Couple Ad Network Changes...

• People's cache files are now caching 1,000 ads (up from 400). This will help flatten out the peaks and valleys (on stats) for impressions.
  
  
• Minimum time between getting new ads temporarily changed from 4 seconds to 60 seconds (so the ad server isn't overloaded while all the sites are adding 600 more ads to their cache).
  
  
• Maximum time between getting a new ad will probably be changed to 30 minutes (up from 15 minutes).
  
  
• Some minor changes to the ad network PHP file (this is *not* a mandatory update). Most notably you can pick how you want ads to display on your site (rotating, static or a 50/50 mix). You only need to update your PHP file if you want something other than 100% rotating ads. This does NOT affect how your ads are displayed, so change it only if you don't prefer how rotating ads look on your site. If you update, it does not require you to flush your cache (.txt file).

You can see an example of a 50/50 static/dynamic ad split here:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/archive/index.php/

 

I knew I was going to get flak for this, but whatever... No, I did not "accept" static links were needed.

But I have been watching other advertising systems (notably AdSense) and how more ads have been static (CPM ads in this forum for example). That coupled with the fact that I have a few sites that I think non-rotating ads would look better cosmetically.

It's 100% for the cosmetics of your site and gives webmasters more control over how they want other people's ads to display on their site. It has zero bearing on how YOUR ads are displayed on other people's sites. You could run 100% static ads for example, and it doesn't make your ads any more (or less) static on other people's sites.

It's something I've wanted to toy with for awhile, but I never did it because I didn't feel like taking crap from all the "the ad network will only survive if it's static links" people. But then I got to thinking about it, and I decided that's a really BAD reason to not evolve the ad network, so...

 

They will remain static for the life of the ad in the cache (currently 10 days, but ad noted in the first post, the maximum time between getting new ads is probably going to go to 30 minutes [up from 15]) so it will be ~20 days.

A "flood" of new users is all relative. Even if the ad network size doubled in 1 day (which it wouldn't) it would be fine. We are already handling ~100M http requests/day related to the ad network (new ads and impression tracking). People always forget I'm not a marketer, SEO or webmaster (at least not first). My "real" work is designing and deploying large systems/applications for large businesses.

Yep... and that's the whole purpose of it. To give webmasters more control over the look/feel of their sites.

 

It's still on the to-do list, but it's a MAJOR, MAJOR undertaking with redesigning the weighting system to take that into account. Not something I've particularly been looking forward to tackling. One of these days I will just turn everything off (phone, email, etc.) and bang it out one day.

 

No... it does not affect your weight or how your ads are displayed on other people's sites. It's strictly a cosmetic choice you can make for your site as the site owner.

 

It will be 20 days once the cache variables are changed in the next few days (see previous post). It's not permanently static because it's still not a link exchange network. Not only that, but you would end up with too many cheaters (people getting their permanent ads, then stop validating and have their ads remain).

Cosmetics is a HUGE factor IMO. If it wasn't, you wouldn't have *any* options for the setup (banner vs. text only, banner color, separation characters, how many ads to display, etc.)