Advertising Revenue

[twincitizen]

How come ads only show up when you aren't logged in?

I mean, Chris Fields for Congress is great and everything but I want UrbanMSP to take his money even when I'm logged in.

I suspect most of us are logged in all the time and never see the ads. I only notice them when I visit from a work or school computer. I don't find them all that intrusive and I want the site to earn enough money to cover operations.

On that note, what does the funding picture look like, as far as revenues versus expenditures? Do you need donations?

[Nick]

We're doing okay money wise right now. I think Shawn can speak to the specifics of that a little more. It seems like we eat up quite a lot of bandwidth and in the future we may have to do something about that. Small ads when logged in is a good idea.

[Shawn]

Yessir, so at the moment we are recouping our costs with the current ads (At least I think so...we'll see on Oct. 31st). I don't foresee that continuing indefinitely, however, seeing as there are always limits to "unlimited" bandwidth. We started at a few gigs a day and have gone up significantly so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

With that said, you may see some test advertisements in the coming weeks & months for logged in users. Either in-text ads (1 or 2 at most), ads after the first post of threads, or top banner ads as there are currently for guests. We'll try to keep you up to date with everything.

We do appreciate you asking!

[Shawn]

Testing some new things - please let us know if you see anything you like or dislike. Also, if there are specific ads or specific companies whose advertisements are particularly annoying I'm happy to block them. Thanks

[seanrichardryan]

Dislike the underlined keyword advertising. Who would actually click on that stuff??

The banner ads are okay, but they only seem to advertise Asian and Ukrainian dating sites...

[Tyler]

The banner ads are okay, but they only seem to advertise Asian and Ukrainian dating sites...

Must be based on browser history...

[Shawn]

Haha I wasn't going to say it...glad you did.

[seanrichardryan]

Hmm, it was a shared work computer.

[Tyler]

Ohh shit, we work in the same office?

[Shawn]

You guys shouldn't be able to see the in-text ads anymore(double underlined words), is that correct?

[ECtransplant]

You guys shouldn't be able to see the in-text ads anymore(double underlined words), is that correct?

Correct. Thanks. I agree, they were awful.

[Nick]

I just floated another Facebook ad. In theory, I don't want the views to come from people already on the site, but hey if you see it, lemme know.

Disclaimer: I know it's a waste of money, but I'd already set it up after misinterpreting a coupon Facebook sent Shawn...it was to sponsor posts in the newsfeed, not run actual ads. But I did purdy well at Treasure Island this weekend and am feeling like a high roller still, so I switched it to active.

[Nick]

If anyone's curious about this...

[Nick]

^That's the Facebook ad campaign stats, btw.

[seanrichardryan]

$10 per like, and one of those was from me.

[mplsjaromir]

Thats a nice Social CTR.

[Nick]

Thats a nice Social CTR.

We're getting over 1% for the sponsored stories. Has anyone seen those? I've seen some pop up in my newsfeed which is kinda cool. I saw that a Downtown Journal reporter liked our FB page.

[Andrew_F]

^ I see them in my news feed pretty often.


Is there any way to block certain advertisers? When I check the forum at work I often do it without logging in, and I've noticed a bunch of ads for trashy dating sites-- the kind with the slutty amateur photos. I assume I'm not the only one annoyed by these when browsing as a guest.

[seanrichardryan]

Yep, mostly trashy dating sites, even when logged on.

[Nick]

Ha, when I have Pandora up at work, the ad is usually a busty blonde woman for Adam and Eve.com. I don't generally access the site from a browser with ads (mobile phone during the day, Firefox with adblocker at night) but we can definitely see what we can do when Shawn gets back from his trip. One thing he and I had discussed was approaching some developers directly and seeing if they wanted to buy banner ads we would just permanently have up there for whatever set amount of time. The site will usually pop up in the first page if you do a Google search for a lot of local projects. Usually below Minnescraper, which is funny to think that a dead site is still showing up higher in search results.