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Advertising Experiment


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Dearest Members of and Visitors to the little Fountain Pen Nut house on the digital prairie,

 

Supporter and other options

Not all that long ago, 3 months to be a little more exact, we started with our new Supporter options, started selling our inks again, and initialized a new advertising campaign. All this with the intention to cover all out-of-pocket costs for running this site, and in addition, to try and establish enough funding for professional help with running and managing FPN.

 

First goal

The first goal has been met. We were running low on funds, and now have collected enough for a year worth of running costs, and it appears that this is now staying more or less at this level, which is absolutely great. Thank you all for helping us out here, I is very much appreciated!

 

Second goal

The second goal, to generate some funding to get professional help, is not materializing, however. The idea was to use any funding from advertising to achieve this goal, and advertising is only picked up very slowly. Time to try another option in this regard, we thought, and we have aligned with an advertisement broker to see if we can achieve our goal after all.

 

How, what, when

"How will this work?", you may ask. Well, what we have done is offer our available space to other interested parties, other as in other than those who contact us directly, or whom we approach(ed) ourselves.

There will be one big distinction between the new type of advertising, and the old, which we will maintain, BTW. This difference lies in the fact that only Guests, i.e., Members not signed in and passers-by, will see these adverts, with the exception of the sidebar - we cannot control that as finely as we would like, but we are working on that. Anybody logged in will, as before only see our direct ads, plus an additional sidebar ad if space permits.

 

And concluding ...

There will not be many ads, as we do not want to clutter up our site, and in addition over the next period, say one or two months, maybe three, we will likely be experimenting with placement and position of these new ads, so please bear with us while we try to establish what will work and what not, not break the site, and keep things as pleasant as possible. However, as mentioned, these ads will not be visible to signed-in members, except for at most a single extra sidebar ad, and the latter only until we have managed to build in some further control over ad placement.

 

Let's hope this will give us the opportunity to give those on our volunteer team, who really need a break by now, that well earned break, and get help from one or more professionals with running and managing the site.

 

Warm regards, Wim

On behalf of the FPN Admin Team

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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Wim, thank you for this notice and of course thank you to all the administrators for their continued volunteer work on the site.

I have a question which arises from this notice, though it is not particularly related to the new advertising arrangement. Is there a particular benefit to FPN in having members sign in? There are benefits to members of joining and of signing in, such as access to many additional features and some more forums. Nonetheless, probably because I have different devices at hand during different parts of my day, at least half the times I access the site I do so as a guest, read for a while and leave without signing in. Does that disadvantage FPN?

Again, thanks

Samthor

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I was also using the library theme and it posted my reply twice, while not allowing me to see that. Odd.

Edited by Sailor Kenshin

My latest ebook.   And not just for Halloween!
 

My other pen is a Montblanc.

 

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There's an ad on the side of this thread. Presumably for the same movie that Sailor Kenshin mentioned. If it had been on other threads, I hadn't noticed....

But then, I'm the person who hates watching stuff on TV "On Demand" because you can't fast forward over the commercials.... And was somewhat bemused by what ads pop up on places like Facebook that are obviously "targeted". Which is why I'll see ads for Webs.com out of the blue (okay, works, I do shop there on occasion when I'm up visiting in MA -- but I'd rather not buy yarn from a website, because I'd rather see the color and feel the "hand" in person). But the Montblanc Boutique? Seriously? They don't know me too well do they? The only MB I ever saw that I wanted was a vintage one that was the same color as a Pelikan Lapis....

And really, pop-up ads for pens on my husband's laptop is really just counterproductive.... It makes him cranky. And makes him think I already have too many pens. And he's told me he will never buy me one because he doesn't know what to get. Other than, of course, not a MB.... :rolleyes:

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Wim, thank you for this notice and of course thank you to all the administrators for their continued volunteer work on the site.

I have a question which arises from this notice, though it is not particularly related to the new advertising arrangement. Is there a particular benefit to FPN in having members sign in? There are benefits to members of joining and of signing in, such as access to many additional features and some more forums. Nonetheless, probably because I have different devices at hand during different parts of my day, at least half the times I access the site I do so as a guest, read for a while and leave without signing in. Does that disadvantage FPN?

Again, thanks

Samthor

 

No, it doesn't disadvantage FPN, as we do not do adverts based on CPC, only CPM or impression if you prefer that term.

 

As to the announcement: the idea is purely to have a few extra adverts, not necessarily pen related, for those who are not logged in, in the hope to raise funding for professional help.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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Why am I seeing a somewhat disturbing ad for movies?

 

We are looking at disabling that in the standard sidebar for those who are logged in. No solution yet, I am afraid, but I am sure we will get there.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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I was also using the library theme and it posted my reply twice, while not allowing me to see that. Odd.

 

That happens when two or more people are posting simultaneously in the same topic. It is a small bug in the board software.

This also happens in the Default theme, and any others I am working on :). IOW, independent of theme, or anything else for that matter.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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There's an ad on the side of this thread. Presumably for the same movie that Sailor Kenshin mentioned. If it had been on other threads, I hadn't noticed....

