Advertising on Nexus Mods. The how, what and why, and what to do when it goes wrong.

[Higherleopards]

In response to post #45653830. #45670050, #45673950, #45674880, #45675735 are all replies on the same post.

Kalell wrote: There's something I've wondered ever since I became a supporter. Is the $2 I paid worth more than the ad revenue that would have been generated during the time I've been using the site? $2 seems like an awfully small amount, but the ad rev is even less. However, the ad rev adds up over time so it's possible that in the long run it may be more. It would be nice to know which is the better way to support the site.

lued123 wrote: "Typically, most sites will have an eCPM between $0.10 and $0.50."
This means that, at best, you generate about 50 cents for every thousand ads you see on the site. There are 4 ads per page view, so 250 page views is the requisite amount to generate those 50 cents. 2 dollars divided by 50 cents is 4 increments, so you'd need to visit the site about 1000 times to generate the two dollars you spent to remove the ads.
Now, this is very shaky math, but 1000 visits is a lot (Think of it as 3 visits a day for a continuous year for perspective.), and it should at least give you an idea of how valuable your ad dollars were compared to your supporter dollars.

Kalell wrote: I come here at least 10 times a day. No idea how many pages I view while I'm here (it varies), but just the initial page loads from logging on would put me at 3,650 page views a year (but it's much higher than that). If my math is correct the site probably would have earned more from ads during the time I've been a supporter. That makes me kinda sad. :(

Higherleopards wrote: Good question.

Factoring all my usage, I open well over a thousand Nexus pages every year. Using @lued123's ballpark, I can assume that my traffic has generated $20-$30 during my membership.

So, for me, I would need to donate at least $2-$3 every year to get on the level. #goals :p

Dark0ne wrote: Remember, that's an "at best" figure. It completely depends on how valuable you are to advertisers which is utterly dependent on what they're looking for and can't be accounted for accurately.

Good point, my $30 high watermark could be closer to $3, depending on the exact circumstances.

[walterhempe]

In response to post #45634790. #45635625, #45643415, #45644335, #45645145, #45649400, #45657755 are all replies on the same post.

MrJohn wrote: Interesting article, much better content than the others I would commend.

The problem I have with the advertisements are mostly their annoyance. As far as I knew, you had removed the "lifetime membership" option back when you announced the "final sale" of them. But my opinion is not gained a positive spur from this article.

Viewing picture 5 and 6, I would like to say a few things. Beginning with picture 5, the banner advertisements aren't too bad. The bright background mitigates my first issue, which is contrast. The second square ad really breaks this. The first thing that pops up on the site is a bright white box, clearly disrupting the otherwise gray and pleasant to look at information, trying to squeeze my eyes to look at it, interrupting my viewer experience to push their product. It doesn't fit, and thereby becomes an anomaly in an otherwise good site.

We scroll down, and see what you see in picture 6. Not too bad. Banner ad holds the color of the page, it can be ignored successfully. But there it is again. Bright colors, clearly attempting to gut at you. "Look at me!!!!" it screams.

Which is the purpose of an advertisement, to gain attention. But right now my attention wants to be on modding.

Which brings me to the 2nd point, targeted advertisement. I am not condoning the art of cookie tracking, am quite strongly against it and any form of advertisements, even though their "wooo eviiiiil" is necessary. But there are a few simple steps that could help. Using your examples for picture 5 and 6, only one advertisement could be uniformly helpful to anyone viewing your site. The first banner ad, Discord. Something for the gamers. The rest are about christmas presents or traveling, nothing that you would come to the Nexus for. I doubt Github would have as much success putting up ads for puppies as you would for traveling. Understandably, you do not control the ads yourself as you've said, but it doesn't help.

A minor tweak would be to add more focus on gaming related advertisement, or to push your ad-provider for more things closer to home. Gaming equipment (keyboards, mice, Logitech/Razer etc.), computers (such as Origin PC), games or games media. These things would be interesting to your demographic (gamers/modders), and would maybe persuade more to help out. What I would rather fear is that it would cost your bottom line to restrict advertisement content. As far as I am concerned, most of these ads are just as bad as any other "bad ads", only "less frowned upon" so to speak.

I can only speak for myself of course. Generally, pages without ads are just better, cleaner and smoother. Less bandwidth is used, if you are on a metered connection, than if not. It all eventually boils down to ethics and morals.

What gives you the right to show us ads? Because you own the site? It is an open internet and you've made this site as a free resource. Some people pay for their bandwidth (such as mobile internet), and would probably not want to pay for the advertisements themselves given the choice. Is it right to push advertisements on them? And if we have the magic switch that says "no thanks", is it right for others to slander them because they don't give out money instead? Should we be expected to hand out cash for sites in exchange for ad-free nature? Ads that they push themselves.

