Ironically, I use Marco's Instapaper to avoid being inconvenienced by ads. Of course, you have to load the page once in Safari to send it to Instapaper, so technically, the website made its money, but afterwards, I can sit down and read it at my leisure on Instapaper. Or have it read to me. Food for thought. More or less the same thing can be achieved within Safari using the Reader mode.
Ironically, I use Marco's Instapaper to avoid being inconvenienced by ads. Of course, you have to load the page once in Safari to send it to Instapaper, so technically, the website made its money, but afterwards, I can sit down and read it at my leisure on Instapaper. Or have it read to me. Food for thought.
More or less the same thing can be achieved within Safari using the Reader mode.
Good point about the RSS reader. I'll revert to it specifically to override annoying ads on a site.
Why no up... AND down voting?
See ArsTechnica as an example and who manage this quite well, even though once in a while the collective mind-thought of the nerds over common sense can and does take place i.e. censorship of unpopular ideas... again... it works and quite well.
ArsTechnica's voting system looks to be just on the article comment area and not their forum. When you have a forum where topics can exist outside of articles and the whole forum is designed for conversational input, people pick and choose their preferred members over time and some would downvote every comment of someone they didn't like regardless of the comment (this already happens with the flag button). ArsTechnica is also a general tech interest site, this site is only about Apple. In thread topics where there's a bug or problem, there are people who quickly jump in with 'I haven't had this problem', implying that because they didn't have the problem, it's not a problem. The positive comments would be upvoted and the people registering problems would be downvoted despite the positive ones being the least relevant to the topic.
Upvoting and downvoting don't have equivalent intent. There's very little alternative motive for hitting the upvote whereas there are loads of reasons other than a comment being unhelpful to hit the downvote. This kind of system would make no difference to the monetization of the forum, it might even put new members off if they are downvoted for reporting issues they need help with.
why are GOOD (sometimes great!) and informative posts like yours, buried and not "pinned" or gravitated (based on "up-votes") towards the top of a topic thread?
People don't use the vote buttons very much on this forum. People here tend to prefer a conversation than a vote - votes work better on twitter/Facebook. A post being upvoted also doesn't mean it's an inherently good comment, it just means it's popular. If an unpopular member made a comment for example and someone left a put-down that had nothing to do with the topic, it wouldn't deserve to be taken out of context and promoted so everyone could see it.
Some helpful comments do get lost in the mass of comments but promoting comments would have to be done manually and sometimes solutions to problems come from following multiple comments through in sequence and trying different things.
I've noticed for a long time that certain topics just plain die out, even though they contain valuable information for your readers
I don't believe AI is a very good news aggregator at all, and the hands-off approach to aggregation and monetization is not going to pay your bills in the future.
Aiming to outdo Apple's very own support forums, as well as every other Apple website with user forums, and to truly +INFORM+ your readership could IMHO be a goal that people would allow ads to support. Better utilizing social networking and a review of these forums and it's software to facilitate and support that goal could be a start.
The site admins had mentioned a kind of information wiki a while ago but this takes a lot of work to maintain and this is only useful to people having problems. Apple products are problem-free for the most part.
Have you taken a look at some of the top YouTube earnings? How about what someone like *Kim K.* (example only to show where the marketing and ad money is going these days!) gets paid to stand next to a sign on Instagram... as in no pro photographer need apply selfie?
So you're saying AI needs more photos of curvy women e.g readers' wives/girlfriends section? Yep, agreed. Attractive people always get some kind of following. This happens on Twitch:
In general this falls into finding what the audience is looking for. AI doesn't seem to be suffering from a lack of interest. There are still about 500 new posts every day, which is 15,000 per month and people will view far more pages than they post on so the number of hits per month should be over 1 million. This is the same as it was a year ago. In 2009, this site was listed as one of the most valuable blog sites:
but not all ad revenue options will pay out the same. The income just now might be sustainable but if ad-blocking became more popular then it wouldn't be.
I find it ironic that all these web publishers have a come to Jesus moment and are so concerned about preserving peoples livelyhood now.
Yet they shed no tears when their websites devestated countless jobs at Newspapers and Magazine publishers around the world.
They said it was just progress.
Well ad-blocking is progress also. Deal with it.
This is more about making consumers aware of the realities of publishing. Consumers are clearly using the services so find some value in them and publishers are pointing out how they are monetized and if that goes away or revenue is diminished beyond costs then the service might go away too. There are few feasible options to adapt to online. You are either highly popular or you don't exist so special interest topics won't get catered to.
The concern here is not with a few people blocking ads, it's with making ad-blocking popular with the mainstream where revenue might fall 90% overnight. This can take away services that make the internet worth using regularly.
Search engines only exist because of advertising, the amount of expense to run the data centers is huge. Youtube only exists because of advertising. Video sites can exist with subscription but sites like Vimeo make a fraction of the revenue of Youtube. Social networks like Facebook, twitter, Instagram are all ad-supported.
