Less Is More

Shagy · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 5

I thing a common mistake that many forums make, especially big forums where a lot of people converse is they have way to much advertising. I think it's important for a forum, especially one that is small and wants to have advertising is to have very few ads, so they dont distract the readers. People don't like to feel like they are being bombarded with advertising, this will only lead to them leaving. What are other peoples advice as to the best way to advertise on a forum?

nielsencl · Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:48 am Post subject:

I would place ads at the end of all the emails that are sent by the forum. If people use post notification, you can send out quite a few emails every day with many ads. I'd just make sure they are at the end of the message, so they stay out of the way. This is also a great place to add some notifications of related posts that the person may not be subscribed to. For example, "Since you are following posts on WEB DESIGN you may also be interested in posts about PHOTOSHOP TRICKS". Something like that or actual thread topics from forums.

Based on what I have been hearing and my own experiences, I would put ads at the ends of pages. People are on forums to read. This means they are less likely to stop reading and click on an ad. Better to put the ads at the ends of posts and threads so they see them when they are thinking about what action to take next. But the only way to really know is to do some testing.

And one tip that I have seen is that if you have LESS Google ads on a page, the amount per click will generally be higher. We went from a 5-ad skyscraper to a 468x90 banner in the middle of a page and saw an increase in the amount per click. Maybe 10-20% more. The number of clicks was about the same.

JPike · Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

There's also the simple but effective method of simply putting some of the smaller ads in your signature, where it doesn't bother people all that much, but they cant really avoid seeing it. You cannot, of course, simply fill your signature to the brim with ads though, people will get annoyed very quickly.

I have also found it useful in the past to put the ads in threads. Have an advertisement thread where people who are really not interested simply do not have to read the thread, where as people that are "in to" the subject matter can read it.

willyable · Joined: 07 Jul 2007 Posts: 5

I think that advertising is a great thing for any website or forum. But they should always stick to having ads where it relates to the forum. It just makes more sense to me. I think over time they should have more ads but I really don't think they should start off that way. ITs more like a give and take situation.

BlackWatch · Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 17

swansont · Joined: 31 May 2008 Posts: 5

I couldn't agree w/ you more. Having a lot of advertise on a forum can really draw away readers, and members. I think this is because people are looking for a community and not a place where its just a site to make money. It draws their eyes away from the actual content which can be very dangerous.

I think having subtle ads is fine but big flashing banners on a small forum isn't going to work.

Great point!