OT - CMMods.com advertising question/poll

[ColumbusOHGamer]

(I posted here because this forum has more traffic)

What do you think of the advertising instead of, or in addition to, donations? Will you stop using Cmmods.com because of it? Would you rather donate and not see any ads?

Give me your thoughts on this. I want to keep the modders and mod sluts happy, but still need the bucks to keep things going. Thanks.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Im fine with advertisments. In fct I would welcome them. I do not have a lot of money and if ads can support CMMODs in times when I havent the money to donate that would be great.

[Barrold]

A number of forums I have seen have relatively unobtrusive ads located on the site. As long as popups and a dozen flashing pron sites were not included, I would think it would be a decent way to offset the expense of maintaining the site.

Even though I don't grab many mods these days, I certainly appreciate the talents and resources being made available by the artists and hosters.

BDH

[Philippe]

I don't really like the advertising, but I can see that you don't have much choice.

What I would prefer, though, would be for BFC to be your exclusive advertiser.

For that to happen, though, they would have to make you an offer.

A lot of people are coming onto these forums now. The new games aren't ready, but the existance of your site gives legs to the old ones.

I really think it behooves BFC to give you some kind of financial support, since what you are doing is ultimately in their best interest.

[Juju]

I don't like it, but advertising being the almost necessary evil that it is, I can definitely live with it.

[Sequoia]

I have no problem with advertising, especially if they're not popups.

[patboy]

If advertising keep CMMODS up, then it's OK for me.

[Sequoia]

Originally posted by Philippe:

What I would prefer, though, would be for BFC to be your exclusive advertiser.

I don't know, everyone going to the site already knows all about Battlefront. Somebody like Matrix games seems like a more natural advertiser. (Sorry if this is a forbidden plug on this forum).

[KG_Jag]

I make annual contributions to the site (and others I use). As I mentioned in the original thread that begat this thread, I much dislike the adds. I keep hard copy binders on the various downloads I make. It is now impossible to get a clean print of the two standard text pages for each mod.

Further the ads make the site look very trashy.

[Battlefront.com]

I'm fine with advertising on any websites I get to access for free, unless the ads become too obtrusive. One reason why I block popups

Steve

[ColumbusOHGamer]

Originally posted by KG_Jag:

I make annual contributions to the site (and others I use). As I mentioned in the original thread that begat this thread, I much dislike the adds. I keep hard copy binders on the various downloads I make. It is now impossible to get a clean print of the two standard text pages for each mod.

Further the ads make the site look very trashy.

Sorry I left you off the exclusions list. I've fixed that and you won't be seeing the ads now.

Thanks.

[Abbott]

I used your website a few times a few years back with CMBB. I have not modded CMAK as I rarely play it. However I understand your need for a few ads. I use Mozilla so I don't get pop-ups but I have no problem with banners to help support a worthy effort.

--

Has there been any word on hosting The Scenario Depot?

[junk2drive]

For those that don't do mods, have you downloaded any of the Scenario Depot zips?

I make mods for myself first then share what I think people might want. To give back for some of what I take. Good, bad, or otherwise, there have been over 20,000 downloads of my stuff.

I have received way more from the exsistance of CMMODS than I have given. That is why I donate. To keep it around for my enjoyment.

If you use the website, get value from it, and can afford it, send something Todd's way.

[GreenAsJade]

I think the way CMMODS does ads is to be applauded.

If you can get ads turned off by giving a donation, what more can you ask for?

Anyone who says "I don't want to donate but I don't want ads" I would advise politely to go elsewhere!!

(I agree that if intrusive popups or porn appeared, it would be a completely different story: please don't let that happen)

GaJ

[Znarf]

Fine by me. We all need to pay the bills, and I don't expect anything for free.

[ColumbusOHGamer]

Originally posted by GreenAsJade:

(I agree that if intrusive popups or porn appeared, it would be a completely different story: please don't let that happen)

Don't worry, it won't!

[birdstrike]

Whatever keeps CMMods going keeps us going.

Keep the ads - heck, have more ads if you can make some money with it and buy yourself something nice.

[KG_Jag]

Thanks COG--that's two pieces of good news in less than a week from Columbus for those of us in Austin.

[Mattias]

COG.. Really...

