Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

SI - Site Forums : Silicon Investor - Welcome New SI Members! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (22174)	2/15/2005 11:04:39 PM
From: SI Bob	Respond to of 32932

I'm not particularly fond of 120x600 or 160x600 ads and very soon we won't be offering them on the homepage and might not on the quotes page. Although they do fit nicely on the quotes page. We'll be holding true to Brad's initial promise not to include ads on message-reading pages for paying or grandfathered members. And text ads like Google's just don't pay enough that they'd be worth it. I had them implemented for a while at the bottom of the page on iHub and even Google was surprised at how horribly they'd performed. Sites like this are sticky (lots and lots of page views per user), so advertising works here for only two different kinds of advertisers: 1. Ones interested in "branding", like Monster.com. Their primary concern isn't how many people click their ads. It's in getting their name into peoples' minds so when the need arises to look for a job or hire someone, they think "Monster". Same should be true of brokerages, but typically isn't. When I see a brokerage ad, I'm not likely to click the ad because I already have an online brokerage. However, if I see their ad a LOT, the next time I'm ticked off at my current brokerage, I already have a good idea who I'm gonna try out. Actually, I've been tickled pink with my current brokerage, but since I can't get them to renew their ads, I'll keep their name to myself. <g> 2. Ones who need a lot of clicks, but offer something so different and compelling, they can hope to get clicks from our users. Newsletters, charting services, and other market-related companies with free trial offers fit this area nicely. If an advertisement is only somewhat of interest to a few of our users, their ads typically won't get them a good ROI here. With the Google text ads, it's very hit-or-miss. For example, having an ad offering AMD-powered computers visible with a message about AMD doesn't do a lot of good because the funny thing about internet message board sites is that, by definition, if we're reading the ad, we probably already have a computer. This message best viewed using a computer and an internet connection...