| Author | Comment |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 3 Jun 2004
22:03 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Hey guys, I'd just like to mention that Google now offers graphical ads. I'd just like to hear what you guys have for and against graphical ads. We can enable those and they will be shown along with text ads. I really don't mind having graphical ads turned on but I kinda like plain text ones better. Anyway, please let me know your point of view. I hope you guys are clicking on our ads as they are helping us immensely and have already paid for our next year of hosting costs. Thanks everyone.
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 4 Jun 2004
07:25 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Yeah, I read about that about a week ago, I dunno if the graphical would look better, the text ads look rather nice and don't distract. Maybe a 1 week test of the graphical ads? |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 4 Jun 2004
09:19 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Yeah, distraction is the thing that concerns me. The ads help the site but we obviously don't want them to distract our visitors from site content. Though, showing more different ads will let us cycle thru more different advertisers who might pay more money for clicks and thus boost our earnings a bit. I guess we could give graphical ads a try but I'd like to hear what others got to say first. So let's just hold on for now and see what other guys say.
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09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 |
BullFrog
Wraith
Posted: 4 Jun 2004
22:45 GMT
Total Posts: 623 | As long as they're not pornographic in any way.
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"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds." -Franklin D. Roosevelt |
allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 5 Jun 2004
19:12 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | I highly doubt the google ad-matching would relate porn with calculators... |
Barrett
Administrator
Posted: 5 Jun 2004
20:00 GMT
Total Posts: 1676 | we should try the graphical ones for a week or two and see if our revenue goes up. if not, we should stick with text ads.
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-Barrett A |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 5 Jun 2004
22:01 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | okay B, i'll go ahead an turn those on. keep in mind that graphical ads won't replace text as google will just mix the two. the new ads should be enable in just a few minutes so as you seem them please comment here and let us know what you think.
EDIT: well, the image ads were enabled. they will show up if google has any image ads related to our content. well, i didn't see any so far but i guess one week should show at least one so we'll judge then.
[Edited by zkostik on 06-Jun-04 07:12]
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 6 Jun 2004
12:56 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Hey, I just noticed that if you edit the link http://www.calcgames.org/cgi-bin/teemz/tzsearch.cgi?board=_master&acti
on=activetopics&history=24 and change '24' to the number of hours you want to see post history, that should really be helpful... |
Barrett
Administrator
Posted: 6 Jun 2004
13:00 GMT
Total Posts: 1676 | just don't do 0 hours (it'll show all topics)
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-Barrett A |
allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 6 Jun 2004
20:01 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | really? That would take a while to read them all. |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 6 Jun 2004
20:56 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Hehe, i can load active topics with 0 hours in 1-2 secs. the html is VERY long and weighs a cool 1.64MB! :) lol
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 7 Jun 2004
19:45 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Hmm, 'Iran Earthquake Relief'. The current ad...graphical.
'Public Secvice Ads by Google.' |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 7 Jun 2004
20:01 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | umm, public service ads should be disabled...i'll look into it. the thing with ads is that they seem to be targeted by the ip location detector so everyone of us who lives in different countries and even different parts of us may get different ads. personally, i didn't see a single graphical ad yet.
EDIT: okay, public service ads show when google didn't find any appropriate ad to serve you. we can either keep those or specify our own picture such as another cg logo or just blank. lemme know what you think because if you think that public service ad sucked.
EDIT2: now you'll just see blank when google has no ads to serve you. since we wouldn't get paid for public service ads anyway, it makes little difference. btw, can you copy/paste link to that graphical ad so that i can see it and decide if its good or not?
[Edited by zkostik on 08-Jun-04 05:09]
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 7 Jun 2004
20:04 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Intersting, since I live nowhere by Iran, and my ISP router is based in Bermerton, Washington.
I dunno whats better, though, I think just the CG logo would work, unless you get money for clicks on PubServ Ads...
BTW: Can't you have both Graphical and Text ads at once?
[Edited by allynfolksjr on 08-Jun-04 05:05] |
Barrett
Administrator
Posted: 7 Jun 2004
20:11 GMT
Total Posts: 1676 | i think he thought it was a graphical ad since it was different but it was just a public service ad.
