Matt,
On ad stuff...
Don't be to hasty to implement some of the requsets from some who are opposed to the ads in the first place. ANYTHING, and I do mean ANYTHING that will lower the CTR of the ad WILL reduce your revenue. If the Ad does not produce results, the Advertiser will not be back. As it stands now you have done more than enough to "protect" those that seem to think their posts are sacrosanct and should not be sullied by placement of an ad. Further separation might begin to affect the results of a given ad.
Personally, one ad at the bottom of a message, mixed in with "hot topic" message ads, is an excellent setup. I may even try it myself!
BTW, Do any of you anti-ad folks realize that RB places ELEVEN advertisements in EVERY post?
Aside to Matt, please don't take the ad thing that far!
I also like the idea of giving the option of a "paid" no-ad version of IHUB. That way them whut don't like the ads can put they money where they mouth is!
As far as Free no-ads use for Chairs and Directors with active threads, I'd say no. However Chairs and Directors with threads that have a large number of posts and users (tracked on a weekly basis) might warrant some kind of revenue sharing from the ad impressions they generate. My suggestion would be to track the number of ads "clicked" each week on a particular thread and reward (as you see fit) those CoB's and Director's that are the best performers or are above a set standard. This would reward the active and at the same time encourage users to investigate the advertisers. Better responses make advertisers happy.
Till next time
Be vewy vewy quiet...I'm hunting fo' dwagons! - Sir Elmer of Fudd
David Weed
aka the Bird of Prey
www.warp-drive.com
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