In closing, I commend you for this article. The look into the backside of Nexus is always interesting, not always positive, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them. You also avoided the "we needs monies, pls help" side of the story, though whenever a site mentions the "ads", they usually want to spark some feeling of "Maybe I should help", which is quite cheap. Personally I am torn on the issue regarding finances, as I know it is difficult.

Ethreon wrote: "What gives you the right to show us ads? Because you own the site?"

Exactly. He owns it, and he would have to pay for it from his pocket. Even if he'd be a rich man, doubt you'd get the same amazing offer if there were no ads. Rest of your argument might be based and intelligent, but that there is a dumb statement.

MrJohn wrote: A fair point. But there are other variables than just ownership. Consider it an open house. To enter you need to bring posters. But the house is open for all. No entry fee. So you arrive without grabbing that poster. Does he have the right to smack you for not taking the poster? The house is open, after all. He could plead you to bring the poster. A form of begging, if you are cynical.

But the fact is this that the road you use to travel to said house, the car/transport you use and so forth you cover yourself. Only the end-point is "owned", so to speak. But ads are like a baggage that rides along with you. Like a poster you need to bring with you.

This boils down to opinions, but really I don't think ownership of a site would also give you right to force ads people do not want to see. What would be a great idea would be choice of ads, where you could see the ad options and tailor the ads based on color, contrast, type and so forth, to actually give a personalized ad service that could be unintrusive and maybe even helpful.

I don't blame the users of ads, but rather the ads themselves. It's like producers like EA f*#@ing companies over, the same as advertisers f*#@ the companies using them over. It's all greed.

Elianora wrote: > What gives you the right to show us ads?

^ The fact that he spends hundreds of thousands of monies a year to provide the service free for ungrateful people like you and hired a team of professional people to keep the site running as great as it can.

Elta1 wrote: @MrJohn Its more like having someone else drive you around and they are willing to do it for free if you occasionally look at their crappy paintings. That person still has to maintain the car and put gas in it and you don't.

Aireal2 wrote: As one of those people that pay's for my band width ( my cell phone IS my internet connection) Personally I don't mind paying to keep the AD's off...I go out of my way to not go to sites with a lot of AD's... but those that I do go to that have them.. I either pay to not have to view them.. or it's a site I don't visit often..

As a retail manager I understand running costs.. I'm not rolling in money.. but I prefer to spend it where I want...and that's not more on my phone bill.

Any Service is going to come with a "fee".. it's all in how it's paid for..

lux113 wrote: Can't believe you even said this.

"It is an open internet and you've made this site as a free resource."

???? It's a domain (website) that someone purchased. The resources are given by members of the site, but honestly nothing about the site itself is "free".

It's no different than purchasing a chunk of land and having a place where people can exchange items with other customers for free. Someone still has to maintain the building, someone still has to pay for the electricity - but you should still count yourself lucky that they are providing that service to you, FREE of charge. You're unhappy cause they have the Marlboro man on the door and a neon Coca-Cola sign.

And if, by chance, they are able to make a little scratch in the process -- well why shouldn't they? They didn't build the site and maintain it simply for charity. Myself, I hope, and expect they are turning a profit - also because that makes it much more likely that the site won't disappear.

------------
That being said... I have run into some shady ads on the site from time to time, ones that stated "you need to update flash", ones that would cause the page to crash, and obnoxious video that would play -- so I really appreciated the info on how the whole ad vetting process works. I hold the site staff a bit less responsible now.

Noboddy forces you to go to Nexus.

Try to drive to the supermarket and tell them, you want pay for the goods, because you payed already for the car.

The free internet is an illusion, in this society someone has to pay for everything.

[flamingsora]

and this precise reason is why i paid to be a supporter...2 bucks guys...really cheap and you never have to deal with adds ever again.

[ironbug99]

First of all good read, I think some of the metaphors being used are flawed. This is more like a person asking you to come over and enjoys his and some other folk’s cooking. MOST PEOPLE don’t show up to eat without bringing anything and start complaining about the paintings the guy has on the wall, what’s being served, or complaining about the amount of gas it took to drive there. We live in an entitlement society and that pretty much applies to all of us, although I am in the U.S. where it is out of control. If you don’t like the artwork or the amount of gas it takes to get the free meal choose something else, don't complain.

 

 

I have been coming to Nexus for a long time after taking the time to read this I decided to contribute.

 

Thanks Dark0ne and everyone that contributes to this site. I know you guys (website support and mod developers) hear a lot of complaints but if everyone would think they would realize most of the experience here is very positive or we wouldn’t be returning daily. We tend to not shout our appreciation as loud as our frustration.

