Regarding Ads and the Site

[Null]

So @Melchett pointed out there was an ad on the sidebar for about 12 hours yesterday. That was an accident.

Basically, since about March last year, the CWCki Forums layout had a guest-only ad. I've moved that over to the Kiwi Farms layout too, and I've added one that appears below all posts in a thread. Again, only for guests.

In December I promised a financial statement and I intend on giving one tomorrow. I'm not strapped for cash. This website and its peripheral services do not hurt my bottom line. I do this as a hobby, so any money I could justify spending on toys or games or whatever instead goes to more and more powerful servers and applications I use to defend us against DDoS attacks. I like doing this shit, which is why I do. People sometimes ask me why I bother and the answer is, not many people are put into a situation where they have a live box with up to 1,200 people on it at any given time. Not many people have the privilege of saying they have an Internet cult trying to routinely attack their website. It's fun.

The dream of every webhost is to be self-sufficient. There's something about having a hobby that pays for itself that's uniquely satisfying. We receive about $10/mo in $2.50 contributions and about $40~60 from one-time upgrades. Ads barely reach $10/mo on average. I'm hoping with a second ad we'll double that and once again be green.

If you don't want to see ads ever:

A) Register an account.
or
B) Block the class ".advertisement" in your AdBlock extension. I do not hide the ads or supplement them with nags that ask you to turn off the adblocker. I personally fucking despise ads and I am of the opinion that, if you're the type to run an adblock, you're not going to fucking click them anyways.

 

[Holdek]

Just curious, do the forums make less money if someone blocks the ads with adblocker? As in, does the advertiser know the ads are not being shown for that user and consequently deducts from what they would otherwise pay the forums?

Or, do the forums only make money in the first place if users click on ads?

 

[Null]

Just curious, do the forums make less money if someone blocks the ads with adblocker? As in, does the advertiser know the ads are not being shown for that user and consequently deducts from what they would otherwise pay the forums?

Or, do the forums only make money in the first place if users click on ads?

There are people who make their entire living off studying the enigmatic nature of Google and its services. I've noticed that the adsense wallet usually trickles up pennies at a time, but once I saw it jump up 5 whole dollars in a single refresh.

I would say that, perhaps, in the measure of thousands if not millions of hits, you will make money off ad views alone.

Predominantly, you make money off clicks.

You make boku dollars if there is a goal conversion. I know that, for instance, if someone signs up for a credit card after a click-through from your website, you can get like $50. It's possible that $5 I mentioned before was an insurance policy being filled out or someone asked for an email brochure from a college. Shit like that is what makes the ad sense machine spit out gold.


I don't like ads, though. I think they're ghetto and make websites look like desperate shills. If you want to support the site, I would seriously suggest getting an account upgrade instead of browsing as a guest. I've noticed a lot of people recently have signed up and upgraded within like, their first 10 posts. I thought this was really weird at first and I still do. I figure it's lurkers.

 

[Red_Rager]

For me using adblock is about security. At one point, I was altruistic and just dealt with ads but after getting fucked over with an infection that was when I started using adblock. I've also had an ad leading me to a website warning me that my computer was infected. I know most ads are benign but I really, really need to trust and like a website before I'll even consider shutting it off. I prefer having options to provide direct financial assistance when I am able to.

 

[Null]

Our ads come from Google Adsense. The worst they'll do is track your every waking move. If that bothers you, I also suggest getting NoScript and blocking our Google Analytics service, which runs for registered users as well.

You don't really need to validate using AdBlock, though. You're registered so you won't see them anyways. I don't care if people block our ads. 90% of our revenue comes from our beautiful and wonderful supporters.