Seeing Some Cheesy/Stupid Ads? Here's Why... [Archive]

Jason Dunn

04-24-2003, 10:00 PM

I received an email today from Paul Ivaska. He has allowed me to share this message with you all. I think everyone needs to understand something about our advertising on the site. Here's the message from Paul: "That was a truly crummy, cheap shot, advertisement. It is the Your Banner #184B6832 has won our hourly contest. You guys are way way above that type of stuff. I thought it would be of the quality that you usually have concerning contests but this was as about as low as you can get. It is no different than spamming me with garbage. Take that stuff off of your website before you loose friends and customers." And here's my response: "Sorry, that's the perils of third party ad servers like Tribal Fusion. We put up their code, and when we run out of paying advertisers, it rolls over to the Tribal Fusion stuff - and while they usually feed us technology-related ads, sometimes cheesy contest ads slip through. It's almost impossible for me to keep up on the ads they activate - they just appear. If I had paying advertisers to fill up our inventory on a consistent basis, I wouldn't need to use Tribal Fusion. :-(" I hope that explains why sometimes you'll see ads that might seem "beneath" our site. I try to block any of the "personal" ad types and the really lame ones, but it's almost impossible to keep up with them, so I'd ask for a bit of grace from each of you. But if you all click on the good ads to check out what my REAL sponsors are offering, I won't need to rely on third party ad servers at all because we won't have a shortage of advertisers. :mrgreen:

Crystal Eitle

04-24-2003, 10:29 PM

I thought the ad about "hip pain" or whatever was pretty funny. Obviously not targeted to the demographics of this site! :lol: :mrgreen: :lol:

Crystal Eitle

04-24-2003, 10:31 PM

p.s.: some people will complain about anything. To them I would say, has that flashing banner ad injured you personally somehow? :roll:

Our kind administrator does need to make a living, you know.

snowlion

04-24-2003, 10:43 PM

that's a fair enough answer from jason...you gotta do what you gotta do.

speaking of "low ads"....it's gotta be the ad that said "do you agree with the war...vote". you click on it and it takes you to a commercial site nothing to do with war or voting.

bdeli

04-24-2003, 10:47 PM

danmanmayer

04-24-2003, 10:47 PM

I am very upset i thought i had truely won something special. I already started spending out of my savings account figuring my winnings would cover the new computer toys i bought. oh oh

Jason Dunn

04-24-2003, 11:11 PM

Jason, why don't you implement something of the sort Brighthand currently has - Contributing Members - getting some donations does not hurt + members who contribute might get a nice Contributing Member appearing under their profile. I do not mind the ads - as long as they are not popups!

We'll be implementing something very similar to what Brighthand is doing, only a bit more fun. :-)

Regarding pop-up/under ads....NEVER! But I will say that I see the appeal for some Webmasters. For normal 468 x 60 banner ads many of the rates are about $1 for 1000 loads of that ad. Pop-under ads pay about 5 to 7 times more than that...so if you're a Webmaster in desperate need of cash to keep a site running...

I'll shut down the site before it comes to that though. :-)

bdeli

04-24-2003, 11:15 PM

I'll shut down the site before it comes to that though. :-)

NEVER!!!! We will pay to keep you in business!

lurch

04-24-2003, 11:17 PM

I'll shut down the site before it comes to that though. :-)

NEVER!!!! We will pay to keep you in business!
Right!!! Hey bdeli, can you spot me a few bucks???

bdeli

04-24-2003, 11:24 PM

I'll shut down the site before it comes to that though. :-)

NEVER!!!! We will pay to keep you in business!
Right!!! Hey bdeli, can you spot me a few bucks???

I'm broke but will fork out some $$ to keep this site up!

04-24-2003, 11:42 PM

I have no problems with the PPC and technology related ads on the site. Heck most of what I have on my Axim came from them.

Wasn't impressed with the stupid flashing banner one that was there but I appreciate the reason and I understand Jason can't do much about it.

I certainly get enough out of PPCT to be prepared to make a contribution to it.

It would be nice if we contributed enough to remove the need to have the stupid ad-server space on the site. (No that doesn't mean you have to charge a huge amount Jason, just a whole lot of us contribute a bit!)

You've been mentioning a scheme for quite a while, will it arrive before PPC2003? :drinking:

Jason Dunn

04-24-2003, 11:50 PM

It would be nice if we contributed enough to remove the need to have the stupid ad-server space on the site. (No that doesn't mean you have to charge a huge amount Jason, just a whole lot of us contribute a bit!) You've been mentioning a scheme for quite a while, will it arrive before PPC2003? :drinking:

:twak:

Heh heh...a fair poke! :oops: :lol: I started talking about the subscriber services just a little too early. Fabrizio, our main developer, got wrapped up in a project, and there were some delays because of it. But he's a genius, so it's worth the wait. :mrgreen: I've been using the mobile forums for a few weeks now, and they're the best implementation I've ever seen (sorry, I just can't be humble about the work that went into this - Fabrizio rocks!).

