Advertising on Sir-Toby.Com

General discussion about anything on Sir-Toby.Com that isn't covered by another forum.

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What do you think of advertising on Sir-Toby.Com?

I hate advertising. If you put ads on Sir-Toby.Com I will leave the site and never return.
0
No votes
I would rather see no advertising and instead have the option to donate to the site via PayPal to cover costs.
0
No votes
If you do add advertising, I would like to have an option to pay a subscription fee via PayPal to eliminate ads.
1
9%
As long as the ads aren't annoying, I am fine with you adding ads to Sir-Toby.Com.
6
55%
Ads don't bug me. Feel free to add whatever type of ads you want.
3
27%
I use AdBlock (or equivalent) so I won't see any ads anyways and don't really care what you do.
1
9%
 
Total votes: 11

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Sir Toby
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Advertising on Sir-Toby.Com

Post by Sir Toby »

If you have not read the Thoughts on Sir-Toby.Com topic, you should probably start there.
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TCO
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Post by TCO »

First one to vote, eh? I'm not that fond of viewing ads, I must admit, so would prefer it if there were an option to pay a subscription via PayPal instead.

However, if something like that wasn't possible, I'd still come to the site all the same.

Although I have been absent for a while I must admit...
...the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that need altering. - Dr. Who
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Post by JH »

I think that options 3 and 4 could do with some clarification. A lot may depend on what sort of level the PapPal subscription is set at. Also people's ideas of what constitutes an annoying advert are likely to differ.
JH
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Sir Toby
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Post by Sir Toby »

JH wrote:I think that options 3 and 4 could do with some clarification. A lot may depend on what sort of level the PapPal subscription is set at.
This is one area where I'm not sure about at all. I have no idea how much ad revenue I could expect to see, so its hard to know what level at which to set the subscription to make up for lost ad revenue. There is also the question of what people would be willing to pay to avoid ads.

I've looked at a couple of different sites that offer subscriptions. Slashdot has a fairly complicated model where you pay $5 to eliminate ads on 1000 page views. You are able to configure which pages get ads and which don't, and how many ads you want to remove per day. The subscription announcement on Slashdot indicates that for most of their users, $20 a year would be sufficient to eliminate ads on all page views. Last.fm has a subscription for $3 a month to eliminate ads and get additional services.

I would prefer to stick with a simple model for subscriptions. Based on what I saw on the two web sites I mentioned above, I think a subscription of $1 to $2 a month to eliminate ads would be reasonable. Feel free to specify what you think would be reasonable. If you would prefer to let me know privately, you can send me a private message or an email as well.
JH wrote:Also people's ideas of what constitutes an annoying advert are likely to differ.
While not an exhaustive list, here are some types of ads that I consider annoying: pop-ups, pop-unders, ads with sound, ads that interfere with your ability to use the site (float over the site, block text, etc.), interstitials (where you see a full page ad before you get to your destination), and animations that cause the entire ad to flash rapidly.

I haven't done any research (beyond normal everyday browsing) into what kinds of advertising is available to be placed on the site. For option #4, my first thought was that the most unobtrusive kind of ads would be Google AdWords. My understanding is that they are text-only, and try to be relevant to the content on the page.
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TCO
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Post by TCO »

I think Google AdWords would be the best bet, to be honest. Though I'm certain that some of the ads would probably quite amusing.
...the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that need altering. - Dr. Who
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Sir Toby
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Post by Sir Toby »

Sir Toby wrote:For option #4, my first thought was that the most unobtrusive kind of ads would be Google AdWords.
I was mistaken here. I actually meant Google AdSense. Google AdSense is for generating revenue by placing ads on a site you publish. Google AdWords is for placing your own advertisements on other web sites. You can see how I got the two mixed up. You can browse the Google AdSense site to see the types of advertisements they have available.
TCO wrote:I think Google AdWords would be the best bet, to be honest. Though I'm certain that some of the ads would probably quite amusing.
I suspect some of the episodes on the stories here would get some bizarre ads.
Hi! My name is Ib!
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Post by Hi! My name is Ib! »

Hmmm...

I was thinking main page ads, I must admit. This whole time.

If ads were to infiltrate the main story I would honestly be disappointed.

Very disappointed.

Maybe I'm spoiled.

And yes, I was assuming you wouldn't have annoying pop-ups, Sir Toby.

Tasteful adds are the norm. Pop-ups are simply blocked by almost everyone except someone with a connection from El Salvador.

