Lomag

I'm sure most of you have noticed the new Google search box in the upper right hand portion of the forum page and if you're a Guest you've noticed some new ads. Over the last several days we have implemented some changes on the site. Let me begin by explaining how this all came about.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted directly by someone from Google in New York wanting to put their Google AdSense program on the site. I've always been against ads however as the forums grow and donations dwindle I was already considering the Google program long before I was contacted. We went back and forth and I finally decided to give it a shot. This created an internal dilemma for me in regards to placing ads on the site while I had occasional donations coming in. As I've previously mentioned, I have always wanted to keep the site ad free. After chatting with Dave (das), our higher end contributing members, and several personal friends I believe we've come up with a good compromise.

First, I was surprised that the majority of contributing members who responded said that they wouldn't mind seeing ads placed on the site. Initially what I have done is enabled the ads for Guests only. Assuming that goes well I'd like to expand the program to all members. There I run into the issue of not wanting to affect our contributing members nor our long time members. The compromise we've reached is that members in the Contributors group will always see the site ad-free without a doubt. Secondly we'll create a secondary members group probably named "Senior Members" which will also be ad-free. Members who have not contributed but made over 500 posts will be automatically promoted to this ad-free group. This scheme should fairly reward our contributors and active members. Most likely i'll enact this full program within the next 1 - 2 weeks.

In regards to the actual ads I believe I have done a good job integrating them into the web site as not to be too annoying. I've blended the colors to match our blueish theme and placed them in your usual top and bottom locations. They shouldn't distract from the site and should prove useful to some too. I am considering placing an ad within every thread however not as separate post as I've seen on many forums. Google recommends a square ad within the first post of each thread integrated to the right away from the thread text. Google tells me this ad is most effective on forums. This may or may not happen in the future. I'll probably give it a test run for a week or two to see if it really is better then decide whether to keep it or not but for now I'm keeping it off. Remember, if you're a contributor or member with >500 posts you'll not see this ad or any other.

The Google search box will remain visible to all members. It generates little revenue as compared to the ads however I personally believe it will prove useful to members and from preliminary stats it is indeed proving itself. Complaints often come up that the forums built in search engine can not search for 2 or 3 letter words due to limitations in MySQL we can not avoid. Google allows those types of searches. The Google search should, with time, provide better results. Currently they're re-indexing the entire forum which is going to take some time however once this is done the results should be superior.

That's what I've been up to the last couple of weeks. Most of the time was spent planning and figuring things out and this week most of the plans were implemented. What do you guys think?

C's Bimmer

I think it's great. Being that I work for a Contextual Technology Ad Network myself, I'm all for it. However, it's all about where the publisher decides to place the text box on their site. As long as it's not too intrusive with regards to the content, I'm all for it. It can be a very good source of revenue, but it depends on the users who will actually click on the ads. I also like the fact that they are indexing the site, even though Google spiders the web. Spidering is not real time, so results can vary should the spider not come back around for a few days or a few weeks. If the content is dynamic (i.e., news), results can be delayed from hours to days to even weeks. However, I doubt most users would even realize this.

The one thing I'd hate to see is for E60.net to accept graphical ads (Leaderboards, Skys, Large Recs). Googles latest product to compete in the graphical, online ad sales world, is offering AdSense for the graphical model and not just text. However, instead of a CPC model, this is on a CPM model which can be more lucrative for the publisher and more enticing, especially for smaller publishers such as ourselves. It essentially guarantee's revenue to the publisher each month, based on monthly pageviews. The only downside for the publisher, is you must use their ad server and go off their numbers. They don't accept 3rd party ad servers.

Lastly, Mark, if you have any questions, feel free to PM me. I've been in the online ads sales industry since the beginning and would be happy to offer some advice. I also happen to know a lot of the Google Ad Sales force, both here in NY and Mountain View. Should you have any issues when it comes to working with them, feel free to let me know. I'll do my best to help out.

/C

PS - I'm making another contribution.

wmbiii

bottom line is we appreciate the forum and will continue to use it. Please get help covering costs!

robg

If the Google advertising helps keep the site up and running, who are we to complain? Plus, you have done a great job integrating the ads and minimizing the distraction. Providing an ad-free environment for contributors and "senior members" is a nice touch, but even if I were subjected to the ads, I would continue to use the site.

As always, thanks for running a great site.

Rob

andy545

Thanks for the update Mark !
Can't complain - good compromise !

Iceman

What I don't like anout it is that a third party (Google) gets infos from our site. Once somebody is on our site they know from where he is and who knows what they do with all the infos.
IMHO there is no difference in between such ad's and spam in my mailbox.

ipp

In what way does anyone have more info on us now than before?

Iceman

They now have access to infos that previously only our admins had access to.

ipp

I still don't understand, info such as what? Is it our personal profiles (age,gender...) you are refering to? Or is it IP-addresses?

Iceman

View the site when not logged in... There will be ad's in your language. They know where you're from, and more...