As you may have noticed, I have ads running on this site. I was hesitant to add them initially, but have found that the expense of running the site (coupled with my time) makes them necessary. With the site redesign I’ve been able to fiddle with them a bit, making them less intrusive and all that, while still (of course) making them viewable.
Anyway, one of the things advertisers like to know are what kind of people read my site — besides the obvious things, like how smart, attractive, and superior you are in every way.
There is a survey available to help them with that. It’s anonymous, and only takes literally a couple of minutes. If you have the time, please take a moment to fill it out. To get good statistics they need a few hundred submitted. Only take it once, please, and the usual yada yada. But I’d appreciate it if you would.
Thanks.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
All done Phil. And I actually answered honestly.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Yup, me too.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I can’t say that I was ever a fan of the ads, but so long as they don’t start infecting my computer with any nastiness, I think I’ll be okay
July 25th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
*cough*Firefox with AdBlock*cough*
But yeah, I filled it out.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Ads are absolutely a necessity for privately run websites. I’m sure this site chews through a heck of a lot of bandwidth every time it gets dugg, and I bet that adds up pretty quickly.
To be honest I think the ads on the site are barely noticeable, and I wouldn’t hold it against you if you threw up proper banner ads Phil. As long as your content remains this good, go ahead, help defray your costs with my blessings.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Actually, the Digg today was pretty hard on the server, and Fraser and I aren’t sure why exactly. I’ve been through worse with no issues!
But I may move to my own dedicated server soon, so that means more $$$. The ads should cover it though.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Ok, survey all filled out. I don’t find the adds intrusive either. I’m also glad they help with the cost of running the site. I’m sure I don’t just speak for myself when I say that this website is so very needed and appreciated.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I’ve completed your survey.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Filled out the survey for ya Phil.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Ok, I filled out your test. Did I win?
July 25th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Filled it out. Of course, I almost never follow ads (I’ve followed a few to and from web comics, but most of the time I’m just “donating” a click). Unless they’re moving and flashing and generally p***ing me off (which means they get Adblocked) I barely even see them.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
All done…
This is one of the few sites I turn adblock off for.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Hi All.
I have been reading this site for a while but have never posted.
This is OT but I figured it was appropriate for an astronomy blog.
Apparently some people have created planned communities for Astronomy lovers.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/25/planned_communities_.html
July 25th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Answered all the questions, but it didn’t say how many I got right.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Finito. Happy to help.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
The ‘purchasing decisions’ were fun for me. I can’t afford groceries!
J/P=?
July 25th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I took it for you because I would hate to see this site go down for any reason.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
First time I filled out one of those truthfully. All for you! Keep up the work & good luck with the book
July 25th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I went ahead and filled out the survey, and I hope it helps. The ads aren’t a huge problem here. Overall, I think you’ve done a good job of blending them with the rest of the site so they’re not eyesores. When I started my website, I swore I wouldn’t use ads, but then as my readership grew and costs built up (especially after I got “dugg”), I found them a necessity. I’m still trying to tinker with the format to find a balance between making enough money to offset the cost of the site without making the ads too intrusive and annoying. I still find them instrusive and annoying on my own site, unfortunately. You’ve done a much better job with the ads than I have. And I certainly don’t begrudge anyone having a few ads on their site, when they keep providing us with great content. Anyways, keep up the good work.
July 25th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Done. I am a bit disappointed with the occupation selection – no sciences! I wasn’t sure what to tick there. Is a scientist a professional, technical or other? I put down ‘other’ so I may not have been entirely truthful in my answers.
July 25th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Survey done.
And I’m glad your first ads are for Vermont Teddy Bear Co. I’ve used them in the past and I love’em. So do everyone I’ve sent bears to.
July 25th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Been there, done that, wont be doing it tomorrow though…
July 26th, 2007 at 12:29 am
I’m not sure I fully understand the burning necessity of generating revenue by placing ads on your site.
