No more fat belly ads by obeying this one simple rule: No remnant
Posted By Mike Orren in Square Pegs on March 18, 2009
Today, friends, we draw a line in the silicon.
In recent weeks, our site, like virtually every other ad-supported site, has been besieged by fat belly ads. You know the ones:
...and that is the last one of those you'll see on our site. Those ads come from national advertising networks. In the industry, we call it "remnant." See, those ads are used for backfill when we aren't sold out of advertising locally. We make money on them, although substantially less than we make when we connect local businesses with local customers.
When we first started running remnant a couple years back, we were careful not to hook up with providers of the class that I broadly describe as "hit the monkey; win an iPod." However, as the economy has softened, it seems that all the providers are taking these fat belly, credit score, fill-out-seven-affiliate-offers-for-a-prize-that-may-not-come misleading crapvertisements. When that happens, everyone loses: We make very little on them; our readers (and that includes us) get annoyed ; and it detracts from the relevant local ads.
So no more. We are casting aside the acai berries of lucre for a better website. As of now, we've turned off remnant ads and we're not looking back. We hope that gives you another reason to frequent our site and (for you gearheads) to exempt us from any adblock software you might be using. That will help us stay 100% local and relevant to You.
At the same time, I want to call your attention to something else we're doing that relates to how ads appear on the site. Last week, we added an autorefresh feature to many pages on the site. If you are on a page and inactive for more than five minutes, we will refresh the page once and only once, updating the ads and any comments, latest stories, feeds, etc. Autorefresh is pretty much industry standard at this point, but most news sites autorefresh repeatedly and on a much shorter time window. We feel that one refresh per long page visit is reasonable -- and in some cases as much a service to the user as the advertiser.
We didn't take this step lightly, but as we're growing, it is necessary in order to make room for all of our local advertisers. The old way also artificially depressed our pageview count compared to many of our competitors. We're still being far more conservative than most, but this does help equalize our comparative visits/pageviews ratio.
We have implemented a safeguard so that if you start posting into a form (like a comment) and walk away, we will not autorefresh and lose your work. If you encounter a problem of that safeguard failing, let us know so we can fix it.
Mike Orren, says:
And just so we can memorialize what we've lost, a rogue's gallery.
Buh-bye:
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/18/1559826.gif"><br>
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/18/1585516.gif"><br>
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/18/1587986.gif"><br>
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/18/1582106.gif"><br>
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/18/Picture_4.JPG"><br>
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/18/reese.gif"><br>
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/18/Picture_10.JPG"><br>
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/18/Picture_11.JPG">
Staff
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
jtmbls, says:
God bless you! Although I fear Pavel might be disappointed.
Anonymous
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
(And yes, we're aware the code change is causing some weirdness on some of the ads on the right side of the page. Working on it...)
Staff
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Liv4dalake, says:
Bless you, bless you, bless you!!
Anonymous
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Travis Bush, says:
jtmbls..he definitely likes the fat...I've seen him eat it right off the girl!...um I mean grill...really.
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, says:
All Hail Miko! Hurray! Hurray!
Remnant begone!
Long live refresh!
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Pavel Lishin, says:
So ad spots will be just blank?
I approve.
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
What a dick!
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
No, Pavel. We'll use the spots to promote new and underused site features and to give a little extra love to our paying local advertisers. Our eventual hope is that we'll sell out of space. But in the interim, we think this is a better use of space than the crapvertising from the ad networks.
Staff
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Kip Mooney, says:
I wish more sites would follow your lead.
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, says:
I think you ought to use the spots to sell raffle tix to egg <strike>Pavel's car</strike> Pavel.
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Rawlins Gilliland, says:
<b>Where the hell is Karen Carpenter when we need her?!</b>
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, says:
Ok, as a direct one-to-one comparison, how much more should each of us buy from your advertisers to make up the revenue difference you incur on this first blissful day of no fat legs.
Would each of us readers (not just us loud-mouth commenters) browbeating a coworker or friend into signing up and surfing 3 minutes a day compensate?
(Kip THIS would be how you get other sites to follow suit... prove it works!)
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
Not to be distasteful, but I'm relatively sure anybody who set aside their differences and let that money in...then gave them the finger...has no immediate funding issue.
At least, I trust Miko and/or peeps paying for new digs wouldn't randomly stick it to the man if they weren't positive it was profitable in the end.
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8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Travis Bush, says:
'Not to be distasteful, but I'm relatively sure anybody who set aside their differences and let that money in...then gave them the finger...has no immediate funding issue."
You forgot about John's impending rehab needs for T&A Syndrome...that sh1t cost money man!
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8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Chris Kidd, says:
Mike, Thank you for stepping up and doing the right thing. Ive grown tired of alot of sites using syndicated remnant advertising, as it detracts from the real product and cheapens a website IMHO. I wish other "media sites" would get with the program and actually attract decent advertisers.
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8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
To Scott and Jason's discussion of lost revenues:
It's real money, but not enough to jeopardize our operations. Yes-- It was a calculated decision, largely precipitated by the decline in the quality of the creative served up. And partly by outrage at how little we made for those heinous ads.
As to what you can do to help us live, thrive and survive? The answer's always the same:
Tell your friends about us. You can even <a href="http://www.pegasusnews.com/accounts/profile/import/">tell people in your email address book</a>.
When you see someone with an iPhone, tell them <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284297919&mt=8">about our app</a>.
Tell businesses you patronize about us. Tell them about the Daily You and how we can put that targeting to work for them. But at least tell them what you do and don't read.
Staff
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
Speaking of which, Pavel and I hit Pearl last night to see Yost and the Sofa Kings. We're relative regulars at this point. Never would have ventured over there had he not been an early and often advertiser on PN, and his activity on the site only helps matters (b/c we find his hobo hate hilarious - ALLITERATION!).
So, to anybody on the fence about spending a few bucks for PN advertising, know that I actively watch who supports this here site and am more than happy to check out your digs.
Miko, I talk up PN all the time to friends. Some come and go, some stick around to provide input, others just lurk for drink specials and restaurant reviews.
Verified
8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, says:
Yeah - advertising with PN is painless easy. Granted, we haven't done it enough to top Miko's Xmas list, but you'll see more.
::I talk up PN all the time to friends
Well it's the only unprosecutable pickup line you've come up with.
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8 months, 2 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
Thanks y'all. One other thing you can do to help right now is fill out our short reader survey:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/surve...
Staff
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