Locally Grown’s membership plan: feedback and ideas needed

9 Comments

  1. Griff Wigley said:

    Over the past few days, I’ve flipped on Google AdSense advertisements on the left and right sidebars, as well as on the bottom of blog posts.

    I’ve also added ‘excerpts’ to all the blog posts on the home page so that if you’re interested in an individual blog post, you have to click on it to view it.

    What does that have to do with a LG membership?

    You can avoid these annoying ads by becoming a member. As a member, you’re given a username and password, so once you’re logged in, you don’t see the ads.

    We earn less than $2/day from the Google ads, so they’re not much help on the revenue side.

    January 30, 2011
  2. Paul Zorn said:

    Griff:

    Three things on Google ads:

    1. I don’t mind or even much notice them at their present (low) level of obtrusiveness. Popups, flashing lights, etc. would be another matter.

    2. How and with what degree of “intelligence”, one wonders, does Google decide *which* ads to display? Right now I see ads, for instance, for American Airlines, for travel to Israel, and for Pepper Pete’s salsa and chips. Very compliant LGN readers, presumably, will soon fly to Israel on American Airlines, munching junk food enroute.

    3. FWIW, my own decision on whether or not to pony up financially to LGN will not likely turn on avoiding these (so far) minor annoyances. For such a protection-racket-like marketing strategy to succeed, IMO, the threat level needs to be ramped up (Griff would hate to see anything happen to your cat …).

    January 31, 2011
  3. Kathie Galotti said:

    Threatening people’s cats seems to be going just a titch too far to get monetary support for LoGroNo, Paul. On the other hand, I suppose, better to threaten cats than dogs…

    February 1, 2011
  4. Griff Wigley said:

    Paul, I’ll keep scheming on ways to up the annoyance strategy. I’m currently poking around for a way to do a splash page like MPR does on its website during its membership drives.

    February 3, 2011
  5. Griff Wigley said:

    As for the types of ads that Google’s AdSense algorithm decides to display, it’s based on “website content, the user’s geographical location, and other factors.”

    The singles ads for finding Scandinavian (Norwegian?) girls (“mix with thousands of singles in your area”) is a puzzle, tho.

    I’ve applied for Google’s Ad Review service which would allow me a little more control over what gets displayed.

    February 3, 2011
  6. Andy Kornkven said:

    Maybe off topic, but how do you upload your photo once you’ve become a member of LG?

    February 4, 2011
  7. Steph Henriksen said:

    I find the big color ads filling up the margins and within the topics like the “Spiritual wickedness in Dundas” very distracting. They are selling religious stuff (framed pictures of Jesus, prayer trainings, etc). Seems like they were not there when I last looked. Are they still there, Griff?

    February 6, 2011
  8. Griff Wigley said:

    Yep, the ads are still there, Steph. The Google ads automatically try to "sense" the topic, so you’re more likely to see the religious ads in a topic like this one. You can avoid the ads, tho, by becoming a member of Locally Grown

    .

    February 7, 2011
  9. Griff Wigley said:

    Andy, the photos that appear next to many of those who comment here are because they’ve created a Gravatar, not because they’ve become a member. Give it a try and let me know if you get stuck.

    February 7, 2011

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