First off, as per the pop-over ads some visitors have encountered of late: We’ve been fighting this most recent battle for weeks now. These are rogue ads that come from third-party ad networks that do no follow the ad network rules. We try to ban the URLs to which these ads resolve, but it’s ineffective. Basically, we notify all of the ad networks (since we don’t usually know from which one it’s coming) and then have to wait until the ad networks ferret them out and ban them. Regular reader know we’ve been fighting these rogue ad battles for years. Thank you for your patience.
Secondly, a couple of years ago, the model that had worked since our inception (put some ads on your site, get paid enough to keep running it) cracked. The ad rates dropped significantly. Many sites’ revenue was cut dramatically. Some sites (like the long-lived MacNN) didn’t make it and closed up shop.
As our regular readers know, and as we’ve discussed with many longtime readers behind the scenes, our stopgap measure was to put up more ads to make up for the shortfall. And, it worked to the point where we can keep financing the site. But, it’s certainly not optimal. In fact, it’s a mess. We know it’s a mess. You know it’s a mess. And it makes us sad, along with and many of you from whom we’ve heard.
We long to go back to the old days of fewer, better, more relevant, and less annoying ads making for a much less cluttered site. Being freed, even partially, from dealing with “The Ad Situation,” as we call it (maybe with an additional adjective or three), would also give us more time to concentrate on content.
A good number of our regular readers have suggested we try something like Patreon. Basically, we’d be asking readers to patronize the site (as opposed to patronizing our advertisers) by contributing a few dollars each month. Most Patreon sites offer something extra for patrons and we’d certainly do that (readers who patronize MacDailyNews would get extra articles written by SteveJack, for example, that would only be available to our reader patrons), but, if we did this, we’d also like to offer a twist that benefits all visitors:
Eliminate ads as the income they bring in are offset by Patreon.
So, not only would our patrons be getting something extra, they’d also be purging the site of ad positions. We’d simply remove ads as each ad position’s average monthly revenue is offset. Theoretically, we could get to the point where there would be no ads on the site at all. But, even along the way, everyone would benefit, thanks to the patrons.
Anyway, what do you think of that idea or do you have a better or additional ideas?
Perhaps ask Jim Dalrymple how he’s succeeding over at The Loop?
MDN:
Perhaps you could follow the model used by another Apple-centric site. I won’t name it here as it’s a competitor, but part of the site name rhymes with “humor”. Their ads always appear underneath or in between the news posts. Their ad system never pop-up or hijack my iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
So clearly I don’t mind ads, as long as they behave themselves. Personally, I’d rather not have another monthly expense.
Please research the method by which this other site operates. I sincerely hope you keep your presence on the web. Your ‘takes’ are often priceless.
If everyone were to give you $.10 everytime you refrain from posting a snarky “we told you so” in the editorial comment for each article, you guys could buy Google. Count me in. Let’s get back to value added journalism (ok, a witty editorial comments are fine, but I get enough hostility just trying to navigate my way through the day without losing my mind).
Kudos for putting this out there. I agree with earlier sentiment that overall dissatisfaction with Apple’s treatment of the Mac platform has reduced my visits in recent years. The iPhone ad hijacks have contributed as well.
I understand the need to have revenue, I’d pay a few dollars a month, but options to reduce the comment clutter would be welcomed.
Apple Insider allows a subscription ad free experience. Free with ads or pay a little and get none.
That its fair.
I would throw a few bucks here and there on Patreon or PayPal, you guys are by far my favourite Mac site and I want to see you around!
The problem with the “slowly eliminate ads as the Patreon income increases” has one major problem from my point of view:
Those who contribute will not immediately see a benefit; in fact, they will see no benefit at all relative to those who do NOT contribute.
Let me first say that, while I like this site, I really don’t too much mind the ads, and I don’t want to pay for the site. Some of the ads have actually been advantageous for me.
But people like to see RESULTS for their money. If 100 people step up and contribute, say, $5/month, and that’s not really enough to significantly reduce the number of ads on the site, you risk have a large percentage of those people get disgusted, stop contributing, and stop reading your site. I can pretty much guarantee that SOME will, but I would cynically say that the percentage would be large.
This would not be good for anyone.
I think you need the “freemium” model as others have suggested here. Reward those who support you, and continue to provide a limited or ad-infested service for those like me who don’t mind it.
I would gladly pay for MDN. I would pay even more if readers were required to be paid-members in order to post comments. It would quickly thin out the ranks of those who are only here to make controversy.
Here is an idea, fix the comments section:
1. Get rid of the built in god-awful WordPress comments. I’d suggest: Disqus People use memes, ad pictures, videos, etc to posts. It makes the site more entertaining.
2. Develop and publish community guidelines, get some mods and police them accordingly. If the site is to survive, more engagement is needed, you are after all a news aggregate, people are here to talk.
3. Make sure those community guidelines are FAIR, left-leaning posters are silenced here and/or shouted down by the rabid right-wingers. and Botvin is just a troll, shut him up already.
4. Update your site, has basically looked the same for too many years. Reddit just managed to pull this off, you can too.
5. Expand your categories, Product reviews, product announcements, security, etc. Help people find relevant content easier.
MDN has been my main news site for years now. I don’t have issues with ads when viewing the website from my phone. I also use ghostery on the Mac which blocks more ads effectively.
What I have noticed over the last year or so is the general lack of comments on posts. Compare to the volume of posts at MacRumors or AppleInsider, the level of comments is very low. That may be a factor in the lower ad revenue.
One of the disincentives for me to post is the lack of discussion on Apple specific topics. Posts that tend to get a lot of comments are typically hijacked by politics and rarely get back on topic. I personally think this is one of the main reasons that the site is having problems. If it stayed away from the politics (and maybe moderated more to curb those instances) then maybe the performance could improve.
This is a shame to me because the format of the articles is very easy to read and in the past has been a good source of information.
So my recommendation – get rid of the politics and I will be willing to subscribe. But as it stands there is no way I will give money for people to stand on their soapbox and spout their political views that have no relevance to the topic on hand.
“I don’t know you’ve got to keep going haven’t you mate.” was exactly what I first thought when I read this article headline.
I can’t subscribe to everything. I learned that lesson years ago. What I can do is support the things I truly care about and use all the time. cracked.com is a good example, and I now contribute monthly. I would also contribute to macdailynews.com.
(The four apps I use all the time are Cracked, Internet Movie Database, MacDailyNews and Facebook Messenger.)
Talking about adverts I do quite like the ZergNet advert articles.
Over the years I have noticed a big drop in the number of comments on articles. I fully blame this on the ad behavior on the iDevices.
Numerous times I start to read a story on my iPhone and some dam popup or redirect interferes with it. At that point I quit the MDN App and move on to something else. Apparently many have done so and never come back.