Pop-up ads on photo.net?

I just got a full-sized pop-up ad for Nokia. Was this a quirk, or is

this the way we are going in order to raise/make money for the site?

It isn't a pop-up. It is called an interstitial ad, in that it appears between pages. It is just a regular photo.net page, with a photo.net header, etc, which is displayed instead of the page you were clicking through to. You have to click again on the link at the bottom of the page (or just do a refresh) to get to the page you wanted. This type of ad is "exposure-limited" in that you will see at most one instance of that format per day. In fact, at present it is set up so that you see it only once for the entire two week Nokia N90 campaign, but depending on how things go, you might see it a few more times, although not more than once per day.

 

By the way, if you hadn't been reacting negatively to seeing the large format, you might have noticed that it is an ad for the Nokia N90, a very interesting new cell-phone with a 2 megapixel digital camera with a Zeiss lens. We are very happy to have a prestigious advertiser like Nokia sponsoring the site, announcing such a breakthrough product.

I just got it. and my dad walked in the room because I yelled "WHAT THE FUCK" out loud.

 

Not happy about this. HOw much more money do I need to donate to make this go away.

Well, Brian, after destroying about a hundred alien ships and saving the entire earth by myself on the Sony ad, I'm feeling pretty good about myself.

When did you save the earth Lannie? I'm trying to figure out where that ad is coming from so I can switch it off. I haven't seen it myself all day.

 

Some ads, like the Nokia ad, are the result of direct relationships we have with the advertiser or a their ad agency. Other ads, like the Sony PSP ad, come from ad networks. We work with two ad networks, and I'm having a bit of difficulty figuring out which of the two is serving the Sony ad.

i haven't seen any of these yet. maybe it is because i have my browsers set to block pop ups and an additional popupstopper. but i wouldn't really have a problem with the need to have ads to pay for the site. i am finding it more and more valuable...small price to pay. (and i am a subscriber under the name quichelorraine...i somehow locked myself out of that name when i was trying to change my email address and so re-registered.) i do intend to renew my subscription even tho in the past i have been a bit grouchy about certain things (~_") all in all it is a very good resource.

If the ads are flash based you can disable them with this program.

That should have read SpywareBlaster!

Gosh, Brian, I sort of hate to see it go:

 

http://cdn.fastclick.net/adserver.com/10002/nbi/mid7179/spacefighters_psp_10hit_728.swf

The Nokia ad is more than I can stand... logging out

Well, at least glad I'm not nuts - went here to ask about it, was beaten to it.

 

Instead of "What the f***," though, I believe I audibly remarked, "Jumpin' Jeebus in a chicken basket!"

 

This drew no attention from my father at all (likely because he died many years ago).

But I very much hope you don't block the ads. If most people run ad-blocking software, web sites like this will fold very quickly, and then there won't be any web sites like this.

 

photo.net receives two thirds of its revenue from advertising sponsors, and only one third from subscriptions. When people turn off the ads, I wonder how they reckon the bandwidth they are using gets paid for, to mention only one of the costs associated with running a site like this. If the person isn't a subscriber and blocks ads, he is a free-rider, in my view. If he rationalizes it by supposing that I am getting rich from this, or anyone else from photo.net for that matter -- well, he needs to come up with a better rationalization.

Hey, if you are guys are still steamed about these ads, kill some aliens and save both earth and PN. You'll feel better.

It doesn't really bother me as some ads are funny.However if you see the Crazy Frog one it makes me feel REALLY BLOOMING ANGRY! Must contain rage....!

BTW SpywareBlaster is there to block SPYWARE AND NOT ADS!

 

So stop trying to insult people.

I really don't mind banners on any page, as long as they don't make noise. But when I click a link and instead of getting the thread I want I get a full page ad for an over priced cell phone that's gonna break no more than 6 months after I buy it, I get a little pissy.

What are you doing with your cell phones? Mine never break. Become obsolete after a year or two, sure. But break, no. The only broken one I have is the old one we gave my two-year old son because he loves cell phones. But he likes the one we got at Marshall's much better. It plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

I use my cell phone ALOT. they always get ragged out.

I know I might be labelled as a freeloader, but I'm glad I use Privoxy. At the same time I'm more than willing to pay a 2x or 3x annual subscription to offset my freeloader-ness (and I try to do so on my own despite the lack of facilities for such an action). But is there any way that we *could* have the option of seeing no ads at all for a given rate? I guess if photo.net makes too much money using these I'll just keep using Privoxy (well, I'll probably never stop anyway) and just send in a 2x-3x subscription fee. I really do want to help keep this site afloat, I just don't want to see ads.

 

Now if we can just make non-paying members see triple the ads that would be some mighty fine just desserts. :)

I got it too. It's annoying. There's also a large animated Nokia ad on the Home Page.

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I can accept it if it's necessary to fund the site, but I can't pretend I like it - but then I suppose nobody ever likes advertising when it's noticable, and if it's not noticable, it's not effective.

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If technically possible it would be nice to show it twice as often to non-subscribers and not show it to subscribers at all, thus killing two birds with one stone (encouraging people to subscribe and given subscribers something extra for their subscrition, while keeping the same number of impressions - perhaps even generating more impressions since non-subscribers outnumber subscribers). I realize that this may not be easy to do. It wouldn't be a bad longer term goal though.<div></div>

<p><em>By the way, if you hadn't been reacting negatively to seeing the large format, you might have noticed that it is an ad for the Nokia N90, a very interesting new cell-phone with a 2 megapixel digital camera with a Zeiss lens. We are very happy to have a prestigious advertiser like Nokia sponsoring the site, announcing such a breakthrough product.</em></p><p>"We"? Hands up all the people who are happy to have large, unsolicited graphics advertising <em>any</em> "breakthrough product" on this site.</p><p>Oh, and do you seriously think that the "Zeiss" on a lens affects the photos made by a cellphone? I guess Nokia thinks that the gullible do, which is why they pay Tamron (or so I'm credibly informed) more for "Zeiss" lenses than they'd pay for "Tamron" lenses or (dare I even mention the possibility?) unbranded lenses.</p><p>My suggestion: get more people to pay for subscriptions. My suggestion on how not to get more people to pay for subscriptions: throw more advertising junk at them.</p>

Thanks for the suggestion, Peter. Gosh, why didn't I think of that?

It really would be splendid if subscribers were not subjected to the ads.

Very annoying. I got the Nokia ad on the first forum thread I clicked on today. Give the ads to the freeloaders. The subscribers are already supporting the site. Now I will never buy anything from Nokia. That'll teach 'em...

Just what I came here to say .. please disable such large and intrusive ads for subscribers. I know the economics of running a web site are dicey, I have a few, which is why I had no reservations at all about paying a reasonable membership fee.

 

I hate sites that try to depend on advertising revenue. Tasteful ads don't bring in enough money, so pop-ups, pop-unders, interstitial ads are introduced, which drives away visitors, which means the site ends up shoveling even more ads at the remaining visitors until advertising takes up most of the screen space. Tom's Hardware Guide is an example of a useful site that went down the toilet chasing ad revenue.

 

I know photo.net is already using Google Adsense and a couple of retailer referral programs, so I guess all I can suggest is maybe the Amazon and ebay referral programs would help? I would be happy to contribute book reviews, and maybe it wouldn't be too hard to add a link from each Equipment page saying e.g. "search eBay for Pentax 645".