Take all social media away, take all special interest sites away - in fact probably all free news sites, take search engines away and what is left on the internet that people use regularly? You get e-commerce, company websites, personal portfolios, bloggers that post opinions for fun and that's it.
The app model would have to take over services that can't work with online ads by having microtransactions (e.g literally $0.02 to leave your two cents, which would quickly put an end to low quality posts) but the app model hasn't made its way to the desktop/laptop platform.
ArsTechnica's voting system looks to be just on the article comment area and not their forum. When you have a forum where topics can exist outside of articles and the whole forum is designed for conversational input, people pick and choose their preferred members over time and some would downvote every comment of someone they didn't like regardless of the comment (this already happens with the flag button). ArsTechnica is also a general tech interest site, this site is only about Apple. In thread topics where there's a bug or problem, there are people who quickly jump in with 'I haven't had this problem', implying that because they didn't have the problem, it's not a problem. The positive comments would be upvoted and the people registering problems would be downvoted despite the positive ones being the least relevant to the topic.
Upvoting and downvoting don't have equivalent intent. There's very little alternative motive for hitting the upvote whereas there are loads of reasons other than a comment being unhelpful to hit the downvote. This kind of system would make no difference to the monetization of the forum, it might even put new members off if they are downvoted for reporting issues they need help with.
People don't use the vote buttons very much on this forum. People here tend to prefer a conversation than a vote - votes work better on twitter/Facebook. A post being upvoted also doesn't mean it's an inherently good comment, it just means it's popular. If an unpopular member made a comment for example and someone left a put-down that had nothing to do with the topic, it wouldn't deserve to be taken out of context and promoted so everyone could see it.
Ironically, I use Marco's Instapaper to avoid being inconvenienced by ads. Of course, you have to load the page once in Safari to send it to Instapaper, so technically, the website made its money, but afterwards, I can sit down and read it at my leisure on Instapaper. Or have it read to me. Food for thought.
More or less the same thing can be achieved within Safari using the Reader mode.
Good point about the RSS reader. I'll revert to it specifically to override annoying ads on a site.
I personally use Feedly, after using Google Reader for ~7 years before they shut that project down.
Ironically, my main reason for using RSS feeds, was because I was stuck in an area that didn't receive DSL and my fastest speed stuck at around 380kb for a long time, and that capped after moving to a slightly faster 1mb satellite connection. Ironic, because now the same problems that I experienced is what is the main cause of mobile ad blockers.
I run across capped mobile plans all the time at clients and one of the first things I do is set them up with Feedly... and my second favorite app Pocket, for downloading articles to be read without using bandwidth. I use both on my Macs as well as much as possible.
ArsTechnica's voting system looks to be just on the article comment area and not their forum.
Yes that's true. I also visit a number of sites that use Discus (inline comment system) that make use of up/down voting, as well as Reddit... and I must say, I'm not seeing what you are. I personally like the up/down system which may just be me, because I follow so many topics and sites. I couldn't possibly write an original comment just to participate and make my opinion felt, so I do this by using the system and the great (or horrendous) comments already posted.
Upvoting and downvoting don't have equivalent intent. There's very little alternative motive for hitting the upvote whereas there are loads of reasons other than a comment being unhelpful to hit the downvote. This kind of system would make no difference to the monetization of the forum, it might even put new members off if they are downvoted for reporting issues they need help with.
I don't agree with the bolded portion above at all. It's rare if ever that I see that on other forums, where truthfully you fell like hitting all caps and yelling, "YOU EVER HEAR OF GOOGLE? Learn to use it!" ...but no... very rare that someone ever writes that.
If I was so easily insulted I could take offense at the suggestion we regulars here would even do that... when in fact, we could already tease or bully a beginner's problem in the open... or just ignore it, which also is rarely the case here.
People don't use the vote buttons very much on this forum.
Please do tell what incentive there is. In fact it's broken more times than not on mobile (doesn't react without a refresh, sometimes more than once), and on the desktop it's also 2 clicks if you even want to just "like" a comment.
Honestly... a pretty much broken UX to gain any insight to present trends, or to gauge and track future user interaction if you ask me.
People here tend to prefer a conversation than a vote - votes work better on twitter/Facebook. A post being upvoted also doesn't mean it's an inherently good comment, it just means it's popular. If an unpopular member made a comment for example and someone left a put-down that had nothing to do with the topic, it wouldn't deserve to be taken out of context and promoted so everyone could see it.
Those 2 scenarios happen every single day across the web in the millions. Is it useful? I don't know. But the fact that people do it, and do it in the billions of clicks... doesn't seem to stop the flow of conversation whatsoever. Sometimes a clever witty retort... often found on The Guardian.... is a lot of fun, some comedy relief even from some of the serious discussions that are taking place.
