Advertisements
I wanted to put up a post to let you guys know that we are in the process of implementing advertisements for NextGen RPG.
Trust me when I say that, usability will be taken into account when we make the banner placements. There will be a few days after we implement it, when we'll be playing around and switching banner placements until I get them where I want them. So please bear with me as I experiment. Right now I'm leaning towards 2 banners (or 4 half banners) at the bottom of each page and a sky scraper banner at the bottom of the navigation column.
Basically with this placement, you shouldn't have to look at them unless you want to. Click throughs are appreciated, to help keep our desirability up, but we won't be getting paid on a per click basis...so clicking more than once a day on the same banner won't do anything to help us.
Any monies that we earn through site advertisements will be going towards the cost of renewing our contract when it is up. If we get more than that, we might just reimburse Dave for the start up costs. And Bunty has invested some in artwork for the bookmarks, etc. etc. Basically, money made from on site advertisement efforts, will go back into the site. Either paying for maintenance or paying for advertising efforts of our own to selectively grow NextGen RPG.
In the future, we will also be installing a link to an Amazon store, I'd like to implement this before Christmas. What this will do, is give us a small percentage (approx 4-6%) of your total purchase. I have looked into this quite a bit and as far as I can tell from my own experimentation, the prices are the exact same as if you were to go to the Amazon.com addy, and you can still take advantage of their special promotions like supersaver shipping, gift certificates and coupons. Again, any proceeds from our efforts will go to paying for website expenses or for investing is selective advertising to grow our site.
In the event that any of these efforts get in the way of your enjoyment of NextGen RPG, let me know. There are several ways that we can minimize the impact, many of the blocks can be turned off, and we can recommend browsers that will allow you to turn off advertisements.
I just wanted to give you a heads up before you saw the changes that will likely happen early next week. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to voice them!
Comments
You don't scare me with your banner ads!
Just as long as I can get my affiliate ID onto the RPGNow one I'll be fine
But seriously, anyone using Firefox should have AdBlock Plus installed, so you never see those pesky ads in the first place (was testing a Drupal site for another gaming company, they've got the advertising module in place and I spent ages wondering why I never saw the ads! Silly me.)
An alternative module I've seen is one that puts the ads up in the top-right-hand corner of the page, runs them at a 45 degree angle - not the full banner ads but specially designed ones.
If you're looking for a location, then top and bottom of the content block would be best. Bottom-only for preference. Though you could run a block for appropriately-sized ads below Navigation and above the Recent Entries...
It's late, I've drunk far too much wine on my own and I'm thinking about this WAY too much.
Night, folks.
*grin*
Yeah, my preference is also for the bottom. I might put an additional add on the My Games page and the forum pages, only because they're so bland anyway. It will give them a splash of color. IF, I like how I can lay it out.
And below the navigation column...some ads would help balance the length of the left and right hand side.
My biggest concern is that they remain work appropriate. I'm hoping I don't have to set it to approve every ad, but we'll see.
OH!
Speaking of advertisements, if anyone wants to use the space before we get a serious bidder, you're welcome to it. You'd need to set up an account with Project Wonderful, and upload a banner advertisement. But once you do, let me know and I'll set the bid limit to zero, and let you have the space till someone bumps you with a penny bid. *grin*
Tribe - you can do one for your magazine if ya wanna. Torchy, you can do one for Ink and Bones, if ya wanna. Paragon for RPGfusion, Etc. Etc.
I'll second that on the Firefox with AdBlock Plus. I'll occasionally use a different browser and wonder why all the web pages I go to are filled with junk.
--
Imagination is the seed of intelligence. Nourish it and watch it grow.
Ditto. I'd be tempted to try Chrome (or the experimental version of Chrome for linux), but it doesn't support plug-ins like AdBlock Plus, so...no.
AdBlock Plus and NoScript--don't browse without them!