I run my own “vanity” site and it’s been ad-free for seven years. I pay $9/month for web hosting and the services/features offered are quite attractive. For instance, due to the nature of my site, I use a custom CMS that uses MySQL and PHP, both of which are available from the host. I have a few email addresses associated with my site and a top-level domain. If I wanted to add a blog to my site (which I did have for a while), the host provides for that as well.
I should mention that I have been unemployed for the past seven years (now that I’m 65 I consider myself “retired”) and even on my meager income I’m able to maintain an ad-free site. I don’t see why you (and so many others) seem to have fallen into the trap of needing advertising to create an aura of legitimacy about the site.
In the end, though, I subscribe to your blog via RSS and I therefore don’t see the ads. Only when you asked for us to take your survey did I see the actual site and all the (to me) unnecessary clutter.
Go ahead and keep the ads; I’ll continue to read the RSS feed on NetNewsWire and avoid the distractions of advertisements.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Oh bugger!
Yet another site with the absurd ‘You are the Nth visitor: CONGRATULATIONS You’ve won!!!’ jumpy ads.
That really SUCKS. Please get rid of those. You’ll lose visitors (me included) over them. They make it impossible to actually read anything while they are on screen.
How much are they paying you for those? I’ll paypal you $25 if you get rid of them.
And *then* I’ll fill out the survey.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:44 am
Done! I just wonder whether being a technician means you are not a professional. It’s got to be the language barrier. The ads don’t bother me, though. Truth of the matter is that by now I never notice them. I have an adblock in my brain. At least as long as the majority of the page is taken up by the contents of the blog.
BTW. I’ve always found those ads with me being the 999999:th visitor rather pathetic and pointless but yesterday I saw one with me being the first visitor. That kinda cracked me up a little.
Keep up the good work!
/Adam
July 26th, 2007 at 2:04 am
Hope the ads and the survey help, that’s for sure. But some are really jittery and ugly. Can’t one get just the pretty adverts?
Did the survey too. It asked if I had this site bookmarked… Um, I would have if this was 1998 (there’s this thingy we call RSS now). Still, hope it helps.
July 26th, 2007 at 2:10 am
On my computer (U.S. Air Force owned) I get blocked, it sites :Business; web ad”. I’m deployed, so this is all I got, sorry I couldn’t help.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:18 am
Yeah, some of the questions were a bit odd, and very US-centric, but I gone done it.
I’ve never noticed ads on your site for two reasons:
1. I block ads through my browser (firefox/adblock) as do most of my friends.
2. I read your site through an RSS feed aggregated in firefox – meaning I don’t have to check back for updates (getting exposed to more ads) and don’t see any ads when there *are* updates. I believe you included an ad in your RSS feed, but that gets caught by adblock.
I’d be interested if you added a question about that to your survey – I’ve often wondered what percentage of people who actually read and care about the content block the stuff.
If you requested it, I’m sure people might accept unblocking ads linked from your domain (it’s a one-click thing in my setup, which has to be the most common way of doing it) but I for one am so used to surfing the web without annoyances that they’d probably really stick out.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:41 am
hey Phil…will they the advertisers give out free stuff? :p
July 26th, 2007 at 4:10 am
The sad fact is that running a site requires $$$ and if you’re not ready to pay all of it from your pocket, you’ll need ads.
Irritating ads are irritating, but the worst are those who sell astrology etc., exactly the stuff the BA is debunking here.
July 26th, 2007 at 5:19 am
And as I finished reading your post about the survey, I glanced at an ad and seen I was VISITOR 999,999 and had only a few seconds to click on the ad!!!
…With epileptic colors of course… Is there a way to get rid of those? Of course, ads are 100% necessary when you run a popular website but the big flashy ads hurt my eyes (and probably anyone else’s…)
I’ll take the survey later.
July 26th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Aargh!!! I hate ads!
But if it helps fueling this site…
I filled in the survey.
Cheers!
July 26th, 2007 at 5:26 am
Finished. Am I entered for the ‘Prize Draw’ now?
Agree about the America-centric questions – we get paid in £££ over here.
