I've been thinking about it for a while, and I think it makes no sense for admins not to allow advertising in their site because it will take away a considerable percentage of their memberbase or takes away a lot of traffic in some way, something that never happens. Of course it's an admin's right to set up whatever rules they want to, but it's the reason for it that's the issue here.
Not being allowed to advertise in other's sites
- Thread starter nolvorite
- Start date
Joshua Farrell
FP's Housekeeper
So, you expect to be able to advertise on a site entirely dedicated to a subject like the NBA, or a particular sports team, just because you think that they should allow it?
to totally ban it, is not fair, in a way. Even if you don't have an ad section, links/ad banners in sigs should be OK. Only with a post requirement, though, otherwise people will just join to advertise, leave and not contribute anything to the forum.
I'm not saying they should allow it, i'm not telling anyone how to admin their site, it's just that I think it's preposterous to think that allowing advertising in your site takes away a significant amount of activity.Joshua Farrell said:
Its that "fear" factor that humans have. Some feel intimidated by someone else advertising their site on their own. The notion of "their site might be better than mine, so people will go there instead of here" will sink in and that will put the person in fear and thus changing rules of said advertising on their site.
Their site is their baby, showing off to all what it is. Also when money is introduced such as you making money from your site then someone try to steal that "revenue" you are making due to traffic etc"
I think competition is good and healthy to make a better product and service. Advertising is fine if it runs down the rules and regulation of the forum they are advertising on. Not being spammy, being active would be the main ones. Rather than sign up, spam post advertise to come to another forum/website and then never return.
It can fun both ways. They advertise, then you advertise, but do it kindly and not in a way it might be found intrusive.
Their site is their baby, showing off to all what it is. Also when money is introduced such as you making money from your site then someone try to steal that "revenue" you are making due to traffic etc"
I think competition is good and healthy to make a better product and service. Advertising is fine if it runs down the rules and regulation of the forum they are advertising on. Not being spammy, being active would be the main ones. Rather than sign up, spam post advertise to come to another forum/website and then never return.
It can fun both ways. They advertise, then you advertise, but do it kindly and not in a way it might be found intrusive.
Sheltering your members from other forums wont keep them from finding them. The internet is a pretty big place and chances are your members are going to stumble upon other forums from time to time. If you're running a good forum and your members enjoy interacting with each other, they'll stick around regardless of whatever else exists out there.
HopefulKitten
New Arrival
I don't allow advertising. It's a personal preference - we don't have ads on the site anyway so I think allowing them in signatures would look out of place, and the only members I've ever had who tried to advertise were people who made one post talking about their site and then never returned, which I don't consider of much value, so I don't think we're losing anything as a result.
Our members know other sites are available, there's no taboo on mentioning other places or linking to an interesting blog post or article, we just don't like actual advertising.
Our members know other sites are available, there's no taboo on mentioning other places or linking to an interesting blog post or article, we just don't like actual advertising.
For 4 years I never allowed advertising on my site (except in signatures). I've only recently (Feb 15th really) opened up a guest advertising section. (Even then, I have a plugin that will automatically empty topics in that section once they're 30 days old.)
The main reason I never allowed guest advertising before was quite simply that I had bad experiences with advertising sections before so I never started with one. Furthermore, I tried guest advertising on another site I was running with someone else, because they wanted to have guest advertising, and again people couldn't follow our rules.
They weren't even very difficult rules to follow... (Our rules were only "Don't advertise sites with mature content on them" and "Don't post an ad unless we can post one on your site.")
And our rules were posted in 3 places:
1- On the guest ad forum's description on the index view (also bolded and brighter to stand out),
2- in a topic that was pinned in the forum itself and was clearly marked "rules",
3- in the threadview/forum topic list view's rule section.
So it's not like they were difficult to find. If anything guests had to work to ignore them.
But time and again the mature content rule was broken. Often because people felt like they could do whatever they wanted. They were only using your site for 30 seconds (to dump an ad) so they could do whatever because it didn't matter to them. (So what if they risked violating your terms of service? It wasn't their site... they didn't care.)
They'd try justifying it by saying:
- "Oh, you have an ad section. You know no one reads the rules." (Just because no one reads the rules doesn't make it ok.)
- "You have an ad section, you agreed to let everyone post there and use it however they wanted when you created it." (I made no such agreement.)
- "It's ok, I'm only going to be there 30 seconds." (Hackers can be there and take only 30 seconds to wreck your site. Is that ok too? Same mentality...)
- "So? you can do whatever in my ad section. I don't care..." (That's not the point. My site, my rules. Don't like it? Don't use my site.)
Even now, I don't have really high expectations for the guest ad section. (I've still got to really draft an ad to use on other sites...)
So it was never really that I was afraid members on my site would flee to other sites (they have google, they can very easily find other sites...) but rather people couldn't follow basic directions and be respectful.
