fyi- Modifications to advertising on Photrio

Bill Burk · Mar 21, 2018

My web browser locks up as I browse Photrio (Google Chrome) and I can see a lot of the blame is googleadservices, googlesyndication googleads.doubleclick.net.

I think they are taking advantage of you, not the other way around.

These same ads are attacking my experience on clickbait sites.

This is not a good move.

Sean · Mar 21, 2018

@Bill Burk Hi Bill, is your chrome version up to date? I've tried 5 different macs and pc's and chrome is lightning fast even on pages with ads. I'm not sure why you're having issues. It seems like something interfering, maybe a browser plugin, old java version or such? Everything for me is near instantaneous.

Bill Burk · Mar 21, 2018

Well it’s old Vista and the version is whatever Chrome stopped at... 49.0.2623.112

The ads are personalized and coming from eBay and this could be part of it. All Facebook seemed paused this afternoon too.

But earlier I had been on a clickbait site and the eBay ad was very aggressive. I landed on eBay twice before realizing it was a moving ad. Thanks for not doing that.

But essentially it was the same ad. And it felt like a bad direction to me.

juan · Mar 21, 2018

Vista?

MattKing · Mar 21, 2018

juan said:
Vista?

At least it isn't ME.

Sean · Mar 22, 2018

I found that if you have a google account, you can adjust how google shows ads to you, this will apply to all websites you use not just Photrio. Some might find this useful: Dead Link Removed

Bill Burk · Mar 22, 2018

I'm still seeing delays and they vary. Typically about 5 to 15 seconds (though I had one take 28 seconds yesterday) for each page to fully draw.

What annoys me the most is how the ads are the same ads that are on clickbait sites. Page drawing is delayed waiting for the ads to appear, navigation is suspended until page draws.

A typical clickbait site I visited had 7 ads per page. It looks like you've got 3 clickbait ads running (with an occasional Photrio ad dropped in at the top). So almost halfway to saturation.

Maybe you could cut back by just one ad.

Put Photrio ads at the top, only.

The two revenue-generators could be relegated to the left and bottom.

Sean · Mar 22, 2018

Bill Burk said:
I'm still seeing delays and they vary. Typically about 5 to 15 seconds (though I had one take 28 seconds yesterday) for each page to fully draw.

What annoys me the most is how the ads are the same ads that are on clickbait sites. Page drawing is delayed waiting for the ads to appear, navigation is suspended until page draws.

A typical clickbait site I visited had 7 ads per page. It looks like you've got 3 clickbait ads running (with an occasional Photrio ad dropped in at the top). So almost halfway to saturation.

Maybe you could cut back by just one ad.

Put Photrio ads at the top, only.

The two revenue-generators could be relegated to the left and bottom.

It's hard for us to support old OS and browsers. Like mentioned, everything is instant for recent and semi-recent machines. If it's an option, you can get ex-lease dell desktops that are Win10, plenty of ram and disk $50-100 USD. That would run web perfectly. I'll PM you another option that might help.

Bill Burk · Mar 23, 2018

I've also got a Chromebook running Version 64.0.3282.190 (Official Build) (32-bit).

Also I noticed the search results pages are themselves ad-free.

By comparing the search pages to the content pages, I see about 2-3 seconds overhead added by the ads.

I still think the top header area should be treated specially. It would be great if you reserved that for the Photrio advertisers and serve them locally.

Maybe when you implement the escape button for subscribers, you could configure "Show all ads" "Hide ads at top" "Hide all ads"

Then I could pick "Hide ads at top" and you'd get at least some revenue.

Ack there was a stupid ad today at the bottom. File Converter or something, looked like virus bait.

Was there an issue just before Fri, 23 Mar 2018 04:26:03 GMT ? I just seem to have locked up Photrio and it just broke free.

Sean · Mar 23, 2018

Bill Burk said:
I've also got a Chromebook running Version 64.0.3282.190 (Official Build) (32-bit).

Also I noticed the search results pages are themselves ad-free.

By comparing the search pages to the content pages, I see about 2-3 seconds overhead added by the ads.

I still think the top header area should be treated specially. It would be great if you reserved that for the Photrio advertisers and serve them locally.

Maybe when you implement the escape button for subscribers, you could configure "Show all ads" "Hide ads at top" "Hide all ads"

Then I could pick "Hide ads at top" and you'd get at least some revenue.

Ack there was a stupid ad today at the bottom. File Converter or something, looked like virus bait.

Was there an issue just before Fri, 23 Mar 2018 04:26:03 GMT ? I just seem to have locked up Photrio and it just broke free.