Yes, ideally if I were to get enough subscribers, I'd LOVE to get rid of the 3rd party ad servers that I can't control. What would be really cool would be to use my exccess ad inventory for smaller developers who can't afford to buy ads ad just give it away. Hmm. Anyway, we'll see what happens. 8)

I absolutely guarantee that you'll see subscriber services on this site before you have a Pocket PC 2003 device in your hand. :ladysman:

R K

04-25-2003, 12:40 AM

I absolutely guarantee that you'll see subscriber services on this site before you have a Pocket PC 2003 device in your hand. :ladysman:

:) Man these NDA influenced teases are really something. :)

Sheynk

04-25-2003, 01:41 AM

p.s.: some people will complain about anything. To them I would say, has that flashing banner ad injured you personally somehow? :roll:

It has me...I am now traumatized for the rest of my life

Jason, all adds are fine as long as I dont see the x10 spy camera thing grrr...i hate those

Kati Compton

04-25-2003, 02:05 AM

Jason, all adds are fine as long as I dont see the x10 spy camera thing grrr...i hate those

I agree. I hate those. Even more than "Punch The Monkey", which to my dirty mind sounds... well... dirty.

grohl

04-25-2003, 02:25 AM

Seriously, though, do you guys even NOTICE the flashing ads anymore? I do enough browsing, and I'm sure you guys do too, that the flashy ads are about as noticeable as a car alarm is these days!

I guess I mean I just kind of "tune out" these adds with my eyes. Put whatever ads you have to to survive, just keep up the same great content....

peterawest

04-25-2003, 02:41 AM

But if you all click on the good ads to check out what my REAL sponsors are offering...
No problem. I just was helping a friend decide how to repair his damaged iPAQ when up pops your banner Ad for Pocket PC Techs. Of course I would have told him to go there anyway, but it was nice to see it advertised, so I just clicked. :D

DuaneAA

04-25-2003, 02:55 AM

I don't know if this is the proper place to voice a complaint, but I have been having an annoying problem with the front page of the site for the past few days. Sometimes as frequently as every 10 seconds and sometimes as long as a couple of minutes, the center column with articles I am trying to read get resized. Sometimes it is like something at the top of the page is getting longer or short and the text jumps up or down a couple of lines. More frequently and more annoying, it seems like the width of the center column changes just enough that the word wrap completely rewrites the paragraphs. It happens so often that long paragraphs become difficult to read. I am not sure if ads are getting pushed at regular intervals and are causing the problem or something else, but it just started recently and is very annoying.

Thanks for any help,
Duane

cslaughtermd

04-25-2003, 04:53 AM

I'm now inspired to more actively support our site admin! I'm going to click on all the obviously PPC-related ads now and make an effort to click at least once per visit - I'm here 3+ times a day anyway!
Thanks for all the hard work Jason, we appreciate it! :clap:

Gamma Ray

04-25-2003, 06:44 AM

I had a nightmare not long ago. I was just getting to the good stuff in a rare, full color, full sensory dream when I started getting pop-ups in my head! The more I popped the popups the more popups popped up. I awoke in a cold sweat. Between spam and web advertising I think I am ready to torch my PPCs and PCs I can't take the intrusions anymore!

BTW - here is the real downside of the spam/adjam we all get saturated with every day. Madonna gave a free concert in NYC last night at a record store. I missed the VIP invite I got from a contact at Warners because I think I deleted it as spam! In other words, this glut of "junk" advertising is desensitizing us all to EVERYTHING we run into on the net. That means that we still waste too much time a day killing ads but in the process cut ourselves off from things that we might actually like to hear about.

You can't win...

Fabrizio Fiandanese

04-25-2003, 08:34 AM

Sometimes as frequently as every 10 seconds and sometimes as long as a couple of minutes, the center column with articles I am trying to read get resized.

Could you please tell me what your PC configuration exactly is?

