Update - Google Ad experiment

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Hello All,

As some of you may know I've been looking for a way to offset the running costs of the forum for a while. For the past 10 years, it has been funded by the ads on poultrykeeper.com and from a few donations from members of the forum. In round figures, the running costs are around £200 per year with the current setup.

I tried Viglink - which inserted links in posts and was supposed to take people to a useful site selling something and pay a small commission. After a few months trial, it was certainly small - there was about 10 US cents in the account so I removed it!

My next plan is to try Google Ads. I've found a way to insert them into different positions and will experiment over the coming months with these.

I don't want to make money out of this, I want to (ideally) cover costs. So my plan is to try different positions to see what works best and then scale it back to the minimum number of ads necessary to try cover the £200 hosting each year. I have no idea if it will come close but time will tell.

After that... I plan to experiment with a new user group so for anyone making a small donation to the hosting account or helping out with moderation or something, I can change their group and then they won't see the ads.

Hopefully this is a fair compromise.

Thanks,
Tim
 
Could you set up a paypal account and we could all contribute a fee each year? I would willingly contribute.
This forum is great for advice and has been a comfort to me, as a new member.
 
I agree, Tim, and as you know I've suggested this for some time. People choose to pay magazine subscriptions, don't they, and I don't see why we should expect the Forum to run for free at what I suspect is actually your expense, even if ads contribute to the cost. Perhaps if it were made clearer to members how we can contribute, most of us regulars would be happy to chip in a few pounds each year? £5-£10 a year each should do the trick, what do we all think?
 
I wouldn't make the payment compulsory though; it's been great to have more people posting on here of late & it'd be a shame to put anyone off.

Could the Google ad appear at the bottom of the page rather than the top?
 
Thanks for the feedback - to answer some questions...

1. A paypal donation?
I have been reluctant because then you have to make sure you keep the forum working for 12 months. I think I'm happier now - but at times I've been struggling, like when we had masses of registration spam or when we were exceeding memory on our shared hosting plan.

I'm happier to commit to the future of the forum now. We seem to have turned a corner.

I don't want to set up Paypal to pay me personally, I don't feel that's right. I would rather use the forum donation page with our web host - this can only be used for hosting, not on beer or fancy chickens! They charge the normal Paypal transaction fees and I think the minimum payment is £10. I can't change that but I think that's a reasonable amount anyway?

2. Why not put the Ad in the footer?
At the moment, my plan is to test lots of different Ad positions to find one that works 'well enough'. In the Header, the Footer and between posts for example. Hopefully I can settle on just one long term.

My understanding from researching Ads is that they work best when they are prominent and amongst content. I need to find a balance.
Putting them just in the footer probably means they would generate very little income - which doesn't solve my problem... but I will try different positions over the coming months and keep you all updated on what I'm doing and what income they generate.

By the way, poultrykeeper.com ads used to work sitting 'quietly' in the sidebar. Traffic has changed though - 60% is now on mobile devices - and they don't see the sidebar on a smartphone.

Ad blockers are also common. I'm seeing 45-50% less income from the ads this year and had to stop paying for articles from authors. I've slowly had to increase ads on the site. I don't like it... but this is a common problem for sites that don't sell anything.

SO...

The plan could be.

1. Test the Ads.... see how / if they perform well. Decide on the best position to balance income with intrusion.
2. Set up a new group (like we have Moderators, Admin we could have Full Member or something else?)
3. Remove Ads for that group and the Moderators too.
4. Offer 'Make a donation to hosting this year' (minimum £10) to join the Full Members group for a year.

That would mean we would be able to have people using the forum as before, with adverts and... people using the forum who have contributed towards the hosting cost that don't see adverts when logged in.

Feedback very welcome... I'm still thinking this through.

Thanks
Tim
 
Good ideas there, Tim. Let's do it!

re (2); - I think this is an excellent plan, and would suggest removing the rather cutesy descriptions of members based on how many posts they've made ( 'Laying Well,' 'Part of the flock' etc) and replace with simple "Full Member" under usernames for those who have opted in to contribute. This would gently keep the scheme at the forefront of people's minds. The forum rules which everyone is asked to read might include a summary of the scheme to inform new members of how the forum is funded. When you register a new member they would need to get a personal message about the scheme, similar to what is shown on the Guardian online newspaper, which is free to all but relies on subscriptions from this who choose to opt in, in the same way.
Maybe between us we could work out a way where moderators could see a list of contributors and dates, so we could send out reminders when subscriptions were due, to save you the extra work of keeping it going? i would be happy to do this if it would help.

re (3) - Yes I think seeing the forum free from ads would be a considerable incentive for those who had supported the forum by more than they would have been likely to raise by clicking on ads. I would presume that moderators would in any case want to be Full Members so exemptions for them wouldn't be relevant.

re (4) Yes, good - nice way to put it - needs to be a prominent link, at the top somewhere, not hidden away down where people don't go, and with an explanation of what the money goes to, and an online form with a link to payment. (I believe we have actually had this for some time, but hidden away so nobody sees it!)
 
