Online ads are pretty normal for long format content.
One minor thing I've noticed on mobile for Android is the ads are showing in the quote box -- which is moderately disruptive and likely to decrease the click rate.
Cleaning up that targeting should be a pretty simple effort.
ads in the middle of the quote box, i.e., in the body of the post itself, never mind in the thread, disrupts reading through the poster's content. It forces you to skip and look for where to pick up the poster's content and is more annoying than seeing a portion of the OS or posts at top of a page blocked out.
But it’s pretty annoying on a device with a touch screen when you’re scrolling through a thread and accidentally click one of the ads.
I totally agree. But how is that germane to the fact that the site needs revenue?
Eric said so in this thread.
Perhaps you misunderstood me; I am sure I was not very clear. I meant to say that people can be annoyed by advertisements (though I would ask, on which site do they like the ads?). That annoyance isn't really relevant (germane) because the income is needed.
RE: RE: RE: RE: I understand the need for revenue Â
But it’s pretty annoying on a device with a touch screen when you’re scrolling through a thread and accidentally click one of the ads.
I totally agree. But how is that germane to the fact that the site needs revenue?
Eric said so in this thread.
Perhaps you misunderstood me; I am sure I was not very clear. I meant to say that people can be annoyed by advertisements (though I would ask, on which site do they like the ads?). That annoyance isn't really relevant (germane) because the income is needed.
I disagree that the annoyance isn’t relevant. If it causes the site to lose traffic, it’s pretty relevant.
I don't like it either, but go to the Daily News, Bergen Record, etc. sites... you're talking about overlay ads, pop-ups, etc.
I try to keep things at a minimum, no automatic sound play ads, overlays, pop-ups, etc.
Again, I am testing this. I need to find a way to increase revenue.
There is a reason why you see sportswriters fleeing the large media sites for pay sites like TheAthletic. Those other sites can't generate the revenue. Look at NJ.com, instead of consolidating their info into a few articles, they create 8-10 click-bait articles each day. It's almost impossible to sort through.
I'm assuming you thought about charging for content...?
That's been suggested for years. I'm convinced that would kill the site. It would eventually wither away. (Case in point, TheAthletic is a huge site that covers all sports and there was a thread on it this week where a number of BBIers said they won't pay for content.
The internet was meant to be free. I try to keep ads to a minimum and supplement that with the contribution campaign where a few hundred volunteer to make donations.
Placement may be out of our hands. This is an autoads feature and unlike traditional code, we can't influence placement.
Hi Eric,
One observation, one opinion, and one question.
The ads appear ( at least on my Android phone) to be mainly at the beginning of the thread. On multi-page threads I have been using the show all feature. It's a little more scrolling, but once you get past the first 10 or so posts the ads pretty much stop. I usually use the show all feature for longer threads anyway. So for me I feel the ads are just a minor inconvenience, that I am happy to put up with.
Is there a place to donate while the campaign is not going on?
Weird thing on my home computer, the ads don't appear. They only appear on mobile devices.
But like you said, I only see two ads, within the first 1/3 of the top of a thread. It doesn't seem bad to me. But what I'm testing is what it generates. If it only creates $1 per day or something like that, forget it. If it generates $10 per day, I may have to keep it. We'll see.
The only time I accept contributions is during the campaign (for a variety of reasons).
I he has addressed this in the past. People are more motivated when there is a window to donate. And during training camp I’d venture to guess people are excited about the team and traffic maybe higher?
Almost in-navigable. Their pop up ads are debilitating.
So far, the in-thread ads are a minor annoyance, but not horrible to me. They’re a whole lot better than the large ads at the top-right of some threads, that overlay poster’s comments. Hey
People complain about ads? Okay, but don’t forget to donate at campaign time. Another idea we’ve kicked around in the past is to show on our handles if we donated or not. Might be cool to see who really gives and does not. Especially when these complaints come up.
RE: RE: Are there legal reasons why you cannot accept contributions Â
I he has addressed this in the past. People are more motivated when there is a window to donate. And during training camp I’d venture to guess people are excited about the team and traffic maybe higher?
If that’s the case, the donation campaign should be the time leading up to and during draft.