Not having 20/20 vision, I have the ‘magnifier’ on 150% so I can read the bits I want to read more easily, and that cuts off most of the ads. anyway.
Like Tod, I have an ad-free site – well, apart from ads for things like Amnesty International and Impeach Bush and such like. It’s a premium site and costs about 50 pence a day for web hosting – less than a cup of coffee.
–
July 26th, 2007 at 6:25 am
As others have said, I’ve done the survey as best as I can but given that it assumed I lived in the US some of the questions needed to be guesswork.
What is the US/non-US ratio for visits here?
July 26th, 2007 at 6:51 am
Ok, I filled out the survey, all done.
I don’t like ads much but understand that they are a reality we all must live with.
I wonder, with all the stuff we’re beaming into space if other intelligence have or will see our advertising. With no reference point, we must seem like the silliest race ever. Maybe thats why they’re staying away?!?
July 26th, 2007 at 6:53 am
All I ask is that the animated banners go away…
Funny thing: now that I’ve answered the survey, all the ads are in danish. Are you sure it didn’t leave anything on my machine?
July 26th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Have just filled the survey.
Will we have a feedback with the results. Just wonder who we are, how many are like me (astronomy lurker), what~s the ratio of US x intl readers, …
July 26th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Survey done. Do I get a prize?
July 26th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Glad to help, if we hà ve to put up with ads, we can as well finger ‘m bit to increase the chance they’re more interesting in case we accidenlty click on them.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:06 am
I find it strange that lots of people comlain that they don’t like the ads. Who likes the ads? Is there actually anybody who visits the BA site (or any site) who actually likes the ad banners?
July 26th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I find it strange that so many people say that they do not like the ads. That implies that somebody likes them. I want to know who likes the ads? And can we get that one person help for this unfortunate condition?
July 26th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Oh look, a double post. I love it when the government network starts acting weird when I’m trying to post.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:22 am
I’m very unhappy with what the ads do to your site. BA, being a scepticist’s site, has many well-written articles that require thinking while reading. Those obnoxious, flashing, brightly-coloured, cheating “you’re the 10.000th visitor” ads do not only distract from the content, they also make your site look like a a low-end, nonserious thing.
With the current number, type and style of ads, I can’t recommend BA to anyone anymore without looking strange myself (sorry, perhaps that’s a non-fitting description, but English is not my native language).
Additionally, I don’t get the often-heard argument “but I have so much traffic, I need the income from ads”. Why don’t you try to safe some bandwidth in the first place? You only just redesigned your site and reduced the number of articles per page. That’s a good idea, but by making the layout more minimalist and re-checking the HTML put out by Wordpress and your stylesheets, you might safe even more. Put less images in the margins etc., remove all those shiny Web2.0 gadgets and redirect people from Digg to just the article, without comments or anything.
And if, after all that, you /still/ need ads, make sure you get good, high-quality ones. With this flashing stuff, as a new visitor, I could not take BA seriously.
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note: The recent Jodcast – nice appearance
July 26th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Yeah, yeah, easy for everyone to say….you don’t need ads. Well, send them the bills for the site!
Frankly, I’m so inured to the ever-present web-ads that I barely noticed them. As long as they don’t float in front of the text, obscuring my view—man, I hate those.
I say it’s a small price to pay for daily nuggets of wisd….well, something, anyway!
Survey completed, SIR!
July 26th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Yeah, yeah, easy for everyone to say….you don’t need ads. Well, send them the bills for the site.
Frankly, I’m so inured to the ever-present web-ads that I barely noticed them. As long as they don’t float in front of the text, obscuring my view—man, I hate those.
I say it’s a small price to pay for daily nuggets of wisd….well, something, anyway!
Survey completed, SIR!
July 26th, 2007 at 8:33 am
Well I has no problems with ads as long as they don’t pop up new window using tricks that bypass popup blockers, block any of site while I’m reading it, including full-screen ad.
Unfortunately I got one of those full-screen ads. I hate those. Can you get rid of those?
