NOTE: ADS ON THE FORUM (updated 26/10/21)

digitalscream

poopot said:

digitalscream said:

Right, since it's come up a few times...if we were to have a premium non-ad membership (with maybe a tiny extra bit in terms of functionality), what do you guys think would be a reasonable price?

I'm thinking along the lines of £4/month. That's based entirely on a finger-in-the-air estimate, and the fact that it's the kind of money most folk wouldn't feel pain over, so I'm not especially attached to the number.

What would be the average ad revenue you get from a user visiting the site?

that’s got to be your benchmark No?

It's a bit more involved, really. Those people are going to be getting a minor (but important) bit of additional functionality which will be added to over time - that's part of the point of this in the first place - but also there are minimums and service/payment fees involved etc depending on numbers.

As it turns out, by sheer coincidence, £4 is actually pretty close to the smallest number that would be feasible even though it was a total guess!

As for working out the average ad revenue, that's going to have to wait until after the experiment. However, it'd be good to get some general feedback on what people would be willing to pay. If most folk don't find the minimum acceptable, we're boned from the outset

poopot

digitalscream said:

poopot said:

digitalscream said:

Right, since it's come up a few times...if we were to have a premium non-ad membership (with maybe a tiny extra bit in terms of functionality), what do you guys think would be a reasonable price?

I'm thinking along the lines of £4/month. That's based entirely on a finger-in-the-air estimate, and the fact that it's the kind of money most folk wouldn't feel pain over, so I'm not especially attached to the number.

What would be the average ad revenue you get from a user visiting the site?

that’s got to be your benchmark No?

It's a bit more involved, really. Those people are going to be getting a minor (but important) bit of additional functionality which will be added to over time - that's part of the point of this in the first place - but also there are minimums and service/payment fees involved etc depending on numbers.

As it turns out, by sheer coincidence, £4 is actually pretty close to the smallest number that would be feasible even though it was a total guess!

As for working out the average ad revenue, that's going to have to wait until after the experiment. However, it'd be good to get some general feedback on what people would be willing to pay. If most folk don't find the minimum acceptable, we're boned from the outset

£4/month is reasonable…it’s the cost of a pint down this way!…

would there be a reduction if you paid for a year upfront? Or six months upfront etc… I’m guessing if folk don’t want to subscribe they can poke up with the adverts…

grappagreen

I'll pretty much go with whatever fee you suggest in honesty but we all have different circumstances and so I'll let others chime in. 

@Poopots suggestion makes sense but not sure how feasible this is given you have limited data at this point.

Si

digitalscream

poopot said:

£4/month is reasonable…it’s the cost of a pint down this way!…

would there be a reduction if you paid for a year upfront? Or six months upfront etc… I’m guessing if folk don’t want to subscribe they can poke up with the adverts…

I certainly hope I could put a discount in there for longer periods - it really depends on whether Patreon/whatever-platform-I-use supports it. £4/month is the right kind of number, because that'd work out at (for example) £24 monthly or £20 annually, which seems like a sensible kind of approach.

monquixote

That sounds reasonable.

I think there are enough of us that want a Patreon for the site that you should just set one up regardless.

TeleMaster

In relation to the first post which says I shouldn’t be seeing them when logged in, I can see them when logged in. Has this changed somewhere in the 9 pages? Sorry if I missed something. 

Mellish

As I said earlier, the ads don't bother me - they don't annoy me. BUT, if I had to choose between THEM and a monthly ads-free subscription, I'd choose the latter. It's what I saw as a guest who would often look on  

grappagreen

I agree on the Patreon front - go for it whilst this stuff shakes out..

Si

Jonathangus

digitalscream said:

I certainly hope I could put a discount in there for longer periods - it really depends on whether Patreon/whatever-platform-I-use supports it. £4/month is the right kind of number, because that'd work out at (for example) £24 monthly or £20 annually, which seems like a sensible kind of approach.

Er - £4 a month works out at £48 across the year.

Benm39

Viewing on my phone as I usually do,  the ads top and bottom are unobtrusive and don't cover any content so I'm fine with them.  Given the time I spend (far too much!) browsing here, I'd also support a subscription model so don't mind which way you go although I'm unlikely to click on ads and would favour the site generating an income to enable the further development. 

Cheers!

Snags

digitalscream said:

I certainly hope I could put a discount in there for longer periods - it really depends on whether Patreon/whatever-platform-I-use supports it. £4/month is the right kind of number, because that'd work out at (for example) £24 monthly or £20 annually, which seems like a sensible kind of approach.

You might want to do an arithmatic check there, @digitalscream unless this is some new maths I don't understand

digitalscream

Jonathangus said:

digitalscream said:

I certainly hope I could put a discount in there for longer periods - it really depends on whether Patreon/whatever-platform-I-use supports it. £4/month is the right kind of number, because that'd work out at (for example) £24 monthly or £20 annually, which seems like a sensible kind of approach.

Er - £4 a month works out at £48 across the year.

It's true, I'm an idiot. I was thinking of 6 months, and then got distracted while typing. Embarrassing.

digitalscream

Benm39 said:

Viewing on my phone as I usually do,  the ads top and bottom are unobtrusive and don't cover any content so I'm fine with them.  Given the time I spend (far too much!) browsing here, I'd also support a subscription model so don't mind which way you go although I'm unlikely to click on ads and would favour the site generating an income to enable the further development. 

Cheers!

Interestingly, over the course of the last week the bids on the ad placement have changed from 75% pay-per-click to 68% pay-per-thousand-impressions, which actually reduces the reliance on clicks quite a lot.

danishbacon

I think there might be a big psychological gap in buy-in between £20-25 yearly and £48-50 yearly. 

guitarcookie1

The ads are fairly unobtrusive but they do kind of spoil the look of the site (maybe cos I'm used to the way its looked forever).

It would be nice if they were relevant to the content on the site though, otherwise why would you bother to click through?

Hope it doesn't turn into Musicradar with pop-up videos and all that other ***p that make it unreadable.

As for subscription models, no thanks. Everyone seems to want £4/m, etc for this, that & the other these days. If you're not careful suddenly you're paying £20/m+ & for what? Often little/no benefit whatsoever.

All my opinion of course, so feel free to ignore

poopot

guitarcookie1 said:

It would be nice if they were relevant to the content on the site though, otherwise why would you bother to click through?

This is a good point!… my ip is in Exeter, all I keep getting is ads for Nando’s down that way!!!

WezV

poopot said:

guitarcookie1 said:

It would be nice if they were relevant to the content on the site though, otherwise why would you bother to click through?

This is a good point!… my ip is in Exeter, all I keep getting is ads for Nando’s down that way!!!

I'm getting holidays, reverb and lego ads now.

grappagreen

Just to be clear I'm only advocating an OPTIONAL subscription for those of use who really want to avoid the ads.

My understanding is that if they don't bother you then nothing changes.. except you see ads of course.

Si

guitarcookie1

WezV said:

poopot said:

guitarcookie1 said:

It would be nice if they were relevant to the content on the site though, otherwise why would you bother to click through?

This is a good point!… my ip is in Exeter, all I keep getting is ads for Nando’s down that way!!!

I'm getting holidays, reverb and lego ads now.

Bicester Shopping Village - I'm near Bridgend, South Wales.

However, I've just installed DuckDuckGo Privacy Essential on my Mac, and hey presto, the ads are gone..

fretmeister

I'm happy with the ads.

They don't look too bad at all.