Advertising on DU: Wednesday May 31 Update

I know we've posted a lot of these updates in the last week, so I'll try to keep this brief. (In case you missed the other announcements, you can read them here, here, here, here, and here.)

We've been looking at the stats for the Google Ads for the last week, and it has become clear that the Google Ads cannot possibly replace our quarterly DU fund drives. But we do believe that the Google Ads can can bring in enough extra income each month to help us cover our increased costs as the site grows. If so, we won't have to ask donors to chip in more money than you currently do.

With this in mind, we've made a few decisions:

1. DU Donors (people with donor stars) will have the option to turn off the Google Ads. Elad has not programmed this functionality yet, but hopefully he will be able to do so within the next few days.

2. For DU Donors who choose to show them, Google Ads will be placed in relatively inconspicuous places on each page. Most people do not seem to be bothered by the Google Ad placement at the top of each page that we've been testing for the last few days, so we're probably going to keep that for DU Donors. We're also trying out an additional ad near the bottom of every page.

3. For non-donors (both registered and unregistered), we are going to test out more prominent placements for the Google Ads, in hopes of getting a somewhat better click-through rate. For non-donors, the banner ad at the very top of each page is going to move a little further down the page so it is more conspicuous. We have not decided on other ad placements, but we will be testing out a number of options over the next few days.

Once again, we want to thank all of you for your patience and understanding, and also for your valuable feedback (both positive and negative). Through experimentation we hope to find a solution that works for everyone here, and hopefully we can finish the process sometime next week.

Skinner, EarlG, and Elad
DU Administrators

if we turn off the ads?

I assume you increase income if we click on an add?

I haven't been clicking on the ads even though some of them might interest me because of your comments regarding bogus click throughs. Do you think this might be part of the problem?

I click on google ads on many other websites, but I didn't want to do anything to undermine the efforts here.

If you think you might be interested in any of the ads, please click on them. Don't hold back. :)

I apologize for the misunderstanding. We don't want people to deliberately freep the ads in hopes of artificially driving up our click-through rate. But if you are interested in an ad please click.

was freeping the ads. Thanks.

Do they have a general idea of what to expect and if it's in far excess of that then they determine it's illegit? Is it an algorithm? :shrug:

But they said it is proprietary and they wouldn't share the details.

I had some servers on ban because of bots not following robots.txt. My AdWords campaign started going inactive and it turned out that it was one of their servers that was on ban, although DNS did not point to google.com for any of the servers on the list. Google would not give me the IPs which really irked me because we had a lot of bad bots stealing content.

Two suggestions to keep in mind:

1) Can we have a idea of when our donor stars expire, so that way we can donate as needed.

2) How about adding an _official_ DU Chat Room so we can sit there and chat all day?

Thanks for all you do. I do appreciate it..

Hawkeye-X

It would be very cool if we would pause our cursor over our star & see the expiration date.

Failing that, an e-mail reminder a month or so before our star expires would be cool.

....it's the only thing that keeps us sane, and even then I'm not so sure sometimes. :rofl: You're all:hi: doing good though :yourock:

BTW, a question here. If we already have the ability to completely turn off the ads will that affect DU's income levels?? I don't want to do anything to undermine DU in the least way so all the info you can give us on this particular issue would help.

The more ad impressions we get, the more money DU gets. So, if you don't mind the ads, we hope you will not turn them off.

But we think it is appropriate to let Donors turn off the ads, and we won't hold it against you if you choose to hide the ads. If you donate to DU, you should not be forced to look at Google Ads.

"So often you won't even notice."

whatever helps out.

I like the placement of the ads the way that you have them now, and they are no longer annoying, yet I glance at the ads as a page is loading. I may be a donor, but I don't feel as though I contribute nearly as much as I gain from DU, so I will gladly opt to allow the ads to show.

Thank you for allowing us input, and most of all, thanks for DU.



edited to say: Would you please keep the positioning of the ads where you have them now? It does make it easier to keep them.

I'm using AdBlock for Firefox; other DUers are using similar programs.
Does this affect the 'impression' stats?
Can Google tell that those of us using these programs
are no longer viewing the ads?

I've also noticed them at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, for Google, I tend to tune out ads. Since there is so much advertising out there on the internets, I have just learned to tune them out. Kind of like tv commercials, though it doesn't require the click of the mute button on the remote.

:hi:

I've clicked on a few that have interested me, they seem to have really honed their targetting! I won't turn them off since they may in fact be something I'm intersted in, such as the NY State candidate for AG!

Every little bit helps, I'm sure! You guys are doing a great job finding a nice balance!

As I've said before you guys run pretty much the best discussion board on the net, way to go!

It could be worse, they could be using pop-up ads. :eyes:

And I would be less likely to turn them off if they are not breaking up the thread or forum that I am reading.

so they won't see the ads.

on the left side of the screen, or at least stop them from blinking? The ads in general don't bother me, but I am very bothered by the blinky ones.

