Content-Related

• Drive to get more original articles submitted by readers
  We can either do a contest like we've done before, or just do a "drive." Even if we can get people to have the original ideas and do the research, it would be easier for one of us to turn that raw material into an article than it would be to write the whole thing ourselves. (Speaking of contests, I have a new, unopened iPod nano that we could use as the prize in a contest)

• More review items
  ...that we haven't bought ourselves, some of which we can give away as prizes as well. A reviews page sounds delicious. --Jordan Spencer

• More content without losing so much old content
  I propose we force the top "sidebar box" to be "Hot Topics" (or something) where stories with the most comments over the last 24 hours live. Keep good content available, but make sure we can continue to update. [Adam] (I think this suggestion was made before our page 2 project, but it's still a great idea for a widget.
  

• An "idea" pool for articles
  Editors and deputies can post ideas and get suggestions. This can also be used to get feedback on original articles before posting. I actually think that the conversations page would be a great place to host this. We should just encourage people to use that area as a space to open up suggestions for debate. This would be a great place to try to get participants to agree to contribute to articles.
  

• More interesting (default) sidebar widgets:
  
• Most popular Original Stories
• Recent Conversations
• Top recommended stories (probably should only list most recommended in past 30 days)
• Most-viewed stories
  
• Highest-ranked comments
• Tweets --Kroc
  
• Fix and update the resources page

• Improve Google "advanced" search
• Get rid of web, NMC and gnomefiles radio buttons
• Try this code:
• <form action="http://www.google.com/cse" id="cse-search-box">
  <div>
  <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="partner-pub-6467510223857492:um5hda6c24j" />
  <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" />
  <input type="text" name="q" size="31" />
  <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" />
  </div>
  </form>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/coop/cse/brand?form=cse-search-box&amp;lang=en"></script>
• Resurrect OSnews Jobs (jobs.osnews.com)
  People are looking for work. Maybe we can get more traction. One of the reasons why it never took off was probably because we didn't have a good way of keeping the job board prominent for the readers. Any ideas here?
  

• See the attached image to see how sharing a story on Facebook ends up. Do you know anything about how facebook picks out that information? We need to figure out how to give them a good pic. Obviously, the meta tags in our header play a part, and I just made some updates to the meta information that I'd be grateful if you could put it in the right place (I don't know where anything is on the system anymore - I'd love a tutorial)

Revenue Generation

• Advertising

We need to do some work to optimize our current advertising. The banner ad at the top is fine, but our ad partners have told me that in their experience, the advertisers will be happier with the the box ad if it's moved from its current location in the bottom right corner, and practically below the fold in some screen resolutions. What they recommend is that we find a way to push it over closer to the text on the page, instead of buried in the sidebar. I'm not sure if there's any way we can accomplish this without a substantial redesign of the page layout, but I'd welcome your ideas. Also, the 160x600 ad is currently so far down it's kind of a throwaway.

• Again, anybody up for OSNews stickers? It's not online advertising, but stickers get around-- some people put them on laptops, mobile phones, notebooks (the paper kind), folders, doors, walls, bathroom stalls, public transit signs, powerline poles and stoplight poles, cars, foreheads, and so on.--Jordan Spencer
• We've had demand for t-shirts for quite some time. I've never managed to go through with it. If we could come up with some cheeky tech-related shirts, we might be able to make some money on them.
  
• We also have a thing with Tradepub where readers can sign up for free trade magazine subscriptions.
  
  

• Do OSNews shopping section
• Implement NexTag
• Do customized Amazon site http://astore.amazon.com/osnews-20
  
• Put Amazon in 160x600 adspace
• <script type="text/javascript"><!--
  amazon_ad_tag="osnews-20";
  amazon_ad_width="160";
  amazon_ad_height="600";
  amazon_color_logo="FFFFFF";
  amazon_color_link="206BA2";
  amazon_ad_logo="hide";
  amazon_ad_link_target="new";
  amazon_ad_title="OSNews Shopping"; //--></script>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/asw.js"></script>
• <script type="text/javascript"><!--
  amazon_ad_tag = "osnews-20"; amazon_ad_width = "160"; amazon_ad_height = "600"; amazon_ad_link_target = "new"; amazon_ad_price = "retail"; amazon_ad_discount = "remove";//--></script>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/ads.js"></script>
• Shopping is a good way to generate revenue, and it's an easy way for people to support OSNews. The big trick is figuring out a good way to make readers mindful of it without shoving it in their faces.
• Perhaps get the OSNews t-shirts and mugs more out into the open? Though the company that runs that store is somewhat expensive... have we considered going with a different company? Maybe even contracting with a cheaper company and then selling them ourselves on Amazon or something. We'd make some revenue off of the products sold, and then it'd be the same thing as the sticker idea-- people would advertise OSNews for us by wearing the shirts and bringing the mugs to work for their morning coffee or whatever it is. Maybe we could also expand the products-- add in a mouse pad, USB drives with the logo on them, pens, wristbands, earrings... I'm grasping at straws. Truly, though-- if it was popular enough, I'd say try to get a lot of similar items with the OSNews.com logo slapped on as in the Google Store. I'm not sure how many of these products we've sold or if they'd be that popular if put more out in the open, but it's a thought just the same.--Jordan Spencer
  

• Re-create the icons legend
• Add an icon for Virtualization related news.
  
• Where did the money icon go? I liked that one for business-related news.
• Someone reported problems logging in and posting while using the mobile site.