Hey folks!
In the past I've talked about implementing ad space. The general consensus was that most didn't care, some was against the idea, and providers supported the idea (for obvious reasons, they'd be the ones advertising). Well, after putting it off for awhile and after getting asked daily from various folks if I'd ever have ad-spots available, I've decided to allow it. Read below on how ad-money will be spent, if you're concerned about that.
For starters, the ads will be served in house. We've made an effort to keep things as local as possible to reduce 3rd party tracking and spying. We've gotten rid of the social media buttons that don't do much good as well as stopped using Google Analytics and replaced it with Piwik, running on it's own server. Serving advertisements will be done the same, with no 3rd party ad-network tracking you or collecting stats. This is good for the visitors, but also good for the advertisers as advertisements will not be blocked by default when visitors browse the site with AdBlockPlus or similar browser plugins. Serving the ads in house and not using an ad-publisher like BuySellAds also allows us to keep costs low, as we don't have to pay 25% to the publisher!
Ad placement will be as follows:
One 728X90 ad will be displayed on the top of every page, with 4 ads in total in rotation.
Four 125X125 ads will be displayed in the sidebar on every page, with 16 ads in total in rotation.
This is what the site will likely look like after ads are implemented: http://i.imgur.com/H1Hz9Wk.png (Take note this is a localized version of vpsboard on my raspberry pi, ads were scraped from WHT / LET for demonstration)
Ad rates will be as follows:
125X125 banners will be sold for $45/mo.
728X90 banners will be sold $100/mo.
With 16 total slots available for the 125X125 banners, this will a single ad visible one out of every page views. With only 4 slots available, the same can be said for the 728X90 banners.
Pageviews and stats:
May 15 - June 15 = 473,453 pageviews | proof
June 16 - July 15 = 759,529 pageviews | proof
July 16 - August 15 = 218,612 pageviews (drama free month) | proof (Also moved to Piwik between the 13th and 14th)
Lately, an average day consists of 6,000 pageviews on a slow day, 8,000~ or so is about normal for the last couple weeks. Keep in mind that the first month we had a TON of activity due to a lot things coming out and lot of drama. Second month we had the SolusVM exploit and the CVPS hack thread and had a TON of activity from Google regarding these things. It's been a drama free month, so things have leveled out.
So, lets crunch some numbers. For the sake of underselling myself here, and not over-promising anything, I'll use just the pageviews recorded for the past month. Even though the report above doesn't include a full month between the 16th of July and the 15th of August, I'll use these numbers for my example.
218,612 divided by 31 = 7,052 (avg pageviews per day)
7,052 divided by 4 = 1,763 (or the number of times your ad will display per day, assuming you buy one top banner ad or one sidebar ad.)
1,763 multiplied by 30 = 52,890 (number of times your ad will be displayed per month based on a 30 day month)
Other sites may promise more pageviews and impressions, but they've also got more ads in rotation and give you less coverage and charge more than twice as much. I'll let you decide if the cost is worth it or not. I'll also guarantee that ad rates will NOT increase within the first three months and no additional ad-slots will be tossed in the mix as has been done by other sites. That means if you buy an ad, I won't just ad more slots devaluing what you just paid for.
But MannDude, why ads? Why not let me give you free stuff instead? How much does vpsBoard cost to run? I can't stand ads!
Why ads? Well, initially I didn't want to have them. I think after being bugged for months from providers asking about ads and me realizing that this place requires a much of time and attention that I figured it'd not be that bad of an idea. The general consensus when the community was asked that most did not care, a few didn't like the idea, but you can't please everyone. I didn't like the idea of donating services to run vpsBoard as that doesn't allow me to choose who I want and trust with the site, and forces me to sort of just take whatever is given. Monetary donations are not a long-term solution, vpsBoard could have received enough donations one month to cover the costs and then the next month get 20% of what I got the month before. That's no good for figuring out what I can and can not afford in regards to running the site.
vpsBoard currently consists of the following:
1X WWW server
1X MySQL server
1X backup server
1X analytic server
1X monitoring server
Sure, these are all VPSes from different providers. (BuyVM, RamNode, Digital Ocean and Tortoise Labs) The cost I can cover out of pocket, but the cost does increase. I run the site on VPSes right now, because well, it's vpsBoard. The IPB license is a semi-annual cost that required renewal, as does certain IPB plugins I've been eyeing (that aren't free, either).
Basically, the money generated from vpsBoard will be re-invested into the site. You can expect things like better ran contests with better prizes, more tutorials and guides as we implement some paid content creators (not deadset on this but interested in implementing it), more features available to the users, etc. The main focus is keeping vpsBoard a quality forum with great content while also growing it.
Questions I've been getting about ads:
When will they be available?
-- Soon. Working on getting everything ready and sorted out first.
Can I pre-order one? Can I reserve one?
-- I've been saying 'No', but now I'm saying, 'Sure'. PM me or hit me up on Skype or IRC.
Are you turning vpsBoard into LET?
-- No, god no. I'm not giving special treatment to anyone, any companies, or using this website to promote anything I do.
Any other questions? Ask! I'll be happy to answer.
