Do people mind the ads? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 05:55:32 am
content: I've added some Google text ads to the blog to try and bring in a bit of extra revenue.Do people mind this sort of thing?, and are the ads relevant? I know they aren't always relevant, but Google generally does a reasonable job.I've also changed the main blog page to only show the 3 most recent blogs.Comments please...ThanksDave.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 06:05:13 am
content: Hi Dave,What ads ?I am not seeing anyI am missing out lol

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 06:11:10 am
content: You might have clear your web cache or something...Dave.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 07:33:26 am
content: I think doing so is only natural. Gotta pay the bills to keep the lights on.But the other benefit is-- Google ads will ensure more traffic directed to your site, as people do searches on flying pigs, dickhead managers and the like. Only, PLEASE don't the the annoying pop-up ads that come up with mouse-overs of embedded keywords.[Do you think she might simply be upset at all the paper-foil-electrolyte left over on the front lawn?]

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 10:16:45 am
content: Quote from: TrentO on November 04, 2009, 07:33:26 amThat's just one in a long list of "stupid blog things". The remains of the can have not been found yet...Dave.

author: armandas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 01:07:31 pm
content: I don't mind text ads, but the the animated dontronics image had to be taken care of by Adblock Plus.

author: XynxNet
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 03:04:07 pm
content: I don't mind ads at all, as long as they don't dominate the page.You make this amazing videoblog for us, so why not earn a few bucks with it....I actually found the dontronics ad quite interesting and would have already ordered there, if shipping to germany and banking fees for my prefered paymentoption wouldn't make it rather uneconomical. Maybe later, if I need more than just an FTDI usb-serial adapter.

author: charliex
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 04:36:57 pm
content: as long as the value of the blog content outweighs the ad's ( and that the ad's are targetted well ) i never mind em, and the blogs great.dontronics seems to be a great company, i alwas seem them listed around, seems like sparkfun is the closest in the states, they used to have a lot of great places, but its few and far between.for other targetted sponsors, maybe try asking all electronicshttp://www.allelectronics.com/they're in los angeles area, but they're a cool bric-a-brac store you can go in and persuse the shelves for all sorts of junk, like weird stuff in sillicon valley. jameco i also see advertisng in some blogs, sparkfun might be worth a try too.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 04, 2009, 09:45:11 pm
content: I've just had the ads running overnight, and the result is 5 clicks from 777 views for a grand total of $3.79Not bad value-per-click there!Thanks guys!Dave.

author: KuchateK
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2009, 12:24:40 am
content: Since you're making money on this you should post new episodes more oftenI don't mind ads in any form, as long as they stay in their own spot and don't cover page I'm trying to read. Pop-up or mouse-over is the only thing you should really stay away from.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 06, 2009, 09:25:16 pm
content: Dave, its your blog and your providing a free service and from what I have seen so far its a very good one, I am starting to become uninterested in a site i used to visit a lot where the owner is actually asking for people to pay for some sort of pro membership status at a price of $2/month. I have mixed feelings and think that he is going overboard and trying to make a living from a good and generous community effort that should stay that way.why not put adds on the forum ? a header and footer add that don't take 25% of the page each would not upset anyone, although you should remeber that most regular users will not click on them often if anything because the same adds will appear most of the time being targeted at the subject in question.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 07, 2009, 02:05:16 am
content: Yeah, I can't ever see this blog going the way of a paid subscription thing, I hate those myself, so money has to be made some other way.Hence the ads and eventually merchandise.Google ads can actually be very profitable, it's just a matter of getting the right combination of people and suitable ads, and the willingness to click them. Some of them I get almost $2 per click, that's insane!Dave.

author: jlcstrat
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 07, 2009, 02:40:17 am
content: My vote is keep the ads....I've watched over 400 minutes of videos for free. Keep them coming. Thanks Dave!!

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2009, 07:46:10 pm
content: It doesn't bother me one way or the other - I use Ad Block Plus.I don't mind small text adverts and slim non-animated banners.Another site I visit started having advertisements, at first it was just small Google ads but then pop-up links and huge animated banners in-between posts started appearing, then I got sick of it and installed Ad Block Plus.I know the use of Adblock is controversial, please don't ban be from using it.Some webmasters don't like Ad Block Plus and block Firefox because of it. This is silly because: it stops Firefox users from recommending their site to others (who might not use Ad Block Plus), there are ways to make Firefox identify itself as Internet Explorer and other browsers can be configured to block adverts.I have no problem with webmasters wanting to recover their hosting costs but I think there should be ways to opt out of annoying adverts.One might argue that if everyone used Adblock then no one would make any money but this is not going to happen: Firefox has <25% of the market and even less use Adblock.

author: qno
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2009, 07:48:10 pm
content: Maybe we should give Dave some extra cashflow by clicking a few ad's one in a while.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 15, 2009, 08:15:43 pm
content: careful with that, it could lead to the ad provider deciding that dave is "fixing" the clicks or that he is using a software bot to do the clicking to make revenue

author: desolatordan
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 01:41:02 am
content: Quote from: Simon on November 15, 2009, 08:15:43 pmHappens quite often with small websites unfortunately. A handful of the users decide they'll support the website by clicking the links each day, and so the website ends up getting banned from Google Adsense. So don't do it!

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 11:20:13 am
content: Surely just once won't hurt?I shall temporarilly disable Adblock plus, click on each link once, then re-enable Adblock so I never click on a link again.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 12:46:30 pm
content: one click won't but if google detect lots of clicks from the same ip addresses they will tell dave just what to go do with himself and revoke ALL earnings (personal experience)

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 05:35:30 pm
content: Done.I would have thought that Google would have the sense to limit the number of clicks per IP per day or week.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 05:40:03 pm
content: if i go and click on dave ads 100 times dave will most likely get banned for "fixed clicking" ! google have no control over how many people click and you will be identified by google by IP address

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 06:11:46 pm
content: That's not what I meant.Of course people can click on the links as many times as they like.What I mean is that Google should have the sense to limit payments for a certain number of clicks per day or week from a gven IP address.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 06:45:22 pm
content: because of how easy it is to take advantage of the scheme they operate a very strict policy, yes they could relax it but they obviously want to make sure they are competitive

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 07:09:43 pm
content: I'm not saying they relax it, they should toughen up so they need don't need to ban people.This sort of scheme could easily be used against people, for example, suppose I don't like Dave, I might want to p1ss on his chips by deliberately clicking on the links 1000 times a day so he gets banned.If Google restricted payments to say three clicks per IP a day, then even if I clicked 1000 times, Google would only register three and Dave wouldn't get banned.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 16, 2009, 07:14:43 pm
content: True, I don't know how it all works, I know they mostly aim to ban people clicking on their own links, you'd have to reveiw googles terms to see what they do about it

author: migsantiago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2010, 06:58:41 pm
content: Quote from: qno on November 14, 2009, 07:48:10 pmGoogle actually monitors how often an IP address clicks an Ad.A friend of mine abused this method and got his adsense account cancelled forever. He had to ask a friend of his to open a new account to bring back ads to his web site.Let the ads be clicked by their own content... don't do it on porpouse.

author: badSCR
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2010, 07:54:28 pm
content: Quote from: charliex on November 04, 2009, 04:36:57 pmI also get stuff fromhttp://www.goldmine-elec.comI don't mind ads, as long as they stay in their own spot and don't cover the page that I'm trying to read.Pop-up or mouse-over are the ones I hate.