I'm sure that you are having problems with the MobilePlanet module on the left, below the ads. It loads pictures from MP server every 10 seconds. It has a fixed width but it looks like your browser is ignoring this setting. If you wish you can send me a detailed description of your PC configuration to fabrizio @ pocketpcthoughts . com

Fzara

04-25-2003, 08:56 AM

Wow. You mean to tell me theres actually ads on this website?
I guess I have some good ad-blocking software. =)

I would turn it off for this site..but I don't like stupid ads that i'll never read on the site, so why waste extra bandwith loading them up anyway?

krisbrown

04-25-2003, 09:53 AM

Those simple banner ads are OK , I have no problem with them, and have actually clicked on and got good deals (please nice American people, make it easier to post to UK)
An ad thats says, weve got 'this' at 'this' price is great, it's the one's that are obviously trying to decieve that yank my chain.
I don't know about you, but if it's in a pop-up, I straight away think, SCAM!!!, surely any advertiser doesn't want this as his first customer impression.

TomB

04-25-2003, 12:08 PM

Krisbrown you make a very good point and I'd like some feedback. I am thinking about distributing content and a license to use it at no charge. HOWEVER, I would need to charge about three bucks to pay the mailing house and PayPal costs for shipping (first class postage, labeling, wrapped mailer, handling, and post office drops). Since I am offering the material at no charge I would like to headline any promotion in a very small teaser with FREE. This assumes people understand that they will have to pay shipping charges. When they click the "FREE" link they will go to a larger page where they would get the full story on FREE plus shipping.

Based on what you just posted, should I kill the FREE and put $3 on the teaser and then on the linked space explain that the charge is for shipping a free disk. That would be in line with what you posted but it also seems much weaker since the disk itself really is free. I can't afford to pay mailing costs on top of what I paid for the content so what do you think about this situation? Your post hit home because I have been concerned that the $3 shipping would feel like a gotcha even though the content could easily be worth $10 or more by itself...

Jason Dunn

04-25-2003, 03:20 PM

I would turn it off for this site..but I don't like stupid ads that i'll never read on the site, so why waste extra bandwith loading them up anyway?

Because by blocking my ads and not allowing them to load, you're taking away the one opportunity I have to earn income off this site to pay my bills. Remember that to a large degree, this is my day job - this is what I do for a living. By blocking those ads, regardless of whether or not you'd ever click on them (but that would be nice!), you're taking up my bandwidth, my server resources, and not giving anything back to me (an at load).

In effect, you're hurting me. :| If everyone did what you did, the site would shut down almost immediately because I'd have no ad impressions to sell to sponsors.

It's a bad, bad thing for any Webmaster to block their ads - except pop-up ads, because those DESERVE to be blocked they're so obnoxious. :D

Please reconsider blocking ads on this site.

Fzara

04-26-2003, 03:43 AM

Jason Dunn

04-26-2003, 03:51 AM

I did reconsider, and i've decided to take off my ad-blocker, but only for this website. Sorry about the harsh cruelty earlier; I didn't know how seriously you took the site.

Thanks for that! The only reason this is one of the top Pocket PC sites is because I *do* take it seriously. It's not just a hobby - I want to make this the best damn site possible, and that takes hard work, resources, time, and a kick-ass team. :way to go:

Jonathon Watkins

04-27-2003, 02:00 AM

.....I want to make this the best damn site possible,..

It certainly looks like it from where I'm sitting. 8) Roll on the improvements!

Ed Hansberry

04-28-2003, 12:42 AM

~Spencer
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com
Microsoft MVP - Tablet PC
Congrats on the new title Spencer! Wrong platform, but we'll let that slide, eh? :wink:

peaz

04-29-2003, 08:07 AM

Jason... I TOTALLY understand you situation as we ourself are in the same situation...

we @ Adrian's Rojak Pot http://www.rojakpot.com/ went into the same situation as you guys did. Change server a few times, trying to find the best hosting deal there is. not earning enough to cover the cost while still trying to write up quality articles as best as we can. well we even did an editorial just like what' i'm reading now :D

ED#01 : Ad Blocking & Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=19&pgno=0
Forum thread
http://forums.rojakpot.com/viewtopic.php?t=488

well.. just drop by to say... you're not alone in this rather sticky situation. only things is that most of us are all still studying and not even earning any income...

cheers... hope u all the best :D

Jason Dunn

04-29-2003, 08:15 PM

Jason... I TOTALLY understand you situation as we ourself are in the same situation... we @ Adrian's Rojak Pot http://www.rojakpot.com/ went into the same situation as you guys did. Change server a few times, trying to find the best hosting deal there is. not earning enough to cover the cost while still trying to write up quality articles as best as we can. well we even did an editorial just like what' i'm reading now :D

Very interesting...I find it staggering that you had 92% of your visitors using ad blocking software. That stat seems insanely high - how did you determine who was using ad blocking software, and who wasn't? I quite like the idea of blocking people using ad blockers. They want to block me, I'll block them. :twisted: