Advertisements

[Andy]

In order to cover the cost of hosting (which is a few hundred dollars a year), we've decided to put Google advertisements on YWO. It will be under the last post on each page (look down), so there's only one, and I've done my best to make it not too distracting.

All sorts of sites will be advertised there, so there's a chance a writing scam will appear. I've already blocked some of the worst ones (poetry.com, publishamerica.com), so the odds of a scam appearing should be lessened. If you do see a writing scam being advertised there, please send me a message so I can block that site.

Here's a place I've found to be very informative about scams. There are lots listed, so if you're not sure if a site is a trick or not, I suggest you check there:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22

[Shaun]

Just a note on this, we want this to be temporary, so if we find other options for bringing in funds for hosting costs we'll take the ads down. For now, they're there and we tried to make them as unhindering as possible.

[Imelda]

Blocked by Firefox. :groovy:

Hope you guys still get money off me. :p

Btw, I bought some stuff off the aStore ...

[Andy]

Thank you, Imelda! :pirate:

FYI: Looks like we've got a new friend on the Users Online page: a Google Adsense Spider! According to Google, it's very similar to their normal spider: It travels the internet and adds pages it finds to its search engine. Except it only arrives on pages with ads, apparently.

EDIT: I moved the ads to after the last post on a page. It reduces bandwidth. PM me if you're interested in a lengthy explanation why. ;)

[jordanisonfire]

Heh, they all look like scams to me, so I won't be clicking on that stuff. :P Doesn't bother me much. If it keeps the site up and saves you and Shaun money, then I'm OK with it. :)

[Rafael Domination]

How much does it earn us?

[Shaun]

I don't think we're technically allowed to discuss how much we earn. Andy would have to answer that. It's not a lot, but it does add up.

[Rafael Domination]

Ah...it's confidential staff info.
Got it :D

[Shaun]

No, it's not confidential on our side. Google has very specific rules on what you can and cannot discuss about adsense and I don't know if earnings is one of those things, nor how we earn money either.

[Andy]

Shaun's right. Google prohibits that sort of thing, including discussions of how much is earned. It's not our call.

[Nyx]

It's not distracting at all and if it saves you money, then it's great:D

[Zombified]

I haven't even noticed them.

Hmm...

[Andy]

Great to hear, Nyx!
I haven't even noticed them.

Hmm...
I moved the ads to under the last post on each page. I just fixed the announcement regarding that change.