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Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 4:50 pm
by UBT - Timbo
Hi all

I am looking to find an easy way to help pay for the website hosting and domain name registration fees.

Up until now, it's been funded by yours truly as well as generous donations from a small number of forum users.

However, I feel this might be too much of a burden on the kind people who do/have contribute(d), so I've been looking at ways of generating a small amount of cashflow to help pay for "UBT overheads".

One option is as follows:

phpBB now have an "Advertising Management" Extension that has quite a few nice features, including the ability to only show adverts to non-members (for instance).

https://blog.phpbb.com/2017/08/24/googl ... anagement/

and this is the extension info itself:

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/extension/ads/

It seems to be highly configurable and as it is created by the phpBB people themselves, I think it is more likely to be suitable for this forum, than any other.

So, BEFORE implementing this I'd like to get some feedback on both the proposal and its implementation - as I don't want this to be a "subscription" forum...but I do need to ensure that some funding is in place to keep it ticking over.

My first thoughts are along the lines of:

1) Get it set up and see what options there are, that will not impinge on guest visitors too much (ie unregistered viewers)
2) UBT Contributory Members get to see fewer adverts
3) Donators see no adverts
4) Adverts run until such time as the current negative balance is brought to zero. (current balance is -£84.80 with renewal month in August 2018
5) In any annual period, (Aug-July), adverts run until sufficient revenue has been generated to cover the annual charge. After that, adverts are switched off.

Of course it is also a question of whose adverts to actually allow...obviously, there needs to be some degree of control on this so we shouldn't allow nefarious types of adverts from all and sundry.

So, any feedback on any of the above would be most welcome.

regards
Tim

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 6:05 pm
by Jeffers
Anything that's helps with your costs is fine by me, and I'd be happy to make a donation not to see them!

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 6:07 pm
by UBT - Chris Suddick
I don't really mind the odd advert or two. I can quite easily blot them out. I use the Free-dc stats site regularly and they use adverts but I can't say I've ever really noticed them. Go for it.

Chris.

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 6:09 pm
by UBT - Mikee
Hi

I ignore adverts anyway as they always seem to be for something I've all ready bought! Go for it!

Mike

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:51 am
by Woodles
Hi Tim,

I agree with the general consensus, go for it, it won't bother me either way (... I may even turn my adblocker off for the forum :D )

As an aside, what happened to the donation link? It used to be at the top of each page then got moved to the portal then when the portal disappeared, so did the link.

Mark

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 10:01 am
by UBT - Timbo
Woodles wrote: Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:51 am Hi Tim,

<snip>

As an aside, what happened to the donation link? It used to be at the top of each page then got moved to the portal then when the portal disappeared, so did the link.

Mark
Hi Mark

The donation link (and other niceties) all disappeared (on purpose) when the forum was upgraded to v3.2...this was because none of the extensions supported the new forum software - and which really should have been given a v4 version number as it is a very different beast compared to its forerunners...and as such I've had to wait for the extension authors to release v3.2 compliant extensions.

The "logo" at the top of the forum has been added simply because its author, updated his extension quite quickly.

regards
Tim

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 10:02 am
by UBT - Timbo
Hi all

OK - thanks for all the positive feedback thus far. I will see if I can add the extension in the next few days and see how it works.

regards
Tim

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 9:19 pm
by chriscambridge
Personally I would show the ads to everyone, but just place it somewhere out the way, such as the bottom of the page (footer).

If you use Google AdWords PPC you can earn over £1 per ad click! I have used Adworlds across many sites over the last 10 years and have made a decent amount, basically for nothing. The biggest click return comes where someone searches for something in Google and then comes to the site and clicks a ad banner.

What I would mention to tell members not to go too mad clicking ads but only click ads that take their interest.. as the last thing you want to do is get banned by Google! If you click ads that interest you for whatever reason then that is fine, but clicking every ad you ever see is not!

The last thing to be aware of is many people, such as Myself use AdBlockers, so it may be worth mentioning to all visitors that if they could disable this for this site then that would be useful.

--

If you remind me again of the paypal email address for donations, I will make another to try and decrease the deficit.

[I just found it, and have just made a donation]


You can see the current deficit below on the accounts page, for anyone who wishes to make a donation!

http://www.ukboincteam.org.uk/ubt-accounts.html

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:31 pm
by Jeffers
followed link, put a donation in...

