Who is loading ads? - Tips & Tricks

MapleOne

Well-known member
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Site: dn(dot)ca​





I started using two styles of ads, my own and google ads to see if I can cover my server costs.

I try not to put the ads directly into the content, choosing instead to put them into the side widget section along with top and bottom banners.

I'm looking at the possibility of allowing google ads to auto insert ads but it looks like the income stream from the ads is pretty slim pickings.

Right now I am giving most ads to banner exchanges and on trial to see what kind of traffic they bring in.

Anyone else have some tips or tricks?

Post your site to showcase your ads.
 
I'm looking at the possibility of allowing google ads to auto insert ads but it looks like the income stream from the ads is pretty slim pickings.
Google will tell you that Auto Ads will increase the revenue and it can do, but often it is so annoying intrusive that it puts off members. I tried both Vignette style, anchor and siderail.
 
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Anyone else have some tips or tricks?
Sign up for Brave and claim your donated BAT and ditch g ads and encourage your users to donate instead, by going the path of you care about their privacy and don't submit them to advertising networks.
 
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g ads will easily be blocked by Brave and common browser extensions, you need to ditch the third party ad embedding for the first party ad embedding

Because let's face it, the main problem with "ads" online is that they are part of third party tracking networks infringing on peoples' privacy and they will be blocked by privacy browsers. As long as you are the one yourself hosting ads it's fair and private. Just don't go selling and trading my data please. :)
 
Serving ads in the side widgets prevents ad blockers from blocking them.

Unless a user specifically selects the element to block.



Am getting into that and just developed a pretty sophisticated ad with a partner that is interactive.
You can see it here: https://dn.ca/topic/new-catchdrop-big-box.4040
Nice ad! But it still falls in the problem that the partner could be tracking users across websites it has deployed this ad to. Since you link to their domain to load the ad, and your page doesn't have a no referrer policy, they get the referrer info.

In a perfect world, a consent screen would ask for permission to perform any cross site fetch with referrer info provided.

I put <meta name="referrer" content="no-referrer"> into my site pages so that any cross site fetches or links don't allow the external sites to track my users.

The conclusion is, for best privacy, ads should only track on click and not on load.

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We roll all of our own ads, from industry related vendors. The Siropu Ads Manager add-on manages selling the ads, and lets the vendors pay, upload, and monitor their clicks and impressions. It lets them know when it is time to renew, too. I set up a special usergroup for vendors who are authorized to buy them. It shows them at the top and bottom of each page with a 728x90 ad, randomly displayed from the pool of current sponsors. Most of them buy a 2 year contract, but it can also sell monthly or annually (for a higher rate). No intrusive google ads or tracking ads that give antivirus warnings and turn folks away. It presents any new ads for our approval, before it (automatically) invoices them and takes payment.

We also use Siropu Ads Manager for some other things, like random holiday ads that pop up over the sidebar, marketing for potential advertisers, reminders in certain specific forums when someone goes to POST (for sale, make sure you include price, location, etc), special banner at bottom of sidebar thanking donors that mention the type of package they picked, a banner on top of the donation screen that explains benefits, a "happy birthday" banner on top of sidebar when it is their birthday, banners specific to unregistered guests to motivate them to register and unlock more subforums, etc

The forums also accept donations from members directly, using the Xenforo built in UPGRADES feature. I added an option on the top menu, that takes them to pick from several donation options. (1 year, 3 years, lifetime, etc) When they are a donor, I have it put a special donor icon on their posts, give them additional edit time for new posts, editable xenforo (sub) title field on posts, and an increased signature field size.

This is how I fund my Xenforo forums.
 
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I see your point but its a close partner, and an auction site, they are supposed to get the referrer info, it was designed like that on purpose. The ad is set up to be interactive with the auction site so you don't have to leave my site until you bid.

I agree, you should not do that with partners you don't know but in this case I was heavily involved and continue to monitor it. We also placed an interactive add on his website the like of what you guys have never seen before, it leads back to me.

Screenshot (76).webp


See it here



And of course the one from my page


Screenshot (77).webp

See it here


You have to interact with both ads to see them work, the above are just screenshots.
 
We sell advertising spots to members to promote their websites:
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Not too much, and definitely not inside content containers. But it's been a healthy income so far. We often even give it major discounts or even for free sometimes.
 
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