Also, IMO, if people love this site and know contributions help to keep it afloat, an artificial donating window shouldn’t be needed. Look at how many there are in this thread telling Eric to do what he needs to do because they love this site.
I would take an ad every 5 posts in place of that Â
Horrible sidebar. Thats the main thing that makes these threads mobile unfriendly.
Do you mean the ads on the right side within threads? I have asked Gary if there is a way to fix that. When USA Today pushed out new ad code last month, they got funky.
There are a number of reasons why I prefer the contribution campaign for a limited time. But the two main reasons are:
(1) I think if folks know if there is a deadline, they are more likely not to procrastinate. The deadline always spurs people to give at the end. Plus, to be frank, the campaign is active for 1/6 of the year (2 months).
(2) I personally hate doing this. It feels like begging. I can't tell you how happy I am each year when it's past me and I can completely focus on football again.
a broader NFT allowance which would increase people's time on the site. There's only so much to say about a given football topic in a day and while occasionally great threads to be found, and in order to facilitate those great football discussions, it helps to have others occurring here. This has been roundly been rejected. That's a choice chosen by the site's leadership but it has consequences. The basic calculus here is:
Compelling NFTs = greater time on site = greater traffic = greater ad revenue.
The fact is the unique role BBI could play has largely been subsumed by other forms of media - Twitter is faster and better suited for breaking news, there's other places to discuss the league writ large, and there's also other places to have conversations on topics verboten to BBI. Part of this was inevitable, but part of it was not. The advantage BBI has always had was community, but little has been done to foster that of late. In my view a part of that is because people cannot engage on contentious (but interesting) topics any longer - that was a key ingredient to the site's robust personality of the mid to late aughts. Big personalities, big opinions, and despite disagreement there was the unifying bond of the Giants. The culling of that (and I understand why it happened) killed the dynamic of the site, and pushed people away from it as there was frankly just less to do here. Rather than get really interesting discussions and conversations about a whole host of topics, things were narrowed down to oblivion. Honestly I think you can tie BBI's decline to the rise of Reddit - a place for eclectic interests to thrive.
Finally, it doesn't help that the team's been bad, and it also doesn't help that for me, at least personally (and judging by the numbers this is true for many) the NFL is losing some of it's luster.
Maybe you should use real forum software. There is no reason for this site to struggle. Maybe a modern web design on the front page and not something from 1999.
Those ads may stay. I need the revenue.
Those ads may stay. I need the revenue.
Do whatever you have to do. I love BBI. Ads in threads won't change that.
+1
it all helps
One minor thing I've noticed on mobile for Android is the ads are showing in the quote box -- which is moderately disruptive and likely to decrease the click rate.
Cleaning up that targeting should be a pretty simple effort.
Do we really need to see:
In comment, so-and-so said:
Quote:
In comment, so-and-so said:
Quote:
In comment, so-and-so said:
Etc., etc. It's pretty tedious.
I totally agree. But how is that germane to the fact that the site needs revenue?
Quote:
But it’s pretty annoying on a device with a touch screen when you’re scrolling through a thread and accidentally click one of the ads.
I totally agree. But how is that germane to the fact that the site needs revenue?
Eric said so in this thread.
With all due respect, it is not a given that BBI will survive.
Quote:
The revenues worth this shit. I’ve clicked on 3 ads already on this garbage.
Okay, sorry now I feel like a dick. Sorry not a fan of the middle
Page ads. Do your thing Eric
With all due respect, it is not a given that BBI will survive.
Quote:
In comment 14396645 Hsilwek92 said:
Quote:
But it’s pretty annoying on a device with a touch screen when you’re scrolling through a thread and accidentally click one of the ads.
I totally agree. But how is that germane to the fact that the site needs revenue?
Eric said so in this thread.
Perhaps you misunderstood me; I am sure I was not very clear. I meant to say that people can be annoyed by advertisements (though I would ask, on which site do they like the ads?). That annoyance isn't really relevant (germane) because the income is needed.
Quote:
In comment 14396703 DonQuixote said:
Quote:
In comment 14396645 Hsilwek92 said:
Quote:
But it’s pretty annoying on a device with a touch screen when you’re scrolling through a thread and accidentally click one of the ads.
I totally agree. But how is that germane to the fact that the site needs revenue?
