ads on your website?

[supagu]

does any one put ads on there website for additional revenue? I've been thinking about this and I'm very hesitant to do it. Just wondering what people opinions and experiences are with this? has it impacted you somehow (assuming you've tried it)?

[Nexic]

I think the broken images, badly punctuated text and visible php code on your website will do far more damage than ads would. Note if you want to do a link with a php variable you should do something like:


<?
echo '<a href="www.blackcarbon.com/'.$securepath.'/purchase.php">Buy Now</a>';
?>

I've never noticed losing users from adverts, however if they're only making $1 per day it's really not worth the risk. I only keep them running on sites where I'll make over $20 per day. If you use adsense it might be worth running 'image only' ads since they look tend to look nice.

[supagu]

oh yeah ignore my website, its totally busted and i'm fully aware of that

[cliffski]

ads make you look cheap. Amazon don't advertise their rivals on their website. Nor do Activision or Valve. Why would you?
If you are desperate for cash, get a paper-round, but don't make your business look too much like an afterthought or a hobby. People want to buy from a reputable and successful business, not a page that looks like its a sideline.

[lakibuk]

I only keep them running on sites where I'll make over $20 per day.
$20 Sounds quite a lot to me. Are these games sites?
I am curious cause i started one recently: http://www.gratisspiele-downloads.de/ (german language!)

[Reactor]

Really well said, cliffski.

[Spore Man]

Actually, I'll counter what Cliffski said by saying that his opinion is one that sounds perfectly sensible on the surface but isn't necessarily true. It really depends on your audience and the purpose of the site.

First, let me say that the entire web is covered by ads. A huge majority of web surfers are completely used to their presence pretty much everywhere and tolerate it within reasonable limits. A small minority (like certain nerds on Slashdot) are vociferously anti-ads and will boast of using ad blockers, browse with images turned off, and of course no Flash plugin. Unless these guys are your target market, screw them.

EA has clued in and started monetizing sites that receive a lot of general traffic: http://www.ea.com/ If web hosting can pay for itself, why not?

The only place where I would caution against ads is anywhere that creating a sale is a critical function of that site or page. You don't want to divert people off to other places without making that sale. But I'm not even convinced that in this case an ad is going to have a detrimental effect. Ads typically only get clicked on by 1% (average) anyways, and statistics show that they tend to be the "bottom barrel" type of users (computer illiterate, etc).

Amazon.com for example has a lot of banners and images promoting products on their own site. It makes sense if you sell stuff. BUT EVEN THEY HAVE ADS. I saw a Toyota ad near the bottom of their front page.

So think about the purpose of your site, and the type of visitor you get. If your site is all about pushing products and making a sale, then ads might not be such a good idea (unless you can confirm you get a lot of traffic that are of people not looking to buy games -- ie: Maybe they are looking to play online games instead--Monetize that traffic before they exit the site!) Figure out if you get a lot of traffic who arrive at one page and then "bounce" right out. (Google Analytics can help you figure that out).

In summary, what I'm saying is that an "unprofessional" appearance is just one of those sensible myths, like the myth that casual gamers only play in 10 minute stretches. People who are so arrogant as to back out of a site because... OH NO, it had a banner ad!! are a very tiny minority. ANNOY YOUR VISITOR, and yes they will leave. Control what ads appear and the impact they have on your site. Set the ads to open in a new window (thereby keeping your page active even though they clicked). Use CPM campaigns where you get paid for impressions instead of clicks. It can be done. Like anything, you just have to use in moderation and properly manage it.
.

[Reactor]

ANNOY YOUR VISITOR, and yes they will leave.

Heh, well that's true. I clicked on one of your websites Spore Man and heard those stupidly annoying smiley banner adds yelling at me. Needless to say, your website was closed in the blink of an eye ;)

EDIT: I should also add- I aim to please the most picky person in the world with website design... then you know you're maximising your chances that everyone from the most picky to the least so is happy to be there.

[Escapee]

I have ads on all of my sites ( strictly no pop ups ), 5~6 months ago game sales accounted for more than 60% of the revenue. But now, the ads revenue seems to outperform the game sales. This may be mainly attributable to the growth of a few hybrid game (free online/download ) sites that i run but then (fundamentally ) it could also be due to "weakening consumer spending" caused by really bad inflation in energy & food /deflation in housing and some other reasons that i don't know about.

My humble recommendation is do what works for on your bank account (:D hehe )...

[CousinGilgamesh]

I'd rather see adds on your website than in your games.

[lennard]

This excerpt from a Gamasutra article on emerging revenue models:

By comparison, St. John noted that using a different model, Wildtangent was rated by Comscore as the 5th largest games network in the world, and while 50 percent of revenue came from thousands of people a day buying games or currency, 98-99 percent of users played for free sponsored by ads.

"We make just as much giving games away as we do asking for a credit card," he said. "In a few years any business not making money from ads is leaving half their money on the table.


One thing that hasn't been brought up is that ad. revenue is pirate safe. I'm not saying throw in the towel and I'm not claiming that my website makes most of it's money on ads (far from it) but I do think it's a topic that we should continue to think about and discuss.

[Desktop Gaming]

I have google ads on my site. They've been there since I set it up last year but they don't earn a massive amount. When I first put them there they seemed to be notching up over $1 per click, but now its rarely more than a cent or two. You need thousands of people to click them to make it worthwhile.

But what Cliffski said is right - why advertise for other people? Its not worth it for a few cents.

That's why I'm ditching them when I overhaul my site in the coming weeks.

[KNau]

This is the frustrating thing when Indiegamers trash a system that they've only made half-assed attempts at.

