Introduction of adverts

[Brogan]

After three years I have finally relented, and with extreme reluctance, placed some adverts on the site.

Somehow I need to generate enough income to pay for the running costs, raise enough funds to get some custom coding done and move to a VPS or dedicated server. All of which aren't cheap.

So there are now adverts in three places:

• At the top of every page above the breadcrumb
• At the bottom of every page below the breadcrumb
• On the main forum home page in the sidebar

Premium Contributors will see no adverts at all.
Premium Members will not see the adverts at the top of the page or in the sidebar.
All other members and guests will see all adverts.

It's possible that more advert locations will be introduced over time.

I apologise if this spoils your enjoyment of the site but to grow we need funds and this seems like the best way of doing that.

I should clarify that this is not like typical advertising, it is using Google AdSense and income is only received if the adverts are clicked. Hopefully enough visitors will click them to make it worthwhile and the benefits will outweigh the cons.

For reference, this is how it appears to regular members and guests:

 

[tooncheese]

They're not too bad, the sidebar one is the same colour, and I barely notice it, the one at the top disappears as soon as I scroll down.

Clip the Apex with adverts is better than no Clip the Apex at all

 

[Dean]

Premium Contributors will see no adverts at all.
Premium Members will not see the adverts at the top of the page or in the sidebar.
All other members and guests will see all adverts.

So, I am supposed to be seeing adverts at the bottom of the page?

I don't see any

 

[Brogan]

You should be, unless you have an ad-blocker installed.

 

[Dean]

You should be, unless you have an ad-blocker installed.

heh.. forgot about the adblock plus I run as a matter of course.. sorry about that.

Yes I can see them without the ad blocker on.

 

[Brogan]

I've added another advert after the first post of every thread on each page.
Only guests or members who aren't logged in will see them.

Some of them actually look quite interesting

 

[Brogan]

Google has seen fit to close the AdSense account, reason unknown, they didn't provide one other than their standard email.
This is quite common apparently and although I've contacted them, I don't expect to hear back.

So, no more adverts you'll be pleased to hear.
All it means is we won't be upgrading to a better server or having any new features coded any time soon.

We've done without them for the last 3 years so I guess we can continue to do so.

 

[Pyrope]

That's a pain. Well as I have been here a while now and seem to be enjoying myself I thought I'd chip in what I can at the moment to keep CTA up and running... particularly as I'd like to see how I do in the Fantasy F1 runnings! This site is much better than some others I have mooched about on in the last couple of years, and the quality of the folks who hang out here reflects that too. Well done and long may it continue.

 

[Dean]

Google has seen fit to close the AdSense account, reason unknown, they didn't provide one other than their standard email.

That is bizarre... Sounds to me like games are being played at your expense.

You may want to consider a specific ad from a specific vendor as I mentioned elsewhere.

 

[Brogan]

I'm still waiting to hear back from Google. Their reason for closing the account is it "poses a risk of generating invalid activity".

From what I can determine, this seems to happen for all sites which are below a certain traffic threshold; unknown of course.
Quite why they don't advise you of that when setting up the account is another issue altogether.

 

[Brogan]

Finally received an email from them.
Appeal denied and that's final.

No reason, no explanation, nothing.

 

[cider_and_toast]

For the techno challenged among us, can you explain WTF it's got to do with Google, what adverts you stick on the site mate?

 

[Brogan]

The adverts were being served by Google, as part of their AdSense program.

The site didn't actually make any money from the adverts unless they were clicked.
Every time someone clicked one, Google would make a packet from the advertiser and we would get a few pence.

A few others have said the same thing happened to them.
Google are a law unto themselves when it comes to stuff like this and as they're so powerful, then can pretty much do as they please.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Ah, same old story, the little fella works his way up to the top of the hill. Everyone says well done little chap you've done really well now would you give us a hand up?

At which point the new king of the mountain on all below him.

 

[Dean]

xenAMS... for the win

(inside thing, Brogan knows of what I am referring to)

 

[Brogan]

We have started serving adverts again, to guests only for the time being.

Currently the account is being "reviewed" By Google AdSense so only blank spaces are being displayed where the adverts will eventually be. Hence why there are some odd spaces dotted around the site at the moment.

If you don't want to see them, just log in

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Missed all this. It is notoriously difficult to get permission to run AdSense n forums. This is because nearly all of the content is UGC (user-generated-content). Where content is editorially led, there is more control and focus over the copy that appears on the site.

Example: Imagine what sort of adverts would be served to the Lewis vs Jensen thread where every third word is "gushing".

I can recommend some companies who will actively sell your ad inventory, but it would take a bit of work to fully prepare yourself to take advantage of them. There are probably some affiliate deals you could engage in too. How about an F1 books and an F1 videos section? You could catalogue purchasable media and then accompany each item with Amazon links.

I think there are many other things that you could do to. Sponsored guest forums, sponsored competitions, polls, quizzes and advertorial spring to mind. If you were to create an F1 calendar that people can subscribe to, it might be that you could sell advertising on that too.

I'm full of ideas in this sort of vane.

 

[gethinceri]

Great comments ExtremeNinja, motor racing related adds would be less burdensome than most, although I'm quite keen on finding out more about the "gushing" related adds.

 

[Brogan]

It is notoriously difficult to get permission to run AdSense n forums. This is because nearly all of the content is UGC (user-generated-content).

it's very easy to get an account, anyone can apply for one.
The first account was approved immediately, the second one has been approved and is under review - this is simply because they have changed how they approve new accounts.

The problem the first time around was due to "invalid click activity" not the site content.

Google doesn't care which sites they serve adverts on (although sites with pornographic content are prohibited), they get 66% of any revenue.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Just speaking from experience. We used to have to run two accounts on many of our sites when I was at IPC. We would often run one on each of the main magazine news sites and one on each of the accompanying forums. We did this because the accounts attached to the forums were a lot less stable and prone to being blocked and the otherwise dependency would mean that we would lose ad revenues across the whole site network when this occurred.