Change pending to Vintage-Computer.com and the VC Forums

[Erik]

Heya folks,

Just a heads up that I am planning on implementing a small change to the site in the near future: Google Adsense ads will be placed on the main site pages and the forum pages.

I am trying to make these as small and unobtrusive as possible, but obviously most of you will see them.

The reason is that I'm paying for web space (way more than the usual $3 a month for a GoDaddy page,) software licenses and maintenance, occasional upgrade services, domain name registrations (including a few parked domains that I'm hoping to implement at some point) and so on; and have been since about 2001.

These costs add up and I am hoping to defray them with a little bit of semi-subtle advertising.

I've resisted doing this for a long time but I think it's time to bite the bullet.

The good news is that if I hate it I can back it all out pretty quickly. ;)

Hopefully it won't be an issue for any of you. The ads should be pretty easy to ignore and I'd encourage you to consider the various ad-blocking ad-ons available for most popular browsers.

Please let me know what you think. I'm always open to suggestions or criticism! Post below or drop me an email or PM. :)

Thanks,

[Druid6900]

Would you go for donations instead?

[VintageComputerman]

Ya gotta pay the bills some how. I'm OK with it. Take advantage of the traffic and make this site pay for itself.

[frozenfire75i]

I hope there is no pop ups and huge ugly crappy flash ads. I agree gotta pay the bills somehow!

[strollin]

I second the question of will you take donations instead.

While I am capable of simply ignoring the ads (I don't bother to block them) I feel they take up too much screen real estate so they cause threads to have more pages than necessary.

[Terry Yager]

Don't take my mini-rant in another thread about the commercialization of the Net the wrong way, you can sell us anything you like.

The less you put out running this thing, the more you'll have for building up your own collection. Ghawd forbid that we cut into your collecting fundage.

--T

[pontus]

I wont have any troubles with a few adds, heck I'll even turn off the adblocking just so you can keep this great site going.

Just don't go flash ;)

[Echoes]

I think we can also actually click the ads every now and then, if that increases your incoming :)

[TomFCS]

Ads are fine with me. Whatever it takes to keep the site runnig. That's the most important thing.

[TandyMan100]

I think we can also actually click the ads every now and then, if that increases your incoming :)
THat's a good point, let's all click on the ads alot and keep the windows running in the background so Eric get's more MONIEZ! I know I will...

Adsense gives you money based on

pageviews
clicks on ads
time spent on ad websites

[Erik]

Would you go for donations instead?

I considered that too (kind of a "supporting member" status) but preferred the approach that doesn't target the folks here.


I hope there is no pop ups and huge ugly crappy flash ads. I agree gotta pay the bills somehow!

No flash, no pop-ups, no graphics; text-only ads in the smallest possible configuration.


I second the question of will you take donations instead.

While I am capable of simply ignoring the ads (I don't bother to block them) I feel they take up too much screen real estate so they cause threads to have more pages than necessary.

I have the choice (in the forums) between three configurations. I'll set up for the smallest/lowest impact one.

Yeah, there will be a bit of lost real-estate, but hopefully not too much.


I think we can also actually click the ads every now and then, if that increases your incoming :)

Nah. I'm hopeful that lurkers and others will do enough of that.

Sure, if you see a link to Amazon and you really wanted to buy something there that's one thing. But please don't click just to generate revenue.

[barythrin]

You have a large amount of traffic here, I'm sure it'll cover some costs and will be fine. As the others said, hopefully no swf ads since that'll kill dialup users. The ones I find more annoying are those highlighted links, that's not what this is? The reason is it lags when I accidentally scroll over that word and it wants to pop up some mini picture or some other unrelated ad for that word. Either way though we'll weed our way through it and yeah a site of this caliber adds up in cost.

Alternatively you could just sell me your Kenbak and a few Altairs and you could get a few months rent out of it. ;-)

[Tiberian Fiend]

Adsense ads are those ubiquitous little boxes containing text-only ads with Google links.

[Vlad]

Adsense ads are those ubiquitous little boxes containing text-only ads with Google links.

This! There won't be any of the other nonsense with the popup, rollover or those seizure inducing SWF ads!

[Erik]

The change was made and ads have been implemented. . .

Thank you all for your support.

[frozenfire75i]

Not to bad at all, I was expecting something bigger! I think it will be very easy to ignore that!

[tezza]

Yes, very unobtrusive. Thanks for keeping it subtle Erik. Hope you get enough out of it to help with the costs. I'm toying with the idea of doing a similar thing with my System 80 site. It does cost to keep it running from year to year and it does get quite a bit of traffic.

Tez

[Chuck(G)]

Not to bad at all, I was expecting something bigger! I think it will be very easy to ignore that!

What ads are people talking about? I don't see anything.

[Vlad]

What ads are people talking about? I don't see anything.

Using an Adblocker or have you blocked the Google ad servers? At the top and bottom are Google text ads.

[barythrin]

Wow. Ok, yeah those aren't bad at all. If we're lucky maybe it'll stick to vintage stuff, although right now it assumes my interest would be vintage stereos and discounts on bathtubs. So besides being a little offended it's not an eye sore.

[Ole Juul]

I don't see any ads, but now I'm curious. I hate ads, but now you guys got me fireing up another browser so I can have a look. :(

Anyway, I'm OK with the idea, this is a great place and Erik should do whatever he thinks he needs to do.

