# We're trying a money-making experiment **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 28, 2010, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611 "2010-04-28T10:38:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/41 "2010-04-30T02:38:39Z")
I note that Mother’s Day is right around the corner. Might want to see if there are any florists participating… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/42 "2010-04-30T04:20:40Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Can I direct revenue to the SDMB if I click on a link that I inserted myself? > [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > I presume so, but to be sure, why don’t you click on a link and buy a car? We’ll watch and see if a revenue blip shows up. Heh. I’m thinking more along the lines of maybe making a link to 1-800-FLOWERS and get the Dope some money for buying a Mother’s Day bouquet that I was going to buy anyway. ETA: and believe it or don’t, that was _without_ seeing **Oakminster** ’s post… ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/43 "2010-04-30T12:45:56Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > What seemed to work in the other case was disabling the ad blocker-type program (NoScript there, AdThwart here), then restarting your browser - try that. Since the problem occurs less frequently if you merely disable AT, I deduce that’s the source of the problem. You could, of course, subscribe, in which case you wouldn’t need to use AT while here and your life would improve on numerous other levels as well. Freshen my breath and make my hair shinier? I can live with double clicking a link, I guess. Brings me back to the days of the infamous Windows triple click in 3.1 And as said by BigT, AdThwart only hides the ads from me. It still loads them. Don’t expect Google of all people to block their major revenue stream. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/44 "2010-04-30T13:15:54Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > what I did find annoying is that it’s appreciably slowed down my browsing, at least when I click an outgoing link. [Outboundlink.me](http://Outboundlink.me) does not look to be the most responsive of servers and I’m getting tired of the message ‘Waiting for [outboundlink.me](http://outboundlink.me)’. > > I could live with any privacy issues but anything that gets in the way of smooth surfing does not endear itself to me. We’ll have to keep an eye on this. It seems to be working OK at the moment. Anything involving multiple servers has the potential for logjams - I occasionally have pages hang while they’re waiting for a response from an ad server. A lot of people have a financial interest in making this work smoothly, not just us, which gives me some comfort. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/45 "2010-05-02T23:18:44Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > We’ll have to keep an eye on this. It seems to be working OK at the moment. Anything involving multiple servers has the potential for logjams - I occasionally have pages hang while they’re waiting for a response from an ad server. A lot of people have a financial interest in making this work smoothly, not just us, which gives me some comfort. I’m having many, many issues. (well…the same issue, but many, many times.) I’d say 80-90% of the time when I click on a link, it never loads. The status bar says something like “Transferring data from [outboundlink.net](http://outboundlink.net)”…sometimes it’s .me. But the link never opens until I click on the link a second time, after the status bar is done saying “Transferring data from [outboundlink.net](http://outboundlink.net)”, which takes several seconds. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/46 "2010-05-03T04:43:24Z")
What browser are you using? Does it happen with the other browsers as well? Try changing your DNS to Google DNS and see if it loads any faster: > **[Public DNS  |  Google for Developers](https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns?csw=1&hl=fr)** > > Un service de résolution DNS global offert que vous pouvez utiliser comme alternative à votre fournisseur DNS actuel. - **xash** Administrator ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/47 "2010-05-03T23:06:43Z")
> [@xash](#): > > What browser are you using? Does it happen with the other browsers as well? > Try changing your DNS to Google DNS and see if it loads any faster: I’m using Firefox V 3.6.3, Comcast as my ISP. I just switched to the google DNS and I still have the same problems. And it’s not a matter of not loading _fast_, it’s a matter of not loading at all…at least not on the first click. I have to click the links twice most of the time to get them to load. The status will say “waiting for [outboundlink.me](http://outboundlink.me)” for a few seconds, then say “Done” yet nothing has happened. I click again, and the link will open right away in a new tab. I just tried with IE 7 and it loads the links more often on the first click, but sometimes it still won’t load and says "Error on page’ in the status bar. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/48 "2010-05-04T01:21:08Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I’m using Firefox V 3.6.3, Comcast as my ISP. > > I just switched to the google DNS and I still have the same problems. And it’s not a matter of not loading _fast_, it’s a matter of not loading at all…at least not on the first click. I have to click the links twice most of the time to get them to load. > > The status will say “waiting for [outboundlink.me](http://outboundlink.me)” for a few seconds, then say “Done” yet nothing has happened. I click again, and the link will open right away in a new tab. I just tried with IE 7 and it loads the links more often on the first click, but sometimes it still won’t load and says "Error on page’ in the status bar. Add [outboundlink.me](http://outboundlink.me) and [outboundlink.net](http://outboundlink.net) to your hosts file with an IP of 127.0.0.1 and see what happens. I haven’t tried this, but it might help you. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Seventh_Deadly_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/49 "2010-05-04T01:24:25Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I’m using Firefox V 3.6.3, Comcast as my ISP. What platform? I ask because I’ve been having the same problem with Firefox on my old G4 Mac lately— on a bunch of sites, not just here. (I know, I know, it’s time to upgrade.) Just wondering if you’re having my Firefox problem and not just a problem with this affiliate thing here… DISCLAIMER: None of the above should be in any way construed as an opinion, rhetorical opening, warning shot or other spark that might ignite any sort of discussion, flamewar, or real war regarding PCs vs. Macs. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/50 "2010-05-08T17:07:54Z")
> [@xash](#): > > Add [outboundlink.me](http://outboundlink.me) and [outboundlink.net](http://outboundlink.net) to your hosts file with an IP of 127.0.0.1 and see what happens. I haven’t tried this, but it might help you. Doing that results in those links not opening at all. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611/51 "2010-05-25T13:39:44Z")
This is a great idea. That’s an impressive list of sites, including several where people generally make high dollar amount purchases such as Travelocity. Might I suggest putting it as an announcement at the top of all the forums? I know that you don’t want to add clutter, but I don’t think everybody looks at ATMB as often as they ought. Including myself. And in the announcement, you might want to highlight certain of the sites such as Amazon. No use hiding something like that in a long list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-trying-a-money-making-experiment/537611.md?page=2)