Hello all... I just placed ads on the bottom of each page of my site: http://www.organic-fair-trade.com Now, the quality of the links that are appearing are disappointing to say the least. Somehow I was under the impression that only good quality sites were permitted in the network, but it seems to be dominated by crap. Ce la vie, I guess. I suppose I could at least expect that the sites in the network would include ads on their own pages, but I have not found this to be always, or even usually true. So basically my immediate reaction is that I'm just giving away free links to clone sites that are trying to make money while giving nothing in return. Many of the threads on the co-op network seem to be 2-3 years old. So I am wondering whether the project has basically been abandoned and yet another good idea surrendered to the myspace layouts, ring tones, debt consolidation parasites. Am I missing something? Will continued participation in the co-op ad network eventually lead to better quality ads, linking to sites who are returning the favor? Or is this basically a dead project? Sorry for the negative tone. I hope I AM missing something. Its just that, if things are the way they appear, I am very disappointed. It seemed like such a great idea. If this network is indeed being chewed away by magots, I am going to seriously pursue creating my own based upon the same idea, but with a greater commitment to moderation. I would rather have 100 good, quality sites in a network than 1,000,000 bogus ones.
I just joined here and saw this... You propose a very interesting idea. The co-op ad idea is good, but I agree that ads should have some sort of quality control.
OK, so no real answers to my questions. the only conclusion i can draw is that the coop does not have any quality control, nor any interest in maintaining its reputation. Who said anything about creating a "super version" of the coop? The current version, in terms of software, is perfectly fine. It is a good idea, not a complicated one. The issue is that the coop seems to let basically any kind of site in. Restricting gambling and adult content sites is not enough. These aren't the only kinds of "trash" out there. Second, the BIG problem is that the sites I'm "advertising" do not link back to other sites on the network! My point is its not working and I don't like to simply complain without proposing a solution. Anyone wishing to work with me on creating a good content, cooperative ad network please contact me.