[TandyMan100]

wow. i see the ad, but don't notice the ad. Great!

[chuckcmagee]

Geez Erik, nice you told us about them but most are SO unobtrusive I have to actually go looking for them. I do see a few in plain view as I am posting this message :cool: I use MS Live Mail and Messenger and Weatherbug and ... all of which have endless ads. Hasn't been a big deal for likely last 10 years. Only time it was ever a pain was when I only had 26.4 baud dialup. If WildBlue satellite ISP goes under, I will shot myself in the head. Oh wait, they might actually have EVDO up and working by then. Forget the lead poisoning.

[barythrin]

Yeah, the ads are really not noticeable (really nice!). I didn't think I was seeing them either until I scrolled around and looked for them. Right above the thread but below the UserCP, etc there is text that changes once and a while based on words on the current page, and below everything (forum rules) and above the bottom contact us stuff there is another real small and short summary (all text) of ads that change.

Very unobtrusive. I like it lol

[Chuck(G)]

Using an Adblocker or have you blocked the Google ad servers? At the top and bottom are Google text ads.

Ah, using AdBlock Plus on Firefox using the EasyList resource. :stupid:

[strollin]

The ads are nicely done, not intrusive at all. Good job Erik.

[mbbrutman]

Ok guys, now let's really show our appreciation. Everybody, pick an adword and click on it. ;-0

[TomFCS]

Ok guys, now let's really show our appreciation. Everybody, pick an adword and click on it. ;-0

Too late, I think I've already clicked on just about all of them!

And yes they are very nicely placed, not bothersome at all. Nice work.

[Terry Yager]

wow. i see the ad, but don't notice the ad. Great!

I noticed them, but it didn't really register as something new. I just thought, "Hmmn, wonder why I never noticed this before?", as if they'd been there all along. My mind does stuff like that to me sometimes.

--T

[rebeltaz]

I noticed them, but it didn't really register as something new. I just thought, "Hmmn, wonder why I never noticed this before?", as if they'd been there all along. My mind does stuff like that to me sometimes.

--T

I didn't even notice them! I had to actually search for them before I realized they were there!

[Terry Yager]

But please don't click just to generate revenue.

OK, boss. We won't do that <wink, wink>. I'm sure the ad company wouldn't appreciate it if they thought we were just faking it...

--T

[hexsane]

You'll get dumb ads until adsense scans the whole site and can figure out what ads to use. Also: adsense is changing in April. They will be collecting sites visited data on all users that enter any page to target ads toward individuals.

[Ole Juul]

hexsane: You'll get dumb ads until adsense scans the whole site and can figure out what ads to use.
I just used a non-blocking setup so I could look at the ads. Those aren't too bad. I get ones like like on a free blog that I have. The funny thing is that the blog in question is so abstract that their algorithm can't figure it out. The relevance, or lack thereof, is always a laugh. I actually toyed with the idea of playing off them to see how funny it could get. /evil grin

[hexsane]

The ones from when I made my post were for antiques and antique furniture. The ads displaying now are considerably better. :)

[Echoes]

well the ads are hardly noticeable, since they are well designed

Actually there are also some good ads there, like tiny microcomputers... I need one of those, but they are sooo expensive :rolleyes:

[Chuck(G)]

OT, but worth noting:

Google has an opt-out for Doubleclick and AdSense cookies (http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html).

[JDT]

would donate =)

[chuckcmagee]

This route is more painless. And, those "please donate every month" get to be a PITA fast. As we all know, the server storage fees go on and on..

[frozenfire75i]

Is it me or is this Google ad's bringing more spam to the board? I have notice about half dozen spam post's.

[Erik]

Is it me or is this Google ad's bringing more spam to the board? I have notice about half dozen spam post's.

I haven't noticed any uptick.

I did pick up on a flurry of spam signatures/profiles from users who didn't post (BuyCialis, BuyXanex, etc.) and banned them, but I'm sure that was unrelated.

I can't see how there could be a connection.

If I went the other way (bought AdWords to advertise the site) maybe. . .

[Vlad]

Spam tends to happen in a flux like that, it's probably just a coincidence. I remember the spam sig / no post thing happening back in the phpBB days too, but not as much.

[CP/M User]

Erik wrote:

I've resisted doing this for a long time but I think it's time to bite the bullet.

Yeah you should have known better Erik and Resistance is futile!! I guess the good news will be when the economy will eventually get back on it's two feet, then it'll be business as per usual! :-D

[Erik]

Erik wrote:

I've resisted doing this for a long time but I think it's time to bite the bullet.

Yeah you should have known better Erik and Resistance is futile!! I guess the good news will be when the economy will eventually get back on it's two feet, then it'll be business as per usual! :-D


The other thing I put off for a while was the opposite effort: I had a $50 AdWords credit on my hosting account that's been sitting idle for years and years.

So I did something about that.

As of yesterday ads for vintage-computer.com have been popping up in people's GMail and on search results pages. . . some people have even clicked through to the site! (Don't y'all do that! It costs money, dontchaknow - and clearly you already know about the site!)

They won't last long, but maybe we'll hook a few more hobbyists for the forums and marketplace. . . :D