not limited to: Rock collector clubs, gem and mineral show promoters, retail and wholesale dealers of lapidary/jewelry making equipment or materials, publishers of lapidary/jewelry-related newsletters or magazines, mines that are open to the public, gemstone photographers, and writers who post articles on relevant subjects.Is banner advertising available?
Most ads or listings will be textual/classified format. Banner advertising may be offered in the future, but ONLY if it becomes necessary to generate revenue to support the site's operating costs. For the tiem being, there are two exceptions to this policy:1) Gemstone photographers and jewelry designers may provide sample photos.
2) Writers who contribute informative articles for use on the site will be given special consideration in promoting any products or services they may have to offer.
The obvious question: "Why are the listings free?"
1) The primary purpose of the Lapidary Zone site will be to provide information and resources. If we charged money for listings, those who do not want to go out of their way to pay for advertising on an as-yet unestablished entity would not be listed, and the directory would be much less comprehensive than what we hope for it to be.2) The only foreseen cost of operating Lapidary Zone is the webhosting/bandwidth cost. This is not a major expense, and very likely will be substantially less than $100 per month.
3) "Interstitial Text Ads" (Google Adsense) may run in the margin of some of the site's pages. These ads should generate enough revenue to help defray hosting costs mentioned above. Some contributors may have their own Adsense revenue code placed on the site; see our Revenue Policy.
4) Lapidary Zone is not a business. The operator of the Lapidary Zone site has several very successful commercial sites (not Lapidary related) and quite simply has little need or desire for Lapidary Zone to make any more money than its operating costs. If interstitial ads on the site do not generate sufficient revenue to support these costs, the expense of operating the site will be simply be considered "out of pocket" hobby expenditure.