 

[MagicUnicorn]

IMO take a little agressive stance... Make the page acessible only with addblock turn off (lots of webites already do this), in fact the adds of Nexus are too small to be noticible and there's no popups, i dont get why people turn on Addblock here.

[ForeverZer0]

In response to post #45685255.

yaleblor wrote: i dont mind your ads at all , the only ones that i find irritating are the ones that have loud audio .

This is my beef with it. More specifically, I use earbuds to listen to music when browsing mods. The volume is not up at all, and then all of a sudden there's some commercial playing with what sounds like 150% of the volume limit trying to sell me something... more than a few times it was so loud my ears were ringing for a good minute or two after I closed off the page with the add.

Other than that, I have no problem with ads on this site, because most of them aren't intrusive at all.

[Sulhir]

In response to post #45692095.

flamingsora wrote: and this precise reason is why i paid to be a supporter...2 bucks guys...really cheap and you never have to deal with adds ever again.

+1

[HadToRegister]

In response to post #45634790. #45635625, #45643415, #45644335, #45645145, #45649400, #45657755, #45689435 are all replies on the same post.

MrJohn wrote: Interesting article, much better content than the others I would commend.

The problem I have with the advertisements are mostly their annoyance. As far as I knew, you had removed the "lifetime membership" option back when you announced the "final sale" of them. But my opinion is not gained a positive spur from this article.

Viewing picture 5 and 6, I would like to say a few things. Beginning with picture 5, the banner advertisements aren't too bad. The bright background mitigates my first issue, which is contrast. The second square ad really breaks this. The first thing that pops up on the site is a bright white box, clearly disrupting the otherwise gray and pleasant to look at information, trying to squeeze my eyes to look at it, interrupting my viewer experience to push their product. It doesn't fit, and thereby becomes an anomaly in an otherwise good site.

We scroll down, and see what you see in picture 6. Not too bad. Banner ad holds the color of the page, it can be ignored successfully. But there it is again. Bright colors, clearly attempting to gut at you. "Look at me!!!!" it screams.

Which is the purpose of an advertisement, to gain attention. But right now my attention wants to be on modding.

Which brings me to the 2nd point, targeted advertisement. I am not condoning the art of cookie tracking, am quite strongly against it and any form of advertisements, even though their "wooo eviiiiil" is necessary. But there are a few simple steps that could help. Using your examples for picture 5 and 6, only one advertisement could be uniformly helpful to anyone viewing your site. The first banner ad, Discord. Something for the gamers. The rest are about christmas presents or traveling, nothing that you would come to the Nexus for. I doubt Github would have as much success putting up ads for puppies as you would for traveling. Understandably, you do not control the ads yourself as you've said, but it doesn't help.

A minor tweak would be to add more focus on gaming related advertisement, or to push your ad-provider for more things closer to home. Gaming equipment (keyboards, mice, Logitech/Razer etc.), computers (such as Origin PC), games or games media. These things would be interesting to your demographic (gamers/modders), and would maybe persuade more to help out. What I would rather fear is that it would cost your bottom line to restrict advertisement content. As far as I am concerned, most of these ads are just as bad as any other "bad ads", only "less frowned upon" so to speak.

I can only speak for myself of course. Generally, pages without ads are just better, cleaner and smoother. Less bandwidth is used, if you are on a metered connection, than if not. It all eventually boils down to ethics and morals.

What gives you the right to show us ads? Because you own the site? It is an open internet and you've made this site as a free resource. Some people pay for their bandwidth (such as mobile internet), and would probably not want to pay for the advertisements themselves given the choice. Is it right to push advertisements on them? And if we have the magic switch that says "no thanks", is it right for others to slander them because they don't give out money instead? Should we be expected to hand out cash for sites in exchange for ad-free nature? Ads that they push themselves.

In closing, I commend you for this article. The look into the backside of Nexus is always interesting, not always positive, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them. You also avoided the "we needs monies, pls help" side of the story, though whenever a site mentions the "ads", they usually want to spark some feeling of "Maybe I should help", which is quite cheap. Personally I am torn on the issue regarding finances, as I know it is difficult.

Ethreon wrote: "What gives you the right to show us ads? Because you own the site?"

Exactly. He owns it, and he would have to pay for it from his pocket. Even if he'd be a rich man, doubt you'd get the same amazing offer if there were no ads. Rest of your argument might be based and intelligent, but that there is a dumb statement.

MrJohn wrote: A fair point. But there are other variables than just ownership. Consider it an open house. To enter you need to bring posters. But the house is open for all. No entry fee. So you arrive without grabbing that poster. Does he have the right to smack you for not taking the poster? The house is open, after all. He could plead you to bring the poster. A form of begging, if you are cynical.

