Once upon a time, I added Google ads to the site articles. I have now done so to the forums, as well.

They are unobtrusive, and will (hopefully) only include ads related to the content of the thread you are reading.

Feedback is welcomed, of course, but I want to give the ads a fair try - it could be good for the Inn.

If the inn makes money from it .. thats fine ..
although .. the add on my Age of Worms thread is selling bras and such .. which i find .. an ... interesting choice to say the least.

I like to use Paizo.com's materials. Don't know if you can get them to pay you money to advertise but if they will they could be a good choice.

I don't find the google ads that obtrusive myself.

Startled me, though...coulda sworn they weren't there this morning!

If it helps support the Inn, it works for me.

...I just added them today.

one window had nothing, the next had ads, coding change mid click lol... but if it brings more revenue or awareness to the inn then by all means. Besides Deva, we can always use the bras as impromptu dice bags with a little imagination

I have yet to see a single add Hmmmmm

In the articles etc, the adds are on the right side... I think that is better and less distracting.

It's not that bad though. Perhaps it's worth trying. IF you're willing to spend some time on it

I think I prefer them on the left of the posts

The ads used to be on the right on the articles - they are also on the left now, as in the forums. According to Google's "heat map", the left side column is one of the best spots to get clicks... the right, less so.

Of course, I am afraid that adding the ads to the forums will only greatly pad my number of ad views (which don't help me at all), but not the clicks themselves (which do).

*shrug* We'll see.

If we click you get money? Is there a catch? I could get all my staff to click continously for hours when it isn't busy....

Sure there's a catch!

#1: I cannot ask, or have anyone ask, people to just click on the ads. Doing so would result in a lot of empty clicks that the advertisers would not find useful, and could get my account banned.

#2: If we were to see a sudden huge increase in click rate (# of clicks compared to # of page impressions), Google would almost certainly take a look to see if perhaps we were doing some sort of click fraud. If they decide we are, the clicks the feel are not legit are free... and again, could get the account banned.


Right now, we seldom see more than a 5% click rate... which is actually excellent (industry standard is about 0.5%). I'm hoping that since we get so many more page views on the forums than on the article pages, we'll get more clicks. Who knows?

I don't like ads. If they are for the good of the Inn, so be it, but they still bother me.

The ads are in an annoying place. They draw my attention from the forum's content. They take up valuable space, giving the threads less room (or at least how I view them, which I think if the normal view). Ads are, in my honest opinion, a bad thing. But like I said, if they are for the good of the Inn, I won't protest any more.

That being said, there's an ad for "10 Rules Losing Belly Fat" in the WDB thread
Can't really see the connection to the thread's content.

this was in my 'Filthy Little Thief!!!' forum game, as an add... I think the connection is pretty funny
(btw, that last one was mis-spelled already)

2008: God's Final Witness
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Oh My God
Worlds Brightest Lytec El Wire for only 98 cents
www.ElBestBuy.com

Proofs of God's Existence
Demons, Angels and the truth about what happened to the CatholicChurch
www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com

Why Were Your Born?
What is your destiny? What is the meaning of our life? Order free now

Google ads don't bother me. They don't jump at me, actually I had already forgotten about them and only noticed them again when reading this thread. And the way Olan's placed them, they still take only a fraction of the space on my screen.

And of course, should someone get an itch from them, there's always ad killer programs available to remove them from your IE, Firefox or Safari. Whatever might your poison be.