Page 2 - DevShed Advertising

With all those fancy monitors mentioned, I bet you don't even wanna know how this site looks on a PDA with 320x240...

//NoXcuz

It's not advertising, per se, it's the format of the ad. The fact that it uses too big of a chunk of screen is what's offensive.

If the use of ads permits me to view any site without having to submit my credit card number is okay with me. Just don't intrude on my ability to view the site.

Walt

Man,

after knowing what hero and al's working enviornment is, i feel like i am in 80's.

JD

Join the crowd...
Although my work system is rather up to date (except for the monitor status) my home system is pathetic. I am still running a PII 350.
Someday I will actually break down and spend some money to get another one...someday.

Yeah, well back home I'm on a 14inch CRT monitor cos the yellow gun went in the one I had and can't afford a new one, or have things I have to spend the money on when I can afford one. It's lovely though, as far from flat screen you can get, maximum brightness matches middle brightness on another, centering can be erratic. Ahh, the love of retro-puting.

As I have mentioned earlier (elsewhere) all I need to do is downgrade to a 386-SX 25Mhz running DOS and I'll be living in heaven. Hmm, possibly.

I'm sorry guys. I tried very hard to keep the large ads to a minimum. We had a good sales month for June after a pretty long dry spell. I had sold most of the regular ad inventory, and I kept the big ads to a very managable number.

Unfortunately, a couple major advertisers were very late getting me the ads. It has added up big time. Because of changes in their ad departments, I can't run the ads any longer than the original scheduled run (thru June 31). The good news is, there will be no more big ads (300x250) on the forums after June 31. Can you bear it 10 more days?

We could alternatively put the ad on the left side under the logo, but that would force everyone to scroll down further to get to the content areas. Would that work better?

I wish I could just say, "forget the ads", but I do have bills and salaries to pay. Unfortunately, advertisers rarely buy the smaller (468x60 or 125x125) banners we used to feature. If they do buy, it's as "bonus impressions" to get the sale. Sometimes they do sell, but or for such a low price I hardly break even on the serving costs.

I'm open for creative solutions. I wish I had some better ideas. If it has come to the point where you won't visit the site any because of the banners, I will remove them and give up the revenue.

Thanks,

Randy

Well, I have to scroll down anyway with those flash banners. So where they're put (except at the bottom of the page, in hidden layers ) will get in the way.

At least that DreamweaverMX ad doesn't constantly shift all over the place and flash all different colors at you.

Randy,

Yep I can live with it for a few more days and I for one certainly won`t stop visiting the site. I'm not against advertising in anyway, at the end of the day you have to get as much money back as you can to cover your costs, the only thing I am against is stupid adverts that mess up the display, as you have explained there were extenuating circumstances this last month.

In short all I am campaigning for here is a little more control from you guys over the ads, because at the end of the day if someone wants to advertise on your site then it is up to them to meet your requirements, not vice versa.

Another creative solution thought for you, I have looked into advertising on DevShed, back then you were with a system that just wasn`t for the budget conscious small business owner. I have just checked again and you don`t seem to be using that company anymore, but have you considered the possibility of running shorter ad campaign packages? E.G weekly banner runs instead of monthly? Your probably more likely to sell the smaller banner space.

I would love to put a few ads on DevShed, but as I said, for small business's who have smaller budgets you didn`t have any campaigns we could afford. Whether this has changed or not since you changed ad management staff I don`t know, but it is food for thought as they say

I personally have no intention of leaving the site. The content/community here is worth putting up with the ads. I don't have a problem with advertising, everyone must get paid, the is just another form of revenue and it shouldn't be disregarded. It does make more sense since you explained the circumstances behind the large add and I think that is what got on everyone's nerves. Oversized adds are very annoying, but it is almost out of here.

It takes more than a few 'big fat ads' to make me leave this site as well. There are lots of places with worse ads than here, and as long as it keeps this place going...

//NoXcuz

I understand how hard it is to make it in business, so I don't begrudge Devshed a bit of advertising. Some of it has even been useful to me. But big intrusive ads are really no more successful with me than standard banner ads. If I don't have to scroll too far to read the posts, that means that I will actually see the banner ads more often than these big block ads.

Everything I need to know about a certain ad can easily fit in a banner ad space. See, for example, the TrustCommerce.com banner ad that appears from time to time. They appear to be a decent company, and they put the right kind of information in the ad. (Give me a real reason to click on the ad, thank you.) Everything you need to know is up front, not hidden behind some clever "click here to find out what the heck we are talking about" catchphrase.

Thanks for understanding. If I can get the big ad off there sooner, I will. It's an awful placement, and I never intended to have it here.

It comes down to this: do we try to make money off the big corporations who have money, or off the starving developers who have better things to spend their money on (like on my sponsors' software )?

Somebody needs to pay for all this bandwidth .. so either we bear with the ads or go for a subscription model ... I prefer free!