Eric said so in this thread.
Perhaps you misunderstood me; I am sure I was not very clear. I meant to say that people can be annoyed by advertisements (though I would ask, on which site do they like the ads?). That annoyance isn't really relevant (germane) because the income is needed.
I disagree that the annoyance isn’t relevant. If it causes the site to lose traffic, it’s pretty relevant.
I try to keep things at a minimum, no automatic sound play ads, overlays, pop-ups, etc.
Again, I am testing this. I need to find a way to increase revenue.
There is a reason why you see sportswriters fleeing the large media sites for pay sites like TheAthletic. Those other sites can't generate the revenue. Look at NJ.com, instead of consolidating their info into a few articles, they create 8-10 click-bait articles each day. It's almost impossible to sort through.
That's been suggested for years. I'm convinced that would kill the site. It would eventually wither away. (Case in point, TheAthletic is a huge site that covers all sports and there was a thread on it this week where a number of BBIers said they won't pay for content.
The internet was meant to be free. I try to keep ads to a minimum and supplement that with the contribution campaign where a few hundred volunteer to make donations.
Hi Eric,
One observation, one opinion, and one question.
The ads appear ( at least on my Android phone) to be mainly at the beginning of the thread. On multi-page threads I have been using the show all feature. It's a little more scrolling, but once you get past the first 10 or so posts the ads pretty much stop. I usually use the show all feature for longer threads anyway. So for me I feel the ads are just a minor inconvenience, that I am happy to put up with.
Is there a place to donate while the campaign is not going on?
But like you said, I only see two ads, within the first 1/3 of the top of a thread. It doesn't seem bad to me. But what I'm testing is what it generates. If it only creates $1 per day or something like that, forget it. If it generates $10 per day, I may have to keep it. We'll see.
The only time I accept contributions is during the campaign (for a variety of reasons).
I he has addressed this in the past. People are more motivated when there is a window to donate. And during training camp I’d venture to guess people are excited about the team and traffic maybe higher?
So far, the in-thread ads are a minor annoyance, but not horrible to me. They’re a whole lot better than the large ads at the top-right of some threads, that overlay poster’s comments. Hey
Quote:
year round?
I he has addressed this in the past. People are more motivated when there is a window to donate. And during training camp I’d venture to guess people are excited about the team and traffic maybe higher?
If that’s the case, the donation campaign should be the time leading up to and during draft.
Also, IMO, if people love this site and know contributions help to keep it afloat, an artificial donating window shouldn’t be needed. Look at how many there are in this thread telling Eric to do what he needs to do because they love this site.
Do you mean the ads on the right side within threads? I have asked Gary if there is a way to fix that. When USA Today pushed out new ad code last month, they got funky.
(1) I think if folks know if there is a deadline, they are more likely not to procrastinate. The deadline always spurs people to give at the end. Plus, to be frank, the campaign is active for 1/6 of the year (2 months).
(2) I personally hate doing this. It feels like begging. I can't tell you how happy I am each year when it's past me and I can completely focus on football again.
It only brings huge traffic for a week.
Training camp/preseason traffic is sustained.
Compelling NFTs = greater time on site = greater traffic = greater ad revenue.
The fact is the unique role BBI could play has largely been subsumed by other forms of media - Twitter is faster and better suited for breaking news, there's other places to discuss the league writ large, and there's also other places to have conversations on topics verboten to BBI. Part of this was inevitable, but part of it was not. The advantage BBI has always had was community, but little has been done to foster that of late. In my view a part of that is because people cannot engage on contentious (but interesting) topics any longer - that was a key ingredient to the site's robust personality of the mid to late aughts. Big personalities, big opinions, and despite disagreement there was the unifying bond of the Giants. The culling of that (and I understand why it happened) killed the dynamic of the site, and pushed people away from it as there was frankly just less to do here. Rather than get really interesting discussions and conversations about a whole host of topics, things were narrowed down to oblivion. Honestly I think you can tie BBI's decline to the rise of Reddit - a place for eclectic interests to thrive.
Finally, it doesn't help that the team's been bad, and it also doesn't help that for me, at least personally (and judging by the numbers this is true for many) the NFL is losing some of it's luster.