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:13 am
by UBT - Timbo
chriscambridge wrote: Wed Apr 18, 2018 9:19 pm Personally I would show the ads to everyone, but just place it somewhere out the way, such as the bottom of the page (footer).

<snip>

The last thing to be aware of is many people, such as Myself use AdBlockers, so it may be worth mentioning to all visitors that if they could disable this for this site then that would be useful.

[I just found it, and have just made a donation]

You can see the current deficit below on the accounts page, for anyone who wishes to make a donation!

http://www.ukboincteam.org.uk/ubt-accounts.html
Hi Chris

Thanks for the advice and for the very generous donation...I'll update the accounts page when I get two minutes.

I'm hoping to install the extension this coming weekend, as I've been a bit busy the last few days...so I'll see how it goes !

regards and thanks again
Tim

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:15 am
by UBT - Timbo
Jeffers wrote: Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:31 pm followed link, put a donation in...
Hi Jeff

Many thanks for your donation...very kind of you :-)

I'll update the accounts page soon. ;-)

regards
Tim

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:16 am
by chriscambridge
Yeah no worries, glad to help.

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:06 pm
by UBT - PennyQ
I use an ad blocker too (and don't tend to switch it off unless a site won't work otherwise), so I've just donated to cover the potential loss in revenue!!

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 8:51 pm
by UBT - Timbo
UBT - PennyQ wrote: Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:06 pm I use an ad blocker too (and don't tend to switch it off unless a site won't work otherwise), so I've just donated to cover the potential loss in revenue!!
Hi Penny

Thanks for the donation - that's very generous of you and very much appreciated. :-)

re: Ad blocker

One of the features on the advertising forum extension is that individuals (such as yourself) can be added to specific "groups" and hence they can be excluded from being served up with adverts.

So, if I can configure it correctly (and without damaging the forum itself ;-( ) then, for instance, anyone who has donated would be included in such a group. At least, that's the plan !!

regards and thanks again
Tim

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 12:07 am
by UBT - Timbo
Hi all

OK, so I've been able to install the "Advertisement Manager" extension from phpBB.

Once my account with Google Adsense is activated (probably within the next 24 hours or so) then in theory, as one advert should appear underneath the footer of one (or more) forum pages (in theory - as I thought this might be the least annoying to members).

I haven't set up anything else yet...so, if you have an Adblocker, try disabling it for a day or so, and let me know if you can see any adverts.

I don't know what type of adverts will be displayed, or how big they will be or anything else, so it's going to be "interesting" until I can figure out how it all works. So, please bear with me while I try and sort it out. ;-)

regards
Tim

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 9:18 am
by Woodles
Hi Tim,

i don't know if you've been activated yet, but a couple of days browsing and i haven't seen any adverts.

Granted, I do still have my ad blocker on but it hasn't shown as blocking anything here (plenty elsewhere though!)

Mark

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 2:41 pm
by UBT - Timbo
Woodles wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 9:18 am Hi Tim,

i don't know if you've been activated yet, but a couple of days browsing and i haven't seen any adverts.

Granted, I do still have my ad blocker on but it hasn't shown as blocking anything here (plenty elsewhere though!)

Mark
HI Mark (and everyone else)

I had to activate my Google Adsense account...which I had planned to do yesterday BUT, my work PC hard drive started spluttering and taking ages to access any files, so I shut the PC down and very carefully took the hard drive out and added it as a secondary SATA drive on a spare PC and salvaged all the important stuff successfully.

So, once I put the dodgy drive back into the PC and reboot, I can then export my passwords out of my browser and THEN I can authenticate my Adsense account...and then the adverts should start streaming along !! ;-)

EDIT: Well putting the "dodgy" HDD back in the work PC didn't work that well....see here for the continuing saga of this wee problemo: http://www.ukboincteam.org.uk/newforum/ ... 05#p120005

regards
Tim

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 2:44 pm
by Woodles
Hi Tim,

Good to know it's not just me being ignored by the advertisers, I do buy things occasionally :D

Mark

Re: Advertising on UBT forum

Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 7:15 pm
by UBT - Timbo
Hi all

Well, I'm *STILL* waiting for Google AdSense to kick in....I believe they need to assess the website and make sure it complies with their criteria...but as they've not told me what the criteria is or even what they expect me to do (other than to add their code snippets), then I'm really not sure this is going to work :-(

Will just have to wait and see...

regards
Tim