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-Barrett A |
allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 7 Jun 2004
20:15 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | I tried to get the address before you mentioned it, but the link was just www.calcgames.org, the destination of the ad itself is http://www.niacouncil.org/iranquake.asp?as_grant |
Barrett
Administrator
Posted: 7 Jun 2004
20:18 GMT
Total Posts: 1676 | i'll make an ad for impoll and the calcgames.org store to make it prettier.
Edit: ok i did it... i'm just a little upset cause that's the only ad it's showing me now... is it doing that for everyone else as well?
Edit 2: and as soon as i took out the alternate thing it displays normal ads... that makes me mad.
[Edited by Barrett on 08-Jun-04 05:44]
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-Barrett A |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 7 Jun 2004
21:04 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | i too now only get teh public service ad. though, about 20 minutes ago i had different game ads.
oh btw, i've added an alternat color so public ads will not show and in fact, you won't see anything at all because it'll just use our background color.
[Edited by zkostik on 08-Jun-04 06:05]
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 7 Jun 2004
21:23 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | I still see the PubServ ad, but now it's 'Help Address Hunger'. |
Barrett
Administrator
Posted: 8 Jun 2004
13:55 GMT
Total Posts: 1676 | ok i think i fixed it... tell me the percent of the time you get the impoll ad... i have yet to get it but it's definitely in the source to put it there... so this is good, it'll probably display it some more when it gets busy.
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-Barrett A |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 8 Jun 2004
17:53 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | i've never seen those pub ads in IM Poll, i've only seen them on the ad in our nav bar. i did however notice the same thing as you are B, pub ads tend to show up when google ad server is busy.
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Barrett
Administrator
Posted: 9 Jun 2004
23:13 GMT
Total Posts: 1676 | i got a graphical ad on IMPoll
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-Barrett A |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 10 Jun 2004
06:43 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | yay! and a nice one too.
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Lunchbox
Carrier
Posted: 11 Jun 2004
21:12 GMT
Total Posts: 2007 | Cool ad, B. |
mrperson
Probe
Posted: 20 Jun 2004
05:26 GMT
Total Posts: 7 | im not really sure if this refers to anyone besides me, but there is an ad that prevents the use of the drop down menus at the top. The ad gets in the way of the menus, so i can't reach all of the links. anyone else have that problem? Can you move the ad, maybe? |
allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 20 Jun 2004
15:47 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Are you using Opera? Because that same problem happens with me, it might also happen to others not using MSIE...Just click on the 'Games' or 'Programs' buttons, the links that would normally drop down will appear on the left margin. |
mrperson
Probe
Posted: 21 Jun 2004
04:37 GMT
Total Posts: 7 | I already do that, i just wanted to see if I could get the ad to go behind the menu or something. But I am using Microsoft Internet Explorer (i hope that's what you meant by MSIE- im not too technical!) |
allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 21 Jun 2004
08:22 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Well, thats odd then, becuase MSIE should work, what version are you running? But that shouldn't be a factor, since there hasn't been a new version for 3 years. |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 21 Jun 2004
19:39 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | This is some sort of bug with opera...for some reason it doesn't correctly set the Z value for layers. If I have time I'll try installing opera and see what's up but till then just click the button and don't use menus. I know, most people use IE anyway but I still want the site to be functional with other browsers (BTW, our stats indicate that nearly 93% of our users use IE...).
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 21 Jun 2004
20:08 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | It's not a concern for me, all the links I need are on the side margin or I can access on the site tab. But it does look a little strange...
You know a stat I'd like to see is the browser type used against the age of the user, how long the user has been using the internet, and what level of HTML knowledge the user has. I bet MSIE would group all of the older people, all ages of newbie users, and those with no HTML knowledge, it'd be intersting though. |
mrperson
Probe
Posted: 24 Jun 2004
04:06 GMT
Total Posts: 7 | alright, its fine now. got a newer version of ie. mine was old... |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 24 Jun 2004
19:37 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Umm, your version of IE must have been really old. I remember the site worked even in older 5.x version and late 4.x ones too. :D
Speaking of IE users, nearly everyone uses IE...(I will not make any assumptions why it is so)
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 24 Jun 2004
21:39 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Wow, that has to be at least 5 or so years old, if I remember correctly... |
mrperson
Probe
Posted: 25 Jun 2004
04:31 GMT
Total Posts: 7 | this is a cruddy win98 that has been totally cleaned out. I have two really good computers in my house and then this one. I have never updated anything system related. So i would not be surprised if my browser was 5 years old. |
mrperson
Probe
Posted: 25 Jun 2004
04:33 GMT
Total Posts: 7 | but I have really fast internet, so this page still loads up well. (i think dsl, i know NOTHING about computers) |
allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 25 Jun 2004
17:57 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Now thats an odd combination, high-speed internet, and windows 98 that had an old version of MSIE... lol |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 25 Jun 2004
20:24 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | yeah...this is indeed a weird combo. speaking of which, you should definitely get a newer windows or update your system because 2k and xp are way more secure than 98. especially seeing you have a dsl connection it would not be wise to not update with new security patches since those actually do help (unless you only go online for a few minutes and never stay connected for a long period of time). i'm always connected and never turn off my rig so i really try to stay on top of all that security stuff. oh well...