But the fact is this that the road you use to travel to said house, the car/transport you use and so forth you cover yourself. Only the end-point is "owned", so to speak. But ads are like a baggage that rides along with you. Like a poster you need to bring with you.

This boils down to opinions, but really I don't think ownership of a site would also give you right to force ads people do not want to see. What would be a great idea would be choice of ads, where you could see the ad options and tailor the ads based on color, contrast, type and so forth, to actually give a personalized ad service that could be unintrusive and maybe even helpful.

I don't blame the users of ads, but rather the ads themselves. It's like producers like EA f*#@ing companies over, the same as advertisers f*#@ the companies using them over. It's all greed.

Elianora wrote: > What gives you the right to show us ads?

^ The fact that he spends hundreds of thousands of monies a year to provide the service free for ungrateful people like you and hired a team of professional people to keep the site running as great as it can.

Elta1 wrote: @MrJohn Its more like having someone else drive you around and they are willing to do it for free if you occasionally look at their crappy paintings. That person still has to maintain the car and put gas in it and you don't.

Aireal2 wrote: As one of those people that pay's for my band width ( my cell phone IS my internet connection) Personally I don't mind paying to keep the AD's off...I go out of my way to not go to sites with a lot of AD's... but those that I do go to that have them.. I either pay to not have to view them.. or it's a site I don't visit often..

As a retail manager I understand running costs.. I'm not rolling in money.. but I prefer to spend it where I want...and that's not more on my phone bill.

Any Service is going to come with a "fee".. it's all in how it's paid for..

lux113 wrote: Can't believe you even said this.

"It is an open internet and you've made this site as a free resource."

???? It's a domain (website) that someone purchased. The resources are given by members of the site, but honestly nothing about the site itself is "free".

It's no different than purchasing a chunk of land and having a place where people can exchange items with other customers for free. Someone still has to maintain the building, someone still has to pay for the electricity - but you should still count yourself lucky that they are providing that service to you, FREE of charge. You're unhappy cause they have the Marlboro man on the door and a neon Coca-Cola sign.

And if, by chance, they are able to make a little scratch in the process -- well why shouldn't they? They didn't build the site and maintain it simply for charity. Myself, I hope, and expect they are turning a profit - also because that makes it much more likely that the site won't disappear.

------------
That being said... I have run into some shady ads on the site from time to time, ones that stated "you need to update flash", ones that would cause the page to crash, and obnoxious video that would play -- so I really appreciated the info on how the whole ad vetting process works. I hold the site staff a bit less responsible now.

walterhempe wrote: Noboddy forces you to go to Nexus.

Try to drive to the supermarket and tell them, you want pay for the goods, because you payed already for the car.

The free internet is an illusion, in this society someone has to pay for everything.

So, the guy too cheap to spend $2 to not see ads, is complaining about seeing ads?

[HadToRegister]

Dark0ne, thanks for explaining how ads work, I had no Idea, (Been using the internet way before ads were a thing), I was always under the impression that they had to be clicked on to generate revenue, so I always pictured this group of individuals who had a compulsion to click on any ad they see, and it turns out just loading the page does it.

 

My only beef about ads applies to the internet in general, if the entire internet were ad-free, things would be so much faster, and as connection speeds increase, the ads start to become videos, and higher res videos, so it's always going to be an uphill battle between Internet Speed, and ads getting more and more complex and sucking up a certain percentage of bandwidth.

[AKcelsior]

In response to post #45710905.

HadToRegister wrote: Dark0ne, thanks for explaining how ads work, I had no Idea, (Been using the internet way before ads were a thing), I was always under the impression that they had to be clicked on to generate revenue, so I always pictured this group of individuals who had a compulsion to click on any ad they see, and it turns out just loading the page does it.

My only beef about ads applies to the internet in general, if the entire internet were ad-free, things would be so much faster, and as connection speeds increase, the ads start to become videos, and higher res videos, so it's always going to be an uphill battle between Internet Speed, and ads getting more and more complex and sucking up a certain percentage of bandwidth.

I remember the early internet. We had ISPs like AOL and Prodigy. If you were online before web browsers were a thing, then the best you could get was a printout of local weather reports. Chat rooms were a new thing and AOL keywords was our first taste of "the web", fake as it may have been. Pseudo-web, hey that's a good name for it!

But let us not forget, even in the mid-late 90s we still had ads, albeit in a slightly less complex way. Remember all those angelfire, tripod, and geocities pages that people would put up? I had a couple tripod pages back when I was writing IRC scripts, there was ads everywhere. They were simple ads, but even a simple ad that's only a few kb, would take a minute to load because we were on 14.4kbps connections, if you were lucky, you upgraded to 56k when it became available. -_-!

At least you and I don't experience any ads on Nexusmods! Premium/support crew 4 life.