I just did a database backup, so it was probably that. There shouldn't be any overhead really. The ads are not designed to load first before the rest of the site, the site loads, then the ads load. Hopefully the ad relevance improves a bit in the next few days. I'll try blocking a few more of the more click baity ad networks as I see them.

ajmiller · Mar 23, 2018

I’m not sure why I’m seeing ads for hotels at the top here? I’m sorry but I thought by subscribing I was contributing towards the running of this site? Is there not an ad free option anywhere?

ajmiller · Mar 23, 2018

If you must have ads why not keep them away from the header? A trumpet Forum I’m on has all the ads at the bottom of the page under the main content. A lot less intrusive.

Sean · Mar 23, 2018

ajmiller said:
I’m not sure why I’m seeing ads for hotels at the top here? I’m sorry but I thought by subscribing I was contributing towards the running of this site? Is there not an ad free option anywhere?

Hi Aj, There will be a disable option for subscribers soon. Until then the only option is to install adblock. The site is funded by subscriptions, ads, donations and partner advertisers. There's not much room for any of the four to go away. At present less than 1.3% of the total registered accounts subscribe, most not long term. A large portion do not subscribe, donate and block the ads so are essentially using the system for free. The ads are still an experiment and I'm trying to find ways to improve them or use alternative, more relevant ad networks.

Thanks

Sean · Mar 23, 2018

*on a side note, we are getting 30-50 clicks a day. If we can grow the site, ads become more relevant, clicks and cost per click rise then that could be serious funding to improve and code new features (as mentioned in the OP).

ajmiller · Mar 23, 2018

Thanks for your reply.

Bill Burk · Mar 23, 2018

Sean said:
*on a side note, we are getting 30-50 clicks a day. If we can grow the site, ads become more relevant, clicks and cost per click rise then that could be serious funding to improve and code new features (as mentioned in the OP).

What? You don't make money unless someone clicks?

flatulent1 · Mar 23, 2018

Could be interesting to see what kind of ads show up on a thread about camera porn...

Bill Burk · Mar 23, 2018

Sean said:
The ads are not designed to load first before the rest of the site, the site loads, then the ads load.

Yup that’s what makes it feel click-baitey. The delay between when the page loads until you can navigate is perceptible.

Sean · Mar 24, 2018

Bill Burk said:
Yup that’s what makes it feel click-baitey. The delay between when the page loads until you can navigate is perceptible.

That's not an issue on recent systems though, at least on the 5 (win & Mac) in my house, there is no delay in navigation.. Next time you're at the mall pop into a tech shop and surf photrio for a minute on an up to date system, it should be near instant and smooth wether ads load or not.

Sean · Mar 24, 2018

Bill Burk said:
What? You don't make money unless someone clicks?

It depends on how things are set up, but generally, it is CPC (cost per click). On the big time photo blogs there can be ads that earn over $10 per click. We're nowhere in that league, I'm hoping we can get to $1-2 per click at some stage.

Bill Burk · Mar 25, 2018

I see that you closed the loophole where search results don't have ads. Now they have ads.
Was it something you had granular control over? (Like could you temporarily set "Subscribed" to no-ads... just to give one link that is ad free and can be used to compare.

It'll be harder to compare timeline with and without the impact of ads.

I'm seeing a lot of long frame times in developer tools.

Out of about 7 seconds page draw time, there are usually two frames near 1 second.

Bill Burk · Mar 25, 2018

Bill Burk said:
I'm seeing a lot of long frame times in developer tools.

And I don’t mean stirrers or thermometers

Nodda Duma · Apr 2, 2018

Hi Sean,

I'm still not sure how, as a small business within the community, I'm supposed to place ads. I had *just* started advertising right before the change, so I've never had the opportunity to really see how advertising here generated me any revenue. Now, I don't see my ads at all. I see the click-bait ads just fine: Best Buy, Optimax, eBay, and all the other crap that I see everywhere else because every site is using the same ad generators. What I don't see very often (if at all) are the mom and pop store ads that we used to see.

Obviously, if it's not going to help me generate sales, why don't I just donate money rather than go to the trouble of trying to figure out how to advertise? The answer is because sales generates funds for marketing generates sales, etc... and money doesn't grow on trees.

What do I do? How do I place an ad now, and how will you ensure that I feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

Help me help you pay for the site..

-Jason

Bill Burk · Apr 17, 2018

Check the syndicates there’s a rogue. Just got a “slam” ad that I didn’t click that forced me to close Safari page and re-launch Photrio

Bill Burk · May 25, 2018

Sat for a couple minutes waiting for this, and the ad never appeared...

rover.ebay.com search member user_id content...

Is this what I think it is? Ebay searching through all my posts to show me relevant ad results?
No wonder it takes my pages so long to load.

https://rover.ebay.com/roverimp/1/7...er_id=38681&content=profile_post&mpt=59918786

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