(I've been to El Salvador. Beautiful country.)

Anyway, as I have stated before, you should set up a pay pal account for sir-toby.com

I'm sorry. I have very short term memory. Are you trying to offset costs here? Why the need to update?

I sorta like the old style, straight from 1994.

I'm all for ads on he main page, to summarize. But NOT in the story.
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Sir Toby
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Post by Sir Toby »

Hi! My name is Ib! wrote:Hmmm...

I was thinking main page ads, I must admit. This whole time.

If ads were to infiltrate the main story I would honestly be disappointed.

Very disappointed.

Maybe I'm spoiled.
One of the places I am considering putting ads would be on the 'read episode' page. While I am still trying to make sense of the usage data I'm getting from Google Analytics, the 'read episode' page of the stories appears to get a large amount of traffic. It seems like a logical place for ads. I am curious as to what everyone thinks about where ads should go and how the placement of ads on different pages affects your opinion of them.
Hi! My name is Ib! wrote:I'm sorry. I have very short term memory. Are you trying to offset costs here?
No, I am not trying to offset costs by placing ads on Sir-Toby.Com. If I want to, I can continue to do absolutely nothing with the site (as I have been doing for years now) and the cost for me is essentially zero. I would pay for my DSL line regardless of whether or not I was running Sir-Toby.Com. While I do replace the occasional failed hard drive, I haven't done anything with the Sir-Toby.Com server hardware in years. I don't spend any time on the day-to-day operation of the site, leaving that task to JH.

The honest truth is I am considering placing ads on Sir-Toby.Com as a financial motivator for me to put some time and effort into the site. I have lots of ideas for things I'd like to try to improve the site. Some will take money, but all of them will take time. It is hard to justify spending so much time and effort on something that is essentially a hobby. In short, this is my attempt to make a living off of something that I enjoy doing, rather than making a living doing something else and having no time or energy to work on something I enjoy.

I have not yet gone into detail on some of my thoughts for improving the site, so it may be difficult at this time to see what benefits you would get for having to put up with advertising. Before too long, I will start a topic for discussing my ideas for improving the site so hopefully you will get a better idea for what I have in mind (and you will be able to supply feedback for improvements you would like to see as well).
Hi! My name is Ib! wrote:Why the need to update?

I sorta like the old style, straight from 1994.
You (and others) have pointed out they like the look and feel of the site. I respect that. The site is simple and usable. However, I also see in Google Analytics a number of people that visit one page on the site and then leave. I have to wonder how many of these visitors are turned off by the look and feel of the site. My hope is that there are some changes I can make to the site that will attract more visitors, without losing those aspects that we love about the site.
Anableps
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Post by Anableps »

As far as format goes, I like the text-only advertising to the right side of the page that I see on Google. I also like the clean layout of the current main page and search page.
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Lots42
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Post by Lots42 »

I'm not sure how to do the poll but sane, text-only ads would be fine with me.

And by sane I mean no scams, no amway, no diet pills, etc.
- Burbank/Chen 2020. Sexy is as sexy does.
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Post by JH »

It looks like you succeeded in voting, in that there;s now one more vote than there was and it's consistent with what you've said you'd vote for.
JH
Xavier
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Post by Xavier »

Ads in general don't bother me much. This is your site, so do what you feel is best. Go with what will be the most profitable, or the most unobtrusive, or some delicate balance between extremes.
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Sir Toby
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Post by Sir Toby »

Well, it looks like everyone who is going to respond to this poll has done so. However, if anyone has further comments, please feel free to post them.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I found the results insightful. It looks like most people don't mind if I put ads on the site as long as they aren't annoying. There was one vote for having an option to pay for a subscription to avoid seeing ads.

My first thought is that adding a subscription system is a lot of work. Since there was only one vote for that option, my inclination is to skip it for now. If demand for a subscription system grows, I can always add it later.

As for the ads themselves, I will go with Google's text-only ads since they seem to be the least obtrusive ads I can think of. I will play with placing the ads in various locations to see what works best with my page layouts.

Let me know if you have serious objections to this. I will shortly start the process for placing ads on the site.
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Post by JH »

It may be that, though people would be happy with ads, some would be happy to make a Paypal donation as well.
JH
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lordreaibn
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Post by lordreaibn »

I would be fine with ads, but would love to have a paypal option as well for ad-free living. ;)

I am with you, whatever happens.
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