Another forum I used to work with does a regular (monthly, but it wouldn't need to be that regular) "mass mailing" sort of newsletter email to members. It's a sort of "what's being discussed on the forum" thing, which not only jogs members to log in and take part in discussions and be active, but also, the newsletter has links and reminders about things like rules & conditions, a "click here to donate" button etc. I know though that something like this would be adding to your work burden!
 
I've only just noticed that Tim has actually given us the link to paying the web hosting site, in his second post, third para, where he says;

'I don't want to set up Paypal to pay me personally, I don't feel that's right. I would rather use the forum donation page with our web host - this can only be used for hosting, not on beer or fancy chickens!'

In his actual post, the words 'forum donations page' are in lighter type and are an active link to the pay page. I've just tested it out and it took my money quite satisfactorily! So I hope I'm now a Forum Member, and that lots of others will feel able to do the same.

And in any case, Tim, we would be quite happy for you to spend any surplus on beer and fancy chickens. If it wasn't for you, there wouldn't ever have been a Forum!
 
The ads look fine at the top - the BIC one is quite colourful!
People often join because they want to post about some dilemma they are in with their chooks and shouldn't be put off by paying for a month or even a year for what may, or may not, be a brief visit. Ads will pass as the norm in those situations and only get annoying, if at all, for regular visitors.
You could put a little banner under or beside the add saying something like 'subscribe to remove ads'. I think that would probably more than do it without any status awards.

... can you make the paypal link for hosting contributions open in a new tab Tim? So you don't have to navigate back to the page, just close the new tab?
 
I have also used the link to Paypal and paid £10 donation towards the hosting of this website forum :-) (Tania)
Let's hope others will follow... :-)

Tim - make the link in a brighter colour, as it doesn't stand out. It was difficult to find.
 
Donation link worked for me too. I haven't used paypal for ages, so had to change my card details. Fully paid up member of poultrykeeperforum! :-)08
Is there a way of having the ads on each page of a thread? They seem to only open on the start of threads. So often, I'll just go to "new posts" so if a thread has gone on to a second page, they won't be seen.
 
LadyA said:
Is there a way of having the ads on each page of a thread? They seem to only open on the start of threads. So often, I'll just go to "new posts" so if a thread has gone on to a second page, they won't be seen.
Click to expand...

That sounds just great to me!
 
Hi All,

Thanks for the great feedback (and donations! Wow thanks!). I've been away for a couple of days with work, hence the delay in responding.
I think there's a good plan coming together here. Here's what I see so far from the Ads (it's early days of course but looks promising):

PKF Google Ad.JPG

So it's working :)

As I said, I'll test this for a while (3 weeks should be long enough) and then try other positions and see how they perform.

Regarding your feedback -

1. Yes, the links don't stand out very well, I'll take a look to see if that can be changed somewhere .

2. I've set up a new group "Full Members" and 'hope' that those of you that sent in a donation (THANK YOU!) won't see the ads now?
I can't tell from this end... please let me know.

I created a new rank called Full Member too so it shows in your profile instead of 'Laying Well' etc...
Full Members also appear in the group list under 'Members> The Team' at the top of the page.

3. Is the general consensus that we shouldn't have the ranks at all? Just 'Visitor' and 'Full Member' perhaps?
Or do you think we keep those ranks and add 'Full Member' (that's what I've done for now).

4. Yes, I can put the Google ads after the first post in a thread or after all posts, in the footer and next to the logo at the top. I'll test a few more but want to get a few weeks of data first to see how this one performs. It's about finding a balance really.

5. Yes, I can look at creating a banner or something to say subscribe to remove ads or something. I want to make sure it all works first though. This is one of those 'live' experiments!

6. Sending out an email of recent posts etc is quite a bit of work - and I think the open rate is so low, it's probably not going to work so well considering the small number of active members. Then there's GDPR to consider.

7. Having someone manage emails and donations could mean GDPR problems with sharing data - for now, I guess I would handle the renewal through the PM system, that way, the person signed up for notifications from the forum already and would just get a normal notification saying there was a new PM.

I think that was about it for now. Thanks again everyone for your input.

Tim
 
The ads have gone for me. I did notice one that seemed to be offering a logging in service which seemed a bit fishy. I would think that Google vetted the ads that they place but I cant think why anyone would want a third party logging in for them.

The ad says:
Sign in to your Account
Easy and free: we help you to sign in to your account
 
Yes, Google does check each ad before they go live. Probably something legitimate Rick.

I'll keep the ranks for now... I think it's a bit of fun!

Two more people made a donation :-) Thank you Marigold for mentioning it in the Dust Bath.
 
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