July 26th, 2007 at 8:37 am
all finished, I do like redesigned site by the way and I don’t find the ads intrusive at all. Unlike the very massive google ad you used to have
July 26th, 2007 at 8:40 am
An honor to participate. They’ve probably pegged my as someone unlikely to respond to ads.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Okay, I can live with the Google ads, the banner ad under the Logo, and the embedded ads. But please kill the full page ad that interrupts the page loading. I find that more annoying than the animated ads.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Just to clarify: it is just the flashing ads I hate. You need to run this site, which costs real money.
If you’re not in it for the money, you could tell us what it costs to run this site and ask for donations too (where is that paypal link when i need it!!!).
July 26th, 2007 at 10:13 am
I’ll second the nomination to kill the full page “Click here to skip…” ads. Those are the height of annoying. I’ve stopped visiting a couple of other forums because of those.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:17 am
I shamelessly block the ads here. I’ll happily pay a few bucks a month to read here if need be because I really like the content of this blog, but I won’t help permit kudzu-like invasion of advertising into every crevice of the world.
I absolutely understand why there is advertising here. But understanding and desiring are two different things.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Is the survey over already? Neither Firefox nor IE can find the page this morning.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:43 am
All done Phil.
And to those complaining about the full pager’s, I’ve never ONCE gotten a full page ad while coming to this site, and I come here daily. *shrug* maybe I’m just lucky
Oh, and to Tod, if you take a look at what you’re paying for, it’s not just the page, but a certain bandwidth allotment. If your page gets very popular, then you have to pay more money to cover the bandwidth being used, so comparing the BA site with your vanity page doesn’t really work
July 26th, 2007 at 10:52 am
I took the survey. But I do want to add a few comments about advertising on Web sites.
I understand the reason for it. I have ads on my sites, too. But there comes a point when there’s just too much. You have to try to look at your site through the eyes of a new visitor. When a visitor sees the ads before he sees the content, there’s just too much. Many, many sites these days are like that.
I’m far more likely to click on an ad at a site that has few ads but lots of good, non-commercial content. In fact, when I find a site that’s just chock-full of ads, I’m not likely to click on a single one of them. I’m also not likely to come back. If I think a “blogger” is running a site primarily to make money (beyond costs, that is), the site loses value. But that’s just me. Other people might have different thoughts about it.
I’m also far less likely to visit a site that has ads of questionable taste. I stopped visiting Slate.com, for example, when every page included an extremely sexist ad for a dating site. I’m not a prude, but I don’t need to get content from a site that’s selling sex — which is basically what these sites were selling.
Ditto for a site that includes pop-up ads that can somehow get around my pop-up blocker.
There’s a great article I read recently that attempts to education site visitors on how they can support their favorite bloggers. If everyone who reads blogs read this article and tried to follow some of its suggestions, we wouldn’t have to slather our sites with advertisements. The link is: http://www.memwg.com/how-to-support-your-favorite-bloggers/
And no, that’s not on my site.
Hope the survey results help you, Phil!
July 26th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Survey completed. Glad to be of assistance.
The ads don’t generally bother me, with the exception of the types already mentioned.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:33 am
[...] my recent post about my advertising survey, lots of people commented on some of the more irritating ads. I am not a big fan of ads that flash, or obscure text, or [...]
July 26th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
For me, there are three absolute non-starters… the capital crimes of web sites.
1. If I have to see some flash movie that I cannot immediately skip, I never come back.
2. If the site tells me I can’t visit because I have ads or cookies blocked (unless there’s an obvious reason WHY I might need to use cookies there), I never come back.
3. If the site requires that I use a specific browser (even if the browser is firefox, which is the one i use), I almost never come back.
Strangely enough, only one of those is ad-related.
A web site that had a big flash intro, required cookies and IE to view would have me wanting its designers shot into the sun
July 26th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Survey completed – when do I get to move in with you and Mrs BA?
