I totally understand the need for some banner ads and sponsers to help with the cost of the server. I know from experience that these ads do not necessarily pay big money and it's a challenge just to a break even with hosting fees.

But man, having to scroll past them just to get to the articles is getting really annoying, and in terms of effectiveness of the ads, probably not the best placement. It also makes the forums seem a bit less polished.

John, any chance those banners could be vertical towers and positioned to the left or right of the article blocks? I dont have direct experience with vBulletin, but I could do a little research for you if its not immediately obvious how to do it.

If you think this would be acceptable, of course.

I actually like it that way. Nothing jumpy on the screen after you scroll down and start reading. Otherwise it would have been much more annoying.

Using my mouse wheel it's a microsecond to scroll past. Having visited forums with ads left or right- I find that much more annoying because it means less space for the article and inevitably scrolling left or right.

This is one of those things that people are going to be divided over no matter what I do. I'm going to leave them at the top. Sorry man! :)

If it were up to me I would base the placement of the banners on how I was being paid. If I'm being paid per impression, I leave them where they are because IMO it's easiest for the regular user to ignore (microsecond scroll :lol: ).

If I was being paid per click I would move them to the sides or in between posts because I've seen numerous studies of banner click thru rates that concluded that the top of the page generated the worst click thru ratio. On this site the bottom wouldn't be a good place on this site because no one looks at the very bottom of the page. But surprisingly this position has generated the best ctr.

As a frequent visitor I've developed the habit of completely ignoring the banners-which is good and bad.

No offense to you John and I doubt you care but I agree with Joe about the banners looking unpolished. But I assume that those are the only banners they have so what can you do? Hopefully they'll eventually have some cool flash banners.

Please don't move the banners to the sides. It makes the page much more difficult to read at work to have some random dude's photoshopped six-pack in place where you can't scroll past it when your cube is empty.

Please don't move the banners to the sides. It makes the page much more difficult to read at work to have some random dude's photoshopped six-pack in place where you can't scroll past it when your cube is empty.

So you are saying that while you are at work it's not a problem to have John's flabby-belly-turned-six-pack or Supirman's entire photo gallery which show up in each post?

"Those are ok, but goodness please no Kent Nutrition ad - I'd be fired!" ;)

Anyway, my suggestion stemmed from the fact that upon page load, there is absolutely no content in the initial view. You MUST scroll to get to the content. But as John pointed out, you can't please everyone. I can live with it - it was just a good natured suggestion, not complaining.

Anyway, my suggestion stemmed from the fact that upon page load, there is absolutely no content in the initial view. You MUST scroll to get to the content. But as John pointed out, you can't please everyone. I can live with it - it was just a good natured suggestion, not complaining.

I understand, and appreciate your input. I'm still brainstorming ideas to clean things up a bit at the top of the page while keeping my sponsors happy. :)

I hope that's a bit better. ;)

I like it!

Worlds better. Actually, looks really good that way. I wasn't going to bitch, but I have to agree... the old configuration was rough. Especially on smaller monitors.

-R

That looks rad. Though if you pick up another sponsor the whole thing is out the window :D

I hope that's a bit better. ;)

I like it!
There ya go. Thats a step in the right direction.

Excellent, thanks for the feedback! It looks much better this way, and if I add another one I'll put it below the current two rows, and I'll fill the odd spot with an add for JSF merchandise. :tu:

I figured I'd better do a better job of showing the ads if I want to keep my title of "Sponsor Whore."

Now, please show the sponsors the ads still work by buying something from them! ;)

i noticed it right away and it looks great you sponsor whore you. ;)

Nice job Sponsor Whore. ;)

A thought for the future -

As your list of sponsors grows you'll be faced with 2 problems

There will be too many sponsors to possibly show all of the ads on every page view
Your sponsors will not want to BE on the same page as all of the others


When this happens we can come up with a PHP script for you to rotate the ads randomly, or by an hourly schedule.

P.S. I wonder how much ad revenue I generated by starting this thread... :confused:

It's an improvement in the look definitely. :tucool:

Did you come up with the headlines underneath the banners or are those from your sponsors? Or were they always there and I didn't notice?

Does 'lose fat not faith' have a religious context?

Thank god for dynamic pages-it would be a real pain to fix the code on 50,000 web pages! :lol:

Much better for keeping things above the fold, thanks!

Nice job Sponsor Whore. ;)

A thought for the future -

As your list of sponsors grows you'll be faced with 2 problems

There will be too many sponsors to possibly show all of the ads on every page view
Your sponsors will not want to BE on the same page as all of the others
When this happens we can come up with a PHP script for you to rotate the ads randomly, or by an hourly schedule.

P.S. I wonder how much ad revenue I generated by starting this thread... :confused:

Hi Joe, I'm proficient in PHP and could easily rotate the ads if I wanted to, but the agreement I have with my sponsors is for always visible on all pages. The reason they don't mind if they all show at once is because, in general, they are not direct competitors. Also, I won't be adding many more sponsors because I won't add sponsors that compete with one another (kind of hard when I use and personally endorse each sponsor). So I can't see adding more than, say, 2 sponsors to our current lineup.

It's an improvement in the look definitely. :tucool:

Did you come up with the headlines underneath the banners or are those from your sponsors? Or were they always there and I didn't notice?

Does 'lose fat not faith' have a religious context?

Thank god for dynamic pages-it would be a real pain to fix the code on 50,000 web pages! :lol:

I had the text link under the ad for AtLarge Nutrition only (they requested it). I added the text links for our other sponsors when I made the changes today as a courtesy.

You'd have to PM Jeremy about the title of his eBook - I honestly don't know the answer to your question. :)

I figured I'd better do a better job of showing the ads if I want to keep my title of "Sponsor Whore."

Aha! So you admit it! We spend six pages defending you and now you go and admit it!:lol:

I like the new look!

So you are saying that while you are at work it's not a problem to have John's flabby-belly-turned-six-pack or Supirman's entire photo gallery which show up in each post?

"Those are ok, but goodness please no Kent Nutrition ad - I'd be fired!" ;)

Hey, it's not the partial nudity I have a problem with, it's the blatant and artless image alteration ;)

Yeah for the new look!

I love the new layout of the banner ads John. Good work. :tucool:

Hey, it's not the partial nudity I have a problem with, it's the blatant and artless image alteration ;)
Yeah, we all can look like the Kent Nutrition model, we just haven't found the right Photoshop filter yet. :D

Also, I won't be adding many more sponsors because I won't add sponsors that compete with one another (kind of hard when I use and personally endorse each sponsor).

Wow, genuine integrity. How quaint. It just may be weird enough to work ;)

Not only does the placement look better but the ads themselves look better at this size. They had a somewhat unprofessional look being larger before. Now they look tight--the way I want my body to look in the not too distant future. :D

Jeremy's "lose the fat, not the faith" refers to not losing the faith that you can get into shape....at least as I understand it.

The layout is really good. I agree that it does look more professional.

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone. I agree, the new layout is much more visually pleasing and professional looking.

Special thanks to Joe for giving me a kick in the ass. :tu:

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone. I agree, the new layout is much more visually pleasing and professional looking.

Special thanks to Joe for giving me a kick in the ass. :tu:
Hey and I didn't even need to put on my steel toe workboots. :D