But then, I'm the person who hates watching stuff on TV "On Demand" because you can't fast forward over the commercials.... And was somewhat bemused by what ads pop up on places like Facebook that are obviously "targeted". Which is why I'll see ads for Webs.com out of the blue (okay, works, I do shop there on occasion when I'm up visiting in MA -- but I'd rather not buy yarn from a website, because I'd rather see the color and feel the "hand" in person). But the Montblanc Boutique? Seriously? They don't know me too well do they? The only MB I ever saw that I wanted was a vintage one that was the same color as a Pelikan Lapis....

And really, pop-up ads for pens on my husband's laptop is really just counterproductive.... It makes him cranky. And makes him think I already have too many pens. And he's told me he will never buy me one because he doesn't know what to get. Other than, of course, not a MB.... :rolleyes:

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Well, we already had ads on the side. It is just that 1 extra ad space was added, over which we have less control, except that these are supposedly high quality ads. As mentioned above, we are still looking at a solution to turn it on only for visitors/guests, not for signed-in members. We'll get there, I am sure :).

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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If the adds help the site I'm for it, I'm also delighted thought has been taken about the amount and quality of the adds. I'm sure we have all seen sites that are so cluttered with them that the content of the page was unreadable. I'm pleased that won't be happening here.

So space and time are linked together. As we are looking across space, we are looking back in time. The further and further away those stars are the further back in time you are looking. Now you are seeing a star that is say six thousand years ago. Imagine somebody at that star looking at us They would be seeing us as we were six thousand years ago. Which of those two is now? - Alan Parsons Project The Time Machine - Temporalia (Paraphrased)

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That happens when two or more people are posting simultaneously in the same topic. It is a small bug in the board software.

This also happens in the Default theme, and any others I am working on :). IOW, independent of theme, or anything else for that matter.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

 

I guess that's what the 'Edit' function is for. ;)

My latest ebook.   And not just for Halloween!
 

My other pen is a Montblanc.

 

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If the adds help the site I'm for it, I'm also delighted thought has been taken about the amount and quality of the adds. I'm sure we have all seen sites that are so cluttered with them that the content of the page was unreadable. I'm pleased that won't be happening here.

 

We want this to stay very selective, and keep thing especially for signed-in members to an absolute minimum.

Personally, I really hate it when sites become unreadable. The latest I have seen is a pop-up with a 720p or wider video appearing a few seconds after entering a site known for its articles, not videos, and which could not be closed for 30 seconds or more, and with the page behind the video greying out. That is a site I removed from my Favourites :).

 

Warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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I guess that's what the 'Edit' function is for. ;)

 

 

One would expect so, I did notice that when two people edit simultaneously, although one may get a message when the first persons clicks the Save button, it doesn't always display the new message, and in most cases doesn't show one's own message saved thereafter, when having clicked Save. Only a refresh will show it next.

 

From what I've seen, the new version of the software handles this better :). We are not ready yet to start using that, however - the features we use here are still in the process of being added....

Warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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Well, it looks like we managed to do what we set out to do to start with: the extra adverts will only show for guests, i.e., anybody not logged in.

 

Warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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I was logged in with my phone earlier today and the site was basically broken. It looked like a whole stack of banner ads on top of each other and I had to scroll way down to get to the post, plus the page formatting was broken (I could scroll far to the right past the posts). Not sure if this is just for me or not, but just an FYI. Site's fine on my computer.

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I was logged in with my phone earlier today and the site was basically broken. It looked like a whole stack of banner ads on top of each other and I had to scroll way down to get to the post, plus the page formatting was broken (I could scroll far to the right past the posts). Not sure if this is just for me or not, but just an FYI. Site's fine on my computer.

Same here on my tablet. The ads at the top of the page now cause the site to hang & not load properly. Plus, the ads are really, really overt. Far too dominant. The ads at the side are bad enough, squeezing the board content towards the left side.

Verba volant, scripta manent

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I was logged in with my phone earlier today and the site was basically broken. It looked like a whole stack of banner ads on top of each other and I had to scroll way down to get to the post, plus the page formatting was broken (I could scroll far to the right past the posts). Not sure if this is just for me or not, but just an FYI. Site's fine on my computer.

Havent tried my PC, but I cannot log in at all via my phone. I type the login details in, the site seems to ignore them.

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Same here on my tablet. The ads at the top of the page now cause the site to hang & not load properly. Plus, the ads are really, really overt. Far too dominant. The ads at the side are bad enough, squeezing the board content towards the left side.

+1.

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This appears to be a problem with iOS only, amazingly enough with our own direct ads, in places where no ads have been activated at all.

 

Looking into it right as we speak.

 

Warm regards, Wim

the Mad Dutchman
laugh a little, love a little, live a lot; laugh a lot, love a lot, live forever

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The site is a mess on my tablet too. 7 hanging banner ad slots without content at top of the page pushing the content down. I am logged in.

Edited by Maurizio

The prizes of life are never to be had without trouble - Horace
Kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much - Pascal

You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis

 Favorite shop:https://www.fountainpenhospital.com

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