User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jan 07, 2020 12:07 pm

Hey Guys,

I've tried to be as transparent about AmigaLove.com and its mission to be a fun, safe place for our Commodore passion since the beginning. And I wanted to let you all know, the site has grown to be a very vibrant and healthy place. I can't tell you how much I look forward to checking out people's projects on a daily basis. I just love it. So - thank you for being here.

For those that don't know, I launched the site in February of 2016, almost 4 years ago. Over the course of time the site has grown immensely in terms of content offerings and other upgrades. And believe me: there are more planned for 2020 I can't wait to get going.

In the middle of 2017 I began to really focus on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I made a few fundamental markup changes in 2018, too, and frankly from pretty early on the results have been quite dramatic and very positive. It also helps that this site is 100% mobile friendly, which makes a huge difference.

Anyway. As we've grown so have some of the costs. And honestly, they aren't that big of a deal. But as the site has grown, it has gotten to a point where I'm pondering putting a display ad somewhere on the site. I have a lot of research to do there, as I don't want to hurt the experience. (Which is impossible, but can be tolerable if you know what I mean.)

My initial thought is to make ads available only for logged out users. If you're a member and logged in, perhaps ads would not appear at all. That way none of you reading this (realistically) would notice a difference - it would mainly affect folks coming in via Google Search.

By doing so, I think I could potentially get to a break-even deal on my server costs. Which, again, are not a big deal but they aren't zero.

Working in the web publishing industry for most of my career I realize that over 20% of all users today are using Ad Blockers. I get it. So what I'm describing wouldn't affect nearly half of the folks on Amigalove as it is, once you eliminate logged-in users. But it might still be worth it.

Lastly, there are further complications I'd have to consider. GDPR (Europe) and CCPA (California) laws might make adding revenue sources not worth my time. But I owe it to my family to at least raise an eyebrow and look into it, if even for a few hours.

At the end of the day, it's very possible nothing will change. But just in case they do, I didn't want anyone freaking out. I'm the site's biggest user and critic, so if I don't like what I see I won't do it.

Cheers,
Eric

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jan 07, 2020 2:50 pm

Going to be doing some experiments with ads. Don't freak out - I'm just trying to learn the potential of some things. Thanks, guys!

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Tue Jan 07, 2020 2:55 pm

Put a Paypal / Patreon / ... sticker on the page and see what happens.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jan 07, 2020 3:03 pm

Hah! I kinda did down in the footer last month (and a man in Austin, Texas, was very generous, to my shock and surprise). But yeah - I didn't want to beat folks over the head or anything. I find this topic sightly embarrassing to begin with. From my back of the napkin calculations I think bargain basement Google Adsense might pull $10-$20 per month, which would cover things entirely. I'm not looking to retire on this or anything. You guys know how it is.

And I'm considering this for the first time, McTrinsic, because I'm looking at possibly expanding things just a bit this year depending on how much time I can realistically devote to the hobby.

User avatar
TenLeftFingers

Posted Sun Jan 12, 2020 2:46 pm

This is the most attractive and mobile friendly Amiga site in the English language. I think people will (or at least should) be understanding that somebody somewhere is paying for all these things.

I can understand that you've made an attractive site and adding ads might chafe with the look, but I think you should at minimum go with your suggestion and put them in place for logged-out users. I wouldn't blame you for having them on full an charging for ad removal either though, even for logged in users.

Keep up the good work.

User avatar
grshaw

Posted Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:56 am

Hi there.

Yes, I would certainly agree. Amiga Love is by far my favourite Amiga Forum. The combination of the friendly atmosphere and the excellent layout make it my go to Forum. ( As you guys may have guessed :D ).

I would agree that you should not be out of pocket intric8. Adding banner advertisements for non logged in users sounds like a reasonable step. If that does not cover your costs, perhaps you should consider a Patreon page?

In any case, I think this forum rocks. It has really come to mean a lot to me over the last year. So, keep up the great work. :D

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:37 pm

As a start, you could place the donate - button somewhere where it can be seen. I had to look explicitely foor it.

The second try to donate went through. I had some PayPal issues on the first try. May have been due to some cookie issues on my mobile phone.

Oh by the way, there is one thing that drives me NUTS here.
When clicking a link, you dont open a new tab.
I'd prefer the other way.

If I close a finally not-so-interesting-tab I realize it was my precious amigalove.com tab and I have to start that again :D.

If that could be changed...

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jan 14, 2020 9:41 am

First off - McTrinsic, thank you so much for your support and contributions. It really means a lot.
When clicking a link, you dont open a new tab.
Are you saying you'd like this following behavior? If a user clicks a link inside a post, that link spawns a new tab in the browser window? You wouldn't find that annoying on your phone?

I can certainly look into it if that behavior is something folks would appreciate and value. I actually think it wouldn't be too hard to implement.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jan 14, 2020 10:26 am

Update: I found a quick way to implement opening links in new tabs but I think it will only apply to new links, not old ones, which will make the behavior a little janky around here. I'll keep investigating.

User avatar
frootloop69

Posted Tue Jan 14, 2020 1:02 pm

Hi,

Totally understand if you need to use ads etc to fund this site. Just wanted to say the the donate button shows up right at the bottom of the page - outside the default view able screen area for most user I would imagine. Perhaps consider moving the button to the top menu? I would have donated earlier if I'd seen the button :) Happy to contribute towards my favourite Amiga site!





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