I just mentioned the Guardian, which is a rather large and respected news entity, but it would be remiss to not acknowledge that they have a "hands on" approach, censor the trolls, and the reason I believe they do is because they value the interaction of their readers. Some good... some bad... but regardless it's valuable to spend time and money to keep that portion afloat. Also note they don't open up comments for every news story either.
Some helpful comments do get lost in the mass of comments but promoting comments would have to be done manually and sometimes solutions to problems come from following multiple comments through in sequence and trying different things.
Well... kind of what I was getting at: automating everything is not going to work in the near future. Hands will need to get dirty.
The site admins had mentioned a kind of information wiki a while ago but this takes a lot of work to maintain and this is only useful to people having problems. Apple products are problem-free for the most part.
Good that they killed it. Worthless adventure IMO.
So you're saying AI needs more photos of curvy women e.g readers' wives/girlfriends section? Yep, agreed. Attractive people always get some kind of following. This happens on Twitch:
Give me a reason to... and I've been apologetically known to spice up these forums at times where appropriate... -- I'll need to get back to ya on the Twitch scene link; sorry... gaming is not my thing.
Actually it was the KK part of my post that I considered the ramble and I just didn't have the time to uh... flesh it out as it were(?!)
I was mostly pointing out that KK and assorted celebrities like Gruber for example, are getting paid more to do sponsorships directly, rather than the brands spending the same budgets on print, TV or web ads. The ad agencies are feeling this "crunch" just as much as their clients are, and if they don't get the mix right or are unable to point to positive "marketing dollars vs. efficiency" graphs... product managers are simply cutting them (the agencies) out of the buying percentage loop.
Brand X knows that when KK asks $10k for product placement selfie, it's going to hit at the minimum, 46.9 Million feeds(!) That's insane! Even Apple is getting in on the social network activity lists: look how fast Karly Kloss went viral wearing the first "Celebrity Edition" ?Watch.
Note: just a stupid comment here... but I have never known a brand that suffered from using a sweet smile attached to a pleasing female face. No need to go Kate Upton or Charlotte McKinney jiggle show... but ya know what? Apple has said that tech needs more diversity, what say you that ya take that as a little clue? iMore is.
In general this falls into finding what the audience is looking for. AI doesn't seem to be suffering from a lack of interest. There are still about 500 new posts every day, which is 15,000 per month and people will view far more pages than they post on so the number of hits per month should be over 1 million. This is the same as it was a year ago. In 2009, this site was listed as one of the most valuable blog sites:
I don't think you can count on those 1 million page views making nearly as much money going forward as they used to. They could end up just costing you out-of-pocket money.
Thanks for the link. Interesting notes by #'s 8 & 18 :
8. MacRumors. $20 million. MacRumors has 6.5 million unique visitors per month and 45 million page views. The quality of the advertising is weak. The company’s revenue is about $4.4 million. MacRumors staff is small and the publishing platform the site uses is probably very inexpensive. MacRumors margins are at least 50%. Competition in the “Apple” news website business has gotten fierce.
18. Apple Insider. $4.5 million. Another of the many websites about what goes on in the land of Steve Jobs and his many spectacularly successful inventions. The site has 1.2 million unique visitors and eight million page views. Advertising is a mix of high-end consumer products, which tend to pay low CPMs, and business electronics. Apple Insider appears to have a small staff. Revenue is about $1.3 million and the site should make $700,000 in operating profit.
but not all ad revenue options will pay out the same. The income just now might be sustainable but if ad-blocking became more popular then it wouldn't be. This is more about making consumers aware of the realities of publishing. Consumers are clearly using the services so find some value in them and publishers are pointing out how they are monetized and if that goes away or revenue is diminished beyond costs then the service might go away too. There are few feasible options to adapt to online. You are either highly popular or you don't exist so special interest topics won't get catered to.
The concern here is not with a few people blocking ads, it's with making ad-blocking popular with the mainstream where revenue might fall 90% overnight. This can take away services that make the internet worth using regularly.
Search engines only exist because of advertising, the amount of expense to run the data centers is huge. Youtube only exists because of advertising. Video sites can exist with subscription but sites like Vimeo make a fraction of the revenue of Youtube. Social networks like Facebook, twitter, Instagram are all ad-supported.
Take all social media away, take all special interest sites away - in fact probably all free news sites, take search engines away and what is left on the internet that people use regularly? You get e-commerce, company websites, personal portfolios, bloggers that post opinions for fun and that's it.
I agree with your assessment and the need for advertising as it's been done in the past to grow the Internet. Going forward the Internet and advertising will definitely survive this purge, but a culling of the herd is often a good thing once in awhile.
Just as an example: look at the App Store. Could it use a good culling from Apple? I bet many people would agree that yes, it does. Same thing with blogs, niche websites, etc. Unless it's your passion in your free time, I don't believe you will be able to turn it into a career as easily as you have been in recent years.
Cream will rise to the top... and niche sites will make do or disappear. This happened with the desktop publishing newsletter and specialty publications years ago, and I don't think it was the first nor the last of technology booms and busts that will affect peoples desire to publish their thoughts, hobbies and be heard.
