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gang8 · Joined: 24 Nov 2007 Posts: 1

Hi there, nice to see you're working on improvements with the smileys and this forum. Though when I started using the shoutbox there weren't any ads and all of a sudden they were there. The demo on your homepage doesn't show this either.
Apart from that I'm pretty pleased Wink

Svante · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 9:34 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the feedback, unfortunately without some kind of income freeshoutbox.net wouldn't be possible..

Earlier freeshoutbox.net where at a cheap shared hosting account, but the account got suspended because of resource overusage. I had to hire a dedicated server, which is not cheap stuff, and I might have to hire more servers when more shoutboxes are created.

While other shoutbox hosters charges money for pretty basic features like auto-refresh and post archive, I've chosen to go for the completely free way, with google ads to cover the server costs. I might look into an ad-removal option for a small fee later, but there's a lot of stuff to look up about taxes and that stuff.

safetykid · Joined: 24 Nov 2007 Posts: 23

I was wondering if it was intentional that some ads were in-line, meaning if you held your courser over the words that were underlined it showed ads. But only sometimes.

Svante · Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 10:19 am Post subject:

safetykid wrote:

I was wondering if it was intentional that some ads were in-line, meaning if you held your courser over the words that were underlined it showed ads. But only sometimes.

Yeah I have had some tests with inline ads. I always try to keep the ads as non-intrusive as possible while still getting enough revenue to keep this service running.

Btw. did you find the inline-ads better or worse than the banner ads?

safetykid · Joined: 24 Nov 2007 Posts: 23

Svante wrote:

safetykid wrote:

I was wondering if it was intentional that some ads were in-line, meaning if you held your courser over the words that were underlined it showed ads. But only sometimes.

Yeah I have had some tests with inline ads. I always try to keep the ads as non-intrusive as possible while still getting enough revenue to keep this service running.

Btw. did you find the inline-ads better or worse than the banner ads?

I think of them as a little worse, we make a game of the banner ads, they have our names in them.

Svante · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:47 pm Post subject:

I'm running a test now with only one small text-ad (no image-banners at all) per shoutbox. I hope it will cover the server costs anyways..

fskobic · Joined: 26 Dec 2007 Posts: 1

ok, i posted on another topic concerning these ads, but i just got another idea. would it be possbile for you to put the ads on the bottom of the shoutbox? because it gets a bit confusing when there is my message and the ads that look a bit like the other messages, and then the 'shouts' below. just a suggestion. that's what this is for, right?

apart from the ad thing, i love this shoutbox, am really enjoying it. tnx

Svante · Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:31 pm Post subject:

I'm testing different ad-formats (including CPM-ads at the bottom), if it turns out well I might be able to remove the top ad later.

But I haven't got enough data to promise anything as of yet..

Svante · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject:

The top ad has finally been removed, and the bottom ad will now resize not to break your page design Very Happy

biba · Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Posts: 1

Hi,

I'd just like to know if the ads could get a bit smaller and with a larger space between post and ad... I have a huge banner ad now in each of my German and English shoutbox that I use as a prayer boxes... doesn't look very appropriate there...

Would appreciate it very much! Thanks!