Ads taking up 1/3rd of the screen!

By 84Mark
in Site & Forum Issues

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Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted

I'm absolute rubbishing his statement of it being a spit in the face, I can live with his clarification though.

As previously noted, I am using the tool and loading the ads in a delayed "non-blocking" method in an invisible div. Thus I get speed and usability but waste bandwidth and a decent amount of CPU time; and you guys generate the revenue necessary to keep running.

Google's keynote on adblocking in the adsense network makes a good point. If ads don't annoy users, they don't install ad blocking. Thus if ads are too annoying, they ought be blocked to force the networks to provide less intrusive ads.

They are advocating a balance for their ad system. Personally I think you guys have it pretty well pinned down, guests get a bit of in your face, members get not so much and contributors get nada.

In particular, you are a tech site with a fairly tech savvy user base. Most of us are running these kind of tools. Those of us that are serious about the site are doing our part to help, but these tools are a reality of the modern internet.

Yeah, our ongoing issue is being able to sustain it all.. We aren't on a shared virtual server or crappy piggy backed line, and that costs money is all.. For the first three years we relied on hand outs, had zero ads, and if you remember thats when we went down frequently as well as having to swap hosts all the frigging time.

We've offered stability for the best part of 7 years now, and apart from water damage and a server breaking down (which was immediately ordered and replaced) I think people who remember us from 2000-2005 could agree we're in much better shape now due to the business side of the site, which is something I neglected for the first years, hoping to keep it all free from "pesky ads". It just didn't work, obviously.

Proficient

jbrooksuk

Posted
Posted

I kept meaning to mention this as well. There has been a drastic increase in big adverts recently, not just on Neowin. Apart from Neowin, I instantly leave any website who places something on top of content to advertise registering and won't let me continue until I click "NO".

Adverts like this are ridiculous in general.

Damn it... I actually have an account already, seems my Facebook wasn't linked to my actual account...

Enthusiast

goofyinthehead

Posted
Posted

There's a lot of space on the right side of the site that could be used for ads. How hard would it to remove the forum posts, polls, most popular tags and anything else that is not needed ( in guest view). You could make an ad just as big as the original one just have it going down the right side instead of the top

  • Glassed Silver
  • Like 1
Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted

I kept meaning to mention this as well. There has been a drastic increase in big adverts recently, not just on Neowin. Apart from Neowin, I instantly leave any website who places something on top of content to advertise registering and won't let me continue until I click "NO".

Adverts like this are ridiculous in general.

Damn it... I actually have an account already, seems my Facebook wasn't linked to my actual account...

I know what you mean, we've generally not required registration at all.. but maybe we need to do a better job of relaying the benefits of signing up, which is why I hoped for some feedback on that :p The Facebook/Twitter connect buttons is a good start though.

I also visit Cracked.com (and am not registered) and even though I love the site, the popup that randomly appears asking me to register really annoys me, so I wouldn't do it here.

Grand Master

Stokkolm

Posted
Posted

To be honest this looks more like a faulty ad then an intentionally obtrusive advert. There's clearly some style information missing.

I've been seeing ads like that for at least 6 months, so if it is faulty, they sure are taking their time fixing it.

Grand Master

articuno1au

Posted
Posted

Yeah, our ongoing issue is being able to sustain it all.. We aren't on a shared virtual server or crappy piggy backed line, and that costs money is all.. For the first three years we relied on hand outs, had zero ads, and if you remember thats when we went down frequently as well as having to swap hosts all the frigging time.

We've offered stability for the best part of 7 years now, and apart from water damage and a server breaking down (which was immediately ordered and replaced) I think people who remember us from 2000-2005 could agree we're in much better shape now due to the business side of the site, which is something I neglected for the first years, hoping to keep it all free from "pesky ads". It just didn't work, obviously.

I had a post queued up earlier but didn't submit it because I didn't want to be spamming the thread, but honestly I think the advertising is pretty much dead on. (I browse on my tablet all the time without my lovely tools >.<)

You already know you will never make everyone happy. I think Neowin strikes a good balance of revenue raising and ad-i-ness (I don't know how to say that).

The idea of moving the add to the right edge is a pretty good one too. It also puts the nag right beside the ad to drive home the point >.<

If I gave the impression I was criticising at any point, that wasn't my intention. There is no answer that will make everyone happy, all you can do is try and balance what will keep most users happy and generate the most revenue.

All of which you already know.. These posts annoy me >.>

I know what you mean, we've generally not required registration at all.. but maybe we need to do a better job of relaying the benefits of signing up, which is why I hoped for some feedback on that :p The Facebook/Twitter connect buttons is a good start though.

I also visit Cracked.com (and am not registered) and even though I love the site, the popup that randomly appears asking me to register really annoys me, so I wouldn't do it here.

Good call.

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Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted

I had a post queued up earlier but didn't submit it because I didn't want to be spamming the thread, but honestly I think the advertising is pretty much dead on. (I browse on my tablet all the time without my lovely tools >.<)

You already know you will never make everyone happy. I think Neowin strikes a good balance of revenue raising and ad-i-ness (I don't know how to say that).

The idea of moving the add to the right edge is a pretty good one too. It also puts the nag right beside the ad to drive home the point >.<

If I gave the impression I was criticising at any point, that wasn't my intention. There is no answer that will make everyone happy, all you can do is try and balance what will keep most users happy and generate the most revenue.

All of which you already know.. These posts annoy me >.>

Good call.

Thanks (Y)

Experienced

Biohead

Posted
Posted

I'm also familiar with these huge adverts... as I'm seeing them when I'm "supposedly" logged in. When I refresh a page, or go back to the home page it turns out it's actually logged me out then the adverts are shown.

