Advertising

[Dos_Box]

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_]

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]

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.

[Hightower]

Thanks for clearing things up. I'm by no means having a go. It's just good to know why the amount of adverts have risen and it's also good to know that a North-East conference is in the pipe line.

 

I appreciate all the work that goes into this site and thank everyone involved.

[dhicks]

We have ads? Seriously, I don't think I'd even registered there are adverts on the site until I saw this thread - they're just something your eyes automatically skip over these days. The stuff I do take notice of is the adverts and offers posted to the sponsers forum, and the companies that answer questions and post things in forums - we've just spent around £15,000 this summer with people I heard of through EduGeek.

 

Just to make sure we've had our daily dose of irony, I see that the keyword-scanning algorithm that serves the adverts is now showing us adverts for advert services, specifically the rather oddly named "InviziAds". Better not discuss this any further, though - a meta-discussion about advertising advertising might put the advertising system into a recursive loop or something and wind up with the known universe imploding.

 

--

David Hicks

[ZeroHour]

Just to make sure we've had our daily dose of irony, I see that the keyword-scanning algorithm that serves the adverts is now showing us adverts for advert services, specifically the rather oddly named "InviziAds". Better not discuss this any further, though - a meta-discussion about advertising advertising might put the advertising system into a recursive loop or something and wind up with the known universe imploding.

 

LOL

[Hightower]

Nice one David -

[tech_guy]

I don't think the ad for the awful t-shirts was suitable for the site.

 

[amfony]

Just my 2 cents AUD ...

 

But obviously the ads are there for a reason. No one at eduGeek would want to have ads for no other reason the offsetting the costs of running (i trust) the site and from what i can tell about the origins/original players of the site i doubt that the runners/owners are keeping all the massive amounts of cash and driving merc's or in your case .. jaguars.

 

Either way - what ever keeps me away from a subscription fee more power to it!!

 

By they way - i fully agree with the guy that said the forums are nothing with out the members.

[Dos_Box]

Just my 2 cents AUD ...

 

But obviously the ads are there for a reason. No one at eduGeek would want to have ads for no other reason the offsetting the costs of running (i trust) the site and from what i can tell about the origins/original players of the site i doubt that the runners/owners are keeping all the massive amounts of cash and driving merc's or in your case .. jaguars.

 

Either way - what ever keeps me away from a subscription fee more power to it!!

 

By they way - i fully agree with the guy that said the forums are nothing with out the members.

 

Funnily enough, almost all the big players I spoke to at BETT in January all wanted to know why we didn't charge for membership. Some people can't grasp the 'community' thing at all, especially business.

[GrumbleDook]

@DB : don't forget the Saudi Prince who wanted to know if he could buy EduGeek and get it translated? And the number of people who would walk past the stand and ask what the catch was if it was all free?

[Hightower]

So 8000 members, a lot of those one timers. £15000 running costs per year. I would rather pay the £10-£20 year subscription than have the adverts, but that's just me.

 

£20 at 800 regular visiting members (just a guestimate) = £15000. I'd go with that.

[Ric_]

£20 at 800 regular visiting members (just a guestimate) = £15000. I'd go with that.

 

We currently have 869 active members (according to the magical VBulletin algorithm). These are the people that actually post... however, I know a lot of people just read the forums - lurking as it were. There is also no requirement to join to view most of our content. We actually get well over 5000 visitors a day during term time!

 

If we charged for membership, I suspect we would lose a good few of those active members. We would also lose the majority of those 5000 visitors each day. Together, these two things would give the site less 'pull' and that would mean that we wouldn't be at BETT, we wouldn't be able to get decent speakers for conferences, we wouldn't be discussing national agenda (e.g. BSF) with the big wigs on your behalf and we wouldn't be able to offer free stuff.

 

It all comes back to the fact that EduGeek is not just a technical forum - it is a community.

[webman]

I love the smell of imploding universes on a Friday afternoon

[leco]

I would rather pay the £10-£20 year subscription than have the adverts, but that's just me.

