Simplified Ad Level Settings

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   Simone Smithposted 11 years ago

   While editing a Hub in the HubTool, you may have noticed the “settings” section as part of the Hub Control Tabs in the right sidebar. This is where you can set the ad level settings for a Hub. You can choose from High, Medium, Low, and None. Because the Medium and Low settings were sparsely used (just 0.6% of Hubs whether measured by views or published Hubs), we decided it was no longer worth the ongoing maintenance and upkeep.
   
   Beginning today, a Hub will either have ads or not have ads. In addition to this change, we will do away with the “commercial” designation.
   
   Please note: for the time being, this change will only affect newly published Hubs. If one of your Hubs presently has a setting of Low or Medium, it will be unaffected by this change. However, if you switch to a setting of "Ads On" or "Ads Off", you will not have the option to switch back to Low or Medium.

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      aravindb1982posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hey! this is bad. Because it just forces us to be completely commercial. And the ads which appear in the middle of the article sometimes has images that strip the dignity of the article! Please, get back at least the 'medium' ad settings.
      
      The dozens of changes in the last two months have really got me a bit upset. Am now planning to go over somewhere else....
      
      This is sad because I put in a lot of efforts.... Money is needed but not in the way of flashing ads on the face - the way it happens in 'High' ad settings...

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         Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I apologize for any discomfort our changes have caused, aravindb1982. I understand that you liked the setting, but very few people used it, and we're trying to make the site as easy to use as possible (which sometimes means taking unnecessary choices away).
         In Hubs in which you really don't like the way the ads look, you can always just remove those ads entirely and monetize (if you like) through eBay and Amazon Capsules. You still most certainly have options.

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      Melovyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Simone, I think the main reason the Low and Medium settings were sparsely used was because people didn't understand them. I only recently discovered them and have set several hubs to medium. When I mentioned this in a Facebook group, most people didn't know about it either.
      
      This change does leave me feeling a bit concerned. The reason I have been setting ads to medium is because my views were badly hit in September and from reading about why this could be it seemed that a major issue with Google is a high number of ads above the fold. A hub with a large photo at the top (as many of mine have) has very little other than photo and ads above the fold.
      I realise I am no SEO expert or even close so perhaps I misunderstand the whole issue of ads above the fold? If so I would love if you could explain it!

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         Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I'm afraid that I'm not the resident SEO expert, Melovy, but I can assure you that if we had any reasonable information that indicated that above the fold ads were significantly hurting the site's SEO, there wouldn't be any.

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   cperuzziposted 11 years ago

   Smells like opportunity.

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 11 years ago

   Although I was aware that I could change the settings, I did not know what that meant for the new layout.  The Learning Center entry, http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/mone … n-partners showed which ads were there for the different settings, are not for the new layout.  I guess I could have used trial and error to figure it out. I was waiting for the dust to settle before changing any settings to get comfortable.
   
   Since the new layout doesn't have as many ads as the old layout, I think that we have the number of ads that I am happy with. I have no issues with the other settings going away.
   
   The only ads I would like to remove are the ones at the very top of the page (above the title). They are unsightly and tell the viewer I am after them for the money. We didn't have any control of that previously and I am guessing that we still don't.

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      Melovyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Millionaire Tips, those are the ads that bother me most too. I feel the same way about them that you do.

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   Dame Scribeposted 11 years ago

   I found most success with that horizontal bar with text ads. It's out of the way yet near the top though Adsense newsletter says the right is better but clicks are more on that little bar thingy. Not on HP but my blogger one js

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   tillsontitanposted 11 years ago

   As with all changes, time will tell!  Thanks for the heads up Simone.

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   safiq ali patelposted 11 years ago

   Thank you for the update on ad settings. I'm going to go through my hubs just to make sure that the ads setting is on. Thank you once again.

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   shampa sadhyaposted 11 years ago

   I have a question in this regard that suppose some hubs do have the ad level set at 'medium' then what is to be done at this point. Should it be switched on to 'ads on'?

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      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Ads will be left at a medium setting for the time being, as we're grandfathering Hubs' ad settings in, but eventually, those settings will be switched to just "ads on".

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