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HT Forum Main Page Ad Clutter

post #1 of 23
2/28/05 at 5:25am
Thread Starter 
What happened to the HT Forum Main Page ? It seems like recently it has been "overrun" by advertisements to the point I find it "too much in your face" and too hard to find the reason why I come here - Home Theater advise !

SO much today in the media today is advertising overload I would hope that this Forum would keep the site easy to navigate and keep the "clutter" to a more organized format. Just a "contructive rant" because I can not find my way to the Forum part easy like before.

I know the advertisers pay for the cost for the site hosting but I would come more often if it wasn't so "in your face". Many times I try and the page takes very long to load and I have Roadrunner with 5 MG bandwidth !!
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post #2 of 23
2/28/05 at 6:21am
Quote:
Just a "contructive rant" because I can not find my way to the Forum part easy like before.


From the forum index page, all I had to do was tap the PgDn key TWICE and, I reached the forum list. Is it really so much effort?
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post #3 of 23
2/28/05 at 10:06am
deleted
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post #4 of 23
2/28/05 at 10:32am
Quote:
i can't think of when's the last time i actually saw the main htf page.

Couple more members like you and we
could just close up shop.

Why do people insist on dodging pages
that actually help support a forum that
provides FREE information?

We have been begging all of you to help
us by visiting the Main Forum page first
rather than bypassing it.

Posts like the above don't help our cause.
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post #5 of 23
2/28/05 at 10:58am
I can feel your frustration Ron. Even though it has only been a week, has the HTF Mall been showing any significant signs of prosperity? I visit HTF every day and I always hit the Mall once. Of course it is usually to peruse SVS B-Stock .

I am hoping that long standing guys like Ted, though they are not visiting the main page, are at least strolling through the Mall.

Gods Love
chris
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post #6 of 23
2/28/05 at 11:29am
Quote:
Posts like the above don't help our cause.
wow...

don't get me wrong ron, i did check out the main page when it first came online....i even remember you posting your announcement about it. the only reason i don't go to it now is because i don't find anything of interest there, i don't buy my electronics online, etc.

i've supported all your fund drives, i checked out htf mall (even complemented on the design in another post), and constantly refer new people to this website.

just because i'm not buying from your links doesn't mean i don't try to support your cause here. in any case, i've deleted my original post.

edit - thanks chris.
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post #7 of 23
2/28/05 at 12:22pm
Ron: I hate to repeat myself, but I think my point is valid. I don't think many members realize that just visiting the portal page actually helps support the HTF--even without clicking on any of the ads.

Even as someone who followed the discussion here in "Help & Feedback", I wasn't sure that was the case until I asked a week or so ago. Since then, I have changed my desktop link to the portal page and hit it on my way through to other places everytime I log onto the HTF. This now means several more hits each day just from my own traffic.

However, I don't think too many members stop in "Help & Feedback" to learn about this. Is there any practical way the forum could educate its membership on this subject? Somekind of forum-wide announcement or e-mail? While you might feel you're banging your head against the wall, I would guess active membership also fluctuates meaning there are new members who don't know this very easy way they can help you & Parker pay the bills.

I have been contemplating the addition of a small mention in the Weekly RoundUp that I do over in "Coupons and Bargains". But, I also don't want to overstep my bounds. Its a thread which gets a few thousand hits each week...but I fear much of it is repeat traffic. LMK.
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post #8 of 23
2/28/05 at 1:31pm
Quote:
I don't think many members realize that just visiting the portal page actually helps support the HTF--even without clicking on any of the ads.
really? see...i didn't realize that either. heck, if all it takes is to click on the *main* forum page, then i'm all for that.

i really wasn't aware...my apologies (although i still say ron's reply was a bit harsh).

ted
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post #9 of 23
2/28/05 at 10:21pm
Actually if you use a browser like Mozilla you can put the home page and forums homepage bookmarks toolbar folder and open both simultaneous thru the open all folder links (I hate to say it but I don't visit the homepage but do click some of the banner links every now and then to help support the site). I have steered a few friends to buy from some of the sponsors due to the fact I want to keep a good site going.
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post #10 of 23
3/1/05 at 3:02am
Guys,

Appreciate the support you are giving.

We are going to post something at the top
of the forum page to alert members of the
importance of visiting the main page.

Our eventual hope is to add news content to
that page.
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post #11 of 23
3/5/05 at 9:58pm
I just want to make an addendum that I have, indeed, dedicated a section of this week's Weekly RoundUp over in Coupons and Bargains to raising awareness on the importance of logging-in via the Portal Page.

I hope it is worded to your satisfaction, Parker & Ron. And I hope it enlightens more HTF users to help create more revenue for the forum.
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post #12 of 23
3/5/05 at 10:54pm
Mike:

We can use all the help we can get.

Thanks,
Parker
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post #13 of 23
8/24/05 at 7:50am
Sorry to revist an old topic.

I do not visit the main page.

