Board Maintenance Tonight - Sept 16th

[Tim]

I'm going to be uploading the latest version of the phpbb forums to the non-premium UI tonight. There should be minimal disruptions, but I wanted to let everyone know what is going on.

[Tim]

Must be a good night to be doing this. Eight people online? I haven't seen things that low in just about forever.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Must be a good night to be doing this. Eight people online? I haven't seen things that low in just about forever.

 

that doesnt spell good for business.... :willynilly:

[Tim]

Ah...

 

The newly uploaded board was preventing people from logging in. :oops:

 

Fixed. :D

[Chris]

Ah...

 

The newly uploaded board was preventing people from logging in. :oops:

 

Fixed. :D

 

ha ha

[Derwood]

So here we are, new board and......what exactly is different?

[Tim]

So here we are, new board and......what exactly is different?

Well, the board software isn't much different at all. Mainly just security enhancements. On the other hand, the advertising scheme is quite different after spending yesterday afternoon on the phone with Google. It was interesting as they actually called me to tell me that I was getting around 1/10th the click throughs of other sport sites. :(

[Tim]

Also please note the new google search option at the bottom of the page. Do your google searches from here! :D

[Slugger_16]

Is there any way you can make it so when you do a Google search it doesn't take you away from the site and just opens up a new window instead?

[Tim]

Is there any way you can make it so when you do a Google search it doesn't take you away from the site and just opens up a new window instead?

Google is very finicky about that kind of thing. If you mess around with the code on the link, they won't credit you for the views/clicks/etc.

 

If you're using IE, you can hit ctrl-n and it will open a new window and open the same page you're viewing. Then you can go use the google search without losing your place on nsbb.

[Guest]

Also please note the new google search option at the bottom of the page. Do your google searches from here! :D

This is something I wouldn't mind seeing added to the premium UI as well. It's not the slightest bit intrusive and I can see it being useful every once and a while. Double bounus if it also counts as a click-through ad. ;)

[TC3_Hinrich12]

What's the advantages of premium anyway?

[Chris]

What's the advantages of premium anyway?

 

Here's a thread that talks about it:

 

Link

[TC3_Hinrich12]

What's the advantages of premium anyway?

 

Here's a thread that talks about it:

 

Link

 

I didn't even notice that thread.

[Derwood]

So here we are, new board and......what exactly is different?

Well, the board software isn't much different at all. Mainly just security enhancements. On the other hand, the advertising scheme is quite different after spending yesterday afternoon on the phone with Google. It was interesting as they actually called me to tell me that I was getting around 1/10th the click throughs of other sport sites. :(

 

Am I the only person who clicks these ads every day? Is it really that hard?

 

The one thing that maybe does hurt though, Tim, is that the Fever Pitch ad is on seemingly 99% of the pages, while the multiple Google Ad is only on the temporary "between hitting submit and seeing your post" screen. I can only individually click that Fever Pitch banner so many times...

[Mike Aller]

I get bored and click on 4-5 ads a day.

[BigbadB]

Can I suggest that in the future we schedule board maintenance during Cub games when Jose Macias and Neifi Perez are batting 1-2 in the batting order? [-(

[Tim]

So here we are, new board and......what exactly is different?

Well, the board software isn't much different at all. Mainly just security enhancements. On the other hand, the advertising scheme is quite different after spending yesterday afternoon on the phone with Google. It was interesting as they actually called me to tell me that I was getting around 1/10th the click throughs of other sport sites. :(

 

Am I the only person who clicks these ads every day? Is it really that hard?

 

The one thing that maybe does hurt though, Tim, is that the Fever Pitch ad is on seemingly 99% of the pages, while the multiple Google Ad is only on the temporary "between hitting submit and seeing your post" screen. I can only individually click that Fever Pitch banner so many times...

The Fever Pitch ad is paid on the number of views instead of the number of clicks, so I'm loving that one. Best ad revenue I've ever had (I've been earning around $15-20 a day from that!).

 

In August, I got 994,959 page views of the google ads on the forum. I got 563 clicks, or less than 20 per day. Given that there's around 300+ non-premium members that show up here sometime during the day (even on slow days), that's not so good. As a result, I averaged WAY less per day in ad revenue without the "pay per view" ad campaign running. Typically a few bucks a day. Enough to cover the costs of the ads I run on google (I pay to be advertised in several keyword searches), but not much more than that.

 

I really appreciate those who take the time to check out the ads (and of course, the Premium users, as well!!!). The money I've been getting from google has been helping to pay for advertising. The premium subscriptions have helped pay for things like the minor league POY award, the Peoria outing (10 tickets), convention t-shirts and server expenses.

 

My current server deal expires in early October (those who have been here more than a year may remember the horrendous server issues I went through at the end of last season). I plan on moving to a fully dedicated server to increase the bandwidth, hopefully eliminate many of the connection error issues and so forth. Earning the money to pay for a much more expensive server setup is why I've been focusing so much on the revenue side of the site in the past few weeks.

[Tim]

Can I suggest that in the future we schedule board maintenance during Cub games when Jose Macias and Neifi Perez are batting 1-2 in the batting order? [-(

I should have done the maintenance yesterday. It was the lowest traffic day I've had since Feb.