Advertising

[GrumbleDook]

We get paid a bit for views and more for clicks ... hence why blocking the ads is not that friendly to our cause ... even if people don't click then at least we get something for views ... I can understand why ads annoy people and on a few sites I cough up to be ad free ... actually a sneaky way to force a subscription onto people, something that we don't want to do (actually I think a subscription is not a bad thing, but it is hard to get the right balance of why perks you get for it and I have seen communities split and go under because of it.)

The Ad revenue goes towards a number of things. Hosting is a big part (especially when a certain host take the money, our box dies and give naff service!), running the conferences for free (giving away goodies when we can too), covering extra expenses at things like BETT (don't forget ... this year we are providing pizza for lunch to members ... you will have to visit the stand in the morning to grab your EduGeek sticker to claim it .. more details closer to the show!) and every little helps.

EduSupporters, EduSponsors and long term partners are fantastic and we could not survive without them. Whether they give money, their time for free at conferences and events, give us access to information early, give us prizes for competitions or just spend their life on the site providing free advice (not mentioning names coughTomNewtoncough) ...

Yes, if people can put an exception in for EduGeek it would be appreciated.

[john]

I belive its not on clicks its just views, ive never clicked on them anyway but don't ad block either, im used to ads at the edge so im fine with it.

Edit - Lord Tony has spoken so there we go, a much better answer than I can give.

[Edu-IT]

Right, I've unblocked all the adverts apart from the annoying one that is displayed in forum posts.

[GrumbleDook]

It really is appreciated .. thanks.

[FN-GM]

Originally Posted by john

I belive its not on clicks its just views, ive never clicked on them anyway but don't ad block either, im used to ads at the edge so im fine with it.

Edit - Lord Tony has spoken so there we go, a much better answer than I can give.

With google you definitely get money for clicks.

When people block the ads the site is going to have to use more to compensate.

[ZeroHour]

Originally Posted by Edu-IT

Right, I've unblocked all the adverts apart from the annoying one that is displayed in forum posts.

That ad (I am assuming the box one in the post) is actually one of the best value per impression ad's we have. But all impressions help. The image for blockers is going to be tweaked so it should be less noticeable. The image I think is very little as a *penalty* for using an adblocker on the page. I have seen sites that make content hard to read, limit viewing time, display a page blocking access and various other things to diswade users from blocking their ad's. We only displayed a image in its place
There are a lot more ways to detect adblocking and cause issues for its users but most can be defeated in some way and it only annoys the user. Thats why the image was implemented to present our case for viewing our ad's rather then limit the viewing experience by adblock users.
Right now its a general image but I am trying to factor in linkage to a page explaining how it all works with tips on how to unblock edugeek only. The image will also have other options that should minimise its obviousness.
One thing I can ensure is that we will never be getting intellitxt, EVER!
I hate it as much as you all do. We will be as selective as we can with our primary advertisers but google adsense is rather hard to tame at times but its generally accurate enough.
Our primary advertisers pay generally on per impression and per click so your hits, like Tony said, really do make a difference. The more funds from advertising (which is our primary source of edugeek funds) edugeek gets the more people we can have at conferences and bett. The ad's are like donating without paying the donation yourself it all adds up.

The iframes which currently display adverts were implemented so that users experienced a faster load of page content which did boost page load speeds a fair bit due to the nature of iframes. This should minimise the slowdown caused by viewing the ad's.
We dont want the ad's to be too intrusive but they have to be placed in proper positions. If we located ad's at the bottom it would be less valuable to advertisers simply because its easier to ignore. The first post MPU is annoying but even at 1024x768 it still does not effect the post that badly. They are the most hated of advertisements but thats simply because you do tend to notice them thus making them higher value.

In the end its up to you the user if you want to use adblocking on edugeek, I just hope this clarifies how it works if you chose not too and how we try to minimise the effect of supporting us in this way. You never know you might even see something you actually want to buy




ZeroHour (Shaun)

[Dos_Box]

I know that the current Google ads (which slip in when we don't have anything else to show) are annoying, partly due to their lack of relevance, but be assured that we have some BIG names about to start in the very near future which should not look as naff. And yes, it does cost to run the site the way we do, just to give you a rough figure I estimate that once conferences and BETT are taken into account it will have set us back about £15,000 this year alone, and 2009-2010 should be even more costly.
Success costs y'know!

[Hightower]

I've got to say when I was introduced to this site in 2006 there were near enough NO adverts on this site. Now, they are everywhere. I appreciate that this resource is valuable to a lot of tech's but to me it is just a forum. I don't go to the conferences or meetings (because I don't want to travel all the way South, maybe I would go if some were held up Newcastle way) and if I just want a forum I can use RM Communities.

My point being, although you say the adverts are driving the site and keeping it going, they will at the same time drive many members elsewhere. Keep them going but as Marc said on page 1, meaningful advertising is an art, so why not look into the most effective place to put the adverts both for the sponsor and the vital members.

Remember, without the members this site holds nothing.

[kesomir]

I believe that the conferences and BETT make up a large proportion of that cost - no?

[Dos_Box]

Originally Posted by kesomir

I believe that the conferences and BETT make up a large proportion of that cost - no?

Yup. The last conf was over £5000.

