More Ads!!!

JerichoBrown
JerichoBrown
edited February 2009 in Feature Requests

Comments

  • JerichoBrown
    JerichoBrown
    Posts: 6
    What? Did I just ASK for _MORE_ advertisement?

    Yes. Yes I did.

    Why would I do that? We all hate ads, don't we?

    We do! But, they are a necessary evil.


    I fear that in this current economic downturn, this site could be hurt by a lack of subscribers. I like this site and I like the POTENTIAL of this site. I don't want to lose it.

    Further ... I'm cheap! I don't want to pay for anything. I would love to get ALL the features offered by this site for free. If that means a few ads - even lots of ads - so be it!

    This site looks to be bringing in a lot of eyes and frequently returning eyes. This is advertiser catnip. I think this site could generate a lot of dollars from advertising.

    If you can't get an advertiser interested in you - go the self pub route. Look into Project Wonderful - I think OP is aware of this service:

    https://www.projectwonderful.com/

    My blogs would love to advertise on OP! :)
  • Bathlarper
    Bathlarper
    Posts: 41
    I'd prefer to get everything free as well but as subscription site go, this one is very cheap. $40 a year is quite a good deal for an active GM that uses the site a lot.
  • JerichoBrown
    JerichoBrown
    Posts: 6
    Couldn't agree with BL more - $40 is within my price point. I'll likely be running a game within the next few months and I will pony up my money for the forum and extra map features and not bat an eye.

    Or, at least that's what I'm saying now. If the economy keeps tanking, well, $40 might seem like a lot of money.

    Just saying.
  • RobJustice
    RobJustice
    Posts: 178
    Are you guys trying to drive off traffic? Honestly, how would you feel if you went to a site for the first time and there were ads EVERYWHERE? In general you have about 5 seconds before a person navigates away from your site. If all you see are ads, you're more likely to leave then to look into what the site is about.

    Not that I would notice personally, I pony up the cash to support Obsidian Portal and to get a nice ad free site. Really, that's the best paid feature IMO.
  • RobJustice
    RobJustice
    Posts: 178
    I think you just proved my point... I clicked over to gnomestew.com and guess what I saw: Three ads for the exact same thing. What a waste of space.
  • RobJustice
    RobJustice
    Posts: 178
    Yeah, and after being assaulted with three ads for the same thing, I left the site. And if you don't call that wasted space, then I don't know what is. Those duplicate ads don't generate revenue at all, in fact their all google ads so they don't generate much unless you get clicks and since you can only get a click off of one ad unit... If they were really aiming for impressions they would be using link ads instead of image ads, you'd generate 4x as many impressions per ad unit that way. So, I'm willing to bet they are aiming for clicks.

    Have you contacted Gnomestew and inquired what kind of revenue they've made from those ads or are you just operating on assumptions?

    Personally, I think the amount of advertisement on OP is fine the way it is. They have ads on the site, and have since I've been here, and the option for people who REALLY appreciate the service to get a little extra if they chip in. And like I said, they could bloat the crap outta this site with ads and it wouldn't matter to me personally... I just don't think its a good solution to an issue that they aren't even having.
  • RobJustice
    RobJustice
    Posts: 178
    Having ads on your site has *an* impact, thats unquestionable. If they didn't then sites wouldn't offer advert free memberships. Its not crippling if its well managed, but the single side banner of OP's layout is about the limit before it becomes crippling. You could ad one to the top or bottom of the page, but then you're run into the problem I see over at over, duplicate ads. Gnomestew ads one in-between articles, which OP COULD do in-between posts... but that would piss of A LOT of people. Also notice that OP doesn't have ads on the front page, they are aware of the detriment over advertising can have on a site. Which is likely another reason why they don't have more banners. Now, I'm not saying having multiple ad spots on a site will cripple you, but it will hurt. There are a lot of people out there that hate seeing every free spot taken up by an ad.

    And Gnomestew uses google ads, its says so under the banners. I'm very familar with how adsense works since we use it on our site, which is why I keep saying its not as big of a revenue stream as you seem to think it is. You get paid per 1,000 impression or per Click, you can only have three ad units working for you at any time. The amount you get paid per impression is marginal, fractions of a fraction of a penny. So really, what you're contributing by looking at ads isn't near the scale of $40 a year. Not even close.

    The choice that makes the most fiscal sense for them is really the memberships. They don't have to produce anything (simply open up features) and they get income from it that is far superior to what advertisements would bring in. Back at the original post the poster was asking for all the features to be free, stripping incentive from those of us who already pay for memberships by compensating with increased advertisements. No THAT makes no fiscal sense.

    And I'm sure I'd be able to contribute a lot to Gnomestew... but then what would I contribute to my RPG Podcast? ;) (www.BearSwarm.com if you're curious)

    And an FYI- The OP team, to the best of my knowledge, is Ryan and Micah. This isn't their full time job, just a side project. I doubt they even expect to make a steady income from this site, its more of a labor of love.
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