Waygook! > Site News, Announcements, and Updates.
Important, please read.
Arsalan:
Glad to hear the positive feedback. I will check and see if/why dating ads show up. You're right that such material is not appropriate for an educational site. I will look at that tonight, and please do let me know if they are still showing up for you after that point.
*EDIT* THIS IS DONE NOW, so it shouldn't show up anymore.
I also appreciate the paypal suggestion, and it's certainly an idea I will keep in mind.
*EDIT* Ok, so I actually went ahead and put that into place after restrict the ad content.
It might also help (as someone else suggested) that I open up a section for employers to post jobs (with a monthly subscription, something small that will help) since I know very well, as the site grows more resources get used, and more bandwidth/server space will need to be bought.
I'm just really happy to see that something I started in 2006 is actually helpful to many people.
--- Quote from: michin_migukin on November 10, 2010, 07:11:51 PM ---If you just click and close on the same ads, does it still give the site money?
--- End quote ---
Somewhat, mostly if you click on the different ads that appear, or even spacing it out over different times during day when using the site. Although I shouldn't be mentioning this as it might upset them...
Brian:
This is something that can be discussed via email, too (deutsch.brian at gmail.com), but I'd like to raise a few points.
* You won't get rich off Adsense. My site brings in $1 a day, and with waygook.org having a small box text ad in the upper right corner, you'll get even less. Better than nothing, I guess, but it's worth looking at other possibilities.
* Waygook.org can't control the ads that come up on Adsense: it's depends on the page's content and on your computer's location. That said the administrator can block certain ads: Korean Cupid, "adult" video games, Muslim Singles, etc.
* All that said, be careful about trolling for clicks. It violates Adsense's agreement, and with all the traffic we get, if there's a spike in earnings posts like this could terminate the agreement and cause you to lose the money you've earned.
* In emails and posts last year I said I was looking at other sponsorship opportunities, but unfortunately they fell through. There's little money to be made writing about Korea: few people want to pay a fair price for advertising their services, and even fewer want to pay for the content we write. We were looking at some options to create an expat-run, expat-funded ad service for the bigger blogs and sites, but it never materialized. Besides, bringing in $5 a month for sticking a huge banner on your site is hardly worth it.
* It may be time to rethink having ads from schools and recruiters. In the past I was against this because: (1) I wanted this site to be for teachers, and not to placate recruiters who may use information here to blacklist or cause trouble with current or future applicants, and (2) far too many Korea-based blogs and forums have job ads, and the advertisements have come to dominate the content.
However, there is a good bit of money to be made hosting job ads. What about building a separate page, or having a list of ads below the forum? The amount of money you'd bring in with just a handful of ads a week would pay for what it costs to keep this site going. And with fewer and fewer people using Dave's---the trolls, the negativity, the bad moderators, and the unreliable job ads---this might be an opportunity to bring in some traffic for them.
I just hate seeing you have to pay for this all out of pocket, especially since you've been out of Korea for years. It's grown into an excellent site, with thousands of views per day, and it should be financially rewarding for you, not a burden.
Janitor:
I also have been using this site for the past year and to be honest in all of my years teaching, using the information from this site, it has been probably the most exciting for my students.
I feel that a pay pal account and possibly a yearly donation drive would help give a lot of income back. I have to agree with Brian's comments on "adsense" I have never been a huge fan of it. I feel that there are so many generous people on this site that would gladly kick out a few chon-wons to help you out rather than have banners everywhere or have this turn into a recruiter haven.
Arsalan:
Fair points all around.
Although I'm aware that adsense does very little, it still does put a small dent in the costs if people click regularly. I don't plan on placing ads everywhere as I mentioned earlier, just the one up top, and if/when the site gets redesigned, maybe one at the very bottom as well. It also seems that adsense has added content restrictions for their ads, which I've activated earlier today. You're correct about trolling for clicks upsetting them, so I avoid it, but I had to bring it to people's attention.
I can set something up as a separate page for third party recruiters/schools, although I don't plan on implementing that yet until the redesign. Simply because I want an unified design for everything, and will be considering the relations between those features and others, as well as database relations. I care about it being a "smooth" experience, while still secure.
I don't really mind that some money is coming out of my pockets, I think it was all well worth it for what the site offers. It's mostly about sustainability, and that a better way of covering the operational costs need to be found, because it's simply not realistic at this point for me to ignore it. It won't be too difficult, just a bit of work and some creativity should bring us to were we need to be.
We should rethink about the sponsorship idea in any case, once I have things the way I would like in terms of site design, and functionality.
ejmclaine:
I have money already on my paypal account (from a refund I got a while back) but have never actually used paypal to pay for anything. Despite having a usable amount on there, when I go to donate money it requires my credit card info. Is this normal? Or is it just going to be charged to my credit card instead? Anyone know?
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