If you aren't going to put top effort into your Flash game then it's not going anywhere. If you don't research where and how to place ads (and what ads to use, there are more games than just Adsense in town) then you aren't going to get clickthroughs. It's not the business model's fault if you didn't adequately prepare.

And as for the "ads give your traffic to other people" - since you guys are still back in 1998 can pick me up a copy of Joe Satriani's Crystal Planet. It should've just come out.

[lennard]

I would be interested, as would others no doubt, in hearing click through success stories.

When REE first launched I was seeing some Google ads paying up to $2 USD per click through. Things have mostly sagged since then - usually my clicks are a few cents like Desktop's - but the #'s are hard to figure. And sometimes they spike when my content hasn't changed.

Personally, since I make a real estate game, I feel like there should be other ways to connect to advertisers that my targeted audience might respond to.

[cliffski]

And as for the "ads give your traffic to other people" - since you guys are still back in 1998 can pick me up a copy of Joe Satriani's Crystal Planet. It should've just come out.

why is this wrong?

if someone is on my site, they are interested in my games, they MIGHT buy one, earning me $20.00.
If they click an ad and leave the site, they may never return, and I'll be lucky with getting $0.05.
It's true that people who clicked a link and left are less likely to have bought, but even so, the numbers seem stacked against ads.
Plus, how much control do you have over your ads? If you have a website as the developer of Virtual Villagers, and you have ads, as the developer of Kudos I will make damned sure I try and get my ads on your site. I sure don't want people being lured in by virtual villagers when they are at www.kudosgame.com. if you make a match 3 or other more popular genre game, the problem is much worse.

I'm interested to know the other POV, where is the evidence that this thinking isn't right?

Surfing with the alien was better anyway. :D

[Jack Norton]

"We make just as much giving games away as we do asking for a credit card," he said. "In a few years any business not making money from ads is leaving half their money on the table.

those are bold words :D
but personally while as a player I would hate it, as developer I could probably offer both, complete game for XX money or free but with ads.
However I don't really understand how those ads are supposed to work? like they interrupt the game while you play to display streaming videos from the web? what if the user has a slow connection? :p

[Spore Man]

Cliff, just set the damn ads to open in a new browser window, and problem solved. You keep 100% of your traffic.

The thing to remember is that website advertising doesn't stop at Google Adsense. Most large ad networks won't even let you join unless your site meets a minimum number of visitors or page views. That's why Adsense was a godsend for the majority of webmasters and bloggers out there who only have enough traffic to make pocket money. But if your site traffic is good, go for a "real" ad network + Adsense as a back-fill. Those big networks run a good amount of 'CPM' campaigns, which means you get paid for the ad just showing up on the page. In the 90's it was all 'CPC' (cost per click), where obviously, if an ad wasn't being clicked on, it was a waste of space and clutter. That was 10 years ago. That's why Knau made the joke he did. Times have changed. Get paid for those visitors who you are unsuccessful at making a sale to.*

Check out:

http://www.casalemedia.com
http://www.valueclickmedia.com/
http://www.tribalfusion.com/
http://www.burstmedia.com/
http://www.doubleclick.com/

Actually, visit a good webmaster site to get a recent list and ratings of available networks. www.sitepoint.com

*Note that all these networks provide a control panel interface where you get to preview ads, disable them, filter out certain kinds of ads etc. What gets displayed is entirely up to you.

[Jack Norton]

Come on please... those ad network that opens pop-up windows under your current one displaying unwanted ads !? :eek: I hate them and even if I was a potential buyer I would run away and never go back to cliff site.

Spyware paranoia is well spread nowadays...

[Spore Man]

Come on please... those ad network that opens pop-up windows under your current one displaying unwanted ads !? :eek: I hate them and even if I was a potential buyer I would run away and never go back to cliff site.

Spyware paranoia is well spread nowadays...

Dude, knee-jerk reactions like this don't make you look too good. Have you read ANYTHING I wrote? NO those are not spyware networks. Do they include pop-unders if you choose to? Sure. But if you don't want to display any, DON'T ACTIVATE THEM!

You still get the choice of running banners of many sizes, and you have complete control of individual ads (turn them on, turn them off, set up filters so certain types never appear). I swear, the world is so freakin black or white to some of you people. :rolleyes:

[cliffski]

I'm interested in the idea of ads, if I get to veto them, and if they bring in good money, but I'm wary of anything that might annoy my customers. Some websites are practically unusable without adblock. I like to think of my site as a nice easily surfed oasis in a sea of flashing ads, pop-unders and embedded video and flash.
All external embedded stuff on your site also makes the site slower to load, and I'm not keen on that either.
I'm probably staying on the no-ads side of the fence for now.

[Jack Norton]

Well probably you can have normal banners, but those names instantly made me think about unstoppable pop-up windows.

Anyway cliff, if you want to monetize the ads with a CPM system, is better to have a high traffic site like a flash portal or online MMO, since they get ton of traffic :o

[the gamer]

ads make you look cheap. Amazon don't advertise their rivals on their website. Nor do Activision or Valve. Why would you?
If you are desperate for cash, get a paper-round, but don't make your business look too much like an afterthought or a hobby. People want to buy from a reputable and successful business, not a page that looks like its a sideline.

Actually in Adsense, you can put a filter on your ads so that it doesn't advertise your rivals.

I dont think any customers would care about ads as long as they are out of the way and is not spammed across the website, 2 or 3 is good enough.

Activision or Valve can do that since they are making as much money as it is, a little money from ads is just a drop in the bucket to them, so they just dont take the chance, and Activision's site isn't a compatible site to put ads if you know what i mean, it wont look good. Sites that choose not to put ads on their site is their decision. But a little ad at the bottom/side of the page wont hurt. Pop ups are a deferent matter, I would never put pop ups on my site.