I can either log in, or completely close Safari, reopen it and I'm logged back in as usual. Cookie problem perhaps?

(Don't suffer this issue with Chrome, but I can't use Chrome on my new Macbook as it causes KPs).

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted

Except we clearly state this at the top of the forums and the linked forum post. ;)

I think his point is that having the large intrusive ad will make people leave the site instead of signing up. You need to make the site as alluring as possible. People don't like advertisements so you need to put them in places that they aren't so obvious. This hurts revenue but as I suggested a few pages back there are other avenues you could exploit for money including partnering with a merchandiser that could sell cups, t-shirts and mouse pads with Neowins logo on them.

  • Noir Angel, Steven P. and Glassed Silver
  • Like 3
Grand Master

+primortal Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

I'm all for ads on sites unless they start becoming obnoxious or they default playing audio without user interaction than ad blocker goes up a. Yes, I'm paying for Tier II here; I think it puts more money in Neowin's pocket then ad revenue that comes from me.

  • Instead of slapping the large ad at the top of the site, how about like someone else said, overlay the ad in the center of the after a few seconds on the site?
  • Displaying an ad after clicking on news articles before displaying the content?
  • How about replacing the block of the three images right below the menus with the ad for a few seconds?

Grand Master

Dot Matrix

Posted
Posted

Ads are all fun and games until they become intrusive, and once they become intrusive, all bets are off. The last thing web admins want to do is annoy users and guests alike, because that hurts your bottom line just as much as "special" software does. :cool:

I'm not above white-listing, however, I see intrusive advertising as a breach of trust. Bandwidth is a commodity in some parts, and in others is quite expensive. I'm paying to connect to the web to see content, NOT so much ads. If they're going to get in my face, they're going to be blocked, but if they stay out of my way, I have no problems.

Veteran

hjf288

Posted
Posted

I think the point is not that users mind advertisements... but that they mind such a huge and ugly advertisement...

If it was smaller or fit into the style of the page, would be better but as it is atm it just looks out of place and excessive.

Can you get stats on how many people actually click that monstrosity?

EDIT: Above post appeared as I posted, maybe its time to find a better AD partner then?

Grand Master

+primortal Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

Like i said earlier, we have certain terms for certain ads. Like required to be above the fold, etc. Top portion of the site, blah blah blah. If we could throw them in the footer, I think we would have :p

Definately need to find a new ad company. Ads need to fit the site not the site fitting around the ads.

There is nothing wrong giving feed back to these ad companies that you are receiving a lot feedback from the users complaining about your large ads and we are loosing unique visitors because of this and in turn you (ad company) are loosing impressions. So lets work on a compromise or we have to find a better fit for our site....

Community Regular

THolman Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

I'm all for ads on sites unless they start becoming obnoxious or they default playing audio without user interaction than ad blocker goes up a. Yes, I'm paying for Tier II here; I think it puts more money in Neowin's pocket then ad revenue that comes from me.

  • Instead of slapping the large ad at the top of the site, how about like someone else said, overlay the ad in the center of the after a few seconds on the site?
  • Displaying an ad after clicking on news articles before displaying the content?
  • How about replacing the block of the three images right below the menus with the ad for a few seconds?

This is just me, but I'd much rather have a big ad at the top of my screen than seeing something that covers my whole screen for a few seconds before I can get to a page. I'm perfectly comfortable with the current approach, but maybe I'm just biased.

Veteran

TheReaperMan

Posted
Posted

further to my other post. This morning when I got on my computer neowin loaded up as normal(without being logged in) and after about 5 mins the full page was taken up by some tiny ad questionnaire?. This is on ie10 in windows 8, so it could have just been a bug in ie10 but not sure. I do not block ads but there must be a better way to use advertisers other than them taking up most of the screen space of the site. I do not want neowin to go back to the dark times of the server going down and problems with hosting etc., but the 1/3 page ad is just to much if your a new visitor and as already said the ad should fit to a site not the other way round and having those pop up full page or small ads are just plain wrong. I think the space on the right could be used more for adverts as this would not distract from the site or it contents as much.

When logged in the adverts are much better due to the size, less obtrusive on the eye and I think would make people who are interest in the product want to click more than the 1/3 of the page or full page ad's that some sites show but that's just my opinion.

Proficient

Harrison H.

Posted
Posted

You should take a look at ARS Tehnica. They make certain articles available only to subscribers for a certain amount of time, then they go to the public. Their ads are also much nicer. There's a small banner that's in the header of the page next to the logo. Then throughout their article listing, they have square ads. Having 4-5 ads on a page is a lot nicer than 1 giant one that pushes your content down. I for one nearly gave up on using Neowin because I was frequently getting those big ads, even when logged in.

Grand Master

PNWDweller

Posted
Posted

It is great that the site admins and devs are paying attention to user feedback. It shows that they do care unlike other sites which are there just to generate revenue and a large user base.

Sure - as a visitor or non-paying member, you can go with the "beggars can't be chooser's" mentality. Seriously - if you don't like it, then don't use it. I know that ad revenue still works and obviously does quite well otherwise it wouldn't be all over the net so much.

I do have one issue with ads and it is the ads when you hover over certain words (in this case Vibrant). When I read text on pages sometimes I use my mouse to follow the words and ad providers know that behavior is common so this is why it is there, but to me - sometimes those ads get 'sticky' and won't clear the window when I move my mouse away. To me, that is very off-putting. But again, as a standard member, I have to live by the "Beggars can't be choosers' mentality. More often than not - the ads are truly tailored to this site and to be honest, I have learned about some new products and services as a result of some of them.

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