Google Ads [Archive]

dahamsta

13/04/2005, 5:21 PM

The ads are fed to Foot.ie by Google based on keywords in the page where possible, so if the page contains the words "tickets" and "football" (and possibly "ireland") and a ticket vendor is currently running an AdSense (https://www.google.com/adsense/) campaign based on those keywords, their ad will show up.

I can block particular ads based on their URL, however given the possibility of abuse - removal requests based on personal grudges, for example - I think requests for removal should be posted in the Support forum, so others can concur or object. I'll need the URL that the ad leads to (https://www.google.com/adsense/urlfilter) in order to block it.

adam

Junior

15/04/2005, 3:12 PM

http://www.euroteam.info/subevent.asp?event=World%20Cup%202006%20Football%2 0-%20Germany

This is the euroteam link that comes up. As you say its difficult because I guess some fans may want to avail of this service if they are desperate for tickets and we make it to Germany. But after so many Irish fans got fcuked over by this mob (including members of this site) I Don't think foot.ie should be advertising Ticket Tout sites. If people want to use them regardless, they can find them through Google. IMHO

Jnr

http://www.globalticketservice.com/eventlist.asp?event=Sports&mainevent=World%20cup%202006

Another bunch of legalised touts advertising :rolleyes:

Your call I guess.

dahamsta

16/04/2005, 12:31 PM

Thanks Junior. Anyone else want to comment on these sites? (I'm genuinely not familiar with them or the problems Junior's mentioned, but I don't spend a lot of time in the Ireland forum.)

adam

adamd164

17/04/2005, 11:26 AM

I agree that they should be banned. What they're doing is unfair and IMO not right. Foot.ie is basically supporting these b*stards unless the links are blocked.

Junior

17/04/2005, 4:35 PM

Thanks Junior. Anyone else want to comment on these sites? (I'm genuinely not familiar with them or the problems Junior's mentioned, but I don't spend a lot of time in the Ireland forum.)

adam

In summary, euroteam left around 300 irish fans (who had paid vastly inflated prices for tickets to the swiss game in Basel) stranded outside the ground without any tickets. The fans were on the phone to them right up till kick off and they were promising them they would be there with the tickets shortly. Needless to say they never showed up, leaving the fans with nowhere to even watch the game on tv.

I believe most fans got refunds eventually but this is hardly the point.

Both sites are just legalised touts IMO :mad:

dahamsta

17/04/2005, 6:35 PM

Right, I've blocked those two sites, however if they travel through other servers on the way they'll still show up, in which case you'll need to post the page it's showing up on on Foot.ie, so I can track down the proper url.

adam

dahamsta

14/09/2005, 3:31 PM

Somebody emailed asking me about the Google Ads, so I said I'd post an update:

I don't really want to give out exact figures, all I'll say is that up until about three months ago the returns were roughly the same as the last time I trialled it last year, i.e. the value of running ads was less than the value to our users of not running them.

About three months ago the revenues approximately doubled, and many colleagues running Google Ads saw the same bump. In the last two months they've doubled again, but statically, i.e. the results for September will likely be much the same as for August.

I'll be happy if they continue at that level, as they'll pay for the server and software licences. That is, up until recently, strictly speaking Foot.ie was operating at a loss, however it was using spare capacity on my server so it wasn't a /financial/ loss. Now it's paying for itself.

However there's no big profits, if that's what you're asking.

HTH,
adamAs well as the Google Ads, I'm looking at enabling subscriptions as a way to make improvements to the site. In particular I've always wanted to skin most of forums with individual club colours, but I'd also like to bring Foot.ie Photos online properly in-line with the upgrade to vB3.5, and I'd like to offer Foot.ie Mail as part of the subscription packages too.

Another idea I had for the former was to ask individual club supporters to donate (via PayPal) towards a fixed fee for skinning, which I'd agree with a designer, because it would kill two birds with one stone: the forum gets skinned, and the club forums get more visitors.

