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more and more advertisings


maximilian Joined on 08 nov 2005 Total posts: 4	more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 17.36 I must say the amount of advertising banners on dancesportinfo begins to disturb now. I've been watching the development of this in the last months now without saying something, as I know you need to get the money back you pay for the site. But now you have reached a level which is in my opinion damaging the prestige of this great site. This flash banner, growing when the mouse goes over it (currently advertising e.g. for the Star Championships 2006) is already unpleasant, these hints "dress sponsored by ..." are still quiet ok, but your newest idea of displaying advertising banners between every round in the results is definately too much! Once more, i am myself into that business and know that the money needs to come back, but what you are doing now is destroying the good image of this site. You even don't have to decrease the amount of advertisings at all, perhaps you could make it already better if you overthink the positioning of the banners. They definatley schould not cut the informations I'm looking for into small pieces! Greetz, Max Reply Quote
Admin Joined on 14 feb 2001 Total posts: 1.971	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 19.38 Placing adverts in such a way that you may avoid looking at them defeats the purpose :) That's why in TV they interrupt movie with an advert. Or that's why in the cinema they do not tell when the film starts, but expect you to come and see adverts. Or that's why you have an advert in the middle of an article in the newspaper. The whole purpose of advertising is to be noted by readers. We do keep statistics of every impression and every click on a banner. If it is not expanding only a very small percentage goes there and as a result advertiser does not see a reason to pay us. I also would like a life to be without adverts and adverts on other sites annoy me, but ... I undestand that. Yes - we would like to have our site advert free, but then we would have to charge users for using it. We might even introduce such option in the future as it is quite popular within software industry. You can have it for free if you accept adverts or without adverts if you pay. Which option would you choose? Oh and another thing - most of our pages actually are advert free. Couple profile, couple/event comparison, couple result history, news, articles, rating and many others. Reply Quote
peter Joined on 13 gen 2005 Total posts: 468	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 20.39 Max, also what we see is that people do not realize how much money this site takes and expect everything for free. I am certain that once we have advertisers in such numbers and amount as this site (based on its popularity and market value) would be more than capable to bear, the banners would not need be so apperent. For example the type of advertising you mention as "dress sponsored by..." (which we may call "brand association") is less disturbing, and as more companies might realize its value and sign up for it, that decreases the pressure from other types of adverts. It is important though that advertisers do feel that their success is important to DancesportInfo, otherwise they are not buying adverts, and remember - you can use the services of this site because somebody is putting in that huge amount of work and money required! For example, you mentioning the "dress sponsored by" advert and Star Championships already means that these advert are effective. You can help by making sure dance companies are made aware that you saw this advert so they can be sure their money is (or would be) well spent! Just one more thing: you may or may not realize, but also the amount of information being put onto the site has increased dramatically. There are more and more results and photos per month that are published, plus more and better services are available on the site - and obviously this means that you are getting more services for the small annoyance of the adverts. Reply Quote
maximilian Joined on 08 nov 2005 Total posts: 4	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 21.27 I hope you did not missunderstood me, I'm not at the point that you have to keep this site totaly free of adverts, I only think you should find a compromise between serving your users and serving your advertising clients. I just wanted to inform you with my posting that you are in my opinion turning in a bad direction with the current advertising placement. I wanted to bringt out, that the advertisings like the Flash Window or the "dress or shoes sponsored by..." are ok, they do not keep me away from visiting this site, but I'm strictly against splitting the results through advertising banners or whatever may come in that direction. For me it looks like you act like this: We don't get enough money for our work, so we give them more advertisements. But if we take your example of commercials in the cinema, the cinema would do the following: They need more money, so they play commercials not only before the film begins, they start to play them every 30 minutes breaking the film. And if that doesn't bring enough money, they start to play commercials every 10 minutes. What would you as a visitor now do, would you still go into this cinema? No! And this is what I wanted to hint you, I'm not blaming you cause you want to get money through advertising, it's your right not only to get back what this site costs but earning money with it! But the way you are doing it NOW will scare away the visitors of your site, and if you go on like this in a few years you have a site full of advertisings and one visitor a day who watches them. BTW I'm convinced that the method of simply placing more ads will not bring you more money, or would you click banners you are annoyed of? The ads I now find between the result tables are the same I've seen on other pages, why should anyone click on this banner now, after not clicking it on the page before? When I'm interested in a banner, I click it right now or I keep in mind where it was. But seeing it 500 times wil definately not change my decision not to click it. I have an idea how you perhaps could increase the income of this site in a more efficient way, if you are intersted in it contact me by email. Reply Quote
Admin Joined on 14 feb 2001 Total posts: 1.971	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 22.18 If life was as easy as you suggest :) Now, seriously - if you have any ideas - write to us directly (webmaster@dancesportinfo.net) , however you probably do not understand how strange world of dancing is in regarding of Internet. Your example about cinema is not very relevant here, as we do not plan to increase number of adverts and comparing to the TV - we are still less than obtrusive. In cinema you have to pay for a ticket (I do not know what country you are from, but here in UK tickets are quite expensive), so interrupting film would be outrageous. If you have ever watched German TV channels you would notice that although they are free, amount of adverts is almost ridiculous. If you go for paid channels (like Sky) - you get less adverts. So again - the choice is between paid site and adverts (sometimes annoying) As for your argument that if you did not click on advert it means that you will not click later - that's simply not confirmed by analysis, main rule of advertising is repetition. And apart from that - there is known issue of so called 'banner blindness', i.e. fact that people do not SEE banners. They eyes just move over them. That's why modern Internet advertising techniques are trying harder to be seen. Reply Quote
peter Joined on 13 gen 2005 Total posts: 468	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 22.29 Max, your feedback is much appreciated. We are also trying to write the "other side" because there are many people reading this and I think awareness is important. With regards to your note that repeating adverts does not help: it is not entirely true, because have you noticed that you get used to certain things being where they are and then not even realizing they are there? So certain adverts may not be noticed at certain places but they would be at other places. Similarly, we do get many requests for features that already exist on the site, many times even on the homepage - people simply do not notice! I myself have asked for features which were already existing... For sure there are things we try with this site - some of it may work, and some of it may not. The feedback is important because it helps in making the decisions on what to do and what not to do. If you have ideas on how to generate income I am sure webmaster would be glad to hear about it - mail webmaster@dancesportinfo.net - just be careful as he is beginning to be fed up with my ideas, I am highly productive in the idea department Reply Quote
Admin Joined on 14 feb 2001 Total posts: 1.971	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 22.57 I love new ideas, I just need ideas which are doable rather than 'let's open a shop in London' thing Reply Quote
peter Joined on 13 gen 2005 Total posts: 468	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 23.01 Max, you will probably soon know what it means Reply Quote
Juice23 Joined on 28 mar 2005 Total posts: 95	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 23.05 Hi! I think the site looks great and I'm glad that it is growing. Still, in certain respects I agree with Max. I think the ads that grow when you pass your mouse over them get a bit annoying since they don't go away unless you click to exit. It's a good way to grab attention, but I sometimes have troubles with it when I try to go to different parts of the site and I accidentally click on the ad instead. Also, I noticed the ads between rounds on the results pages. I think its a little excessive to have them between every round and I think it just makes the person annoyed them making them want to click on it. Just my suggestions. Keep up the great work on the site! Reply Quote
Bozenka Joined on 08 nov 2002 Total posts: 108	Re: more and more advertisings giovedì 15 dicembre 2005 23.40 It is changed now. The adverts (or rather links to shops the dancesportinfo.net team developed for other people) appear now on the right hand side. In my opinion it looks less aggressive, do you agree? Reply Quote