Google AdSense?

What do you want to see here? Some more categories, forums, and mods? Hmm...
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Tank Program
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Google AdSense?

Post by Tank Program »

I was thinking of trying to expand the forums to more of a community based site with news about current development, map downloads, and possibly even member sites. But, the first step would be to get a proper domain. I was thinking along the lines of armagetronad.net but I don't really have the money to get one myself. I'm just wondering if anyone would mind some google ads at the bottom of the page. Just in the odd hope that they'd get clicked everynow and then you know... I understand that many of you are going through some rough times financially, or just have families to provide for, which is why I don't want to ask for donations. People like seeker need to start saving now for the ever rising cost of tuition...

Anywho, just asking peoples opinions.
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Luke-Jr
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Post by Luke-Jr »

In some templates, you have empty space near the top of the page that an ad or two can fit into...
ishAdmin
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Post by ishAdmin »

a domain name is like 8 bux a year? is that a financial problem for you?

My own feeling is that a donation button is a much better idea. With google ads, you don't really get that much. And google gets a lot of what is earned. With a donation to you comes the warm feeling of helping the community, and the knowledge that *you* get most of it. Those who can afford to help will, those who can't shall have no guilt.

So what do you say guys? I think tank should stick up a paypal donation button to help cover some of his costs. He can always take it down once he's there. Who's with me?
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Luke-Jr
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Post by Luke-Jr »

ishAdmin wrote:a domain name is like 8 bux a year? is that a financial problem for you?

My own feeling is that a donation button is a much better idea. With google ads, you don't really get that much. And google gets a lot of what is earned. With a donation to you comes the warm feeling of helping the community, and the knowledge that *you* get most of it. Those who can afford to help will, those who can't shall have no guilt.

So what do you say guys? I think tank should stick up a paypal donation button to help cover some of his costs. He can always take it down once he's there. Who's with me?
Sticking AdSense on the bottom would also allow people who can't afford it to make a small 'donation'... though I'm sure Google wouldn't like that reason for a click ;)
If the donations cover AA site costs and such, instead of taking it down, perhaps it could be used to upgrade servers or split among devs or future costs or something.
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Tank Program
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Post by Tank Program »

ishAdmin wrote:a domain name is like 8 bux a year? is that a financial problem for you?
Considering I have no viable source of income, and have to ask my parents for everything...
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Post by ishAdmin »

As a side topic, have you considered using your programming skills to earn some bucks?

http://www.rentacoder.com is a place where you can cruise the projects and bid on them. You can pick the ones you are confident you can do, and start small. You name it, it's there in terms of projects.

Just a thought.

I'd rather see the donation button than google ads, but you gotta do what you feel comfortable with. I just don't believe google ads will get you anything in your pocket.
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Post by Lucifer »

Rentacoder is a good resource, but you'll be competing with Indians. Hard to do from the US, I expect it to be harder from the EU right now. Not that you couldn't hack it, and you're not after a "standard of living", you're after part time work, so you would probably do well. :) (If you don't mind selling your code, that is)

As for the Google Ads vs Donation Button, I can already tell you neither one is going to generate enough money to register a domain and keep it registered. Assuming you use No-ip's service (which I highly recommend), that's about $35/year to keep your domain. Of course, you get with it the ability to point it anywhere you want anytime because it's hosted on no-ip's dns servers, so there is some real benefit to any added costs that are there.

On my regular website I pull enough donations + ads to cover operating costs. Or at least I did before I killed my globat account. I should be pulling a small profit now. My operating costs are now only the $35/year domain registration. Previously it was $35 + $79/year web hosting. I'm counting the $20/year mail server in my home expenses, but technically, since it's associated with the domain it should count for my website expenses, bringing the current total to $55/year, down from $114/year.

If you want more detail on the google ads thing we'll really have to go more private for it in case Google reads this forum and kills my account. The thing is, forums are dynamic in nature, so every page is different and changing. The problem this causes with Google ads is that they can't track the results or the success of the ads themselves. If you had regular solid content (like my website, since it's a blog without the stupid blogging part), then you're fine, only the pages that change a lot will be penalized, and you could exclude the ads from it.

There are other ad networks, but the only one I found reputable enough that I wanted to associate myself with was Burst!, with the rest throwing up popup and popunder ads all over the place. Burst!, however, requires that you be a private company operating for profit. You might ask them if they'd take these forums, but you should be prepared to show 1000 unique visitors a day (or is it a month? I think it's 1000/day).

