OPINIONS NEEDED: Advertisements

[Elle 121,136]

Hi all,

 

I wanted to fill you in on what's been going on with some advertisements lately and gather some opinions.

About a week ago or so, Google Adsense implemented an automatic experiment with vignette ads (full-screen ads) that occur in-between page loads.

It only affects 50% of our users for now, but it has shown that my Adsense revenue has already greatly increased. Some days, I'm making up to 5x more than I usually do.

The end of this experiment is approaching, and it will give me the opportunity to permanently implement this ad placement, or remove it.

I wanted to gather your opinions on possibly permanently implementing this full-screen ads before I make a decision.

 

To give you a bit more information on these ads:

• These ads will only occur in-between page loads. The ads will not randomly "pop up" as you are reading threads and such, and they will only occasionally occur when you click to browse another page of the site, and by simply pressing the "X" button on the ad, the ad will close and the next page will continue to load as normal.
• These ads will be the same forms of content as any other ads you would normally see on the site. So don't worry, you won't be seeing any sketchy ads for MILFS and such, but rather the same content you would see in the banner ads but in vignette form as well. They are the same Google Ads.

 

Things to keep in mind:

• While the site is free for you all to use, it is not free to host and manage. Each month, I pay several recurring fees to keep the site up and running for you all. I rely solely on Adsense at the moment to pay for these fees. As these vignette ads have greatly increased my ad revenue, this would help ease some of the stress of guaranteeing I generate enough revenue each month to fully cover the costs
• Any extra roll-over revenue these ads may produce will be greatly helpful to help finally pay off the loan I borrowed 4+ years ago to purchase LanaBoards in the first place, and can also help pay off the tab I have running from months that Adsense didn't fully cover the fees and I had to pay out of pocket.
• If I ever find I am generating more revenue than the site needs, I can absolutely remove these ads. (However, I still have lots to pay off for the site alongside monthly recurring fees, so this could be awhile.)
• I plan to implement an Ad-Free "subscription" package for LanaBoards that would be a monthly $2 cost for anyone who would like to be free from ads on all devices.
  • Users can also choose to donate with a lump sum upfront rather that split into monthly payments

 

 

So, given all this, I want your thoughts. Above anything, your enjoyment of the site is always my top priority. While this extra revenue would be very helpful for the site, I wouldn't implement these ads permanently if this is going to greatly detract from your enjoyment of your site.

If you find yourself wanting to access the site less or are tempted to use an ad-blocker program, please let me know.

I want to make sure no one feels greatly deterred from using the site with these vignette page-load ads, and using ad-blockers would defeat the purpose of me implementing these ads to help generate more revenue for funding the site, and could instead result in the site generating less revenue than normal.

 

Please be honest with me here, I really need your opinions.

 

I've put up a poll for this thread where you all can let me know if you're willing to tolerate these ads, or if they are unbearable and would greatly damper your enjoyment of the site.

Also please feel free to leave any further thoughts to explain your opinions below.

 

Thank you for your consideration guys, and I'm sending all my love to you as always xx

 

[urgirl 5,745]

I vote remove them but I would be more than happy to donate to the site if u link me a way 

[Mind Melt 10,095]

its such a minor inconvenience. keep them and make your money

[Distantly 3,923]

They’re a tad annoying but I think only cause I’m not used to them yet. I voted keep them because I know you work hard and spend lots of time with this site and deserve a check for it 

[The Stargirl Pinky 71,653]

I would be honored to be a monetary subscriber and am happy to make an even bigger donation than what you proposed. Maybe this is your chance to make a “supporters 3.0” campaign and hopefully some of us girlies can hop on board  

 

Playing devil’s advocate, I have found them to be kind of annoying. Not to a deterring extent, if anything the lack of news has me kinda meh so I’ve been either not been as active or I’ve been exploring other threads instead of stalking the rock candy sweet pre-pre-release haha. 

 

At the end of the day I think you should get your coins and if that means implementing vignettes then so be it. People would probably get used to it  

 

[May 13,311]

They are annoying but it’s not like it’s the end of the world, there are ppl dying . so get your bag sis.
 

at least it’s not like atrl a couple years ago where the site would automatically redirect you to a random ad page in the middle of browsing or writing a post and you’d lose it 

[White Hot Forever 4,220]

Personally I don't mind them, but for people that do a subscription to remove them seems like a good solution. I agree that you do so much to keep this website alive and I think you deserve to make as much money as possible from it

[TheBoss 13,481]

YAAAS KEEP THEM! Get your coin sis

[Platinum Greenwich 13,844]

they're not particularly intrusive - because they're Google ads, at the end of the day, so it's not like we're having to navigate through 5734829 nested pop-ups (where you click away from one, and it brings up a billion more ) laced with malware.