[Dos_Box]

Originally Posted by Hightower

I've got to say when I was introduced to this site in 2006 there were near enough NO adverts on this site. Now, they are everywhere. I appreciate that this resource is valuable to a lot of tech's but to me it is just a forum. I don't go to the conferences or meetings (because I don't want to travel all the way South, maybe I would go if some were held up Newcastle way) and if I just want a forum I can use RM Communities.

My point being, although you say the adverts are driving the site and keeping it going, they will at the same time drive many members elsewhere. Keep them going but as Marc said on page 1, meaningful advertising is an art, so why not look into the most effective place to put the adverts both for the sponsor and the vital members.

Remember, without the members this site holds nothing.

Back then we relied on a few sponsors and were based on a very cheap hosting package. There are lots of reasons why it now costs to run EduGeek, not least because we now have massive traffic figures. Look at it this way, we often get requests from certain companies and organisations waving very large wads of cash for access to our user database. We refuse to allow this at any costs. A lot of our time and effort is put into giving you the most hassle free environment we can whist putting your views and idea forwards to the people who make a difference in educational IT (we speak to lots of important bods for you essentially). But we simply cannot run for free (I spent thousands of my own money in the early days to keep the site running because I believe in what we do).
As regards to the positioning of ads we really have no choice in this. Ads are sold on a specific size and location. If they are not that size, or in that place then you simply can't use them.

[Ric_]

Originally Posted by Hightower

I've got to say when I was introduced to this site in 2006 there were near enough NO adverts on this site. Now, they are everywhere. I appreciate that this resource is valuable to a lot of tech's but to me it is just a forum. I don't go to the conferences or meetings (because I don't want to travel all the way South, maybe I would go if some were held up Newcastle way) and if I just want a forum I can use RM Communities.

My point being, although you say the adverts are driving the site and keeping it going, they will at the same time drive many members elsewhere. Keep them going but as Marc said on page 1, meaningful advertising is an art, so why not look into the most effective place to put the adverts both for the sponsor and the vital members.

Remember, without the members this site holds nothing.

I can understand why you feel this way. However, we DO move the conferences about so that everyone can attend. Obviously the Chorley one was too far for you to attend but we intend to host a conference in the North East next Easter IIRC - this does rely upon being able to fund it though.

You might not like having to travel to London for BETT and all the expense it brings... the advertising pays for us to put members up overnight - all we ask for is for a bit of help for a day.

Initially EduGeek was a tiny little site run on a bottom-of-the-range hosting package and hence there were no ads - just Dos_Box's generosity. However, EduGeek is now HUGE. We have to have a dedicated server and that costs £££££s. Even if we stopped the conferences, attending BETT, hosting a chat server and hosting the EduGeek Projects - the things that set us apart from ALL other forums - we would still need to have advertising just to pay for hosting.

The EduGeek Admins give huge amounts of time freely to EduGeek too. AFAIK none of us block the ads - and I HATE the first inline ad!

[Lee_K_81]

Just a side point, I dont block ads, but all i can see at the moment is the (not so) smiley face. Are the ads down or are my LA automatically blocking ads for me?

[My220x]

I know how much ads can bring in that is why I don't block them.

[ZeroHour]

Originally Posted by Hightower

I've got to say when I was introduced to this site in 2006 there were near enough NO adverts on this site. Now, they are everywhere. I appreciate that this resource is valuable to a lot of tech's but to me it is just a forum. I don't go to the conferences or meetings (because I don't want to travel all the way South, maybe I would go if some were held up Newcastle way) and if I just want a forum I can use RM Communities.

My point being, although you say the adverts are driving the site and keeping it going, they will at the same time drive many members elsewhere. Keep them going but as Marc said on page 1, meaningful advertising is an art, so why not look into the most effective place to put the adverts both for the sponsor and the vital members.

Remember, without the members this site holds nothing.

The time you are talking about (with no ad's) was when there was no hits. The more busy the site comes the more costs thus advertising is naturally needed. As for conferences in other parts of Britain, the more funds we have the more options to organise more conferences.
RM do it as a side to the fact they want you to buy from RM, its part of their service and you pay for it with their software. Nothing is free in that sense.
Other then RM (who are funded by your purchases) we are much lighter on advertising then a huge amount of sites out there so really you must appreciate the fact that you dont have a large amount of ad's. We have:
Frontpage: 2 ad's
Forum Index: Sponsors logos and 1 ad
Thread Index: that forum sponsor only
Thread: 2 ad's

That is nothing when it comes to how much more ad laden the site could be using intellitxt etc. Really you should appreciate how little their is rather then expecting a completely ad free website which is paid for by air and our admin pockets. You must understand advertising is a natural part of the web and a completely reasonable thing to have to ensure a popular site stays alive. I understand what you are saying about driving members away and I have seen sites do this by using intellitxt or for example going to the lengths of experts-exchange which drive me away from the site but its not like we are doing things like that. The ads a few and necessary. I wish donations could come close to the costs but they cant tbh so ad free is less of a option.
We are not evil by locking you out of content for blocking which we could do like other sites. Look at some attitudes to blockers:
Ad blocking is theft, so block Firefox instead (updated) | Technology | Guardian Unlimited
Tweaktown Adblock Message - OverclockersClub Forums

All I would say is understand why ad's as there and what we do with the revenue. Nothing drives members away faster then having to pay a per month. Ad's are much less likely to annoy then forcing people to hand over their cash just to read edugeek.