I'm with ish, a donation button is most likely for you, but rentacoder is a good place for you to start building a reputation. It could easily turn into regular freelance work when you move out on your own, and I can testify from personal experience that self-employment is the way to go, especially if you're going to college. :)
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Post by Matrox »

Lucifer wrote: Assuming you use No-ip's service (which I highly recommend), that's about $35/year to keep your domain. Of course, you get with it the ability to point it anywhere you want anytime because it's hosted on no-ip's dns servers, so there is some real benefit to any added costs that are there.
What's wrong with, registering with godaddy. Getting your domain name for, $8.95 per year. If i was going to spend more money on a domain name, i would register with eNOM. They seem to have more advanced features than godaddy and alot of other domain name registars.

If you were to go with google ads, then i for one wouldn't see them. Google ads, have been added to my hosts file. If i ever come across an ad, that hasn't been blocked and i consider it to be an eyesore then i block it with firefox ad-block.

In my opinion, the option to make a donation is the way to go. I know a few sites that i visit offer rewards (if you donate) such as vip access. The ability to get into more forum areas or been able to access more parts of a website. If you have some extra content, that you could use this in this way?. It may be an option for you.

However, you have do what you think wil be best for the site, its future and the situation you're in. I've not heard of rentacoder, it looks like it could be a good opportunity for you.

I hope that you manage, to sort something out..... :wink:
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Tank Program
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Post by Tank Program »

The rentacoder thing looks interesting, and I see your points about the AdSense. I'll think about it.
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Post by philippeqc »

Ok, so we are talking of an amount ranging from 10 to 40 USD here. What is wrong with 8 donations of 5$?

z-man must be pulling the big student loans bucks for his master/doctorate: 5$
k and klax are, I think, pulling the big engineer bucks: 5$ + 5$
me who is pulling the big testers bucks: 5$
iceman who cant affort a computer that would beat an ENIAC in a game of chess: 0$
ishAdmin, Matrox,and the rest can surely lift the cussions of their sofas and find enough loose change there for a donation, 5$ + 5$ + .....

Yes, I know that being free, this game draws in many students and unemployed people. I was one of them. Let them keep their 5$ so they can affort the luxury of a non brand-name cereal box once in a while.

But for the rest, 5$ is nothing. Its the quarther of the sum required for you (8$) and your sweety (8$) to be at the movies (4$ of pop corn, soda and candy). And I'm sure you've gotten more than 90 minutes of enjoyement from this site and game.

Give generously ;)

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Post by ishAdmin »

Although I have about 40 grand in debt, (not including my house), and a sporadic income from website design & hosting, I know I could push 5 bux your way without it impacting on me. Hell, I'd even buy the domain name for you and claim it as a business expense. I also run my own nameserver and could point it anywhere you like. But I digress ...

A simple donation button can have the amount left empty, so people can put what they want in there. No guilt for those who are too broke. And I wouldn't reveal the amounts anyone donated. I might not even reveal the names if I were you. I believe in giving without a pat on the back.

About registrars, I've had some problems with eNom. I personally won't recommend them anymore. I don't want to get into the details, but the end result was they more or less hyjacked a domain name. Godaddy has always been good to me though, I can't recommend them enough.
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Post by Luke-Jr »

Lucifer wrote:As for the Google Ads vs Donation Button, I can already tell you neither one is going to generate enough money to register a domain and keep it registered.
Depends on who donates.
Lucifer wrote:Assuming you use No-ip's service (which I highly recommend), that's about $35/year to keep your domain.
That's insanely expensive. $10/year is the most I'd ever pay for a domain...
Lucifer wrote:Of course, you get with it the ability to point it anywhere you want anytime because it's hosted on no-ip's dns servers, so there is some real benefit to any added costs that are there.
Nothing special about no-ip's DNS servers. Just set your TTL to 60 on any DNS provider and you're all set. I could probably get a few DNS servers resolving it if needed.
Lucifer wrote:and I can testify from personal experience that self-employment is the way to go, especially if you're going to college. :)
How does college make any difference if you're self-employed? College is completely irrelevant in this circumstance... o.O;;
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Post by Luke-Jr »

philippeqc wrote:Ok, so we are talking of an amount ranging from 10 to 40 USD here. What is wrong with 8 donations of 5$?
Even two $5 donations would cover a year...
philippeqc wrote:z-man must be pulling the big student loans bucks for his master/doctorate: 5$
wtf? lol-- loans are *negative* income, for the most part...
philippeqc wrote:and the rest can surely lift the cussions of their sofas and find enough loose change there for a donation, 5$ + 5$ + .....
Not me, sorry. I can't even afford next month's rent...
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Tank Program
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Post by Tank Program »

You've sold me... I'll look into getting a donation button.
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