I'd be interested in feedback on these ideas, and if you have any questions about this or any other aspect of the site, feel free to ask. I may even feel free to answer. :)

adam

dahamsta

15/09/2005, 3:19 PM

Bump. 49 views, no comments. Do you think it's a good idea, a bad idea; do you feel that subscriptions are a cynical attempt by me to line my own pockets, a wonderous gift to the community; have you a better idea? C'mon folks, if you don't feed back I won't know if I'm going in the right direction or not, and you'll have no right to complain if I do make changes and you don't like them. Help a hamsta out here!

adam

Dodge

15/09/2005, 3:25 PM

TBH adam, I don't think too many people will be interested in a subscription service. There's too much free content out there and practically every club has their own forum anyway.

Don't mind the google ads and if it helps keep this place running, all the better.

drinkfeckarse

15/09/2005, 3:30 PM

I would've offered a comment if I could've understood it.

dahamsta

22/10/2005, 12:53 AM

I've added two large Google ads at the top and bottom of the site, however these will only displays to guests. If you have an account and log in, the top one will be replaced with the existing thin "ad unit", and the bottom one will disappear altogether. If you don't have an account, register. And post. :)

adam

A face

22/10/2005, 4:37 PM

The job ... proper order !! There are enough people reading as guests anyway !!

John83

24/10/2005, 2:33 PM

I don't mind google ads. They're quite visually inoffensive, even here where they stand out a bit against the green. Adblock nearly everything else though.

Gareth

24/10/2005, 4:50 PM

Adam, I am not sure. I think that if the service is top quality people would join but you would most definately lose the underage majority and you would probably need some seriously quality work to get people signing up. As said, lots of free stuff out there. Be careful not to break that which is not broken!! It really is up to you and your market research. Personally I generally find people will only respond to potential change once its hit them.

As a person running the Shelbourne Official Forum, I think increasing your Shels forum is a terrible idea and you should just have links to the Official one :) hehe Only joking, the more the merrier I say!! :)

dahamsta

24/10/2005, 5:49 PM

I've decided to go ahead with subs shortly anyway since it's for the long term benefit of the site (skins), and no real loss to me if no-one signs up. No signups, no skins, I doubt anyone will notice the difference.

Here's the basics of the Subscriber package off the top of my head:

No Advertisments (possibly, consultation first)
Custom Avatar
Custom Title
Profile Picture
Private Subscribers Forum
More PM Storage
More Attachment Space
More Foot.ie Photo Spaceadam

A face

24/10/2005, 8:13 PM

I've added two large Google ads at the top and bottom of the site, however these will only displays to guests.

FYI ... i dont think those ads are working ... they are there alright (ctrl + A) but no actual ads that can be seen !!

dahamsta

24/10/2005, 9:01 PM

Did you log out?

A face

24/10/2005, 9:55 PM

Did you log out?

In college ... cookies go when you log out, not there when you log in !!

Ctrl + F5 ... still same !!

dahamsta

09/11/2005, 10:32 PM

For some reason they don't appear in some locations, like in here. Perhaps the "Support" keyword triggers something that tells their engine not to deliver certain ads.

Final update on these for a while I reckon: Performance was a little down since I replaced the wee text unit above with a large one for guests, so I've put it back the way it was. The text unit is less obtrusive and I'd prefer it that way anyway. Bizarrely, in both cases the clicks - AdSense reward for clicks, not views - still came mostly from the 468x60 at top-right; I can only guess that the other ads drew attention to the standard one or something.

I've moved the big ad at the bottom of the page up slightly towards the content on the forum home page, the forum listing page and the thread view page; I think it provides a useful service while not being too obtrusive. I've also added a guest-only large ad that appears after the first post in each thread; registered members won't see this. That'll be it for a while, I very much doubt I'll be adding any more ads, as I don't want it to be in people's faces. I may move them around a little though.

