Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I've removed all ad network code from my blog

troyhunt.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 336 posts

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#151

Post by bazillion »

dingo_bat wrote: post #142
bazillion wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built what I believe to be the most sane way to "advertise" something: Let people buy directly from an image. This solves the problem of people not interested in the content, because of its unobtrusive nature -- if they don't hover over an item within the image, it's as if the "advertisement" isn't there. Check out my demo (desktop only) at http://www.worldlifestyle.com/testpost My website which you can sign up for…

I feel kind of stupid but your demo link just shows me a blog about different workouts and it just shows regular images and gifs with no hover effects. Is it supposed to work on chrome? Edit: same behavior on edge.

Try going to https://www.theskinnyconfidential.com/2016/10/28/thehangover... -- the publisher disabled the PLEENQ script tag on the worldlifestyle demo page.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#152

Post by ensignavenger »

coldpie wrote: post #61
JStanton617 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what an ad network is

Yeah. The problem with current ad networks is twofold. One is advertisers require metrics, metrics require some form of tracking or JS, and advertisers don't trust the ad networks to give accurate metrics, so they require the ability to embed their own JS. This is where you get the app store redirects and malware. Two, ad networks are scummy as shit and don't do any auditing so long as advertisers are willing to pay.…

I don't think advertisers need all of the tracking crap they seem to think they do, for many decades advertisers have had much less tacking ability and the industry thrived. Even without ad network JavaScript, you get more tracking ability on the web than any other medium, because you can give each ad a unique URL, and once you have a click from that URL , you have the prospect on you own site and can track the results. Prospect bounces almost immediately? Well, that wasn't very successful- prospect buys your product/service- success! Prospect spends 15 minutes on your site, reading several articles? Not so bad. What do I need from the publisher that ad network JavaScript provides?

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#153

Post by andybak »

alkonaut wrote: post #26
andybak wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You have an unsustainable business model. You have an unsustainable business model given current available technical solutions that meet your ethical criteria. That's quite different.

Well, yes, it's unsustainable in the current about-to-die system of online advertising. I'm pretty sure that the death of online advertising as we know it will take a ton of small time sites down with it. That's sad in many cases, but unavoidable. Once advertising is back to a sustainable model, e.g. one where advertisers will pay reasonable money for displaying non-targeted non-tracking image ads - the possibility t…

I think that the minute it looks like online advertising is dying somebody will spot a gap in the market and create a less odious network. There probably already is a few. We just need to keep up the pressure and awareness. For me - serving malware is unforgivable - and something we can all get behind no matter where we stand on the more nuanced issues around tracking and personalization.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#154

Post by busterarm »

phkahler wrote: post #116
busterarm wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had to pick between relative anonymity and ads, I would pick anonymity every time. I'd love for the internet to go full São Paulo. Don't care what services I have to lose or pay for in the process either.

I would pick anonymity many times, and it can be achieved as a feature. But once you start out anonymous it's really hard to add verifiable identity to that. In other words is easy to strip identity but hard to establish it.

The US military has done a pretty good job of this via the Common Access Card. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Access_Card

The great part about a system like that is that it's up to the user whether they want to participate in something like that or not. Anonymity truly would be by default. If you're using your card, you can assume everything you're doing is tracked.

I'm sure some service providers would make it an access requirement, but then it's up to the market to decide.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#155

Post by ProAm »

fiatjaf wrote: post #4

Ok, you have a sponsorship model that works because you're probably very famous. That doesn't solve anyone's problem, because almost no one is famous. How can we replace ad networks with something better and saner?

> How can we replace ad networks with something better and saner?

you answered this yourself, get famous. Put enough effort and quality into your work to not need ads.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#156

Post by russell_h »

bazillion wrote: post #150
bazillion wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built what I believe to be the most sane way to "advertise" something: Let people buy directly from an image. This solves the problem of people not interested in the content, because of its unobtrusive nature -- if they don't hover over an item within the image, it's as if the "advertisement" isn't there. Check out my demo (desktop only) at http://www.worldlifestyle.com/testpost My website which you can sign up for…

Oops guys! It looks like the publisher temporarily removed the PLEENQ script tag from that page. Go to https://www.theskinnyconfidential.com/2016/10/28/thehangover... for a better example. This is actually a real client's page, and shows how some websites use PLEENQ.

Neat.

One suggestion: intuitively I felt like I needed to click on the popovers instead of on the underlying image. Permitting the user to move the mouse over the popover and click that as well might increase effectiveness for those who haven't seen this before.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#157

Post by downandout »

bazillion wrote: post #145
downandout wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI it appears to do nothing on an iPad, since there is no concept of "hovering". Haven't tested on a phone either, which could be a problem with the high tablet/mobile penetration these days.

I have it disabled for all mobile/touch type platforms. The demo will only work on desktop, unfortunately. I'll be enabling the mobile version(s) of the plugin, once I finish testing them out and creating a way for each website to choose which functionality type it wants to use on its page.

I'll definitely be watching for updates. The best ideas for increasing revenue on websites are usually a marriage of coding and real-world analysis of user intent and actions. This is a great example of that.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#159

Post by bazillion »

tiles wrote: post #131
bazillion wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built what I believe to be the most sane way to "advertise" something: Let people buy directly from an image. This solves the problem of people not interested in the content, because of its unobtrusive nature -- if they don't hover over an item within the image, it's as if the "advertisement" isn't there. Check out my demo (desktop only) at http://www.worldlifestyle.com/testpost My website which you can sign up for…

I'm not seeing anything. Hovering over images doesn't work for me on any browser; what should I be trying?

The publisher just disabled the tag on the page. Please go to: https://www.theskinnyconfidential.com/2016/10/28/thehangover...
Post reply on HN