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Now Get Paid To Use This Forum (no joke)

Discussion in 'Support & Feedback' started by digitalpoint, May 5, 2004.

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  1. #1
    I added something new to the forum... which I think people will like.

    If you go to the edit options section on your account, at the bottom there are two fields. If you have an AdSense account, you can specify your AdSense client ID (and a channel if you want).

    If you specify it, the AdSense ads that are served on threads you start have a 33% chance that they are credited to your AdSense account (both impressions and click-throughs).

    The only stipulation on it is you must have 50 or more total posts before it's active for your account (it's retroactive for all previous threads once you hit that level though).

    Let me know what you think...

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 5, 2004 IP
    kaung, sam_m, sachin410 and 2 others like this.
  2. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #2
    I don't know why I picked 33% initially either... Seems stupid to me. So I changed it to be a straight 50/50 chance.

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 5, 2004 IP
  3. compar

    compar Peon

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    #3
    So you are looking to get more threads started. That interesting because sometime I think there are too many threads. Often you see a brand new thread started that is only covering ground that has been discussed 2 or 3 time before.

    Take my link chart for instance. I have now posted it on at least 3 threads. Why didn't these people see it in the original thread?
     
    compar, May 5, 2004 IP
  4. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #4
    Yeah, I figure I'm going to have to manage people starting threads for no other reason a little closer now. Luckly vB3 makes it easy to split/merge/delete threads. :)

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 5, 2004 IP
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  5. schlottke

    schlottke Peon

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    #5
    Interesting. Besides increasing content size, what other motives are behind creating more threads?
     
    schlottke, May 5, 2004 IP
  6. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #6
    There really is no secret motive... Just thought it was a neat idea. Since it's the users that make a forum good, might as well give them some of the ad revenue.

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 5, 2004 IP
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  7. projectphp

    projectphp Peon

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    #7
    Shawn,
    can i just say that, mintentionally or not, you are truly one of teh best Online Marketers I know. This is an absolutely briiliant, fantastic marketing idea!!

    Add to that your free keyword tool, and you have two brilliant viral marketing campaigns, both of which are likely to bear great results.

    I am truly, utterly impressed.

    That said, this idea may slightly backfire, in that it will attract more of the self motivated types, the useless members. Or it may not. Either way, nice work and well done (I was so impressed i signed up imediately,a dn i have no AdSense account, I was just outright impressed!!!)

    Projectphp
     
    projectphp, May 5, 2004 IP
  8. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #8
    Well, as I mentioned, I'm definitely going to have to keep an eye on things. Might actually have to finally start putting moderators in place if it gets too out of hand. But the thought definitely did cross my mind.

    So we'll see how it goes...

    From a coding standpoint, one interesting thing is I was able to do it without modifying the source of vBulletin at all. I really like how flexible the backend is.

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 5, 2004 IP
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  9. rustybrick

    rustybrick User ID 3

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    #9
    I am confident Shawn can build intelligent software, if need be, to read new posts and determine if they are "self motivated types" versus the ones looking for real info or to share real info.

    :)
     
    rustybrick, May 5, 2004 IP
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  10. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #10
    Hahaha... right.

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 5, 2004 IP
  11. rustybrick

    rustybrick User ID 3

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    #11
    You know you want to. Anything challenging gets you thinking.
     
    rustybrick, May 5, 2004 IP
  12. schlottke

    schlottke Peon

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    #12
    I love the idea Shawn, it is really brilliant. I just wondered if you were doing this in an attempt to build content pages, back links, etc?
     
    schlottke, May 5, 2004 IP
  13. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #13
    Nope, not really... We are doing a fairly good job at building content and a member base already (thanks in large part to the keyword tracker user base we can draw upon). As far as back links, I doubt we will get any because of it.

    The real answer is much simpler than everyone thinks. It was a fun exercise for me to make it work. And I figure "Why not?"... it's free money anyway, so...

    BTW, I also made an FAQ for it (which you can find a link to up top under the ad location).

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 5, 2004 IP
  14. john_loch

    john_loch Rodent Slayer

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    #14
    I hate to say it shawn but you now have unnecessary overhead. I'm sure it's a good idea, and every man and his dog will now want to do the same(hell, write yourself a module or some such to manage it and make it linkware).. but i really think any new audience (visiting because you now share adsense profit) is just going to see the forum in that light, and treat it accordingly.

    Either way, it's a good idea resulting in reduced revenue, and added overhead (management etc).. I hope you get what you want from it.

    I personally very rarely start threads. I'm usually too busy reading what other ppl have to say. Your forum moves at a nice pace, I just hope it isn't abandoned to dross.

    Lets see what happens :D
     
    john_loch, May 6, 2004 IP
  15. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #15
    Yeah... if it makes the quality go down or anything else I don't like, it won't continue. Mostly just an experiment at this point.

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 6, 2004 IP
  16. awall19

    awall19 Berserker

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    #16
    I think that generally the most value is added to a forum by the people who answer questions. If you have been around SEO for any time greater than 6 months then you see that almost every question has been answered multiple times in the last 6 months.

    Most people starting threads are new members with less than 50 posts. I think the coolest way to do the program is to have the payout go to a random account within the thread.

    This way you prevent overbroadening of your forums by people asking similar questions over and over, and still add the reward bonus to those who answer lots of questions.

    Another cool idea could be ShawnRank where you also manipulated the mathematical odds based on how cool the people are. You could keep it hidden. Schlock self promotional hucksters could get banned, but only slightly questionable posts can cause the person to get a mid sized ding. I am overanalytical of things for no reason sometimes, which is generally viewed as not cool. Long rambling posts such as this could also get a ding.

    Unless the person is a flat out forum junkie it should be a negligable amount anyway, but there is my own negligable amount (my 2 cents)...43 posts to go :)
     
    awall19, May 6, 2004 IP
  17. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #17
    Hehe... yeah, my first idea was to run it across any post (regardless if the user was part of that thread). With the percentage of impressions based on the percentage of total posts. The problem with that is it adds more server load/overhead than was acceptable to me. While the way it's done now isn't ideal, it only ads a single SQL query to the scope of things.

    If I can figure a better way of doing it (without adding too much server overhead), I'll most likely try it.

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 6, 2004 IP
  18. awall19

    awall19 Berserker

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    #18
    this idea might be quick and easy (disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about databases)

    most recent poster to thread...would that work?
     
    awall19, May 6, 2004 IP
  19. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #19
    It also crossed my mind... still not ideal (as far as required backend resources), but better. :)
     
    digitalpoint, May 6, 2004 IP
  20. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #20
    OKay, I've made it a bit of a hybrid system. When viewing a thread, there are two ways you can do it. Either by thread (it will have a t=xxx in the URL), or by post (it will have a p=xxx in the URL). If it's viewed by post, the individual poster gets the AdSense credit.

    If it's by thread, then the thread starter gets the credit. In most cases, it's by post, so it should work well I think.

    - Shawn
     
    digitalpoint, May 6, 2004 IP
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