The app model would have to take over services that can't work with online ads by having microtransactions (e.g literally $0.02 to leave your two cents, which would quickly put an end to low quality posts) but the app model hasn't made its way to the desktop/laptop platform.
From one of my favored sites mentioned often here... the following article points to what I believe what the web publishing industry should take note of.
Literally millions of people want to become musicians or active in the music industry. There was a day when you could make a very good living with talent and hard work. Those days I'm afraid, are long gone. You're going to need marketing and social pretense hitting on all cylinders. There's something to learn from Taylor Swift(!)
Translate "streams to CPM impressions, and the total payout is what I think is an indicator of your potential income at AI in the future without some drastic measures to "rise to the top" of Apple reporting, reader engagement and their willingness to grace your coffers with monetary support. The best WAY to do that is changing rapidly, and I don't it will be the final solution to the problem either. Financing creative endeavors has ALWAYS been a moving target. As long as I've been involved anyway.
...because I was stuck in an area that didn't receive DSL and my fastest speed stuck at around 380kb...
Talk about rural! I very much hope you have a better connection now. I know people who actually move to a different city in order to get fiber.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePixelDoc
Quote:
People don't use the vote buttons very much on this forum.
Please do tell what incentive there is. In fact it's broken more times than not on mobile (doesn't react without a refresh, sometimes more than once), and on the desktop it's also 2 clicks if you even want to just "like" a comment.
Honestly... a pretty much broken UX to gain any insight to present trends, or to gauge and track future user interaction if you ask me.
I agree, there is no incentive for thumbing up. Or at least little; the design sucks big time, mobile and desktop.
Incidentally, in the latest episode of Accidental Tech Podcast (episode 136: War and Peace) my exact criticisms of Arment and his app abandonment were addressed and my observations were right. He's a programmer with little stomach for business. He pulled the app based on his own fears. And he was frightened by the success of the app. I will never buy an app from this guy again. He really has no business being a developer since he is incapable of caring for or growing what he creates. He has the mind and outlook of an employee with little comprehension for the repercussions of his own actions.
Talk about rural! I very much hope you have a better connection now. I know people who actually move to a different city in order to get fiber.
Well now you can say you've heard about one more: because that's exactly what I did in 2013 when finally selling my house because it was causing extreme strain on my ability to conduct my business from there, after having already moved my business and rented an apartment in 2010. I also took a huge hit on the selling price as well as had to wait a long time to find the right people to purchase it, because while the house, location and garden size is really great for a young family of 4... with nothing more than 1-bar/1mb LTE available (currently still!) it was just not feasible nor advisable for even an upwardly mobile couple or single, let a lone a family. The current lack of a stable Internet connection in the area still pains me almost daily, because I service and support my old neighborhood and surrounding business park. Yup. An entire business park without (technically) an internet connection :no:
I agree, there is no incentive for thumbing up. Or at least little; the design sucks big time, mobile and desktop.
Yeah. That's really too bad. Especially if you caught the epic thread yesterday with some of the best overall comments I think I've read to date here or anywhere on the topic of "child labor accusations leveled at Apple".
Oh dear, you too huh. Well, Germany averages at 8.7Mbit/s, according to Akamai in 2014. I presume this is download speed. Personally I'm more interested in upload speed (I am trying out iCloud Photo Library for a friend of mine, but uploading 160GB over a 1728Kbit/s is no fun. Unless, of course, one wants to set a record uptime)
Apparently The Netherlands is doing quite good. Global average connection speed exceeds 4Mbit/s.
I presume the buyers are from out of town, because living with crap Internet access is just not doable anymore. And their kids will need it as well. School will require it, though everyone in that city will be in the same boat.
I'll read up on that Snorkin story now, thanks for the link.
Oh dear, you too huh. Well, Germany averages at 8.7Mbit/s, according to Akamai in 2014. I presume this is download speed. Personally I'm more interested in upload speed (I am trying out iCloud Photo Library for a friend of mine, but uploading 160GB over a 1728Kbit/s is no fun. Unless, of course, one wants to set a record uptime)
Apparently The Netherlands is doing quite good. Global average connection speed exceeds 4Mbit/s.
I presume the buyers are from out of town, because living with crap Internet access is just not doable anymore. And their kids will need it as well. School will require it, though everyone in that city will be in the same boat.
I'll read up on that Snorkin story now, thanks for the link.
That data seems to be a bit out of date.
In the UK average download speeds hit 22.8Mbps in Feb 2015 (data collected in October 2014). I myself put up with a meager upto 150( lowest I've seen is 100 Mbps). I would never live in an area that had less than 100.
In the UK average download speeds hit 22.8Mbps in Feb 2015 (data collected in October 2014). I myself put up with a meager upto 150( lowest I've seen is 100 Mbps). I would never live in an area that had less than 100.