I've never mentioned btw: Thanks to the people that do click on the ads. It provides a very useful revenue stream that allows me to spend more time on the site, and I'm hoping will allow me to eventually move the site to it's own server, possibly even in Ireland. I think they provide pretty good keyword matching - I wouldn't host them if I didn't think they did - particularly at the thread level, so I hope you guys are getting something out of it too.

adam

Dodge

09/11/2005, 10:47 PM

For some reason they don't appear in some locations, like in here.
They do for me...

dahamsta

09/11/2005, 10:52 PM

It's hit and miss Dodge. When I viewed the thread earlier neither the top unit or the bottom ad appeared; when I viewed it when you posted the top one was still missing but the bottom one appeared. The one at top-right always seems to appear; that's been running on Foot.ie for quite some time now, might be something to do with that.

adam

jofyisgod

10/11/2005, 9:08 AM

What kind of price would subs be Adam?

As Gareth said, a lot of younger people may not have the ability/resources to pay.

The ads are fine btw, didn't really notice.

dahamsta

10/11/2005, 9:25 AM

Cheap jofy, or at least my idea of cheap.

If you look at the subs page now - I won't link them, but they're available from the left-hand side of your CP - you'll see that the prices generally follow Boards.ie's model; however it occurred to me later that these are /way/ over what we'd need, and that much lower prices /might/ bring in a lot more people, and get stuff (i.e. skins) done a lot faster. I'm thinking now that I should drop all the monthly/quarterly options and just charge 10 or 20 euros - I really haven't decided - for a full year. Maybe a half-year option for people that are strapped.

Just 5 or 10 of these would pay for a skin, and if people wanted to continue their subscription the following year, well, how bad? Some of it could go in my pocket, some on improving the site with new features and capabilities (dedicated server, etc), some on a Foot.ie event or two, some to charity, etc.

(Please don't use the subs now btw, they're just there right now because I was demoing them to a client. The WorldPay and 2Checkout links won't even work, because I don't have accounts with them, but PayPal will accept them and you'll get nothing in return. I'll disable them later.)

As to young people not being able to pay, well, I doubt it would be much of a loss to them since I have no intention of taking anything that can be done already on the site away in order to make the subs more attractive. I /might/ disallow photo posting in the galleries, but since that's not even being used yet anyway, again, that won't make any difference.

adam

John83

10/11/2005, 10:32 AM

For some reason they don't appear in some locations, like in here. Perhaps the "Support" keyword triggers something that tells their engine not to deliver certain ads. There's one at the bottom of the screen for me now. :confused:
EDIT: But not now, after posting. Odd.

Bizarrely, in both cases the clicks - AdSense reward for clicks, not views - still came mostly from the 468x60 at top-right; I can only guess that the other ads drew attention to the standard one or something. Didn't know that - I'll click one or two a visit from now on.

dahamsta

10/11/2005, 11:15 AM

Although I appreciate the support John83, please don't click on them without /some/ purpose, because:

it's not fair on advertisers to have their ads clicked on just for the sake of supporting Foot.ie -- they have to pay for them, remember; and
if everyone did it, Google's systems could tag it as abuse and stop delivering useful/rewarding ads, or even suspend my account.That being said, if you do actually see something that interests you, even if only just a little, please do click on them. You never know, you might actually find stuff that's useful, informative, cheap, etc. I actually have, genuinely.

adam

John83

10/11/2005, 11:40 AM

Although I appreciate the support John83, please don't click on them without /some/ purpose, because:
it's not fair on advertisers to have their ads clicked on just for the sake of supporting Foot.ie -- they have to pay for them, remember; and
if everyone did it, Google's systems could tag it as abuse and stop delivering useful/rewarding ads, or even suspend my account.That being said, if you do actually see something that interests you, even if only just a little, please do click on them. You never know, you might actually find stuff that's useful, informative, cheap, etc. I actually have, genuinely.

adam
Okey-doke. I've found interesting stuff in them before too, though not here. I'll just have to keep an eye out.

