Ads changes

[John]

After some thought I've decided to switch the advertising on the site over to sponsored advertising. If you are wondering what I mean, it looks very much like what they have over at Dendroboard.com - relevant advertisers pay a fee to have their banner shown on the web site, and the frequency of it showing is based on the fee they pay per time period. I hope to make this transition in the next 24-48 hours.

These would replace the google advert at the bottom of every page, and something similar would replace the tall google ad on the left over every page. There will be an ad banner on the bottom right of our site header (below the login box/logged in box) - as you can tell, I've changed the size of our logo and layout of the login/logged in box to make room for this banner space.

I'm taking this action for three main reasons:

• It was always my plan to do it that way since before I opened the site
• The Google Ads can be pretty cheesey at times (for example the "plenty of fish" ads)
• Google ads generate relatively little revenue (about $30 in the last 3 months isn't exactly wonderful)

If you have any thoughts, I welcome them.

[John]

I've started implementing the changes, as you can tell. Not all the way there yet but getting there.

[John]

I've now implemented all of the changes with two small exceptions. Firstly I'm still considering the fate of the google "skyscraper" shaped ad on the left of most of the site's pages. Secondly there will be a small section of the sidebar highlighting classifieds placed in the advertisement section - right now there are no such sponsor advertisements so there is no such sidebar.

[into]

If I could only make a connection between frogs and gas masks, then I coul place a banner ad here. I work in the marketing dept. for my company but we only place ADs in law enforcement websites

hmmm... maybe I can convince my company that a frog should be our mascot and we need to contribute to the cause.

[Kurt]

Good luck with that.

[John]

Thanks guys.