I would rather you just charged for membership and removed the majority of the ads, or provided an ad-free alternative with payment, like several other sites do.

Ads in general tend to rot me, so I would likely sign up.
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post #14 of 23
10/9/05 at 1:46pm
Agreed. I am actually visiting the forum a lot less frequently because of all the ads. I no longer visit several times a day like I once did. Now I vist less than once a week. It would be nice if one could purchase an "upgraded" account and get the ability to browse the forums with out seeing the ads. ezboard did that a few years ago and generated a lot of revenue by allowing people to purchse gold accounts. I know vB3 has the ability to do that. I heard you are upgrading to 3.5 next week, so that is good news.
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post #15 of 23
12/30/05 at 6:58am
I think all these ads are ridiculus imo. The Home Page sucks and probably scares more people away than invites them. I mean when you first visit the page you see the smallest site logo on the whole page. If it werent for the domain name you wouldnt even know what the hell website your at.

Secondly when you want to get money out of someone the best way is NOT to stuff advertising in their face. In fact you get people more angry that way and probably make them not donate at all.

Third I agree with what was said above, have a premium membership where ads arent displayed if you pay so and so much a year.
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post #16 of 23
1/18/06 at 1:30am
What's wrong with a single banner than rotates through various ads as you navigate around the site? When I come here now, the page looks like some kind of spam haven. The site is hard to use because forum navigation elements have ads attached to them. It takes forever to find the option I want to click. Perhaps this is why I very rarely visit anymore. At least seperate the navigation from the ads. You can make a well-designed site with advertising - this is not it.
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post #17 of 23
1/18/06 at 6:39pm
Adam:

I am not sure what you are referring when you say to "seperate the navigation from the ads". We have single banners that rotate through all the advertisers in two different sizes.

There are navigation links in the toolbars to take you to different areas of the forum.

We are really doing the best we can in that many different vendors want you to use popup ads, popover ads, popunder ads that display when you close the browser down or with each page that you navigate through. This is the best compromise that we could come up with but we have lost advertisers because few people that come to this site frequent the vendors we have and they drop advertising with us because they cannot justify paying us ad dollars when they get no sales. Ads dollars are what make the site stay free by paying for our bandwidth, etc.

Membership fees would just drive people away because there are plenty of other sites on the net they can go to that they don't have to pay a fee. Advertisers wouldn't want to advertise with us if they felt that their ads could be bypassed there again generating no sales for their ad dollars.

Yes, the main portal page has ads on it but there is also information on recent threads, our most recent DVD reviews, etc.

As I said we are trying to provide a site that has a balance between what vendors want and still a site that you use for free.
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post #18 of 23
1/18/06 at 10:24pm
Actually, I am very familiar with running advertisements in order to keep a site running, as I run a site that has thousands of forum users and gets millions of hits a month. But a bunch of clutter is not going to help, IMHO.


Here's what the top of a typical forum page on your site looks like right now:


There are navigational links all around the ads, which is a bit distracting both for using the forum links, and for reading the ad.



Why not split them up and make them look something like this:


You can rotate ads of different sizes in the one box. If advertising is so important to pay for bandwidth, is it really cost effective to have 5 or more banners load per page, when I can only click one of them anyway? And if I can navigate around the site faster, I'll end up loading more pages, which will increase ad impressions anyway...
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post #19 of 23
1/19/06 at 12:50am
Thanks for the suggestions.

Parker
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post #20 of 23
1/19/06 at 11:36am
Quote:
If advertising is so important to pay for bandwidth, is it really cost effective to have 5 or more banners load per page, when I can only click one of them anyway?


That all depends on who is hosting the banner images being served and whether the banners are CPM or CPC.
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post #21 of 23
1/19/06 at 12:10pm
It appears that all (or most) of the images are hosted on images.hometheaterforum.com, so this site is paying for that bandwidth.

Anyway, it is an excellent forum and resource for me, so I'll continue to visit, even with all the ads. I run ads on my own site too. It's a fact of life for running a popular website these days.
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post #22 of 23
1/19/06 at 3:46pm
Adam:

I have taken your suggestions into consideration and modified a couple of the pages.

Thanks for the suggestions and the kudos on the forum.
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post #23 of 23
1/28/06 at 2:26pm
Quote:
we have lost advertisers because few people that come to this site frequent the vendors we have and they drop advertising with us because they cannot justify paying us ad dollars when they get no sales.
This is certainly a tough challenge.

Are there any opportunities for advertising from mainstream companies, such as Amazon? No offense to the supportive vendors here at HTF, but I mostly shop the large, mainstream stores both B&M and online. The boutique offerings advertised here hold little interest to me. I suspect I represent the majority of your membership.

Are there affiliate programs that could provide additional revenue? I've bought a few hundred dollars in miscellaneous books in the past few months. If I could have bought them via an affiliate link with HTF, I would have got my books and HTF would have earned a bit more in advertising.
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