The adds

[Badnik Mechanic]

So in the last week or so, the main TSS banner has been taken over with an advert.

Also on SSMB I've been the 10,000th visitor which means I've won something. Been asked to donate organs, offered a robotic vaccum cleaner, given a 4 for 2 deal at gatwick express, been awarded a discount for a Tom Tom flying car sat nav, the RAC want to give me a 10% discount and I constantly get reminders that its summer and that theres great deals to be had in various hotels around the UK.

I know we've had advert banners before, but these are a bit... loud, and sometimes they tend to mess up the page when it's loading.

Also... last night and a few nights ago I was the 10,000th visitor to the site... can I have my prize now?

Edited July 2, 2010 by Gnasher

[Pelly <3's U]

I don't really see the point you're trying to make :0?

Websites don't pay for themselves.......well at least not without advertisements.

[Sean]

Well Bman has been paying for this site and ads are nothing to complain about, so I recommend being thankful that someone is keeping this site alive for you guys.

[Cake]

Considering the alternative is a monthly fee or no SSMB, I will gladly be giving my liver to our new Mexican overlords.

[Chris]

The alternative was never and will never be a monthly fee for any users. On the subject of the ads they aren't messing (or shouldn't, rather) up the page while it loads.

[Badnik Zero]

Mexico Obesity Doctor. U.S. trained specialist treats you in Mexico for fractions of the cost.

Lolol. Well I think the majority of us are sharp enough not to go for such a shady ad. I was only joking about the organ stealing part, you guys.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Dabnikz

[Iceman Etika]

I don't know about you guys, but this website is definitely worth one of my major organs.

[bmn]

I'll start by saying that our previous ad strategy made about half what we need just to keep TSS online. The other half, along with all the costs involved in buying (except for donations from Sega et al) and distributing competition prizes, software purchases such as this forum, and other various expenses, was (or, rather, still is at this point) covered directly by the staff. For the last few months, I've been relying on handouts from I believe three other staff members in order to not go personally bankrupt as well as pay the server bills.

Trust me when I say that the decision to change to a more conspicuous strategy was not taken lightly, and was the subject of a fair bit of discussion by the staff. My motivation as the person in charge of making this work is that no staff member should be out of pocket because of their position, it's not about us trying to get some pocket money.

Secondly, the current situation is a testing phase which will continue until we have a solid setup. The intention is a collection of ads that pays well but doesn't include such questionable material as medical treatment south of the border and the ever-popular "you're a winner". If you'd read my latest status update you'd know that I've already dropped the provider that serves the most questionable ads, regardless of how it'll reduce our revenue by around a third.

I won't, however, apologise for advertising totally legitimate products and services like the aforementioned hotels and robot vacuum cleaners, and I have zero intention of dropping those ads or ads like them. If you're wondering why we don't show more ads for games and the like, those types of ads are normally only served on a Cost Per Click payment model, which as I've already mentioned makes little revenue. The placement near the top of the page is dictated by the current model, which pays on views but falls back to CPC more often if there aren't many clicks. By their nature, being more risky for the advertiser, CPM ads are more flashy with a higher priority on making an impression than on getting clicks necessarily.

To put clicks vs views into perspective, from the current main CPM provider we've had 35,000 paid views in the last week. Those 35,000 ads were clicked 26 times in total, which would have made somewhere in the region of one dollar had it been on a CPC model. People visiting TSS don't click the ads in general, so we can't commit to a CPC model even if it does deliver more attractive material from our viewpoint. On the current model, we're making enough to (once we actually get paid) pay hosting costs and put a modest amount into the site fund for expenses, rainy days and the like.

The text ads from Google are under Svend's control, and he's been out of town for the last week. He may change it, he may not.

[novelty]

I'll start by saying that our previous ad strategy made about half what we need just to keep TSS online. The other half, along with all the costs involved in buying (except for donations from Sega et al) and distributing competition prizes, software purchases such as this forum, and other various expenses, was (or, rather, still is at this point) covered directly by the staff. For the last few months, I've been relying on handouts from I believe three other staff members in order to not go personally bankrupt as well as pay the server bills.

Trust me when I say that the decision to change to a more conspicuous strategy was not taken lightly, and was the subject of a fair bit of discussion by the staff. My motivation as the person in charge of making this work is that no staff member should be out of pocket...

tl:dr version: Its as simple as scrolling down or pretending like they are not there.

[bmn]

Pretty much, yeah.

