DON'T PANIC! COOKIES...

digitalscream

TimmyO said:

digitalscream said:

TimmyO said:

Did you look at Ezoic ?

Yes - I had a few concerns with them, not least that I was looking for a company that could provide an account manager and human support, and...nothing about them suggested that was going to be the case. Also, it's very difficult to get unbiased reviews of them, because they run an affiliate scheme with a fairly wide net.

Also, just about every site I've seen that runs Ezoic is a toxic swamp of ads compared with Monumetric. That's a flat "nope" from me, but it also implies something else - both providers pay per thousand impressions, rather than per click, and whenever you see sites that are festooned with ads it's because it's the only way they can make a decent return (more ads = more money, it's a direct relationship...at least, to begin with). That suggests to me that Ezoic's return simply isn't as good as Monumetric's.

I mean...money's really a secondary concern for me here. Monumetric set up a call with me straight away, and totally understood where I was coming from in terms of the user experience being the primary goal and not wanting to milk the site for all it's worth. The only interview criterion was "Did they try to persuade me to add more ads than I want to?", and they passed with flying colours

sounds fair enough - yes Ezoic's strength is in the automated optimisation - e.g. you specify multiple ad insertion points and formats, and it tests multiple variations based on the priority you set (revenue, impact on user behaviour etc) and it optimises, so you might set 10 possible ad placements and it decides to only use 3 of them - but I think that's more valuable to a blog/website rather than a forum.

One observation: if I choose to not select the non-essential cookies, no ads display (just grey boxes that can't be clicked) - but it doesn't seem from the cookie descriptions as though that should be the case. I don't use any ad blocker, this is on mobile and desktop Safari. 

Yes - I actually tried a similar approach with AdSense, but it was very brief. Essentially, handing over control of ad placement and type is fine if you're only interested in visitors and traffic, because you tend not to care too much about the user experience.

Giving up that kind of control on a site like this, which relies on returning users, is a recipe for disaster. When I did it with AdSense, it was chucking ads in all over the place - side-entry ads, persistent ads at the bottom sitting over content etc.

As for the no ads with no cookies issue - I think that's just because they're still waiting for some advertising networks to come online. I'm going to give them a shout as soon as they're awake (based in the US).

photek

Excellent work, gone for me    

thebreeze

Yes, thank you for removing the shield.  Much better without it.

boogieman

Ahhh, no shield, much better. Ta Lee.  

Edit, no shield is good but now not seeing any ads at all on mobile, just grey space. Not that I mind but I’m not using an adblocker and you might be losing revenue? 

Philly_Q

I have to say the ads have become a bit more boring. 

It used to be lots of women in sports bras and a ladies' fast fashion retailer called Rosewe... who only seemed to have one model, but she was very attractive.

Today it's all Now TV, gym memberships and Reverb.  Chiz.  But I'll put up with it.

digitalscream

Philly_Q said:

I have to say the ads have become a bit more boring. 

It used to be lots of women in sports bras and a ladies' fast fashion retailer called Rosewe... who only seemed to have one model, but she was very attractive.

Today it's all Now TV, gym memberships and Reverb.  Chiz.  But I'll put up with it.

...you know there are other sites you can go to which might be...interesting...in a similar way to the ads you were seeing - right?

sev112

On ipad safari, 90% of the ads were the women’s underwear ones (most of the time) then Reverb, and once a blue moon something else.  Never seen any gambling ones etc 

Philly_Q

digitalscream said:

Philly_Q said:

I have to say the ads have become a bit more boring. 

It used to be lots of women in sports bras and a ladies' fast fashion retailer called Rosewe... who only seemed to have one model, but she was very attractive.

Today it's all Now TV, gym memberships and Reverb.  Chiz.  But I'll put up with it.

...you know there are other sites you can go to which might be...interesting...in a similar way to the ads you were seeing - right?

Without delving too deeply into my weirdo psyche, "accidentally" seeing (fully clothed) pretty ladies on a guitar forum is just the right amount of mild titillation for me... and less sordid than actively seeking out the sites of which you speak. 

Stavros

Will having the new provider mean that you will make money even if the ads are not clicked on? 

digitalscream

Stavros said:

Will having the new provider mean that you will make money even if the ads are not clicked on? 

In theory, yes, but there's still an indirect relationship between how much the ad impressions are worth and how effective they are at being clicked.

Basically, if nobody ever clicks, then ad space on here is worth less.

darthed1981

digitalscream said:

OK - how's that? It should've disappeared now (you may need to refresh).

(apologies for the delay, didn't fall asleep until 5am thanks to the plague)

Are you alright?  Possibly need to be lying down not coding if you have the rona?

digitalscream

darthed1981 said:

digitalscream said:

OK - how's that? It should've disappeared now (you may need to refresh).

(apologies for the delay, didn't fall asleep until 5am thanks to the plague)

Are you alright?  Possibly need to be lying down not coding if you have the rona?

I'm fine, but thanks for asking

I'm just a bit all-over-the-place at the moment - a few minor health issues leading to my insomnia going into overdrive.

ICBM

The shield is down!



















Thank you .

Stavros

digitalscream said:

Stavros said:

Will having the new provider mean that you will make money even if the ads are not clicked on? 

In theory, yes, but there's still an indirect relationship between how much the ad impressions are worth and how effective they are at being clicked.

Basically, if nobody ever clicks, then ad space on here is worth less.

Ah right, thanks.

In which case will try to remember to click as often as possible, will be “interesting” I’m sure!

freakboy1610

I now have a blank grey block across the top and bottom of each page!??

Mellish

I had a real problem with Cookie Pro, fixed by @digitalscream. Thanks mate

digitalscream

freakboy1610 said:

I now have a blank grey block across the top and bottom of each page!??

That's, unfortunately, to be expected - just got off a call with our man in Utah, and he explained that while their systems are effectively "training" themselves, the ad fill rate is much lower than it would normally be. It'll correct itself in the next day or two, and then we should be golden.

thumpingrug

Thanks for removing the shield Lee.  Very much appreciated.

littlegreenman

digitalscream said:

thumpingrug said:

I do seem to have the constant shield in the corner now.  thats new.

It's meant to be reassuring

Seriously, though, click it and you can change your cookie preferences at any time.

Now that the shield is gone, how would you manage cookies? @digitalscream

Every page now jumps to the blank "ad" at the top on my PC, but not my phone.

digitalscream

littlegreenman said:

digitalscream said:

thumpingrug said:

I do seem to have the constant shield in the corner now.  thats new.

It's meant to be reassuring

Seriously, though, click it and you can change your cookie preferences at any time.

Now that the shield is gone, how would you manage cookies? @digitalscream

Every page now jumps to the blank "ad" at the top on my PC, but not my phone.

At the moment, there's no realistic way to change your mind after you've made the selection. I'm going to keep working on it, to see if I can come up with a neat way to allow it only on certain pages (eg the profile page).