Ok, good to know. I guess Akamai isn't reflecting real world numbers, just their own CDN; I haven't read their report, and Wikipedia only uses them as a source. A pity.
Anyway, good for you, with a proper download speed. What's your upload?
I'm on DSL, sold as 40/4 but I'm far away from the switch, making my throughput 21,9 Mbit/s |1,7 Mbit/s. Cable over here can be 120/12 and fiber maxes out at 500 synchronous. That I want to have, but there are no plans to upgrade my area. They started out by installing it in the most expensive neighbourhood, but apparently no one over there has a need for it.
While overall throughout Germany we can't complain about the build-out of connection speeds, probably the biggest problem is the discrepancy between the "haves vs have-nots" and the smaller percentage of "haves" skewing the numbers. If you have access to "true broadband" then you can connect up to 150mb with no problem, whereas if you don't your stuck at 2mb which the Ministry of Technology defined as "broadband" years ago. There was a (very small!) movement to reclassify broadband to be at least 10mb which took into consideration that entertainment streaming services (Deutsch Telekom!) were going to have a difficult time selling their wares because of the small pipes. I'm not sure what happened to it... and frankly to0 lazy to look at the moment (also not enough time to get worked up about it again if it hasn't been changed!).
The area that I'm talking about is also just one of a couple of "white spots" across the country. That's a 1:1 translation of "Weisse Fleck" ++++++
++++ Woah! I never new Firefox or AI activated the Submit button with Alt-S? That's my keyboard shortcut for the German "funky S that looks like a B" for correct spelling of "ss" in weisse.
++++ Anyway, a white spot is formed by the overlap, or the "gap" left between 3-4 concentric circles of wifi/radio transmission towers. That explains the spotty 1 bar reception for LTE, but the biggest problem is of course the landline, which in this particular area straddles 3 communities with different voter blocks and responsibilities. If dealing with 1 bureaucracy isn't difficult enough, try sitting with 3 at the same table (I did when I gave a damn!). Just mind-numbing Sisyphus work to get anything accomplished. I gave up after the third time (hey I'm an American: 3 strikes you're out and you need to vacate the batter's box or get hit).
That's all there is to it. Nice to see you guys are getting some love from the tech-no-crats
Ok, good to know. I guess Akamai isn't reflecting real world numbers, just their own CDN; I haven't read their report, and Wikipedia only uses them as a source. A pity.
Anyway, good for you, with a proper download speed. What's your upload?
I'm on DSL, sold as 40/4 but I'm far away from the switch, making my throughput 21,9 Mbit/s |1,7 Mbit/s. Cable over here can be 120/12 and fiber maxes out at 500 synchronous. That I want to have, but there are no plans to upgrade my area. They started out by installing it in the most expensive neighbourhood, but apparently no one over there has a need for it.
My upload is 12Mbs.
Which when compared to my blistering fast 28.8Kps modem from 1995 is just a wee bit faster lol
Nope. Anything I can do to help decimate Google's income.
Okay, so Apple has removed our AdBlock from the store. I want to know if it was malicious now.
At the same time, I need a new recommendation for an AdBlocker for myself and my father, who can’t get the one I’d been using since, well, it’s out of the store.
Okay, so Apple has removed our AdBlock from the store. I want to know if it was malicious now.
At the same time, I need a new recommendation for an AdBlocker for myself and my father, who can’t get the one I’d been using since, well, it’s out of the store.
Okay, so Apple has removed our AdBlock from the store. I want to know if it was malicious now.
At the same time, I need a new recommendation for an AdBlocker for myself and my father, who can’t get the one I’d been using since, well, it’s out of the store.
I'm m currently going with Blockr and previously Crystal. I switched due to the whitelisting capability and better granularity of the settings.
Okay, so Apple has removed our AdBlock from the store. I want to know if it was malicious now.
At the same time, I need a new recommendation for an AdBlocker for myself and my father, who can’t get the one I’d been using since, well, it’s out of the store.
Oh, I just found that my favorite desktop ad blocker AdBlock (not AdBlock Plus) is available. I'll give this a try.
Comments
More or less the same thing can be achieved within Safari using the Reader mode.
Good point about the RSS reader. I'll revert to it specifically to override annoying ads on a site.
ArsTechnica's voting system looks to be just on the article comment area and not their forum. When you have a forum where topics can exist outside of articles and the whole forum is designed for conversational input, people pick and choose their preferred members over time and some would downvote every comment of someone they didn't like regardless of the comment (this already happens with the flag button). ArsTechnica is also a general tech interest site, this site is only about Apple. In thread topics where there's a bug or problem, there are people who quickly jump in with 'I haven't had this problem', implying that because they didn't have the problem, it's not a problem. The positive comments would be upvoted and the people registering problems would be downvoted despite the positive ones being the least relevant to the topic.
Upvoting and downvoting don't have equivalent intent. There's very little alternative motive for hitting the upvote whereas there are loads of reasons other than a comment being unhelpful to hit the downvote. This kind of system would make no difference to the monetization of the forum, it might even put new members off if they are downvoted for reporting issues they need help with.