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 25 Jun 2004
22:20 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | yeah, I just got hit with a virus that affects lsass.exe, and of course it got infected when I took down all of my firewalls, because I had a diagnositic problem. In a period of 20 minutes, on a 28K connection, with no firewall(s), it got infected. First time too...
[Edited by allynfolksjr on 26-Jun-04 07:21] |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 26 Jun 2004
08:42 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | well, these viruses can be as small as just 10KB! so even a dialup will catch them quickly. i remember there was a really bad virus that even had a mirco ftp server (the whole virus was under 20 KB, ftp was around 10 or so and two virus files were like 7 and 3). This thing would also download another copy of the virus in case AV deleted its main file. i'm sure it also had lots of other crap too...
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Digital
Guardian
Posted: 26 Jun 2004
10:19 GMT
Total Posts: 1051 | I think I have only brought one virus onto our wintel machine at home. My brother onthe other hand has brought in at least half a dozen and numerous spyware stuff. |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 26 Jun 2004
13:00 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | My cousing usually brings viruses and spyware so I get to clean them up. I think I only once caught a virus but cleaned it up rather easily and luckily it wasn't that harmful.
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 26 Jun 2004
17:02 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | The one I got was a 12kb file, I think. It randomly made the NT.Authority go into a automated 60second shutdown procedure. Not very fun. But it's gone now. And I now am never taking down the firewall again, ever. |
Lunchbox
Carrier
Posted: 27 Jun 2004
07:59 GMT
Total Posts: 2007 | Get Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. it always finds and removes tons of crap on my computer. also, Spybot S&D is pretty nice for killing spyware. |
allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 27 Jun 2004
08:30 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | I have them both, and they arn't into the whole virus detection thing. |
JcCorp
Probe
Posted: 29 Jun 2004
04:22 GMT
Total Posts:
Edit | i have ad-aware. it works. I run it when im bored. But the bug sound always scares me... |
JcCorp
Probe
Posted: 8 Jul 2004
04:01 GMT
Total Posts:
Edit | how much money do the ads get the site, anyway? About how much per hit? I have a second site that I am working on that is not going to be free, and I wondered if ads would balance things out. |
allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 8 Jul 2004
09:39 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | Do you mean site that isn't free for you to keep it up, or it isn't free for the user to use...? |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 8 Jul 2004
12:00 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | Well,I'm not going to say the numbers but the ads cover all of our hosting costs. So far we also have some extra money to cover bandwidth overages for BTS. If people like the advertised stuff and click on them more then we may even have some money for a better contest prizes. So far, we can only afford some cheaper misc items. And speaking of cost per click, it varies and impressions add their toll to the final cost too. Better clicks per impressions ratio usually yelds better pay, but there's not way to check how much each advertiser pays. In general, you'll need to have good site traffic to earn reasonable amounts of money. You also need lots of users with different IPs because only one click per IP counts and if you start clicking your own ads, it's considered fraud and will get your account terminated or even worse get you into a lawsuit. Either way, give the ads a try and who knows, maybe they'll work for you too.
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09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 |
zkostik
Carrier
Posted: 12 Jul 2004
10:45 GMT
Total Posts: 2486 | I removed the image ads from the main page because they do not perform as well as the text ads and it seens that although image ads have higher priority over text ads, image ad advertisers don't pay as much. I must admit I prefer text ads over image ones anyway, so here goes. I'll keep text only ads for some time and see how things go. I'd like some feedback from you guys. Thanks.
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allynfolksjr
Administrator
Posted: 12 Jul 2004
11:31 GMT
Total Posts: 1892 | That rss feed is nice for the news, I suppose you just set it up. |
