Do you show ads to members?

[DBA]

Not sure how you get such low requests.... I'm getting ~120 on mine (http://CastleStoryOnline.com) but I guess it's from all the external wigets/apis. Would love to reduce the page speed from it's current depressingly slow 11 seconds...

Reduce/eliminate the crud. For example you have 71 images on your homepage, remove what you truly don't need and put the rest into a sprite.

BTW is your site/forum the official support site for Castle Story? Not trying to tell you how to run your site/business however most support sites don't run ads as they have an alternate revenue stream (their product). IMO small return on the ads probably isn't worth the extra pageload time added, along with the extra "crap" it adds to the site.

I'd suggest temporarily disabling the adds and Facebook widgets and then re-running this test. I have a feeling that removing those two items will drastically reduce your homepage load time.
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/120823_6V_3KG/

 

[intradox]

Reduce/eliminate the crud. For example you have 71 images on your homepage, remove what you truly don't need and put the rest into a sprite.

BTW is your site/forum the official support site for Castle Story? Not trying to tell you how to run your site/business however most support sites don't run ads as they have an alternate revenue stream (their product). IMO small return on the ads probably isn't worth the extra pageload time added, along with the extra "crap" it adds to the site.

I'd suggest temporarily disabling the adds and Facebook widgets and then re-running this test. I have a feeling that removing those two items will drastically reduce your homepage load time.
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/120823_6V_3KG/

Seems like the ads and facebook module double the page size and quadruple the load time...

I run the "official" forum for the developer but don't get compensated. I simply run the ads to pay for the server costs and any development costs/my time. I don't think they are a bothersome as they are only shown for guests but it seems to considerably slow the page speed so I'll have to look into that I guess.

 

[DBA]

Seems like the ads and facebook module double the page size and quadruple the load time...

Wow, yeah it knocked off almost 5 seconds and brought it down to the 2-3 second range. With a little more work it could be brought into the sub 2 second range. BTW that style is very heavy with images.

I run the "official" forum for the developer but don't get compensated. I simply run the ads to pay for the server costs and any development costs/my time. I don't think they are a bothersome as they are only shown for guests but it seems to considerably slow the page speed so I'll have to look into that I guess.

Ahh ok. Have you looked into Google DFP? That could help with the ad problem.

An alternative to the Facebook widget is using an image map the links to your social sites. For example here's what I have on my homepage, all three icons are in one image and the links are added via image map.

 

[Andy.N]

An alternative to the Facebook widget is using an image map the links to your social sites. For example here's what I have on my homepage, all three icons are in one image and the links are added via image map.

or you can use css3 for those social network icons. Less images and it scales very well.
http://nicolasgallagher.com/pure-css-social-media-icons/

 

[DBA]

or you can use css3 for those social network icons. Less images and it scales very well.
http://nicolasgallagher.com/pure-css-social-media-icons/

Ok that looks pretty sick! I'll check it out more fully when it get back on the PC.

 

[Andy.N]

Ok that looks pretty sick! I'll check it out more fully when it get back on the PC.

It's implemented on 8thos website
http://www.8thos.com/

 

[dutchbb]

I talked to a Google representative on the phone today about AdSense optimization (they contacted me). Got some useful help. I've been starting to use AdSense again since March (they actually banned my website for years because I was supposedly clicking on the ads).

I think it's a good way for new sites to earn back some of the invested money, and it's a nice extra income for more established forums. Just remember to not go overboard with it. It's not just the money that counts but the user experience too. And make sure you integrate them well, change colors to fit your forums etc.

 

[Jeff Fuqua]

DFP is going to take some time to learn so, in the meantime, I thought I might ease back on ads for members and remove them entirely for donors.

I used to be able to add conditions to my ad code when I was a vB forum but don't know how that's done for xF. Anyone who only shows ads to certain user groups know how this is accomplished? Thanks.

 

[CTXMedia]

I used to be able to add conditions to my ad code when I was a vB forum but don't know how that's done for xF. Anyone who only shows ads to certain user groups know how this is accomplished? Thanks.

Brogan outlined most scenarios in the FAQ - this is probably the most helpful bit for what you'll need:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/frequently-asked-questions.5183/#post-182355

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[RastaLulz]

Members? no. Guests? yes.

 

[Brent W]

Yes to members. They can pay to remove ads per year.

 

[Adam Howard]

I've been showing ads to only guest for a while now.

Total earned $0.01 --- Yes, only 1 cent through Google ads.

Nothing yet from the other ad programs.

 

[Jeff Fuqua]

Brogan outlined most scenarios in the FAQ - this is probably the most helpful bit for what you'll need:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/frequently-asked-questions.5183/#post-182355

This has been extremely helpful. But I do have a question.

I am attempting to block ads for donors. Here's what I am using:

How can I hide content from a specific user group?
<xen:if is="!{xen:helper ismemberof, $visitor, Donors}">

This content will be hidden from members of user group x​

</xen:if>

It's not working so far and it may be that Donors are in the user group "Member" but are in the secondary user group "Donors". I'm guessing there needs to be some adjustment to the code? Thanks.

 

[Adam Howard]

I'm hoping you're not actually using "Donors" as the code.

You want to use the actually group ID number, not the name of the group..... I say this because I helped someone once who did that.

So if the group is called, Donors, the ID number would be X value (varies depending on what other groups you have)

 

[Jeff Fuqua]

So if the group is called, Donors, the ID number would be X value (varies depending on what other groups you have)

Yes. Sorry. I did put in the code but it doesn't work if that number comes from a secondary group. I must be missing something.

 

[Jeff Fuqua]

Updating this for anyone interested:

I cut back the number of ads shown to members to two per page. Visitors still get more but it seems to have helped with load as did dumping a RSS widget. My top ad network, PulsePoint (formerly ContextWeb) is also my slowest so am now trying to find a way to get their code loaded faster. I'd hate to drop them as they pay more than all other ad networks combined.