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Trialling a new ad format (53 posts)

Topic tags: Adverts

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 2 months ago:

As mentioned last month the revenue from the site has been disappointing of late.

I am taking several steps to address this, one of which is looking into changing the advertising on the site.

To this end I am planning to trial a new ad format on the site in the coming weeks.

I’m always at pains to strike a balance between ads that aren’t excessively intrusive or obstructive for users, but also give advertisers the exposure they’re looking for and are worth purchasing. Naturally, I’m keen to get feedback from users on the new ads.

The trial will be limited to certain areas of the site and the ads will only be shown to visitors from the UK.

I will give further details of the nature of the ads once the campaign has gone live.

As ever if you have any problems with ads on the site please report them via this link including as much information as possible:

Reporting an advertising problem

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sato113 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

put loads of ads up if it helps with the revenue, the content of the site will always be there and that’s what I love!

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xbx-117 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I tolerated the ads as long as I could, but eventually all the video ads with sound on drove me to adding this site to my adblock list. If the new system works well, I might turn it off again, but we’ll see.

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matt90 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I’ve never seen a single ad on here with sound. If I did I’d be a little disappointed, but whatever brings the money.

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raymondu999 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

@matt90 I did – maybe it’s a localised thing? It was a Chinese ad about antacids

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damonsmedley said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I’ve never seen any unusual ads apart from the occasional “CONGRATULATIONS!!!!111one!!!11 YOU’VE WON 10 iPODS!” flashy one, but I haven’t seen that in quite a while. Normally I just have advertisements for banks which are pretty easy to ignore.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 2 months ago:

@xbx-117 There are not supposed to be any auto-playing adverts with sound of any kind. I have said this before and it’s exactly why I have a section set up for people to report problems with adverts:

Reporting an advertising problem

I need the ads to run in order to earn money to pay for the site. If you use an adblocker you might as well wait for me to leave the house and steal my television as well.

@damonsmedley Spammy ads like that should not appear on the site – whenever I see any I have them taken down and if you see any let me know so I can get them taken down, again via the link above.

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xbx-117 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

The first time they showed up I did report it. Then they went away. Then they came back, then they left, then they came back again. That’s when I felt I had served my time (this was the only site I wasn’t using a blocker on) and put up the adblocker.

Also, insinuating people are criminals because they are not inclined to put up with intrusive ads on a website is quite a stretch in my opinion. To each their own, I guess.

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bearforce1 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I am in OZ. Definitely been getting really annoying adds with sound here.

If you need the revenue I can deal with it.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 2 months ago:

@xbx-117 It is and has always been my policy to prevent intrusive ads on the site. That means no auto-playing sound, no auto-expanding ad units, not large format ads that can’t be closed immediately. The ad suppliers know this and if any get through they have to be removed.

Obviously I acted on your initial report and removed the ad in question. So why didn’t you let me know when it happened a second time?

I need to earn money from this site in order to keep it going. If people like you use adblockers, I can’t do that, which means I can’t afford to keep the site going.

I’m not making this up, this is exactly what I wrote about last month:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/02/06/62/

So I’m asking you, as one person to another, please turn your adblocker off. If there’s a problem with an ad that’s not functioning as it should, I’d be happy to get rid of it.

If you continue to use an adblocker then I am being deprived of revenue and I can’t run the site any more. It’s that simple.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 2 months ago:

@bearforce1 Please supply details through the link above and I’ll get onto it.

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bearforce1 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

No problem, I will let you when they happen. It is not a regular thing. I don’t use an add blocker. I only just looked into the forum and noticed the post about adds with sound.

If I had to choose between having this site with adds even with sound or no F1F at all, I would easily choose the to keep F1F.

Once again many thanks for the great site.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 2 months ago:

OK. I’ve also had a word with my ad supplier that some non-standard ads have got through.

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xbx-117 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I’ve turned off my adblocker and my tracking bug blocker for this site because you asked, and because I do love this website. Also, I will endeavor to inform you when I notice intrusive ads more often.

I’ll give it another chance, but bear in mind I do not appreciate being called a thief. I understand your dilemma, and sympathize, but insinuations like that do you no favors.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 2 months ago:

@xbx-117 Thank you.

Regarding my choice of words, if you were the one running an expensive website having to deal with people blocking your major source of income, you would probably take the same view of it I do.

Incidentally, I’ve just heard back from one ad supplier who has removed some non-compliant ads from the site today.

I’m also going to look into making it clearer that people should alert me if they see certain types of unsuitable ads on the site.

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