SUGGESTION: Could comments in hubs have text ads

1. 66

   Cheeky Girlposted 11 years ago

   I like a great feature in "Crackberry", the Blackberry website for a cool ads feature. They have Google ads sponsored by Google appearing every 10 or so comments down a comments section. I won't add links here - but check it to see what they look like. Could that feature become a feature of hubs? Would hubbers go for it? Extra Adsense income? Or could it be a Hub Ads or Amazon feature in the comments instead. Reading down comments takes readers further from ads. It's just a wee suggestion from me! I welcome thoughts on it!
   
   Could comments sections also feature links to other related hubs every few comments? Just a thought.
   
   Cheeky Girl

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   Aficionadaposted 11 years ago

   Interesting suggestions!
   
   I personally get so tired of ads (on other sites) that cover up most of the screen and what I'm trying to read, and I actually just tune them out when there are too many all over the place. 
   
   I think HP has done a good job of spacing out the ads here for what I consider to be a positive reader experience which still includes ads.
   
   The idea of including some more ads that are well spaced out between comments sounds like something that I could "tolerate" as a reader (lol); in fact, I have a strong hunch that I would pay more attention to them than to most of the big bold ones I see in other locations.

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   relacheposted 11 years ago

   I don't think people read back through old comments enough to make this a viable option.

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4. 93

   melbelposted 11 years ago

   Hubs could be hurt from having too many ads on them and I don't see comments being a high click area, so it could be a waste of an ad unit.
   
   I'm actually surprised that Crackberry isn't in trouble with Google for how they do their ads. Viewers shouldn't be tricked into clicking ads and should be able to clearly distinguish what's an ad and what's site content. It's REALLY difficult to determine, on that site, what's an advertisement and what's not. Some ads are clear there, but some are really tricky looking.
   
   Interesting idea, though.

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5. 64

   Astra Nomikposted 11 years ago

   It is an interesting idea, Cassy. But the ads on Crackberry do look so similar to the actual comments there. Another curious thing is, that it might get more eyes looking at comment areas than usual. The ads would have to be not intrusive to the reader...

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6. 66

   Cheeky Girlposted 11 years ago

   Melbel, I agree about how it is possible for Google to allow them to show more ads than usual or normally allowable! It is interesting. But then they are text ads. Obviously Google have allowed something new and unusual, and I am intrigued by that. I haven't read about it anywhere else. But it is clever!
   
   But it's fair to point out that the more comments a hub would get - then the more ads could be shown too!
   
   Thanks Cathy and co: yes there are enough ads on Hubs, I think. But maybe there might be another way of distributing the count of ads, if there were enough comments! It is just a suggestion, based on what I saw working on that other website.

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7. 75

   MickiSposted 11 years ago

   First of all apologies for modifying the title of the thread to remove "...like the crackberry site". I needed to shorten the title in order to include "Suggestion" at the font (my way of keeping track of what I've already reviewed).
   
   Cheeky Girl, you make an excellent suggestion. Thanks to all for chiming in. Here's what we're working on with respect to ads on Hubs (and earning opportunities for you authors)....
   
   1. Now that the new Hub design has rolled out to all categories, we are starting a series of A/B tests to fully optimize the ads. In short, how it works is that we run a new ad layout on a very small percentage of Hub impression (usually around 1-2%) to see how it performs relative to the control group.
   
   Placing a text ad in the comments is one thing that we want to test.
   
   2. In the new Hub layout, you'll notice that we added a second ad in the footer. This is one A/B test that we ran recently. Adding a second ad to the bottom of the page made a little more money than one ad, and it did not cannabalize clicks to anything else on the page.
   
   3. One reason that we do these in A/B tests is that, as you can see from the hypothesis in this thread so far, you can postulate that an ad will be good because of reason x. Or, that it will be bad because of reason y. In the end, only data from real user behavior ever tells the right answer.
   
   4. Another a/b test that we did as we were doing the Hub redesign was removing the two ads from the sidebar. One school of thought inside of HubPages said, "No! We'll make less money by having two fewer ad units." Another school of thought said, "We'll make more money because fewer readers will abandon the page and more clicks will go to inline ad units." Not an intuitive hypothesis. So, we tested. As you can see, no sidebar ads actually made more money.
   
   I don't give this detail to invoke a discussion of the sidebar ad, specifically. That's not appropriate for this forum. However, I do want to be as transparent as possible on our thinking.
   
   To make a long story short, thank you, Cheeky Girl for the suggestion. It will be something that we add to our A/B testing over the next couple of months. I will keep you all informed via this forum thread as to the results when we have them.

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      Mark Ewbieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for a great explanation of your thinking. It really helps to be informed.

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      1. 75

         MickiSposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         You're welcome.

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      Cheeky Girlposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Cheers, MickiS! I understand the title thing on the Suggestion!
      
      I love the new hub layouts in all the categories, and even my older hubs look better now! Experimenting with ads placement is a great idea and progressive. And yes if the ads make money for us, they make money for you guys. that's a win-win situation!
      
      I'm glad I suggested it! Anything that makes things run better or work better, I am all for it.
      
      The idea of 2 fewer ads in the side bar could hypothetically be offset by some kind of ads in the comments sections. Lots of hubbers get good comments on their hubs. Of course some hubs might not get them, so the ad system has to be flexible for different possible outcomes there.
      
      And yes the one column layout did result in more income per page, thanks to your tests. Bravo! The different and more progressive layout of Hub pages means that people get used to "new ways of Seeing" things. I think that is a key to better results with ads. ( I have noticed a big drop in websites using skyscraper tall ads for example.)
      
      Thanks for the transparency too! You guys and gals (!) don't get enough praise for the amazing improvements you make! Viva la Hubs! Viva la forums too!

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   DigbyAdamsposted 11 years ago

   It's wonderful to hear about how much rigorous thought is given to page layouts and advertizing. I know I made the right decision to put lots of content here.

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   Peggy Wposted 11 years ago

   I think we can all say that we appreciate everything you are doing to maximize profits for the individual hubpage writers because obviously what benefits us benefits HP also.  Go forth and keep testing! 

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    Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

    Micki & Staff - any updates on how the ad tweaks a few months ago (mentioned in this thread) worked?  I know the thread is inactive lately, but the references are helpful.

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       rebekahELLEposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I miss Micki. As far as I can see, she is no longer a staff member.  I think this is HP's loss.

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       1. 66

          Cheeky Girlposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Wow, Micki is no longer staff? That's news to me! Oh well, she was helpful to lots of us! We'll miss her!

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