New Annoying Ads
 

Every time I go to a new thread, an ad box pops up on the left lower corner of my laptop.
I've never seen them before.
Do not like.

Just started doing this today for me as well. Also, random words are now being turned into green links. It's distracting and irritating.

I found a way to make some changes in how the new ads appear. Might take a little bit before they are reflected here.

I am evaluating this new advertising company, so please bear with me while I try to fine tune things.

I don't like such ads neither, but as I mentioned earlier, the revenue to support this site taking up space on my server has to come from somewhere.

Well, the changes I made caused the revenue to drop by half, so I am going to try some other things. Sorry about the ads, but this site HAS to pull it's weight financially or I really have no reason to keep it going. Certainly traffic from members has died on the vine, so I really need a good reason to keep it running.

If people aren't using it (for the most part) and it's not earning me a modest income, seriously, why keep it?

Because it is currently the best source of corn snake information on the internet. But you shouldn't feel obligated to bear the financial burden of running it just out of the goodness of your heart if it's getting to be too much for you. If you're just too tired of it (either mentally, financially, or both), will you consider passing the reigns to someone else? Or at the very least, please give a specific deadline so I can have some time to archive the posts or download everything. I reference this site so often and it would be an extreme shame for it to disappear with no warning.

Well, I am trying out some advertising platforms to see how that works out. Of course, some people aren't going to like the intrusion, but if that helps keep this site afloat, will it be worth you all putting up with?

I'm fine with whatever keeps the site running.

As long as it doesn't make giant pop ups I'm fine with it

I will likely implement all four (4) options available from InfoLinks to see how that effects revenue. I will have to run that for at least one full day.

Of course, there is the possibility that traffic is so low here that the advertising doesn't make enough difference to even matter at all.

So if the choice is more intrusive pop up ads or the site goes away, which would you choose?

I would always choose to keep the site up. Whatever that takes.

Thanks for checking in!

-Tonya

Well, I just implemented all four ad methods from InfoLinks as of midnight EST. Honestly, it looks just awful. But I would like to keep it running for 24 hours just to see what happens with the stats generated. That is IF I can stand it myself for that long. :face_palm_02:

Phew I thought my computer had a virus or something with all windows that popped up? :laugh:

Once you get the ad thing figured out does the paid membership have the ability to disable ads? IE extra incentive for getting a membership.

My programmer suggested that I offer that option to paying memberships, but I told him to hold off till I get some base figures under my belt. I want to see what difference such a plan would make by having enough stats to compare. It was also suggested to me to have the ads ONLY displayed to unregistered visitors, since quite honestly, the greater bulk of visitors to any of my sites are unregistered or not logged in. But I need facts and figures to be able to make those kinds of decisions.

What I have here today is not going to remain, of course, because it is just way too overboard and a general pain in the butt to have to wade through to even see the website. The sidebar ads even cover over existing advertising that I have in place, even though they may very well be the major advertising vehicle used by InfoLinks, based on just the variety of ads I see on them.

I also use Google Adsense, but quite honestly this site doesn't generate much revenue at all through them. That is a "pay per click" method whereas the InfoLinks method is a "pay per impression" style. So with Adsense I only get paid if someone clicks on the ads, and with InfoLinks I get paid just for people viewing the ads here. To give you a measure of why I am trying to increase revenue from this site, last month CornSnakes.com only earned an average of 70 cents per day via Adsense.

Quite honestly, I would much rather be paid for providing an advertising company the opportunity to have people view their ads, no matter what they are, rather than via the Adsense method of not getting paid unless THEY provide ad content of interest to anyone who might thereby click on their ad. The "pay per impression" method puts the total burden of producing interesting ads on their shoulders. If their ads are uninteresting, and no one clicks on them, that is their fault, not mine. With the "pay per click" method, well, the reverse is true, as Adsense can pick any old garbage ads it wants, and if no one clicks on them, too bad for me.

Anyway, sorry about the excessive detail. I am trying to burn off the remnants of a migraine headache I got yesterday. If I just sit around thinking about the headache, it seems to just make it feel worse.

Also, there may be mistakes in my typing above, as the brain ain't firing on all cylinders, so please excuse the mess, if that is the case.

Sounds like you need to get out and do some target shooting to relieve the headache. :fullauto:

Have you looked into how the ads appear from various platforms such as a desktop, mobile device, or forum browsing app such as tapatalk?

I'm seeing a bunch of ads from a desktop with then around the edges like you described. When viewing through chrome on a mobile device i'm just seeing and additional one at the bottom and nothing on the sides. When viewed through tapatalk I'm not noticing any ad interference.

Actually I don't use ANY mobile device for my internet browsing and work. I use my desktop PC and my laptop. I have tried several times to use my smartphone, but that is just insane with that little screen and little keyboard, and I flat out refuse to do it. So no, I don't have any idea how all this stuff looks on such devices at all.

Something tells me high caliber rifles going off near my head won't be the best remedy for my headache. :nope:

I almost exclusively use my phone to browse the site. Here are a couple of screen shots of what it looks like for me. Definitely not unreadable or unusable.

From what I can see from my own desktop, none of those orange highlighted links really go much of anywhere. For instance in the bar above with those orange links, I see one that says "Annoying Ads". When I do the mouse over, it only says "More information about annoying ads. Get search results for annoying ads". Clicking on it only takes you to a dead on on the InfoLinks site.

These are completely useless, in my opinion. Of course, if InfoLinks is paying me to display them anyway, well heck, what do I care as long as they really aren't getting in the way of any thing here.

I'm hoping when this is all done I can tell which ads are the better producers and which ones are just a waste of space. If the best producers are the most intrusive and aggravating, I might be able to get my programmer to work them into the site structure better so they can still earn some income yet not be such a pain in the ass.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to screen shot those images for me so I can see what you are seeing on your phone. Maybe the ads are geared more for mobile device viewers, and if so, I could get my programmer to try to program them in accordingly to be only visible on such devices. IF that would be worthwhile pursuing, of course. If custom coding would cost more than the ads are worth, that would not be very smart of me to pursue.

BTW, I have had the ad links removed from viewing for all registered members. Unregistered guests, unfortunately, will just have to put up with them, or register.