[Phos]

32 active user(s) (in the past 15 minutes)

9 members, 23 guests, 0 anonymous users | Show by: Last Click or Member Name

You could do what Scarred Sun over at retro did and put up ads for non-members.

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

We have ads?

Given the number of malicious advertisements you can find all over the internet - some of them installing spyware/malware on your PC just from loading the ad - it's been a popular policy for many Net users to use an ad blocker and consider it a mandatory security precaution, along with a Javascript filter. It certainly makes browsing the Net at large a lot less risky and also a lot less garish. I'm one of those guys, and enjoy my relatively safe browsing experience.

Regarding the issue of ads causing loading lag, they will if the ad file itself is corrupted, missing or suspect. Carrying third-party ads of any kind is a risk in that regard and more importantly not the fault of the first-party site provider but the ad provider. Apparently though, in this situation the risk is necessary. Just remember that you can opt out of it if you feel like being a jerk.

[Meow]

I don't have a problem with the ads, almost every large site I've been on has ads...so...yeah, I don't see an issue with it haha. It keeps things up, so I'm cool with it.

[Badnik Zero]

Are you really freakin' old? You may qualify for a grant!

Seriously though, anything that keeps the place afloat. If the place is actually making money on this ad business, that's great. Good to hear.

[bmn]

I will apologise for that ad, though. If you guys see genuinely inappropriate stuff, by all means let me know and I'll hunt them down. That one's been blocked.

[Badnik Mechanic]

*ponders if he should use that old bloke as his avatar*

[Gavvie]

To be fair, I'm not too fussed by the ads. It was a bit weird to see them on the main site image on the homepage, but I can deal with it.

Like you said, they're there to keep the site afloat, not because somebody thought "AHA! This is worth a giggle!"

[bmn]

I didn't mention this earlier, but I'm new to making money from advertising (as I say, Svend handled that side on his own until I stepped in), so I am doing a fair bit of playing around, seeing what works and what doesn't. So, what's here now may very well be changed or removed completely later.

I am considering a "members can disable ads" feature, but if it was it'd likely be something along the lines of fanfiction.net's model, where they're disabled for a period of 1-3 days and then reappear until you choose to disable them again. If I did do it that way, then I'd try to make it a one-click deal rather than the longer type of thing that ff.net has.

You could do what Scarred Sun over at retro did and put up ads for non-members.

It's a nice thought, but a lot of the time about half of SSMB's visitors are members. During slower periods there are more guests than members. On top of that, members view more pages than guests (though there is some background stuff that avoids paying out for repeated page views), so I'd say that members do produce more revenue than guests.

We have ads?

Given the number of malicious advertisements you can find all over the internet - some of them installing spyware/malware on your PC just from loading the ad - it's been a popular policy for many Net users to use an ad blocker and consider it a mandatory security precaution, along with a Javascript filter. It certainly makes browsing the Net at large a lot less risky and also a lot less garish. I'm one of those guys, and enjoy my relatively safe browsing experience.

Regarding the issue of ads causing loading lag, they will if the ad file itself is corrupted, missing or suspect. Carrying third-party ads of any kind is a risk in that regard and more importantly not the fault of the first-party site provider but the ad provider. Apparently though, in this situation the risk is necessary. Just remember that you can opt out of it if you feel like being a jerk.

I concur with all of this, and that was the other consideration behind dropping the most contentious provider (though I will be getting a cheque for $10 in the mail in a couple months ^_-).

In general the "better" the provider, the higher quality the ads you get, so this is why I'm actually happy generally to serve ads for legitimate brands.

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

If I could in good conscience allow SSMB's ads without risking ~£2000 worth of computer hardware in the process I would do so.

Of course I have a very good reason to have a vested interest in the stability of my hardware.

[Dazz]

If you guys want, I could try and get in contact with my advertising agency and see if they'll handle ads for you?

They process decent ads that are gaming related, and pay out a decent rate...

Edit: And by decent, I mean it pays for MY server costs, and that's reaching over 1.5k per annum.

Edited July 6, 2010 by Dazz

[bmn]

I wouldn't say no, Dazz. I'd very much appreciate you pointing them to us. Or us to them. Or however you kids do it these days.

[Dazz]

Hand me an email and I'll send it to them - easiest way.

Hand me an email and I'll send it to them - easiest way.

[bmn]

If you mean an email addy, then bmn@sonicstadium.org will do nicely.

[Dazz]

Shot my contact with an email - after the initial breach of vital organs, he should be able to get back to you.

edit: He says that he'll reach out soon.

Edited July 6, 2010 by Dazz

[bmn]

Thanks, Dazz, you're a champ.