As a developer type geek, I second No-Script. I've also got a raft of other useful plugins, top of which is the Web Developer toolbar. And Firebug. Oh, JSView and Library Detector are pretty cool as well (They not only tell you what files the current page is calling, they let you view and download them). Greasemonkey is pretty damn useful as well (bye-bye all ads on Facebook, for one - even the ads Adblock missed!).
Firefox really is a geek's dream browser!
Though, of course, the serious Geek still uses Lynx at the command prompt.
I use all of those except Library Detector and JSView. Looks like I have two more to add to my collection. I hadn't thought of using Greasemonkey to eliminate the ads on Facebook, I'm going to have to try that.
--
Imagination is the seed of intelligence. Nourish it and watch it grow.
Me too. I'm also a leg man. (Sorry - in a funny mood today)
Any chance of a link to the Amazon.co.uk site? I only use the UK's Amazon site and I'd be happy to click on a link from here to do my occasional book/DVD shopping.
Me too. I'm also a leg man. (Sorry - in a funny mood today)
Ha! Consider that appreciated.
Any chance of a link to the Amazon.co.uk site? I only use the UK's Amazon site and I'd be happy to click on a link from here to do my occasional book/DVD shopping.
I'll look into it Nimbus. If it's available I'll make sure we include it. This will likely be a simple link on the navigation column, but I haven't installed any of the modules necessary for it as of yet. This one is a bit down the road.
I also use Greasefire to make scripts easier to find. Very helpful indeed.
Have you looked at the new 3.5 only extensions? I use Weave to keep things synchronised between my home and works PCs (browser history, forms, bookmarks, etc.) then the Firefox Extension Backup Extension (FEBE) to keep extensions the same. Snowl is a pretty cool feed reader though I don't use it much just yet... Then there's Bespin for code editing... Curse Mozilla Labs!
Too much stuff to do! Honestly, you almost don't need to leave the browser - Google Documents for your day-to-day document needs, FireFTP to give you an FTP client, gmail... (though there's a basic but functional email client extension as well). Once the new image manipulation API in HTML5 comes on-stream...
No, I hadn't looked at them yet, thanks for the suggestions. I've got the feeling my next couple of days are going to be busy and I'm not going to get much done while I try out new toys.
--
Imagination is the seed of intelligence. Nourish it and watch it grow.
Computer geeks. :D
I wub you ghuys!
Make sure we gets us some adverts for some "Bootie Sweat".
Ah yeah.... http://www.amazon.com/Booty-Sweat-8-4-Ounce-Pack/dp/B001D3O9SW
http://www.tropicthunder.com/bootysweat/feature.php
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone for enduring the adjustment period on the advertisements.
As long as the current advertisements continue to bring in what they're bringing in, I'm done fiddling. I was going to make the banner at the top of the Forum and MyGames page, be at the top of every page, but I'm pleased to say that I don't think that will be necessary.
Unless the trend changes for the negative, the existing advertisements should bring in enough to pay for next year's hosting. Which would be a huge relief for me, as my goal is to make the site self sustaining. Whether it will be enough to spring for the upgrade in memory that I"m hoping for, I don't know.
A few people have been asking questions about how the advertisements are set up, so I thought I'd place the details of it here.
Under each advertisement you can see what the ad is bidding at. That is the amount another ad would have to bid to replace it in our slot. So if it says, 'your ad here, right now for .40, then we currently have someone paying .30 for the spot.
This is on a per day basis, not a per click basis. Click throughs are appreciated, because it will encourage people to keep their ads on our site, but more than one click per day on the same ad won't do anything to help. The advertisement site, Project Wonderful, keeps 25% of all profits. So, in order to meet my goal of .50/day, our bids would need to be earning approximately .68 per day.
Also of note, if you click on the link under the advertisement, it will take you to a page with the details of what the ad slot is going for, and if you scroll down, it will give you some basic site stats. Like how many page views they're recording on us per day, how many unique users, referral sites and country statistics. It's a fun page to look at if you're interested in that kind of thing.
For those of you who find that the advertisement are interfering with your enjoyment of the site, please get with me, Imajica or Heatwave, and we can give you some options on how to minimize the intrusion. PM @ Chairman