Sponsored

Why is it that when I view a community forum the second entry is some adverts under the posting of 'sponsored'

It's happening in each general forum thread too, Dennis, as well as in threads in community forums I watch, sometimes where the last post was months ago.

I asked in a new thread on here but it was deleted.  Personally I'm finding it annoying.

It looks similar to a system that PHPBB uses for boards that have paid subscribers and non paid subscribers. I can forsee a "if you don't want the sponsored ads, pay us €xx per annum. Personally, I think there are enough adverts on the site without this (and the DVD popup which still works with a popup blocker enabled!!), it is a step too far. I know Justin has to make the site pay, but it may be time to look towards another forum, sorry

Mark

Mark,

The pop-up advert should only appear once and when closed should never re-appear on subsequent visits to the site.

If it re-appears again, close the advert and  then just hit the F5 key, and it will refresh the page from the locally stored page.

Everyone,

The adverts that appear under 'Sponsor' are the same 'Google' adverts that used to appear at the top of every page, and as we have had so many complaints from people saying 'every time I want to read the 1st  post in the thread, I have to scroll down the page to see it.', we had to do something.

We thought long and hard as to what we could do to try and please as many people as possible, as you cannot please all the people all of the time. So we thought we would do the same as most of the forums now do, and place these adverts in the same place as they do, in an attempt as I said to try and please as many people as possible.

This is only on trial and we are also running other trial options to see what people will be most happy with.

We don't want to clutter the site with adverts but everything that we do costs a lot of money, and we know that you also know that we have to earn some pennies somehow!

The problem with the Google ads at the top was they were excessively large and sometimes slowed down pages being served due to the Google server not always being up to speed. They are the same excessively large ads only in a different position! If the banner was just 468x60 (or whatever the standard normal size is now), they would still show, still be clicked on, not take so long to load and not be so intrusive.

I think we all realilse that it costs money to run the site, but what also has to be taken into consideration by EOS is the time taken by the many posters to put this extremely valuable resource together. If you peeve the posters and they go, there is no value in the site any more. I don't want to come across as some whiney old git (whiney git i'll give you, but old????) but I suppose I don't like too much change on a concept that works.

BTW. I tried the F5 thing and the pop up still comes back on the next visit, or a visit to the community forums.

Mark

In my opinion the adverts as the second entry in a thread spoils the continuity of the thread.

The adverts appear again at the bottom of the page and at the side, can the thread not be a scrolling window with the adverts at the bottom of the page?

I hate watching commercial TV because of the adverts!

Sign of the times I'm afraid guys.

We are trying many different things on the site, many which you may not have even noticed, but we desperately need to increase revenue if we are to keep the site going.  It doesn't mean they will stay but we do have to test them.  

Five employees, office costs, server costs, etc, all need to be paid for and businesses are trying to save money so getting more advertisers is not easy, not easy at all.

We have been working on some really exciting developments to the website, one which we've never seen anyone do before, but they require huge investment and time and it's tough out there now.

If anyone wants to propose any REALISTIC revenue ideas then I'm all ears!

Justin

I don't really know the answer Justin. I do know though that the Google ads work for some sites and they must work to a degree here, otherwise you wouldn't use them. The issue isn't with the Google ads, merely the size of them and the amount in a small space. The problem for you as a website is clicking a Google ad takes you away from the site being browsed, they don't offer an option to open the ad in a new window/ tab, unless you can hack the code successfully. I know however that one of the reasons this site does so well must be, (as well as SEO) the regular contributions from members posting. This is a particularly busy forum and the right results on current subjects everyone wants to read about show highly in search requests. Without the regular, fresh and current postings, the information in the search engines becomes outdated, less visitors are attracted and less revenue is generated. Catch 22 really.

Perhaps you may want to consider a "donate" button tucked away on the page somewhere? I know some sites manage to make that work. I have also previously mentioned maybe a Sponsors EOS banner for businesses? One of my fishkeeping forums regularly attracts sponsors with a relatively small outlay. The sponsors then get their own boards within the forum so questions relating to their business can be kept there.

Mark

Does having the google ads in the body of the thread really generate that much revenue?

Most people when they visit a thread are only interested in the subject of the thread and just pass over the annoying second item after muttering a few expletives!

 Hi

The main problem with goggle ads is that they are invariably about as much help as a chocolate teapot

Steve

Justin

You have done the hard work!, you have created a fantastic online portal that now is five years old, I get the impression that you and Susan are creative types first and business people second.

Please do not compromise the integrity of the product, there are many ways you can make more money from this, the members however are not daft, they will not be happy by hidden costs/changes by default.

However people have short memories, it’s not been long since the site was revamped, there was a certain amount of disapproval then, this has by and large evaporated.

According to your home page stats (top right before you log in) you have 35,520 members, if you could get 1 euro from each of them, would that help?

Steve

 Thanks for the feedback.  To be honest the ads in the threads don't seem to make much difference so they will be changed next week...but we do have to test these things.  Theses tests we're doing as far from "hidden", they are very obvious, hence this thread starting up.

Steve, if all 35K members paid 1 Euro then that would cover our overheads for just three months!

We do have some plans so hopefully over the next couple of weeks we can roll them out....and they shouldn't bother too many people.  When times are tough you have to get creative.

Justin

Well done the EOS Team. You have a great product and it's popularity is testament to that and you readiness to listen to the users is applauded.

An annual fee?

You can even mix free access ( as it is today) and paid access ( with special contents). I am sure you will be very reasonable with the fees and people will be willing to pay for your contents.

Cheers!

Maria

I do think having them at the top, even though they are slow  is better than embedded in the forum.

Regarding an annual fee, I think thats a hard one to put in place, you would lose some of the people therefore the content would go down, which might then reduce the number of new members....

Perhaps being clear on what of all the stuff you are offering that people really want and downsizing the offering might cut your costs?

Cheers

Funluvin

Much better now, thank you

Mark

Justin

Are you losing business from the small fry?

I ask because many months ago, I asked for a quote about placing an advert for my Guide on EOS

I had to chase this up as no-one replied.

You said the office had been busy and someone would get back to me soon........they never did!

So was I going to chase you to spend my money?    Errrrr .........no!

I know I am a drop in the ocean from the BIG BOYS, but surely any revenue is better than none?

Hi Fibby,

Send me an email and I will get back to you ASAP! as in today!!!!

Small fry's, catch of the day, big fish! all the same to me!

Hi Fibby

I don't recall your enquiry to be honest.  Was it in a PM perhaps...if so then it may be buried somewhere as I don't check those so often...so many every day!

Justin

will do.............

Marksfish knows about smallfry too no doubt!

What e-mail addy shall I use?