 

£20 at 800 regular visiting members (just a guestimate) = £15000. I'd go with that.

 

Whilst I wouldn't mind paying a fee I wouldn't actually have become a member in the first place if the site required one. I was a 'read only' for quite a long time before I posted.

 

The fact that this site is a community is what holds me here. As someone said earlier I hardly notice the ads, but if I'm looking for something specific then they help. Knowing that Edugeek endorses whatever is there is a good enough recommendation for me.

[Guest metalmonkey]

All I would say is understand why ad's as there and what we do with the revenue.

 

And also please understand, some of us use this forum to post responses only and never ask for help. Some of us have no interest in the Bett show or your conferences.

 

Please understand there are users of this site with different interests in it. As a result, they don't feel they need to add an exception to our adblocker.

 

If those people... like me, are then considered unhelpful, un-supportive or rude to the cause, then so be it. I'll delete my account right now.

[pete]

I block the "sponsored by" ads on here in a bid to make the forum list less unwieldy and cluttered - displaying 60 forums and sub-forums on one page, especially with no option to collapse sub-forums, is excessive. If I turn the "sponsored by" ads on, the amount of scrolling needed gets sillier and the ads make the page harder to navigate.

 

I understand the need for you to advertise, but if your adverts are annoying or make the site harder to use, I'll block them. Somewhere in the middle, there's a happy medium.

[ZeroHour]

I block the "sponsored by" ads on here in a bid to make the forum list less unwieldy and cluttered - displaying 60 forums and sub-forums on one page, especially with no option to collapse sub-forums, is excessive. If I turn the "sponsored by" ads on, the amount of scrolling needed gets sillier and the ads make the page harder to navigate.

 

They are getting tweaked too

Soon they should not effect scrolling so that will minimise their impact too. We are trying to make it as unobtrusive as possible.

[JohnMason]

Personally, I don't really notice the ads...

 

But why not offer ad-free membership for a small premium?

 

Free membership with current ads in place, with a £20-£30 a year "premium" membership with no ads?

[tom_newton]

Edugeek is about the *only* place we advertise, and even then, its basically an excuse to give money to the best forum on t'internet

[localzuk]

Personally, I dislike ad-blocking and do not engage in the practice. As someone who has ran websites, I know what ad-blocking does to the revenue stream that is needed to keep things running. And as a user, especially on sites like this one, some of the adverts come in useful, pointing me in the direction of companies that I may well use at some point.

[webman]

Edugeek is about the *only* place we advertise, and even then, its basically an excuse to give money to the best forum on t'internet

 

Flattery will get you everywhere! Apparently

[GrumbleDook]

And also please understand, some of us use this forum to post responses only and never ask for help. Some of us have no interest in the Bett show or your conferences.

 

Please understand there are users of this site with different interests in it. As a result, they don't feel they need to add an exception to our adblocker.

 

If those people... like me, are then considered unhelpful, un-supportive or rude to the cause, then so be it. I'll delete my account right now.

 

Fine .. your choice to block ads.

 

I always find communities a bit like karma. Some people will only post advice on one ... but may ask on others ... and it all tends to come round in a big circle. Or you could consider that you may have gotten advice from somewhere else a few months / years ago and you are now help people out in return ... people have lots of different reasons for belonging to communities.

 

The figures for subscription have been done ... and the loss of members from the community against the revenue raised was not worth it. Ads have been the best option. At the moment the use of Google Ads has been a filler because actually, all we want to do is to try and give you adverts and access to offers that are beneficial to you as an IT professional working in a school.

 

Do you feel that the type of adverts are wrong or that adverts in general are wrong? If it is the former we can work to repair that ... if it is the latter then there is little we can do except ask people to be understanding and hope they help. If you prefer to block ads but contribute to the community in other ways (which many do) via help, advice, discussions ... then you are still making a contribution in my book ... just not a financial one. The financial one is just more tangible to most. We really do understand it but need to sometimes explain why we operate the way we do.

 

That's the wonderful thing about having hippy tendencies ... there is usually something positive about anyone who participates in a community.