The Million Baht Project
By Richard Barrow 
Sunday 27th November, 2005 | 398 words | Category: General | 22 feedbacks »
Some of you may know already, that these blogs are produced by the Paknam Web Network. It is a company here in Thailand that I set up with a group of my ex-students. The picture above shows our office and some of the students hard at work. We not only produce the thai-blogs.com web site, but also more than 30 others which include: thailandlife.com, learningthai.com, thailandguidebook.com, ethaimusic.com, thailandQA.com, thaichatbox.com and enjoythaifood.com. These web sites are among the most popular in Thailand as we get more than 50,000 visitors every day. The blogs themselves are now averaging about 5,000 visitors a day with a one-day record of 8,000 visitors the other day.
This popularity may all sound very good, but it is starting to prove to be very expensive for us. Although the blogs don’t have as many visitors as some of our other sites, it is actually our second most expensive web site to run. In the beginning, the web sites were supported with profits from our online book store. But now the server and other expenses are costing us thousands of dollars every year. We recently did a major upgrade which cost us a lot of money. However, it didn’t help for long. Some of you may have noticed periods of time when the blogs are opening very slowly. This is happening between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Thai time. This is peak time for our major web sites and the server is having a hard time coping with so many people connecting at the same time. We now have to do another upgrade.
We were planning on continuing to pay for these upgrades ourselves. But someone came up with the idea of the Million Baht Project. This is basically how much we would need to keep these web sites running for about three years. We have recently had people come up to us offering to donate money to help keep the web sites running. This is basically what the Million Baht Project is about. If you make a donation you will become part of the history of the making of Paknam Web Network. You can also have some fun as everyone who donates has a chance of winning a portable DVD player!
If you would like to make a donation, then please visit www.millionbahtproject.com
Do you have any questions about Thailand? Maybe you are planning a holiday or just want to learn more about Thai culture. Have all of your questions answered for free at ThailandQA.com. These forums are part of the family friendly Paknam Web Network.
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22 comments
I am back to Square 1.
I added GoogleAds to my blog a few months ago, and started planning my 'round-world-tour from my anticipated windfall. Dream on... It helps a little, but I'd hate to try to live on the monthly amount at the moment.
If it's not confidential information, what percentage of your expenses are covered by ad revenue?
JD, the google adsense on these blogs are hardly worth the trouble. It only gets a few clicks a day. So, the 30 cents or so that gives us is hardly making a dent in the expenses. One of our problems is that the majority (around 60%) of the people don't actually visit the web site as they read the blogs on newsreaders. So, they don't even see the google ads! If we can get the Million Baht Project working then we will probably take off google adsense as we would much prefer a clean, advertising free, web site.
Very surprised that given the traffic of this site that the google ads don't pay off better than they do. Here is a link that talks about using them in syndication: http://www.braintique.com/research/mt-archives/000162.shtml
Best of luck.
The chat room has been a source of emotional outlet before and after my first visit to Thailand.
Through this website I have fulfilled some of my goals toward retirement in Thailand. Mr. Steve personally invited me to his school where he gave me an opportunity to work with his students. I experienced the warm, caring nature of quite a few people in Suphanburi.
Richard, of course, has proved his value by giving me a neverending story about everything Thai. He even published one of my blogs.
Everyone I know with an interest in Thailand has been given this link.
Yes, Richard, I too would like to buy some squares but I'm not sure how it works. How do I make my donation? Can you give us a $ number you have in your mind?
Thanks for all you do.
Richard S
The donation for 5 squares has been completed.
It made me feel good inside.
Best of luck to you, Richard. I think it will take far less than 3 years for you to achieve this goal.
Sincerely,
Richard S
Richard, Steve, the lady in Betong, and everyone else: many thanks for your great posts. I've also got to give kudos to Superman for his fascinating stories about Phuket and Patong in the early 1980s.
I have been a silent visitor to this site for a couple of weeks now. I like what I see here. Have you ever given the thought of listing on the stock market? I am sure people would be willing to invest in this venture (I would for sure) and maybe even brainstorm to look for avenues to generate income? I guess with the information that is present here and the human resource available, there sure must be ways to generate real income.
Cheers,
YC
Richard S, thanks also for your generous donation. However, you didn't say which squares you want to buy. There are prizes hidden behind some of them so you need to choose yourself.
Post them here or send by e-mail. It is no secret. Don't forget to also say if you want it to link to a web site or a pop-up window with your screen name (or real name). Plus, you can also send us a small images for your squares if you like. Each square is 20 x 20 pixels.
New projects bring new drama. Sorry.
Rich S
I will try and add better instructions!
Yes. I just sent it. Thanks.
This is what we have spent the donation money on so far:
(1) We bought a new server to help spread the load during peak periods. Hopefully you will see a difference tomorrow evening. If not, we will buy another one!
(2) We have hired another full-time worker to be a part of our Paknam Web team. Her name is Pensiri. She will be typing up content for the Learning Thai Project. You may have seen that she has produced a lot of work already on the forums. Many exciting things to come.
(3) We have bought a program for our students to make cartoon strips. We reckon this is going to be an excellent and fun way for you to learn Thai. The cartoon strips will be at all levels and will be bilingual. You can see an example here:
http://www.learningthai.com/comicstrip/0001.html
Well, as you can see, we have already put the donations made so far to good use.If you would like to be part of the success of Paknam Web you can make a donation by going to this web site:
http://www.millionbahtproject.com
Thanks.
Could you put this Million Baht Project post at the top of this blog, and keep it there for several weeks? I'm afraid it will get lost in the shuffle if it just keeps getting knocked down by new posts. Thanks.
You guys (and gals) also got a fine plug at Magnoy's Samsara, along with my blog. Hope it helps!
Thanks,
Edwin Kime
http://www.buythaibooks.com/customer/product.php?productid=161&cat=21&page=1
Fantastic idea. I've always enjoyed supporting this site and your others so I have gone ahead and donated for one square.
I made the payment but unfortunately, the redirect from paypal brought me to a page on the thai books site that said the 'order had been lost'. The payment has been made via paypal so if you could check on that, I'd appreciate it. I included the square/link details in the order.
Continue with the great work. :)
Will.
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