The main reason I never allowed guest advertising before was quite simply that I had bad experiences with advertising sections before so I never started with one. Furthermore, I tried guest advertising on another site I was running with someone else, because they wanted to have guest advertising, and again people couldn't follow our rules.
They weren't even very difficult rules to follow... (Our rules were only "Don't advertise sites with mature content on them" and "Don't post an ad unless we can post one on your site.")
And our rules were posted in 3 places:
1- On the guest ad forum's description on the index view (also bolded and brighter to stand out),
2- in a topic that was pinned in the forum itself and was clearly marked "rules",
3- in the threadview/forum topic list view's rule section.
So it's not like they were difficult to find. If anything guests had to work to ignore them.
But time and again the mature content rule was broken. Often because people felt like they could do whatever they wanted. They were only using your site for 30 seconds (to dump an ad) so they could do whatever because it didn't matter to them. (So what if they risked violating your terms of service? It wasn't their site... they didn't care.)
They'd try justifying it by saying:
- "Oh, you have an ad section. You know no one reads the rules." (Just because no one reads the rules doesn't make it ok.)
- "You have an ad section, you agreed to let everyone post there and use it however they wanted when you created it." (I made no such agreement.)
- "It's ok, I'm only going to be there 30 seconds." (Hackers can be there and take only 30 seconds to wreck your site. Is that ok too? Same mentality...)
- "So? you can do whatever in my ad section. I don't care..." (That's not the point. My site, my rules. Don't like it? Don't use my site.)
Even now, I don't have really high expectations for the guest ad section. (I've still got to really draft an ad to use on other sites...)
So it was never really that I was afraid members on my site would flee to other sites (they have google, they can very easily find other sites...) but rather people couldn't follow basic directions and be respectful.
Many niche forums won't allow backlinking for a variety of reasons. For one, it encourages spammers to sign up and copy/paste posts onto the forum just for a backlink. Also, these niche forums gain nothing from the advertising or signature line. So why should they allow it?
buysell-browse.com
Acquaintance
Teejay23 said:
We allow direct competitors to advertise freely on our forums and blogs. In fact, I feel good if the competition notices us and tries to woo our users. That means we are doing something right, and it's getting well deserved attention in the advertising industry.
nolvorite said:
Yeah, seriously, the madness of it all. Why can't I just go to another company in my field of work and plaster my ads all over their walls?
Most people who join a forum and immediately update their profile/signature promoting their content isn't 'entirely' there for the community from the start, anyhow 😉 Admins know this, and weed out many useless members by enforcing this rule.
Joshua Farrell
FP's Housekeeper
In all actuality, I have created and co-admin a number of forums, and the forums that we made a decision to allow an advertising forum on the forums that didn't have a focus on administrating, caused to have a number of activity problems, mainly because the members that focused on advertising, didn't contribute much to the forum in replies and topics in the main topic areas.
I don't mind allowing advertising in signatures, as long as sites don't have mature content on them or pornography or anything like that. We have tried an advertisement sections on past forums I've owned and they've never worked out...we've even done like some forums do and enforced a post count limit or how many hours before they can bump again limit, but no matter what we did, nothing worked. Members ALWAYS seemed to find ways to get around the rules we laid out for them to prevent spam. In the end it got to be too much and we did away with it.
I think it actually returns to the simple concept of 'give and take'. If the member still does his best for the forum he is in, a little advertisement shouldn't be a problem. What happens is usually the other way around.
To disallow advertising in posts or discussions is natural because it takes attention away as it annoys some readers, and the poster will receive punishment either way. Unless there is a dedicated section for it.
I also think advertisements are okay in signatures as long as they do not bring harm to the community (such as linking to mature content).
To disallow advertising in posts or discussions is natural because it takes attention away as it annoys some readers, and the poster will receive punishment either way. Unless there is a dedicated section for it.
I also think advertisements are okay in signatures as long as they do not bring harm to the community (such as linking to mature content).
Yes, it's a pain. Sites that seek place to advertise their product are looking for sites with a similar target audience, and that site in turn wants to protect their membership base. It's tricky. Take it as a compliment!! You have a product that is evidently competitive, and you'll find creative ways to put word out about your site & attract the audience it deserves.
Jack Skellington said:
This ^^
I think having a advertising section if your niche isn't really promotion, is kinda stupid. Don't get me wrong, advertising on other forums is such a good thing to do, however I sometimes allow advertising in signatures, (give or take allowing images), and that usually pays for itself. The more posts someone makes the more exposure they will get, it's a win-win for those members motivated enough to get the exposure. :lol:
nolvorite said:
I completely agree with this. If you allow users to advertise in their signatures, advertisement areas, or links in their profile, it will attract more users. It benefits both parties and is just a smart to do.
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