There’s been some info posted in ATMB recently that mentions things that are good, or not, from the point of view of the ad folk.
One I was surprised to learn is that repeated views of a thread count far less than the first one. To me, the ads can change between views so why does this matter? But maybe it does.
This has me thinking. What sort of behavior is thought to be desirable by the money folk at [del]The Reader[/del], [del]Creative Loafing[/del], [del]The Reader[/del], The Sun-Times?
Do they like a few long threads or lots of short threads? Do they like drawing in a bunch of people who disagree strongly? Is visiting once a day better than visiting more times a day? Whatever. I don’t know how their minds work so I’m at a loss.
Realizing that my knowledge is limited, there’s one thing that will always stand out.
Don’t use an adblocker.
Yes, yes. I know people will complain about the ads. But that’s how we cover our nut. It’s a vicious circle. Sites with more and better impressions get better ads and get paid more for them. Essentially, adblockers harm any potential growth in that metric. It suppresses the ads and page views and unique users served and therefore gets us less per ad and worse ads.
Barring that? The thing posters can do is to hit many threads in multiple fora. That helps maximize the impact of their visit. Starting threads would also help.
I do know that ads aren’t served to paying members but page views DO count. So it may up the rate charged in a meta way for those non-paying members who still see ads.
If nothing else those of us who sign out at the end of each session score a hit with the ads when we come back to sign in; for me that is usually at least twice a day.
That I cannot answer. None of the moderators, nor Tubadiva, has any oversight nor input into the advertising firm STM uses. There’s simply no means for us to answer that question.
Not to jinx things here but yes, we have a better class of ads these days and it has been a while since we got a bad actor.
That probably has something to do with the fact that STM has been merciless in dealing with this issue; they have dropped any ad provider that let a malicious ad get into the mix.
However, the world of bad actors is constantly in search of the better mousetrap and testing defenses all the time, so it’s always entirely possible that some clever jerk will figure out a way around what’s in place, so I cannot guarantee this won’t ever happen again.
It would be appreciated if you clicked on an ad sometime, just to help the cause.
I should mention that the Chicago Sun-Times is privately held. I should also mention that newspapers in general are in a death spiral (by and large, people do not read dead tree newspapers these days) and so publishers like STM are forced to find other ways of getting traffic. Some papers are even turning into nonprofits so they can apply for grants and do other forms of public fundraising; the Chicago Reader announced these plans just this week.
Your participation in this site, reading and posting and bringing your friends, encouraging active discussion and discourse, that’s the greatest boost of all. We appreciate your efforts. We’re all in this together, you know.
I’m in! And hey, that title looks good on you, thanks!
I am not a Mac expert (not anymore) but you’re blocking.
Today some browsers automatically block ads and trackers and etc anyway. It’s a built in feature on certain browsers and a plugin/add on/app for others. I couldn’t begin to list 'em all.
Subscription revenue and donations (through the Friend of Cecil selection) is always welcome. Every bit helps and is greatly appreciated.
And as I said earlier, just being here, playing our reindeer games, making posts, reading stuff, clicking on the occasional ad, all that is enormously supportive. Bring your friends! Hell, bring people you don’t know!
Currently, no, they provide no value. Links to here from other sites MAY, but only because they have the chance to bring more traffic.
As to the Amazon Affiliate concept? No idea. That’s certainly not something that would be discussed with the moderation staff. I’d say I’d support it, though. A thread on cool stuff on Amazon with links would probably get a lot of play.