Tod (and there may be others).. There is almost certainly a VAST difference between your website/blog and The BA’s. For one thing, the bandwidth used is not free. If you are paying $9 for your site, replete with blog, you either don’t generate nearly the traffic BA’s site does, or you are using a subsidized server. (Or, the bandwidth on your server is limited – either via contract or simple physical limitations)
There are other reasons most businesses (and professionals) don’t use those cheap webfarms, too.
As for the ads, I’ve surfed the Web enough in the past N years that I don’t even see them any more, unless they obscure text or do something spastic (whereupon I take careful note of the vendor and put them on my ‘Go To Heck” list – the “thou shalt not purchase from these idiots” list)
Evolving Squid – oh, do I agree with you on those particular items. Unfortunately, in business, sometimes I HAVE to use sites like that (though I do complain to the company periodically – no sane person uses MSIE, for instance).
There are other gotchas I’ve run into – you have to have a particular version of Java. You HAVE to be on a PC (I find that one particularly egregious – I use Mac/PC/Linux at the office, it’s a HUGE PITA to switch machines just to perform a job function)
I also dislike those places that use tags. I use high resolution (1280 X 1024) setting on my monitor, and small text settings (typically 9pt). Popping into one of those web sites all I get is a bumpy line instead of legible text. on to the next site (fortunately, none of the sites I am required to work through do this – it’s usually the press)
as usual, I digress.
BA – I’ll be moving in next week. Don’t sweat the “polite” ads. Shop carefully for a good local company to host your server [I know a good one, but mentioning it would be an ad...]
July 26th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Duly completed – hope it helps. Can’t say I really notice the ads.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
To those who have noted my comments above and have invoked the dreaded “bandwidth” monster:
1. There probably is a difference in number of visitors between BA and my site. I would never go so far as to say that there is a “vast” difference, though.
2. My site uses templates that have been optimized for quick downloading to visitors’ browsers and the code is pretty compact. I have found (sorry, I don’t have sources, so this is anecdotal at best) that of necessity Wordpress (as with many other generic blogging applications) tends to contain a lot of code that is repetitive rather than “code once – display many” (for lack of a good description), which slows down the loading process and thus affects the mighty bandwidth ogre.
3. I cater to a self-selecting group and I don’t need to rely on “diggs” or other such schemes. I don’t worry about the number of visitors or whether any of my pages are “dugg” or any number of other things that may generate still more visitors.
4. *Lurchgs: I can’t believe you wrote “There are other reasons most businesses (and professionals) don’t use those cheap webfarms, too.” Either you don’t have any reason to visit professional or business sites of all stripes or you simply have a bad case of hyperbole. I do a lot of research on the web that brings me in daily contact with many many professional and business sites. Less that 10% of these sites have advertising on them, including a good many sites that are academically-oriented and are thus strapped for cash.
In short, I simply don’t buy the arguments propagated that blogs such as BA need advertising to survive: Bandwidth, new servers, more hard drive space, etc. The ads themselves add to the overhead and increase the amount of bandwidth needed, faster servers, and so on.
I’m much more likely to visit (and re-visit) a site (as opposed to subscribing to an RSS feed) if the main pages are free of ads and all those endless Web 2.0 badges and links. They should be part of a secondary page where all sorts of stuff can be part of that page’s content.
One final comment: Someone above mentioned the Paypal donation setup. That is an excellent idea, one which I’ve seen elsewhere, one that works for others. I’m happy to go to Paypal once every six months or so and donate $50-60. The listmom of one forum mentioned once that she needed a backup server and so had set up a Paypal account. Five hours later she had to ask that no more donations be put in the bucket at the moment as one kind soul actually donated an Apple Xserve, while the kitty topped $5,000. I’d gladly do the same here.
-Tod
July 27th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Tod – a quick comment about ads using up bandwidth themselves – that’s a pittance, a few bytes per page to link to an image or an iframe on another server. Ad banners etc. aren’t usually hosted by the same site so I’m not sure what you’re getting at there.
I think this thread is turning into a discussion of how we’d have made the survey