Testing Ad Placement potentials

[Kelly Drown]

Kelly, check out this post with a large picture. It overlaps with the in-post ad.

Sample post with ad

Honestly I don't have a problem with this. The reasons are 1) this picture is WAY to big for any post. Something that I wish I could control to prevent people from posting huge pictures like this. And 2) the occlusion is very minor and while the picture interfere's with the ad, the ad does not interfere with the picture. I would have been more concerned if the ad was overlaying/interfering with the picture. I would consider this a rare occurrence and one that really isn't a problem in my opinion.

If anything, pictures like this is what people with very low resolution displays should be complaining about.

 

[Kelly Drown]

Let me say this as a minimum; I have never liked having any advertising on my sites simply because I don't like the way it disrupts the visual landscape of a site. I don't have anything against advertising itself, just that trying to make everything look good and having a small amount of uncontrolled elements floating around with respect to contrasting and unflattering colors, bugs me a bit. That's probably the photographer and creative side in me.

However, advertising provides three important things to our community.

1. It provides us with links to places that have products and services we need and use. These are all places that I go to myself or use products and services they provide. It's nice to have an ad remind me sometimes that I need to get some more ammo, or that I've wanting a new toy or something.
2. Secondly of course is they can generate enough money to pay for our existence. Monthly fees for hosting, software upgrades and licensing, and new ventures. Up until now I've been largely paying for all of this out of my own pocket for the last 6 years.
3. Finally of course is to support local businesses and to promote local commerce inside the state of Oklahoma. That's why we're Oklahoma-centric here and always will be. I'm only interested in supporting and growing the Oklahoma community.

Recently I have received enough donations (thank you to all that have donated!) to cover costs in moving the site to a new provider, and updating all the software to the latest version and even go the extra step for new cool software. (vBulletin Suite upgrade alone was almost $300). The plan is, if we can generate more money for the site, we can have cooler things, faster response, and perhaps more things available like logo products and stuff like that. Most of those things have a significant cost associated them so it'll be nice to be able to roll forward with some cool new ideas.

So while I don't like adding a bunch of advertising to the site, I think it will greatly benefit everyone including the advertisers, and is a natural next step in our evolution. I'm trying to minimize the impact these changes will make, but there will always be some impact, and it will always cause some people to dislike it. I'm providing the opportunity to work through some of the issues the best I can within the limits of the software. So don't despair! We're not done yet.

-Kelly

 

[bettingpython]

Here is an option, fireblades.org is an advertiser driven vBulletin site. But supporting members who plunk down $15 a year don't have to be inundated with ads.
We also have a members only section where only paid memebers have access.

Have you considered offering a supporting membership for those of us who want to whine?

Header, footer and between the top 2 posts and the bottom post and QR box are aesthetically much more pleasing than slapping an ad in someone else's post.

I am not complaining just offering some constructive criticism and a possible solution.

 

[Kelly Drown]

That is actually a relevant and interesting solution. Also very doable with the current software without modifications. I'll have to think about this idea a bit. It's kind of the same concept as the extra fee for an unlisted phone number.

 

[BadgeBunny]

Here is an option, fireblades.org is an advertiser driven vBulletin site. But supporting members who plunk down $15 a year don't have to be inundated with ads.
We also have a members only section where only paid memebers have access.

Have you considered offering a supporting membership for those of us who want to whine?

Header, footer and between the top 2 posts and the bottom post and QR box are aesthetically much more pleasing than slapping an ad in someone else's post.

I am not complaining just offering some constructive criticism and a possible solution.

That sounds good to me ... I wanted to whine about the ads but didn't want to be a whiner ... lol

 

[JD8]

We also have a members only section where only paid memebers have access.

Have you considered offering a supporting membership for those of us who want to whine?

Header, footer and between the top 2 posts and the bottom post and QR box are aesthetically much more pleasing than slapping an ad in someone else's post.

I am not complaining just offering some constructive criticism and a possible solution.

Someone sign this whiner up.

 

[beast1989]

I think Kelly gets the point about the in ad post. lol Like someone else mentioned, in between the post would be nice or in between the last post and the quick reply box that way while we are typing its right there.

 

[Kelly Drown]

Anyone willing to help me test some experimental ad/no ad configurations? I just need ONE person to help so first person to respond with an "I'll help" wins.

 

[NikatKimber]

I'll help. I also have Chrome, FF4.0, and IE9 installed here. Have access at home to computers with other/older browsers too.

 

[Kelly Drown]

Actually if you don't mind, I would prefer someone who's having problems with the ads so I can test the opposite of what you've been testing. Basically I'm exploring bettingpython's idea.