For the service provided by your site, I would hack my way through a jungle of self-repeating, flashing, adware dumping, sexist popups.

Period.

Could be my bad conscience talking... Being one of those who have downloaded what must be hundreds of mods, and still not donated, I am inclined to suffer a bit to get to the good stuff.

And thank you for the good work

M.

[Pzman]

Originally posted by Sequoia:

I have no problem with advertising, especially if they're not popups.

Same.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

I donated recently (should have started a long time ago)but ads don't bother me a bit. I have an excellent pop-up blocker, so you can have all the ads, of any type, that you want, and it wouldn't concern me at all.

Do whatever you need to do to keep it going!

[Cull]

I also have no problem with advertising as long as it's reasonably unobtrusive and not crappy pop-up type stuff. I recommend a setup that gives you some steady revenue to prop you up, which you can augment with donations.

I assume you're looking at some type of portal-related setup rather than rigging it yourself with individual adverstisers.

I don't much about the business of it but it seems Google's AdSense has a decent deal....though I don't know how the financial works exactly. I think the ad content is customized to your site/visitors (like gmail) which is actually kind of nice for a "niche" site like yours. But I may be wrong about that. (edit: yes, it is)

Again, I know nothing really.

[hoolaman]

Um, maybe I'm missing something but I don't see any ads on the site (except for organ donation charities). Oh wait I found the banner but the ads don't display. Maybe my arsenal of spyware blockers killed them. Does this mean the ads are possibly dangerous? Should I even be complaining!

And I assume the ads are paid by the click? Does that mean we should encourage people to click on them?

[AndrewTF]

I'm fine with ads. If they help keep the resource available, and don't interfere with the usability of the site then why not?

[ColumbusOHGamer]

Thank you all for your support. I, too, have no problem going to a website that has ads if they offer a free service. I visit many car BBs that operate this way. I'm glad to see that this is the outcome of my poll/question. I know it's kind of a PITA, but I've tried to make it the least painful as possible. I've excluded the pop-up ads and the ads that try to load software (ie. ActiveX, spyware, etc.) I will NEVER have those types of ads. I consider them to be malicious at best and almost virus-like at worst.

If, for some odd reason, you ever see an ad that is trying to load software onto your computer, please let me know so I can terminate that ad immediately.

Originally posted by birdstrike:

Keep the ads - heck, have more ads if you can make some money with it and buy yourself something nice.

I was actually thinking of using those funds to upgrade the CMMods.com server. I want to add RAID to it and upgrade the OS and web software. I back up the database now, but it's manual and I think it requires something automated now. Either that or maybe a dedicated 2nd internet line for CMMods.com only.

Originally posted by KG_Jag:

Thanks COG--that's two pieces of good news in less than a week from Columbus for those of us in Austin.

I know you're jabbin' at me, but it's a moot point with me. I can't stand OSU football and what it does to people around here.

Originally posted by Mattias:

For the service provided by your site, I would hack my way through a jungle of self-repeating, flashing, adware dumping, sexist popups.

I don't think it'll come to that. :cool:

Originally posted by Cull:

I don't much about the business of it but it seems Google's AdSense has a decent deal....though I don't know how the financial works exactly.

I tried them for a few days, but they pay based on click-thru. With only a .01% click-thru rate, it would be hard to make any dollars with it. Besides they cancelled me due to a low click-thru rate. I'm using Revenue.net for my ads now.

Originally posted by Hoolaman:

Um, maybe I'm missing something but I don't see any ads on the site (except for organ donation charities)... Does this mean the ads are possibly dangerous? Should I even be complaining!

And I assume the ads are paid by the click? Does that mean we should encourage people to click on them?

You may be on the exclusion list for a past donation of mod creation. As for the pay-per-click, yes it does generate about .01-.02 per click, but I'm getting the most revenue from the pay-per-1000-ads-shown method, known as CPM. It not the clicks, but just the amount of ads displayed. That's why each page has ads on it.

Thanks again everyone for your support. I'm glad I can offer something to the CM community by hosting the mods. I kinda feel like a putz talking about donations and ads in a public forum, but I just wanted to be sure that I wasn't pissing off anyone, especially the modders. After all, it's there great work that gives CMMods.com a reason to be here!

COG