 

plus, they're in-between page loads, and they don't seem to be very frequent, so it's not exactly disrupting the user experience

 

keep them and secure your bag Elle x

 

(and thank you for reminding me to turn off Adblock for this site skjhdfggksdfhj I had completely forgotten to do so on desktop)

[fvck 2,223]

ya’ll are a bunch of liars, they’re so annoying pls don’t keep them 

[NikoGo 60,679]

I would gladly donate money, I’ve messaged before about becoming a supporter but haven’t heard anything back 

 

the full ads are annoying but only because sometimes when I click the X the whole site freezes and I have to completely close the tab (which sometimes gets in the way if I’m trying to find something and lose my place)

 

But at the same time I love the site and all the friends I’ve made here and something like a pop up and isn’t going to diminish that, and I respect wanting to earn money! Plus, like you said, it’s completely free for us so I support whatever you need to do to earn that money!

[Platinum Greenwich 13,844]

3 minutes ago, Nikogo said:

sometimes when I click the X the whole site freezes and I have to completely close the tab (which sometimes gets in the way if I’m trying to find something and lose my place)

 

if you're on Chrome, CTRL+Shift+T brings up the last tab you closed!

 

i don't think the vignette ads actually change the URL you're on, so you should be able to "reset" to where you were, that way 

[NikoGo 60,679]

1 minute ago, Skid Row Cherry Pie said:

 

if you're on Chrome, CTRL+Shift+T brings up the last tab you closed!

 

i don't think the vignette ads actually change the URL you're on, so you should be able to "reset" to where you were, that way 

I think I’ve used a browser like one or two times! If I’m online, 99% of the time I’m on my phone 

 

but I have never tried to go back to my previous tab, I figured that would just re-direct me to the ad, so good to know! Thank you!!

[sjatib 5,172]

20 minutes ago, Mind Melt said:

its such a minor inconvenience. keep them and make your money

 

Absolutely agree with this. Seeing some bigger ads from time to time isn't something unbearable, yet a good thing if they help you financially to mantain this place that is somehow home for many of us. Thank you for being so considerate to ask us about it, and thank you for keeping this beautiful community going!

[Rorman Nockwell 56,641]

They crash my laptop so currently using an adblocker

I personally feel like a donation drive would be a better option because I detest subscription fees in general but this is jmo

[strange weather 1,952]

I haven't seen them yet so I'm not sure. I would be willing to donate to avoid ads since I hate them so much, but it would depend. How much would we have to donate to get rid of ads permanently or for some period of time?

[Dark Angel 201,751]

i don't mind them, i think you should keep them if they're helping 

[Sugar Venom 9,657]

I’ve been getting them way more than “occasionally” so I can’t lie they’ve def been a ***little** deterrence, but very very little. I wouldn’t mind paying to remove them, especially to support the site. Not a fan of monthly subscriptions but if there was an option to pay for a whole year or some months at once I would rather do that!

[99centlips 8,519]

absolutely not.

[Elle 121,136]

23 minutes ago, RormanNockwell said:

I personally feel like a donation drive would be a better option because I detest subscription fees in general but this is jmo

17 minutes ago, strange weather said:

I haven't seen them yet so I'm not sure. I would be willing to donate to avoid ads since I hate them so much, but it would depend. How much would we have to donate to get rid of ads permanently or for some period of time?

9 minutes ago, Sugar Venom said:

I wouldn’t mind paying to remove them, especially to support the site. Not a fan of monthly subscriptions but if there was an option to pay for a whole year or some months at once I would rather do that!

 

I'm thinking donating $2 a month would be able to level the field in exchange for no ads. & it wouldn't have to be a small payment that recurs each month if it's more convent to pay all at once, so for example you could pay $24 upfront to be free of ads for a whole year.

 

I've also been meaning to revamp the whole Supporters 2.0 system, hopefully by the end of April since work for my actual job will slow down a bit after next week. For those who will be a part of our Supporters 2.0 program (which will also be a monthly-based program for new Supporters in exchange for special site incentives such as exclusive themes, lavender name tags, a VIP forum section, expanded PFP image uploads, etc. Those who have donated in the past and were promised Lifer status will not need to pay to keep their Supporters status, unless desired) there will be the option to add Ad-Free for just a dollar more to the Supporters 2.0 cost. (I'm thinking the cost for supporters will be $4 or $5 monthly, but I still need to figure out the math and everything)

 

x