People don't use the vote buttons very much on this forum. People here tend to prefer a conversation than a vote - votes work better on twitter/Facebook. A post being upvoted also doesn't mean it's an inherently good comment, it just means it's popular. If an unpopular member made a comment for example and someone left a put-down that had nothing to do with the topic, it wouldn't deserve to be taken out of context and promoted so everyone could see it.
Some helpful comments do get lost in the mass of comments but promoting comments would have to be done manually and sometimes solutions to problems come from following multiple comments through in sequence and trying different things.
The site admins had mentioned a kind of information wiki a while ago but this takes a lot of work to maintain and this is only useful to people having problems. Apple products are problem-free for the most part.
So you're saying AI needs more photos of curvy women e.g readers' wives/girlfriends section? Yep, agreed. Attractive people always get some kind of following. This happens on Twitch:
http://gamerant.com/scantily-clad-girl-gamers-manipulating-twitch/
In general this falls into finding what the audience is looking for. AI doesn't seem to be suffering from a lack of interest. There are still about 500 new posts every day, which is 15,000 per month and people will view far more pages than they post on so the number of hits per month should be over 1 million. This is the same as it was a year ago. In 2009, this site was listed as one of the most valuable blog sites:
http://247wallst.com/media/2009/11/10/the-twenty-five-most-valuable-blogs-in-america/
but not all ad revenue options will pay out the same. The income just now might be sustainable but if ad-blocking became more popular then it wouldn't be.
This is more about making consumers aware of the realities of publishing. Consumers are clearly using the services so find some value in them and publishers are pointing out how they are monetized and if that goes away or revenue is diminished beyond costs then the service might go away too. There are few feasible options to adapt to online. You are either highly popular or you don't exist so special interest topics won't get catered to.
The concern here is not with a few people blocking ads, it's with making ad-blocking popular with the mainstream where revenue might fall 90% overnight. This can take away services that make the internet worth using regularly.
Search engines only exist because of advertising, the amount of expense to run the data centers is huge. Youtube only exists because of advertising. Video sites can exist with subscription but sites like Vimeo make a fraction of the revenue of Youtube. Social networks like Facebook, twitter, Instagram are all ad-supported.
Take all social media away, take all special interest sites away - in fact probably all free news sites, take search engines away and what is left on the internet that people use regularly? You get e-commerce, company websites, personal portfolios, bloggers that post opinions for fun and that's it.
The app model would have to take over services that can't work with online ads by having microtransactions (e.g literally $0.02 to leave your two cents, which would quickly put an end to low quality posts) but the app model hasn't made its way to the desktop/laptop platform.
Great explanation.
I personally use Feedly, after using Google Reader for ~7 years before they shut that project down.
Ironically, my main reason for using RSS feeds, was because I was stuck in an area that didn't receive DSL and my fastest speed stuck at around 380kb for a long time, and that capped after moving to a slightly faster 1mb satellite connection. Ironic, because now the same problems that I experienced is what is the main cause of mobile ad blockers.
I run across capped mobile plans all the time at clients and one of the first things I do is set them up with Feedly... and my second favorite app Pocket, for downloading articles to be read without using bandwidth. I use both on my Macs as well as much as possible.
Yes that's true. I also visit a number of sites that use Discus (inline comment system) that make use of up/down voting, as well as Reddit... and I must say, I'm not seeing what you are. I personally like the up/down system which may just be me, because I follow so many topics and sites. I couldn't possibly write an original comment just to participate and make my opinion felt, so I do this by using the system and the great (or horrendous) comments already posted.
I don't agree with the bolded portion above at all. It's rare if ever that I see that on other forums, where truthfully you fell like hitting all caps and yelling, "YOU EVER HEAR OF GOOGLE? Learn to use it!" ...but no... very rare that someone ever writes that.
If I was so easily insulted I could take offense at the suggestion we regulars here would even do that... when in fact, we could already tease or bully a beginner's problem in the open... or just ignore it, which also is rarely the case here.
Please do tell what incentive there is. In fact it's broken more times than not on mobile (doesn't react without a refresh, sometimes more than once), and on the desktop it's also 2 clicks if you even want to just "like" a comment.
Honestly... a pretty much broken UX to gain any insight to present trends, or to gauge and track future user interaction if you ask me.
Those 2 scenarios happen every single day across the web in the millions. Is it useful? I don't know. But the fact that people do it, and do it in the billions of clicks... doesn't seem to stop the flow of conversation whatsoever. Sometimes a clever witty retort... often found on The Guardian.... is a lot of fun, some comedy relief even from some of the serious discussions that are taking place.
I just mentioned the Guardian, which is a rather large and respected news entity, but it would be remiss to not acknowledge that they have a "hands on" approach, censor the trolls, and the reason I believe they do is because they value the interaction of their readers. Some good... some bad... but regardless it's valuable to spend time and money to keep that portion afloat. Also note they don't open up comments for every news story either.
