OK, so time for a bit of Market Research everyone: Text Ads - are they an accepted part of the Interweb these days, or do they annoy the crap out of you? If you don't know what I mean, check this page as an example: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56999 The words "PS2 / Xbox / Playstation / sims" are highlighted in green - when you hover over them, a box appears which is an ad. I'll be adding a poll, but we welcome your thoughts below - are they less intrusive than banners, or more so? Would you / have you stopped reading sites that use them ie Anandtech etc? Are they OK on the site, but never on the forums? Our community is the lifeblood of bit-tech.net - your opinion is very important to us. If the feedback is overwhelmingly negative, we'll avoid using them. If you guys don't mind them, we'll trial them for a month, and plough the cash back into things like servers etc
I can't see why they'd be a problem on the main site. Doubt they'd be intrusive. That is unless you NEED to move a mouse over text while reading...? Could be an easy way to get more information about certain keywords in reviews.
You could be right Phat - we'd retain full control over the number per page, which pages, and even which words! The theory is that they *can* provide company info about very specific stuff
I don't like them so I voted for the third option. I don't notice banners or google ads but whenever browsing sites that have text ads I always feel slightly annoyed. *n
The only thing I really don't like about them is when a site makes them an obnoxious color which sticks out. The example you give is borderline obnoxious with the bold & underlined green text - if the color / style blends or at least works with the rest of the page then it's okay. Other than that, I agree with Phat...
sometimes they anrn't even related to what you are talking about. Example: An article on cutting a window, and the window is linked to some house window site.
I must say they do annoy me more than banners or goodle adsense ads, but it wouldn't stop me reading bit-tech, so I voted for the third option. So long as you steer clear of pop-ups and other such underhand forced advertising, I'll keep reading! But please can we keep the forums clear? That way you can concentrate on targetting key words within editorial material to advertise, and all the ads should at least be relevant. Any time I've seen text ads in a forum they appear to have been randomly spattered around the text, and point to totally irrelevant links. I assume this is because the only way to put text ads into that amount of content is by some kind of script, rather than manually as could be done with editorial.
Something I've been thinking of recently is like a "premium" membership service. So you charge a nominal fee (say £5 a year) to be presented the site with no banners, no adSense, no text ads, just glorious bit-techy goodness. Given a lot of users probably block banners already, and given the loyalty within the community, I think this could be a valuable source of additional revenue. As an additional incentive, "premium" bit-tech members could be allowed extra permissions, like custom title / avatar no matter how many posts, or their name in gold on the forums or whatever. How about a poll - who would sign up? The other thing you could do to encourage participation in the forums, for example, would be to give away "premium" memberships for particularly outstanding mods, or for writing editorial, or for coming up with great suggestions for bit-tech etc. Right, I'll stop now as I'm rambling, but what does everyone think? And, perhaps more importantly, is it technically possible?!?!
Agreed. They're much less annoying than HUGE ads that sit slap-bang in the middle of a block of text and flash at you...yes, Inq, I'm looking at you I like the idea, but it does suggest the possibility that if you don't pay then you get pounded with the things (the mentality of "well if they don't want these full-page IGN-style adverts they can just pay for it" would need to be steered well clear of IMO). It would however be a very good way to bring in some revenue though, I know I'd have no hesitation in paying - but it also depends on how hard it would be to implement and whether the advertisers who pay for their ads to be on bit wouldn't be put off by the knowledge that you can pay to not see their shouting.
Here Here. I dont care, i rarely mouse over them on anandtech anyway. As long as nothing pops up in the middle of my screen (inq) or stops me from reading/doing what im doing then fine. When i read "text ads" i thought you meant to my mobile phone
I don't like them but I would put up with them. Although it doesn't really affect me since they don't seem to work in Opera
I was wondering about that actually, I've certainly never noticed them on Anand and I can't see any on the page linked either... Opera for the win?
If a text ad is what its going to take to keep Bit functioning as it does or better i will more than happily move my mouse cursor around the words and put up with it.
we're not at Paypal donation stage just yet, so don't panic. However, since we often exceed 1Tb of data per month, and with more exciting content in the pipelines, we have continually keep ahead of our server requirements with new hardware, more staff, fatter pipes etc These ads are just one option available to us - we do what we can to only use "ethical" advertising, hence no pop-ups etc We are "readers" too, so anything that annoys you guys would be flagged on our Annoyance Radar first
I find most adverts on websites intrusive and annoying. I try to block as many as I can, which includes in-line text ads and Google ads. Vibrant Media has been on my adblock list for months now, so I never saw anything on the example page I'd rather donate money directly to bit-tech than have to click on a banner ad or a highlighted word. Give me a paypal account to pay some cash into and you can have a couple quid.
I hate them with a passion, but i won't stop reading BiT. Please, please, please don't put them on. I'd rather have pop-ups than those...
Green text on the site would look horrible, but if it keeps the site running im ok with them. edit: Actually if you could tweek the script and not have them green, maybe just bold & underlined Im ok with them.