In the past I've talked about implementing ad space. The general consensus was that most didn't care, some was against the idea, and providers supported the idea (for obvious reasons, they'd be the ones advertising). Well, after putting it off for awhile and after getting asked daily from various folks if I'd ever have ad-spots available, I've decided to allow it. Read below on how ad-money will be spent, if you're concerned about that.
For starters, the ads will be served in house. We've made an effort to keep things as local as possible to reduce 3rd party tracking and spying. We've gotten rid of the social media buttons that don't do much good as well as stopped using Google Analytics and replaced it with Piwik, running on it's own server. Serving advertisements will be done the same, with no 3rd party ad-network tracking you or collecting stats. This is good for the visitors, but also good for the advertisers as advertisements will not be blocked by default when visitors browse the site with AdBlockPlus or similar browser plugins. Serving the ads in house and not using an ad-publisher like BuySellAds also allows us to keep costs low, as we don't have to pay 25% to the publisher!
Ad placement will be as follows:
One 728X90 ad will be displayed on the top of every page, with 4 ads in total in rotation.
Four 125X125 ads will be displayed in the sidebar on every page, with 16 ads in total in rotation.
This is what the site will likely look like after ads are implemented: http://i.imgur.com/H1Hz9Wk.png (Take note this is a localized version of vpsboard on my raspberry pi, ads were scraped from WHT / LET for demonstration)
Ad rates will be as follows:
125X125 banners will be sold for $45/mo.
728X90 banners will be sold $100/mo.
With 16 total slots available for the 125X125 banners, this will a single ad visible one out of every page views. With only 4 slots available, the same can be said for the 728X90 banners.
Pageviews and stats:
May 15 - June 15 = 473,453 pageviews | proof
June 16 - July 15 = 759,529 pageviews | proof
July 16 - August 15 = 218,612 pageviews (drama free month) | proof (Also moved to Piwik between the 13th and 14th)
Lately, an average day consists of 6,000 pageviews on a slow day, 8,000~ or so is about normal for the last couple weeks. Keep in mind that the first month we had a TON of activity due to a lot things coming out and lot of drama. Second month we had the SolusVM exploit and the CVPS hack thread and had a TON of activity from Google regarding these things. It's been a drama free month, so things have leveled out.
So, lets crunch some numbers. For the sake of underselling myself here, and not over-promising anything, I'll use just the pageviews recorded for the past month. Even though the report above doesn't include a full month between the 16th of July and the 15th of August, I'll use these numbers for my example.
218,612 divided by 31 = 7,052 (avg pageviews per day)
7,052 divided by 4 = 1,763 (or the number of times your ad will display per day, assuming you buy one top banner ad or one sidebar ad.)
1,763 multiplied by 30 = 52,890 (number of times your ad will be displayed per month based on a 30 day month)
Other sites may promise more pageviews and impressions, but they've also got more ads in rotation and give you less coverage and charge more than twice as much. I'll let you decide if the cost is worth it or not. I'll also guarantee that ad rates will NOT increase within the first three months and no additional ad-slots will be tossed in the mix as has been done by other sites. That means if you buy an ad, I won't just ad more slots devaluing what you just paid for.
But MannDude, why ads? Why not let me give you free stuff instead? How much does vpsBoard cost to run? I can't stand ads!
Why ads? Well, initially I didn't want to have them. I think after being bugged for months from providers asking about ads and me realizing that this place requires a much of time and attention that I figured it'd not be that bad of an idea. The general consensus when the community was asked that most did not care, a few didn't like the idea, but you can't please everyone. I didn't like the idea of donating services to run vpsBoard as that doesn't allow me to choose who I want and trust with the site, and forces me to sort of just take whatever is given. Monetary donations are not a long-term solution, vpsBoard could have received enough donations one month to cover the costs and then the next month get 20% of what I got the month before. That's no good for figuring out what I can and can not afford in regards to running the site.
vpsBoard currently consists of the following:
1X WWW server
1X MySQL server
1X backup server
1X analytic server
1X monitoring server
Sure, these are all VPSes from different providers. (BuyVM, RamNode, Digital Ocean and Tortoise Labs) The cost I can cover out of pocket, but the cost does increase. I run the site on VPSes right now, because well, it's vpsBoard. The IPB license is a semi-annual cost that required renewal, as does certain IPB plugins I've been eyeing (that aren't free, either).
Basically, the money generated from vpsBoard will be re-invested into the site. You can expect things like better ran contests with better prizes, more tutorials and guides as we implement some paid content creators (not deadset on this but interested in implementing it), more features available to the users, etc. The main focus is keeping vpsBoard a quality forum with great content while also growing it.
Questions I've been getting about ads:
When will they be available?
-- Soon. Working on getting everything ready and sorted out first.
Can I pre-order one? Can I reserve one?
-- I've been saying 'No', but now I'm saying, 'Sure'. PM me or hit me up on Skype or IRC.
Are you turning vpsBoard into LET?
-- No, god no. I'm not giving special treatment to anyone, any companies, or using this website to promote anything I do.
Any other questions? Ask! I'll be happy to answer.