Well... kind of what I was getting at: automating everything is not going to work in the near future. Hands will need to get dirty.
Good that they killed it. Worthless adventure IMO.
Give me a reason to... and I've been apologetically known to spice up these forums at times where appropriate...
Actually it was the KK part of my post that I considered the ramble and I just didn't have the time to uh... flesh it out as it were(?!)
I was mostly pointing out that KK and assorted celebrities like Gruber for example, are getting paid more to do sponsorships directly, rather than the brands spending the same budgets on print, TV or web ads. The ad agencies are feeling this "crunch" just as much as their clients are, and if they don't get the mix right or are unable to point to positive "marketing dollars vs. efficiency" graphs... product managers are simply cutting them (the agencies) out of the buying percentage loop.
Brand X knows that when KK asks $10k for product placement selfie, it's going to hit at the minimum, 46.9 Million feeds(!) That's insane! Even Apple is getting in on the social network activity lists: look how fast Karly Kloss went viral wearing the first "Celebrity Edition" ?Watch.
Note: just a stupid comment here... but I have never known a brand that suffered from using a sweet smile attached to a pleasing female face. No need to go Kate Upton or Charlotte McKinney jiggle show... but ya know what? Apple has said that tech needs more diversity, what say you that ya take that as a little clue? iMore is.
I don't think you can count on those 1 million page views making nearly as much money going forward as they used to. They could end up just costing you out-of-pocket money.
Thanks for the link. Interesting notes by #'s 8 & 18 :
8. MacRumors. $20 million. MacRumors has 6.5 million unique visitors per month and 45 million page views. The quality of the advertising is weak. The company’s revenue is about $4.4 million. MacRumors staff is small and the publishing platform the site uses is probably very inexpensive. MacRumors margins are at least 50%. Competition in the “Apple” news website business has gotten fierce.
18. Apple Insider. $4.5 million. Another of the many websites about what goes on in the land of Steve Jobs and his many spectacularly successful inventions. The site has 1.2 million unique visitors and eight million page views. Advertising is a mix of high-end consumer products, which tend to pay low CPMs, and business electronics. Apple Insider appears to have a small staff. Revenue is about $1.3 million and the site should make $700,000 in operating profit.
I agree with your assessment and the need for advertising as it's been done in the past to grow the Internet. Going forward the Internet and advertising will definitely survive this purge, but a culling of the herd is often a good thing once in awhile.
Just as an example: look at the App Store. Could it use a good culling from Apple? I bet many people would agree that yes, it does. Same thing with blogs, niche websites, etc. Unless it's your passion in your free time, I don't believe you will be able to turn it into a career as easily as you have been in recent years.
Cream will rise to the top... and niche sites will make do or disappear. This happened with the desktop publishing newsletter and specialty publications years ago, and I don't think it was the first nor the last of technology booms and busts that will affect peoples desire to publish their thoughts, hobbies and be heard.
From one of my favored sites mentioned often here... the following article points to what I believe what the web publishing industry should take note of.
Literally millions of people want to become musicians or active in the music industry. There was a day when you could make a very good living with talent and hard work. Those days I'm afraid, are long gone. You're going to need marketing and social pretense hitting on all cylinders. There's something to learn from Taylor Swift(!)
Translate "streams to CPM impressions, and the total payout is what I think is an indicator of your potential income at AI in the future without some drastic measures to "rise to the top" of Apple reporting, reader engagement and their willingness to grace your coffers with monetary support. The best WAY to do that is changing rapidly, and I don't it will be the final solution to the problem either. Financing creative endeavors has ALWAYS been a moving target. As long as I've been involved anyway.
From ArsTechnica:
Songwriter says he made $5,679 from 178 million Pandora streams [Updated]
*****
As always... food for thought on both sides... and thanks for the time putting yours in reply
This is a good read that was linked to by Gruber this morning. The (inline) comments are also very good(!)
From Advertising Age: Ad Blocking - The Unnecessary Internet Apocolypse
Talk about rural! I very much hope you have a better connection now. I know people who actually move to a different city in order to get fiber.
Originally Posted by ThePixelDoc
Please do tell what incentive there is. In fact it's broken more times than not on mobile (doesn't react without a refresh, sometimes more than once), and on the desktop it's also 2 clicks if you even want to just "like" a comment.
Honestly... a pretty much broken UX to gain any insight to present trends, or to gauge and track future user interaction if you ask me.
I agree, there is no incentive for thumbing up. Or at least little; the design sucks big time, mobile and desktop.
Thanks guys for the good read.
