XT225 Visitors and Members:
The Custom to Customer Resource Box is designed to bring together custom fabricators and XT225/XT250/Serow owners. It is also an important source of revenue for XT225.com. Given the niche market accompanying XT225/XT250/Serow dual sport motorcycles there aren't a lot of specific after market products available. You might say that this market has historically been under served. XT225.com was created to bring together worldwide ownership and form a knowledge base and viable market to strengthen support for Yamaha's XT family of motorcycles. XT225.com's main products are information, social opportunities, technical data, riding skills, adventure experiences and products to name just a few. XT225.com now organizes the largest international XT ownership and knowledge base available anywhere on the internet. It's specifically dedicated to Yamaha's XT family of dual sport motorcycles. Although the XT is our center piece, not owning one doesn't exclude you from becoming a part of this community. Many here have other motorcycles and that's fine. By registering and participating you strengthen this community in valuable ways. One rider at a time, our community has become robust enough to attract a variety of small fabricators and niche businesses. If you see paid ads in the Custom to Customer box or left portal box these businesses are helping to directly support this site. By responding to those ads with a product purchase or inquiry you help them continue to serve this niche market. These paid ads are the only source of revenue that keeps XT225.com up and running. So your purchase helps in two important ways. Custom to Customer products usually come about from owners and riders just like you. They have taken extra time and effort to think about innovative ways to improve the riding experience. If you like the products advertised herein and could benefit by adding one to your motorcycle please consider making a purchase from one of our sponsors. Your purchase helps ensure the continued development and availability of XT225.com.
Rogue Businesses:
A rogue business is a "for profit" entity who engages in ongoing selling to XT225.com registered members or visitors excluding a paid ad for their business, services, products or other profitable activities. These rogue businesses continually rely on free product reviews, signature URLs and active posts to avoid spending any of their money on a commercial membership. Simply stated this is in direct violation of the board rules. These entities need to upgrade to a commercial membership immediately. Keep in mind that purchasing or reviewing products from rogue businesses doesn't support XT225.com. Reviewing rogue business products or using the board resources to promote them in any way is also in direct violation of the board rules. Businesses become rogue businesses by continually exploiting the XT225.com market directly or indirectly as non-commercial members. Admin will delete content or ban members who break the board rules. These "for profit" rogue businesses that sell here every month but don't advertise have decided the XT225 market has no value up and beyond their profitable product sales. In other words they want to keep all the marbles for themselves. The spirit of the XT225.com community is one of teamwork, help, sharing, giving and assistance. So taking money out of a market and leaving the infrastructure of that market to go founder for itself is a form of stealing. In an online forum such as this, policing these matters is difficult but not impossible. In a very large community you will always find a small collection of individual parties wishing to operate outside of good judgement. Exposing these individuals is the first step in remediation. Be aware that admin knows exactly what's going on and takes a dim view of rogue business activity. It's also important that everyone understands how this situation hurts the site in the form of lost revenue. If you have made or are considering a purchase from a rogue business remember these businesses DO NOT support XT225.com through paid ads. You might suggest to a rogue business that becoming a commercial member (meaning they help XT225.com through ad dollars) is required and a good idea as it helps keep the site free to its non-commercial members. The goal here isn't about being Lord of the Board but establishing a fair balance between those wishing to use the XT225.com market resources and providing some financial support in return. This approach positions niche products for maximum sales and helps keep XT225.com healthy. Keep in mind that XT225.com is also a business which needs to maintain an operating budget to survive. ISP, software updates, maintenance, admin resources and storage all cost money. If that money isn't there then the site goes away. Lost ad revenue hurts XT225.com and its members so we need to put a stop to it.
Custom Fabricators & Niche Businesses:
If you are making (or thinking about making) products for the XT please contact Admin to discuss paid advertising options in the Custom to Customer resource box. A commercial membership (required for all "for profit" businesses) is $52.50/Mth and your product(s) will be put before a very specific market of riders interested in what you are making. A commercial membership entitles you to a 250px X 250px ad in the Custom to Customer box, usage of global announcements, signature URLs and product pictures. If you are a new business and haven't sold any products to XT225.com members, feel free to make a preliminary product announcement to the board and mobilize our community to comment, make suggestions, test and evaluate a single specialty product. The XT225.com community represents an extremely wide range of riders whose experience and knowledge is vast. They are also very helpful by being willing to share what they know.
Please do not abuse the freedom of the BBS by using it as a free place to advertise/sell your professional products. Do not abuse beta testing privledges and product announcements. Carefully review the board rules HERE for more specifics on this. If you have any questions please feel free to contact admin via email or send a PM. Anyone knowing of advertising abuse or rogue business activity should bring it to the attention of admin at once. Such communication(s) will be held in strict confidence. Violations of board rules will result in banning from the board and/or content deletions.