Edu-IT Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 While I appreciate that it costs a fortune to run a website like this and that all the money made from advertising goes towards the running costs of the site, conferences and other EG events, I have to say that I really don't like the new advertising system! I admit I block ads at home, but not at work, and I really don't like the new smiley face that takes over the page. I know I have adverts blocked and I don't need reminding. I'm not sure how much money you make from me seeing adverts but I've made a donation and will probably make another in the future. Please, can we get rid of that smiley?
Ric_ Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 Rest assured, an official comment will follow shortly about advertising. Within this statement will be some average costings - you will be truly amazed at EduGeek's running costs!
Edu-IT Posted August 28, 2008 Author Posted August 28, 2008 Rest assured, an official comment will follow shortly about advertising. Within this statement will be some average costings - you will be truly amazed at EduGeek's running costs! I'm not disputing the fact that it costs a lot of money to run the site. It's just the fact that I now have a message telling me that adverts are blocked. I think if people have adverts blocked then it's intentional and they're not going to disable their ad blocker just because of a smiley face. As it happens I can just block the smiley face and frame so I'm not too bothered now.
Sylv3r Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 I see the smiley face for a split second then the advert shows. If I am honest, I don't really notice the adverts around the page. As has been said the cost of running the site isn't cheap and I'd be happy to donate again into the future. Thanks
Guest metalmonkey Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 Congrats on getting the site to detect if i'm blocking the ad's. Very clever - although slightly worrying as well. There really isn't much you can't do on a website these days. As someone else has said, i can just ignore them. However, I have ad blocking because I don't want adverts popping up when i move the mouse and accidently move it over green underlined text - as used on alot of websites (although I acknowledge, its not yours). Thats my sole reason. Unfortunately for you, i'm blocking your ad's as a result. So if you want to blame someone, blame intellitext (or what ever their name is) By the way, I don't think I have ever bought something as a result from an Advert online, so you wouldn't make a penny from me anyway.
webman Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 You can block intellitext without blocking the ads.
ICTNUT Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 Although i can fully apreciate the original posters thoughts on ads and I will be the first to admit that I hate them however.... I am sure that you will all agree that this is a truely awesome resource and it has brought together communities from all over in an effort to provide a service that over the past couple of years has grown from strength to strength. There are indeed plenty of other websites that offer the same resources as this site with one main difference, you have to pay for the others and NOT by a small amount either. I am not sure how much revenue is generated from these ads and to be honest I have no need to know I am just happy that the guys are trying to find ways to keep this resource free for all to use and yes I am a supporter and yes I choose to donate as I have done on a regular basis but thats not the point, these are just ads, block them if you want, ignore them if you want, hell click on them all its your choice the alternative is to make it a pay only site or a most things edugeek goes the same way as the dodo and thats not what we want is it???? just my thoughts
FN-GM Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 Although i can fully apreciate the original posters thoughts on ads and I will be the first to admit that I hate them however.... I am sure that you will all agree that this is a truely awesome resource and it has brought together communities from all over in an effort to provide a service that over the past couple of years has grown from strength to strength. There are indeed plenty of other websites that offer the same resources as this site with one main difference, you have to pay for the others and NOT by a small amount either. I am not sure how much revenue is generated from these ads and to be honest I have no need to know I am just happy that the guys are trying to find ways to keep this resource free for all to use and yes I am a supporter and yes I choose to donate as I have done on a regular basis but thats not the point, these are just ads, block them if you want, ignore them if you want, hell click on them all its your choice the alternative is to make it a pay only site or a most things edugeek goes the same way as the dodo and thats not what we want is it???? just my thoughts I totally agree, to be honest i hardly notice them.
MkII Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 (edited) If they (the ads) were at the bottom or side of the page, and didn't get in the way of viewing the content, maybe people wouldn't feel the need to block them. If advertising is annoying, it's counter productive. After being prodded with the cattle prod so many times, you'd flinch when you saw the real thing. Successful advertising is an art. Ineffective advertising loses on all fronts. Edited August 28, 2008 by MkII
jcollings Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 (edited) I totally agree, to be honest i hardly notice them. Got to agree with others here - I hardly notice them. Edited August 28, 2008 by jcollings
Edu-IT Posted August 28, 2008 Author Posted August 28, 2008 Go to agree with others here - I hardly notice them. Neither do I now. I'm all for adverts to help towards the running costs but I just think having adverts in the posts is.. unsightly. Yes more people are going to see them but more people are going to get annoyed. Are you paid on views or clicks? If clicks then it would be interesting to see if the links are visited more in the next few months or the same.
Joedetic Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 "Who's going to disable their adblocker?" (Or something liek that). I added an exception for edugeek to adblock+! Chatting with Shaun at the Preston Conf, I knew this was going to happen at some point. I must admit that I don't like the big blocky add that appears in the first post but never mind. I don't like adverts but I understand that they're necessary, and whilst I've donated to EduGeek in the past that was only for the conference as far as I know! So I felt guilty and unblocked the ads and I'm sure I'll get used to them.
Edu-IT Posted August 28, 2008 Author Posted August 28, 2008 "Who's going to disable their adblocker?" (Or something liek that). I added an exception for edugeek to adblock+! Chatting with Shaun at the Preston Conf, I knew this was going to happen at some point. I must admit that I don't like the big blocky add that appears in the first post but never mind. I don't like adverts but I understand that they're necessary, and whilst I've donated to EduGeek in the past that was only for the conference as far as I know! So I felt guilty and unblocked the ads and I'm sure I'll get used to them. Do you click them though? As I said before does EG get paid for clicks or views?
GrumbleDook Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 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 Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 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 Posted August 28, 2008 Author Posted August 28, 2008 Right, I've unblocked all the adverts apart from the annoying one that is displayed in forum posts.
FN-GM Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 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 Posted August 28, 2008 Posted August 28, 2008 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) 1
Dos_Box Posted August 29, 2008 Posted August 29, 2008 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! 1
Hightower Posted August 29, 2008 Posted August 29, 2008 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 Posted August 29, 2008 Posted August 29, 2008 I believe that the conferences and BETT make up a large proportion of that cost - no?
Dos_Box Posted August 29, 2008 Posted August 29, 2008 I believe that the conferences and BETT make up a large proportion of that cost - no? Yup. The last conf was over £5000.
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