Dodge

10/11/2005, 12:05 PM

The ad for this page is a Wolfe TOne CD!?!?! Oh and the ad at the bottom looks horrendous. Any chance you could move it to below the quick reply box?

Dr.Nightdub

10/11/2005, 11:07 PM

Oh and the ad at the bottom looks horrendous.

I would've thought you'd love to click on something that said "Supercharge your Dodge"! :D

Chippy

09/10/2006, 1:45 PM

Could one of the mods explain to me how a site that is supposedly vehemently against ticket touting, can have advertisements at the top of it's page linking to needaticket.com where tickets for wednesdays game are being offered for €200 ???????:confused: :confused: :confused:

John83

09/10/2006, 1:49 PM

You don't have a choice with Google ads, I think.

pete

09/10/2006, 4:03 PM

Moving thread to support....

dahamsta

09/10/2006, 4:34 PM

No need for the tabloid headlines and commentary Chippy.

I can't get to that site, can someone confirm they're touting? Has it already been shut down, perhaps? I don't want to block anything before I have confirmation.

For the record, we've actively blocked several sites from advertising on Foot.ie for quite some time now. I've merged this thread into a previous discussion, see the earlier posts for details.

adam

reder

09/10/2006, 5:10 PM

Needaticket.net are selling tickets for wed and san marino at ridiculously inflated prices alright.

dahamsta

09/10/2006, 5:15 PM

Pardon my ignorance, but what's the face value of an Irish ticket these days?

sligoman

09/10/2006, 5:22 PM

I paid 45euro for an East stand ticket for the Czech game.

John83

09/10/2006, 5:27 PM

I paid 45euro for an East stand ticket for the Czech game.
From that site:
SEATED EAST STAND €200 PER TICKET
SEATED SOUTH TERRACE €130 PER TICKET

I've paid €36 for a South Terrace (touchline) seat, so they're marking that up rather a lot.

If you can block them, please do.

dahamsta

09/10/2006, 5:38 PM

Done. needaticket.com is still dead, I don't think it's related.

John83

09/10/2006, 5:41 PM

Thanks.

Chippy

10/10/2006, 11:40 AM

No need for the tabloid headlines and commentary Chippy.

Apologies, it wasn't meant to be overly dramatic - i was just shocked that when I linked to the page, I found that it was another of these on-line ticket touts

dahamsta

18/06/2007, 5:07 PM

You'll love this lads.

http://verbo.se/google-adsense-optimisation-muppetry/ (http://blogopho.be/google-adsense-optimisation-muppetry/)

adam

pete

18/06/2007, 7:02 PM

At least the ad is relevant? ;)

I am a natural sceptic but some of the things Google do are very impressive.

pete

05/03/2009, 9:20 PM

I am sure they were there all the time but only recently noticed the foot related ads above. An obvious flaw in the google ads system :p

centre mid

05/03/2009, 9:55 PM

"Dry Foot skin relief?"

dahamsta

06/03/2009, 9:47 AM

I've always though it funny when people call the site "foot". I wonder do they get it, or are they just shorthanding. :)

stamullendrog

14/11/2009, 3:18 PM

just want to draw attention to this website that is in the ad banner at the top of the page

http://www.needaticket.ie/index.php?cPath=3_7&gclid=COy9luvpip4CFUQA4wodxleMoQ

and indeed this one

http://passion-events.fr/dhtml/home.php?id=346&gclid=CLKoi9Dqip4CFeZr4wod2QNVrA

correct me if im wrong but are they not charging over the odds for tickets to the away leg?apologies if im wrong but if im not i find it bad form basically helping a web site rip off fellow football fans.

dahamsta

15/11/2009, 2:29 AM

All of the ads currently being served come via Google, I don't have any preview of what they'll run and I certainly wouldn't run them if your accusations are correct. I need someone else to verify that they're being sold over cover price though, if I click on the ad I'll be accused of click-fraud. If someone I'm familiar with confirms it, I'll add them to the block list on Google.

adam