See this thing to my left?
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Its an ad.
I knew Psychforums would eventually do ad overload. The way ads work is people see them, recognize the brand, and continue doing whatever. With online ads, you can earn money from people clicking on these ads.
The problem with these ads is people think "Make money with ads? Perfect! How do I start?", when in reality, the only way you make any money off these ads is if people click on them and look at the advertised site. And Psychforms, like everything else, does need money. And donations aren't cutting it. So why not do this? Sure, I clicked on the ads for Dexter when they were at the top of the forums. You know what they probably earned from me clicking on that advertising? Ten cents. Maybe less.
So, unless 100,000 people visit your site and each ad is linked directly to their desires and they click on it, making you $10,000 or so per day, your not going to make ANY money off these ads. Realistically, you earn 20-30 cents a day off ads. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Most often less. And even though Psychforms is the 46,000th most viewed site on the internet (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/psychforums.com), which is pretty damn impressive considering there's, like, a bajillion websites total, keep in mind that advertisers tend to lean towards places where people like to go. Highway signs, banners in malls, metro stations, etc. are all seen on a daily basis if you go around town. Online, its the same concept: Ads are placed on high-traffic websites, so the high traffic sees the ads. Simple concept. More people that see the ad about Coke on the front page of YouTube know Cokes logo, or have it reinforced. Maybe a few would like to drink some Coke.
But heres the main problem right there: YouTube might get, ooh, say, a million dollars to put the annoying silent trailer for Modern Warfare 3 with Jonah Hill and Sam Wallerburton Jr. on the front page for a day... and thats it. It seems stupid in hindsight to stop at just a million for a day on the front page, when the ad revenue that comes in could possibly net a million and a half. 2 million. 3 million. 4 even. YouTube is the 3rd biggest site on the whole internet, behind Facebook and Google at #1 (Google owns YouTube, and the service that shows the ad above, FYI).
Online ads just don't work the way they should, though. If were talking about people seeing a brand and recognising it, thats worth 2 cents there, just by seeing the logo. The money, however, is going to stupid ad sites that always get put up, but gets terrible traffic! No one wants to go to the site they know will push them to buy a Cadillac! They just know the basics: Cadillac is a car, it stands for great quality, and they're expensive as hell, but worth it. Out of those 4 basic things, did I miss something? How ads should work is simple: Keep the banner and box ads as-is, its perfect, and have links to stupid sites no one will want to visit. But give the webmaster at least a penny for putting up space on the site to show off your ad. 100 sites could equal just $1! I'm pretty sure Coke could stand that!
The point of this is if, say, Psychforums gets about 1000 visitors in a day, then with the current ads it has, every time someone scrolls down or see's the banner ad at the top, Psychforums gets paid a penny. At the end of the day, thats $100. Advertisers know how website ads work for regular joes. They see the ad at the top and on the sides for just a second, and thats all they need. Why can't that one second look pay off on both sides? I know no one is really listening, but at least I can write something down and I know its there for someone to read, thanks to these forums. But clicking on every ad that pops up is click fraud. Its wrong, even if it helps them out. Hopefully these new ads bring in some revenue that don't take the whole forum down.
(By the way, all my ad experiences were with YouTube. In 3 years, I made $40 off one video.)
-NicS