Hi. This annoyed me at first alot, but I figured out how to turn off the blinking. If in Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Options, Advanced, and in multimedia turn off play animations in webpages. Unfortunately this will turn off all animations in webpages, so it you want them to play I don't know of any other way. Personally I don't like animations which automatically play in webpages - they annoy me, so for me it's no big deal.

Meg

At least I can browse DU without that annoyance. I will see if I miss the moving stuff in other areas. I already noticed the little smileys don't move with the new setting :( But this is good for now, and maybe the admins can make a change that only effects the ads a some later date.

Thanks! :hi:

That will stop animations.

Stay alive. Prosper. Grow. You are the new Information Czars. There will come a time when you will have to overcome unsettling internal feelings brought about by your own fame, so that you may stay grounded and focused. This I swear. You have created a Good Monster.

:kick:

to a newspaper ad director telling clients that, well, we print two sets of papers — one for rack sales and one for subscribers. The subscriber papers contain no ads.

I don't think advertisers would much like that.

Some people might say, "So?" But the fact is, the ads take some of the heat off us to donate.

Skinner, it's very good of you guys to offer this option, but I don't think we should exercise it as it wouldn't be good for The Cause.

Now, if this place starts to look like AOL or Yahoo, we might have a problem.

Thanks for the update.

MZr7

The current placement is fine with me. As a member I would let them ride and click if they are of interest. Thank you for working to make DU run smoothly. Peace, Kim

Maybe because I use Firefox and I am just used to tuning out advertising wherever I go on the internets.

I'm seeing White Rose Society....I'm seeing some gay ads, etc.

This is good!

Before it seemed like I was seeing snake oil and new color tv's for .99 cents-type ads.

(Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit)

If the ads are up top...I don't mind leaving them activated

donating again? ;-) These ads are driving me cross-eyed.

I'll get around to it--but I would have even without the torture. :hi:

That categorized line, Democrats, Women Democrats, whatever it was; had the best long term potential. I notice you took the GoogleAds completely out of the Latest/Greatest page. Maybe you could stick those categories back over there somewhere. They seemed to have better results in them than the random ads at the top too. The better the targeting, the better the click-thru.

I don't think many people will turn off the ads. And I also think that the fact that cheapo me, was willing to donate $10 quarterly because that's what I thought I had to do, could be a little message.

I've clicked on a couple out of curiosity. Will I acutally buy something ? Have no idea. Does clicking/buying make a difference in DU income? Maybe add a flag maker ad. Some are interested in unique historical flags.

Some pay based on clicks. Others pay based on whether you buy.

I know my Journal isn't well read (if at all - I haven't really started it too much), but if I wanted to have the Google ads at the top of my Journal (to help out DU of course!), is that possible as an option?

But once we optimize the ads on the discussion forum, we'll have to decide if we're going to put them on the Journals, too.

to keep it's members happy.

Although I can't donate every drive, I will continue to donate when I can and I, for one, will keep the ads turned on.

Some of them are pretty interesting, and some of them are pretty funny. The rest I don't mind at all.

Thank you Skinner, EarlG, and Elad for EVERYTHING!!!!!

As one who has offered various criticisms of this -- not the idea, but certain aspects of implementation -- I want to say that I think you all have handled this exceptionally well. I for one very much appreciate the "testing" period that you actually called a testing period, allowing us all to offer out input.

You made a lot of changes early that addressed many of my concerns. I'm sure I'll never be entirely happy with the content of some of the ads, but I will say the targeting does seem to have improved, and I'm not seeing hours pass with nothing but a semi-scam ad. In this, my real issue is with Google and the "companies" that do this, and I figure about as happy a medium as possible has been reached with this.

I've even found some of the ads interesting, leading me to things I actually would consider purchasing.

I very much appreciate the decision to allow donors to turn off the ads. I don't know if I will or not, but it's nice to have the option.

Once again, thanks.

do the Google ads raise quarterly? Will this lower the number of donations needed from fundraising drives? Were you aware that DU was going to begin using Google ads during the last drive a week or so ago? If so, why weren't DU'ers told of this new plan before being asked to contribute? Is there an annual filing available w/a breakdown of expenditures? Thanks! Also wanted to say, I don't find the ads to be annoying at all.

I just want to know how exactly I can help increase revenue from the ads. I've never clicked on one, mainly because I don't notice them, but I would if it would help. When does it help and when doesn't it?

I think you guys are amazing. It's obvious how much time and work you put into both the website. and keeping us happy, and I will continue to donate as well as keep the ads turned on, but I would like to know exactly what to do to HELP with the ad revenue? Will just a click do it?

Thanks for all you do.

This one says,

'A Kennedy you can be proud of' It's for someone named Kennedy running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota.

I don't mind the ads, but I don't appreciate seeing Ten Kennedy bashed in an ad on D.U.

If I could donate as much as this site is worth to me I would. But I can't. So I'm happy to help DU earn revenue via this route.