Well now you can say you've heard about one more: because that's exactly what I did in 2013 when finally selling my house because it was causing extreme strain on my ability to conduct my business from there, after having already moved my business and rented an apartment in 2010. I also took a huge hit on the selling price as well as had to wait a long time to find the right people to purchase it, because while the house, location and garden size is really great for a young family of 4... with nothing more than 1-bar/1mb LTE available (currently still!) it was just not feasible nor advisable for even an upwardly mobile couple or single, let a lone a family. The current lack of a stable Internet connection in the area still pains me almost daily, because I service and support my old neighborhood and surrounding business park. Yup. An entire business park without (technically) an internet connection :no:
Yeah. That's really too bad. Especially if you caught the epic thread yesterday with some of the best overall comments I think I've read to date here or anywhere on the topic of "child labor accusations leveled at Apple".
http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/188515/sorkin-apologizes-for-remarks-about-apples-tim-cook-says-both-parties-went-too-far
Indeed!
Oh dear, you too huh. Well, Germany averages at 8.7Mbit/s, according to Akamai in 2014. I presume this is download speed. Personally I'm more interested in upload speed (I am trying out iCloud Photo Library for a friend of mine, but uploading 160GB over a 1728Kbit/s is no fun. Unless, of course, one wants to set a record uptime)
Anyway, Internet speed:
Apparently The Netherlands is doing quite good. Global average connection speed exceeds 4Mbit/s.
I presume the buyers are from out of town, because living with crap Internet access is just not doable anymore. And their kids will need it as well. School will require it, though everyone in that city will be in the same boat.
I'll read up on that Snorkin story now, thanks for the link.
In the UK average download speeds hit 22.8Mbps in Feb 2015 (data collected in October 2014). I myself put up with a meager upto 150( lowest I've seen is 100 Mbps). I would never live in an area that had less than 100.
That data seems to be a bit out of date.
In the UK average download speeds hit 22.8Mbps in Feb 2015 (data collected in October 2014). I myself put up with a meager upto 150( lowest I've seen is 100 Mbps). I would never live in an area that had less than 100.
Ok, good to know. I guess Akamai isn't reflecting real world numbers, just their own CDN; I haven't read their report, and Wikipedia only uses them as a source. A pity.
Anyway, good for you, with a proper download speed. What's your upload?
I'm on DSL, sold as 40/4 but I'm far away from the switch, making my throughput 21,9 Mbit/s |1,7 Mbit/s. Cable over here can be 120/12 and fiber maxes out at 500 synchronous. That I want to have, but there are no plans to upgrade my area. They started out by installing it in the most expensive neighbourhood, but apparently no one over there has a need for it.
Thanks for the numbers above... and the concern.
While overall throughout Germany we can't complain about the build-out of connection speeds, probably the biggest problem is the discrepancy between the "haves vs have-nots" and the smaller percentage of "haves" skewing the numbers. If you have access to "true broadband" then you can connect up to 150mb with no problem, whereas if you don't your stuck at 2mb which the Ministry of Technology defined as "broadband" years ago. There was a (very small!) movement to reclassify broadband to be at least 10mb which took into consideration that entertainment streaming services (Deutsch Telekom!) were going to have a difficult time selling their wares because of the small pipes. I'm not sure what happened to it... and frankly to0 lazy to look at the moment (also not enough time to get worked up about it again if it hasn't been changed!).
The area that I'm talking about is also just one of a couple of "white spots" across the country. That's a 1:1 translation of "Weisse Fleck" ++++++
++++ Woah! I never new Firefox or AI activated the Submit button with Alt-S? That's my keyboard shortcut for the German "funky S that looks like a B" for correct spelling of "ss" in weisse.
++++ Anyway, a white spot is formed by the overlap, or the "gap" left between 3-4 concentric circles of wifi/radio transmission towers. That explains the spotty 1 bar reception for LTE, but the biggest problem is of course the landline, which in this particular area straddles 3 communities with different voter blocks and responsibilities. If dealing with 1 bureaucracy isn't difficult enough, try sitting with 3 at the same table (I did when I gave a damn!). Just mind-numbing Sisyphus work to get anything accomplished. I gave up after the third time (hey I'm an American: 3 strikes you're out and you need to vacate the batter's box or get hit).
That's all there is to it. Nice to see you guys are getting some love from the tech-no-crats
Which when compared to my blistering fast 28.8Kps modem from 1995 is just a wee bit faster lol
Okay, so Apple has removed our AdBlock from the store. I want to know if it was malicious now.
At the same time, I need a new recommendation for an AdBlocker for myself and my father, who can’t get the one I’d been using since, well, it’s out of the store.
Okay, so Apple has removed our AdBlock from the store. I want to know if it was malicious now.
At the same time, I need a new recommendation for an AdBlocker for myself and my father, who can’t get the one I’d been using since, well, it’s out of the store.
Which one was removed?
I'm m currently going with Blockr and previously Crystal. I switched due to the whitelisting capability and better granularity of the settings.
Oh, I just found that my favorite desktop ad blocker AdBlock (not AdBlock Plus) is available. I'll give this a try.
Which one was removed?
The one that had you install its own profile and connect to a VPN.