The Ads don't have it

It's the new ad server from google. The bulk of the ads should be from the site sponsors which are listed in the left column on the front page. There are some additional ads from google and those are targeted to context and personal interests (i.e. google knows where else you go and shows you ads they think are relevant to you - that's not SRP specific and you probably see the same ads on other sites where google serves them).
As google learns more about the site traffic we should be seeing mostly sponsors ads.

Right now the forecasting is based on a couple of days of data only, so I see bursts of this advertiser or that advertiser (including google's own ads) instead of more uniform distribution among the site sponsors. It should start improving after a month.

Of course, if the ads stop being effective, because people are blocking them or not clicking on them, we'll have to find a different way to pay the site bills.
But if you like reading or posting on the site you can help continuing that by occasionally clicking on ads that interest you.

If the ad is SR related, I usually check them out especially if I have a need the advertiser carries. The only time I see ads that are not SR related is when I am on my phone checking posts. As I write this the ad is for SRD which I can understand considering.

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Originally Posted by gugi

It's the new ad server from google. The bulk of the ads should be from the site sponsors which are listed in the left column on the front page. There are some additional ads from google and those are targeted to context and personal interests (i.e. google knows where else you go and shows you ads they think are relevant to you - that's not SRP specific and you probably see the same ads on other sites where google serves them).
As google learns more about the site traffic we should be seeing mostly sponsors ads.

Right now the forecasting is based on a couple of days of data only, so I see bursts of this advertiser or that advertiser (including google's own ads) instead of more uniform distribution among the site sponsors. It should start improving after a month.

Of course, if the ads stop being effective, because people are blocking them or not clicking on them, we'll have to find a different way to pay the site bills.
But if you like reading or posting on the site you can help continuing that by occasionally clicking on ads that interest you.

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I ben getting ebay adds for awesome stuff I put on my watch list or am out bidded on. I like dam no way I going to win this if thousands of
folks are seeing what I am looking at.

I don't know how the targetting of ebay items works. I put a filter on the razors with a lot of the junk removed because I thought that'd be helpful to the newer guys, but I don't know if there is any additional personalization based on things you watch. I've seen on the front ebay page items tailored specifically to me, so they have the ability to do it, but whether it is done in the sidebar I have no idea. They're obsoleting that interface and the one that is replacing it has filtering on only 5 keywords, so may be we'll discontinue that.
It doesn't make sense to show ads for the likes of zee-pk.

I've noticed the ads and the first ones that pop up are from companies I've done business with online 'lately' (Zoro for example) then comes the Gillette ones /Classic Edge etc.

I've saved Zoro's online address as many others so if I need something I know where to go.

The Ads don't bother me. While I'm 99.9% sure that I'll never see anything that I find an interest in hopefully there are others who will to help funds coming in/'if' that is what they indeed do. :shrug:

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Originally Posted by Razorfeld

guitstik, advertising is like fishing. You cast your bait (the ads) and hope someone bites (the fish). The payers of the ads don't care if the target doesn't like them, they just spend more to increase the scope and hope the trolling produces their desired affect. ergo: the tobacco industry.

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I am fairly certain that companies with large advertising budgets would spend a reasonble percentage of it working out their target demographic and the best ways to market their product to them.

The biggest and most successful advertising company is google - most companies (even the small ones) just give them whatever amount they have decided to spend on this type of advertising and google uses the enormous amount of data they hold to target the ads to the people their algorithm deems most profitable.

However, we are a very narrow and focused niche site, and the site sponsors can target directly the people who are most likely to be interested in their products (from the numbers I've seen it's better than going through google's algorithm). Plus some of them do it not just as a business decision (drive up sales and profits) but to support this community.
We do use google's ad server to display these ads because it is simpler and cheaper than running our own ad server. We used a different ad server before, but they are moving to large customers only and the minimum cost to use their ad server is becoming $1000/month which is way out of our league.

As things settle with the new one and google accumulates data on the site traffic the ads should improve and be almost entirely from the site sponsors.

I would think that ad space be allocated to those who actually pay to sell on SRP. I have considered being a seller here but have no idea what the rules are. If I did tho, I would want my presence to be known, especially if I am paying.

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Originally Posted by guitstik

I would think that ad space be allocated to those who actually pay to sell on SRP. I have considered being a seller here but have no idea what the rules are. If I did tho, I would want my presence to be known, especially if I am paying.

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So what you are saying is that the half dozen or so vendors who sell on SRP should entirely fund the running of the site?

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Originally Posted by edhewitt

So what you are saying is that the half dozen or so vendors who sell on SRP should entirely fund the running of the site?

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The site is run on a volunteer basis and the hosting bills (and others for example the cost of shipping for the monthly raffles) are really small compared to all of the unpaid work that goes into running the site. I know that most of it is invisible and I think that that means it's being done fairly well.
At some point we're going to outgrow the current infrastructure (in certain ways it is already inadequate), but so far we've been doing things rather cheaply.
So far finding the necessary funds has never been a problem, and I don't expect this to change even if the expenses and the fundraising may do.