I'd like to try a few additional ways to market our favorite manufacturers here so I'm posting this to get your response on how we do it better, what you like and don't like about ads and why we need ads?
Here is what I am finding.
Banners produce less click compared to links, but I do love how they add colour and keep me attached to gear in a visual way. They do take up space, more bandwidth and we become blind to the flashing, but I'm not bothered by them like the way we have them rotating here.
A banner can expose 25 thousand times in a month with almost no clicks. Text ads on the other hand, wow!
How many of us visit the manufactures website we use?
Out of site, out of mind.
Its a two way road. We must support the deserving, especially the companies we invest in. Especially if we expect continued advancement in our products of choice.
That being said, I've done test and it appears text ads produce astonishing results compared to banners. I do realize these ads can be annoying. But, wow... they are bar none the best way to show people where to look. People visit these links so I say, thank you, please don't stop!
I need the revenue, the manufacturers need the support and revenue and just maybe, you might discover something new by checking out links I post.
We don't support unrelated products just to make make a buck here. These spots are reserved for the good guys. I take pride in being able to keep this place junk free. Please visit these links from time to time and recognize, ads are here for a reason.
From all of us, thank you.
Comments
The banner ads do look cooler, and interest me more cuz I see so
The banner ads do look cooler, and interest me more cuz I see something, but honestly neither one is more likely to have me click. The banner just puts the image in my head and I eventually end up reading/recoginzing about it in mag or catalog. I will become junk blind to both. But I did almost click the dangerous one, cuz I thought it was a link on someone's post. But whatever keeps this site going is what I think is best, even if you do have both styles, that's cool w me.
I don't have a ton of money but I wouldn't be opposed to donating to an annual fundraiser ala PBS, or something. Maybe have a songwriting contest or something? Where it's a super cheap entry fee, andeveryone gets a critique, and the winner gets a song mix/mastered by the audiokid himself? Or another one of the highly experienced mods around here? A lot of the podcasts I listen to, have a discount code, where you type it in the box, and they get a kickback on the purchase. For instance discount code RO, the buyer gets a discounted price, and the seller gets a product sold, and RO gets a kickback. Its another thing that helps the companies buying ad space keep track
I'm sorry to admit I keep handy a re-sizeable always-on-top wind
I'm sorry to admit I keep handy a re-sizeable always-on-top window that I can use to cover any ad with motion in it, as I find movement in my peripheral field when I'm trying to read main text distracting and counter-productive. RO is a long way from being the worst offender in this respect. I know audiokid has to maximize site income to help cover operating costs, but I am much more likely to pay attention to well-designed static ads than moving ones.
Good stuff! This is exactly the comments we need here. I will sh
Good stuff!
This is exactly the comments we need here. I will show the manufacturers this but I'm still beta testing. I wonder how gearslutz, ProSoundWeb, SOS etc do for advertising income, and what the manufacturer satisfaction stats really are:cry:
Any Pro Audio Dealer reading this who has used one of those sites to advertise, please feel welcome to discuss this here. We're all in this together.
My bet, no manufacturer is happy with banner ads. Even when we were viral back in the day, banners did very poorly. These text ads are out performing banners hands down.
Regarding removing ads all together,
I can actually create a specific "ad free" group (a subscription).
I've thought about this but wouldn't that be a destructive disservice to the manufacturers?
Hi pcrecord, I agree. I've tried that but the forum software re
Hi pcrecord, I agree.
I've tried that but the forum software removes all white spaces in a post. The ad software I'm using is actually meant to place a banner there with the option for text, I'm choosing text!
I haven't tried this but I may be able to edit the template where it goes. Is that what you would do? and, what would you put?
?
Here is another interesting part to this. I have been battling o
Here is another interesting part to this. I have been battling over using Tapatalk for months. Its not only proving to be continuously unstable but get this, in order for me to be able to advertise our clients, they want $826 a year from me. You have to pay them to allow our links to show up on your mobile phone.
Insane?
We no longer support Tapatalk here.
FYI
The forum looks great on a regular browser. We are 100% responsive. Please don't buy into this BS. FB, now this money sucking distraction. Their plan is to use our forum traffic and your email to profile us all, sell you ads that follow your surfing habits.
:mad: Fuck you Tapatalk
A well done banner ad is a thing of beauty, but a lot of them ar
A well done banner ad is a thing of beauty, but a lot of them are just way too flashy for their own good. I would have to admit blinky banner ads DO force me to look at them - but I'm not sure it's the good kind of attention. I would say I am far less likely to click on one if it is the least bit annoying. More often than not, I sense a blinking banner and tune it out while I read the page. I will take the earliest opportunity to scroll down the page until it's off the top of the screen. Lots of times, I find myself glancing at the banner for that split second as I'm leaving the page. Then sometimes I think, 'ooh... wait.. what was that?', and when I go back to the page I find another randomly assigned ad in its place. Then all I can do is hope it turns up again sometime later in my visit. On those occasions, I wished there was some sort of ad index page.
If you've mined the data and it shows text ads drive significantly more click-throughs - that's what you need to offer. Instead of, or in addition to, the banner ads. There's no reason you couldn't tell advertisers the text vs. banner click-through stats, offer both, and charge accordingly.
My perspective from the cheap seats...