Website ads

[Tim Vasquez]

We're going to be experimenting with putting a few low-key Google ads on the top to see if it brings us a few more dollars for running the site. I've taken care to make sure that it only uses the existing whitespace and isn't annoying.

Tim

[Mike Gauldin]

I think everyone is just about adapted to life with Gooooogle ads. Just don't get that freakin' intellitext ad dilly that marks keywords in the forum and links them to sponsors.

[Dick McGowan]

What is this NASCAR? LOL

I guess if it helps pay the bills, I don't see anyone clicking on them though.

[Mike Peregrine]

It's pretty funny sometimes how Google's meta sensors or whatever it uses to detect the language in these rooms will single out what it thinks is the most important subject to the users ... when I clicked on the Texas dryline thread a minute ago, for example, the google ad was for seed and fertilizer stuff in Texas. Sometimes they can get pretty funny depending on the subject matter of the thread -

[Pat Lawrence]

What is this NASCAR? LOL

I guess if it helps pay the bills, I don't see anyone clicking on them though.

NASCAR deals with a bunch of things moving in a generally counterclockwise fashion - seems to fit fairly well with this forum LOL

I haven't even noticed an ad yet except for the usual ones, but I'm sure if something interesting pops up they'll get a click or two.

Pat

[B Ozanne]

They look fine to me. I'm seeing a lot of public service ads though, makes me think everything is not setup properly.

[Greg Stumpf]

NASCAR ad? I saw a NASCAS ad. Google it!

Is anyone here a member?

[Tim Vasquez]

Public service ads and oddball hits are normal for a new Adsense setup... the keywords should start stabilizing by Thursday.

Maybe we'll see a TRADD ad!

Tim

[Kurt Silvey]

TRADD is here! I've seen it twice in the first minute.

[Karen Politte]

TRADD is here! I've seen it twice in the first minute.

:(

That's pretty bad. Pity. Ironic.

KR

[Greg Stumpf]

An ad to protect you from "Oklahoma Hurricanes" just popped up.

[Dan Robinson]

Google ads work pretty well. They can usually pay for your hosting if you get enough traffic.

You can blacklist certain advertisers from appearing by adding their domain name(s) to the filter list in the ad control panel.

[Robert Dewey]

Yep, I usually click on 'em every now and then. It doesn't hurt, and if it helps keep ST up... Then I'm for it.

[Eric Friedebach]

Good idea, Tim. I know of someone who has added them to a non-profit website that gets a lot of traffic. It seems to work well for him. From what I’ve read, Adsense give you quite a bit of flexibility in determining what will show up.

One time on a chaser’s Geocities site I saw a bunch of ads for funnels- from industrial supply companies!

[Dan Robinson]

The one thing you have to be careful of is not to purposefully click on ads just to drive up the hit counts. Google is very intolerant of this and has been known to shut down accounts where they suspect this may have happened, even if it was just a few clicks from a single IP from a third party. Even if the web site owner was innocent and unaware. And when you get shut down, it is nearly impossible to get back in.

There are many first-hand accounts on the web where someone thought they'd help a site out by giving it some extra click-throughs and ended up getting the site blacklisted from Adsense.

Google even discourages webmasters from testing their ads at all because this will trigger a 'click fraud' flag.

[Tim Vasquez]

Indeed that is a concern... some articles on the web like this one (http://www.trageser.com/computers/web/2344.html) bear that out. On the other hand, they do use some pattern matching to cut down on false alarms. This is all experimental... if it gets shut down it's no skin off my back (or however that old saw goes).

Tim

[Bill Tabor]

So how is this going Tim? Is it worth having for the extra cash? Does having them also help get a better ranking in Google?

[Karen Politte]

So how is this going Tim? Is it worth having for the extra cash? Does having them also help get a better ranking in Google?
[/b]

LOL I dunno - but that new bar along the right hand side of the forum is uber-annoying! :lol: It off-balances the WHOLE forum no matter what page you are reading.

K.

[Dave Kaplow]

We're going to be experimenting with putting a few low-key Google ads on the top to see if it brings us a few more dollars for running the site. I've taken care to make sure that it only uses the existing whitespace and isn't annoying.

Tim[/b]


In regards to the ads appearing to the right of posts, was that area really whitespace before? It seems to me that posts used to go all the way to the right of the screen/window. If so, this is not merely using "existing whitespace". Perhaps it depends on the browser you're using, I don't know...

Be that as it may, I have to admit that I appear to have gotten used to the presence of the ads relatively quickly, and find them to be only a minor distraction. I suppose if this kind of thing is what it takes to keep the board going, so be it. I guess I can live with it. I've seen way worse on other sites, that's for sure.

[fplowman]

One of the adds is giving Tims book away for free " Weather forecasting Handbook".. ???

It is the one I paid 25$ for.. lol

[Laura Duchesne]

I wouldn't mind a job that pays $1200 per hour! LOL

It does off balance the forum a bit but I'll get used to it....

[Scott Olson]

I think they stood out less when they were on the top since you could scroll down and it wouldn't shrink the forum.

[Jeff Snyder]

I'm fine with the ads, since I understand the need to financially support ST while also not making the board extremely annoying. I guess I prefer the ads being top rather than on the sides (since the ads on the side change the layout of the board and offset the page). Am I to guess that there weren't enough clicks when the ads were on the top?

As long as we don't start seeing Google ads look like posts IN threads I'll be okay with it. That arrangement of ads drives me crazy! I hate boards which do that -- the Google ads that look like posts placed every 3-4 posts in all threads.

[Greg Stumpf]

I think they stood out less when they were on the top since you could scroll down and it wouldn't shrink the forum.[/b]
Wonder if they could be put at the bottom?

[Chris Carlson]

Perhaps increase the amount of adds that visitors see. Since I don't think that most ST members will be clicking ads anyway. Something like:


<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-7948923252002525";
google_ad_width = 120;
google_ad_height = 600;
google_ad_format = "120x600_as";
google_ad_type = "text";
google_ad_channel ="";
google_color_border = "CCCCCC";
google_color_bg = "CCCCCC";
google_color_link = "000000";
google_color_url = "666666";
google_color_text = "333333";
//--></script>

<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

[Robert Dewey]

I've seen a few interesting ads and have clicked through... The last one that comes to mind is the GRIB reader ad, but that's just because I'm fascinated by met software, hardware, etc..