Hows does Boards.ie make money?

Brendan Flowers

RATM wrote: »

I'm scratching my head as to how forums like Boards and other news websites are going to make money now or the future.

I (and a lot of people I know) use Firefox and the app Adblocker. I see no ads whatsoever when using this site or others. I am not sure how many people are using Adblocker but my guess is that it people will always choose no ads over having ads so if they are aware of the app then they'll be quite likely to download it.

It also makes me wonder about websites and their advertising rate cards. Like when they say they have 50,000 unique visitors a month they are able to back that claim up with programs like Google Analytics to prove their claim. But what if half of those 50,000 unique visitors have Adblocker installed and never see the banner ads that the purchaser of advertising has paid for ? The price paid for the banners was arrived at due to the claim of 50,000 unique views of the ad. But the reality might be very different.

As I said before I am unsure of how popular Adblocker is except to say that the majority of my friends use it. If it gets more and more popular then sites like Boards have a problem as their ad revenue could dry up. At some stage they may have to look at a subscription model to sustain the business.

Personally I wouldn't be adverse to the idea of paying €10 or €15 a year to use Boards as I find it a great resource that is uniquely relevant to Ireland / matters of Irish interest. But I think I would be in a minority on that one. It is a real Tragedy of the Commons situation and programs like Adblocker complicate it considerably.

Using Adblocker is something that really p!sses me off. Ok I can see why people dont want to view ads. But the majority of professional websites dont have pages filled with crazy ads. And sites that have ads are usually those that are run by a same group of people/person who spends a lot of time mantaining these websites for nothing more than the very same profit that ads generate. But f**k the little guy a long as some people get to view an ad free webpage.

Graham

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

the majority of professional websites dont have pages filled with crazy ads.

Have you been to irishtimes.com or independent.ie recently?

In one, the whole top half of the page to the left and the right of the content clicks through to the AD.

In the other video ads magically float in from nowhere on the homepage.

Junk like this makes people resort to Ad-blocking software.

Duggys Housemate

The Apprentice wrote: »

with 15 gigaput throughputs is all well and good but you heard it hear first folks boards is closing according to Duggys housemate.

I said it ran at a loss in a particular year quoting the founder. It's part of a larger group now, as far as I know. I said nothing about closing.

fml im actually sorry i even posted on this

we're all a bit sorry.

Axwell

The Apprentice wrote: »

but you heard it hear first folks boards is closing according to Duggys housemate.

He never said it was closing

Much like your original post that comment was just pulled from thin air, if you are going to post and claim xyz at least check they are true before doing so.

For everyone else can we get it back on track or it will just get locked for going off track, its spiraling with the other unrelated comments being posted as it is.

The original question was how boards makes money..

kippy

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

You are suffering from selection bias. Most of your friends are probably geeks.

There is a subscription model already, since you are taking money by ad blocking, that seems like it might be for you.

I don't know much about boards outside what is in the mainstream but I doubt the owners are rolling in cash - I do hope that they are making a profit from their ventures and continue to hire staff - this is a good things. The owners are probably tearing their hair out that they didnt come up with "facebook" before facebook as they were in that "zone" essentially.

What I do question is the relevance and indeed monetary value of online advertising to the advertisers.

I don't usually have adblock switched on but I do use it on some sites from time to time and you are indeed correct, most of the population dont use this app however a lot of people accessing this site tend to be tech savvy (not such a large percentage nowadays but in the past) and indeed I would wonder, whether those that do get to see the adds ever actually click on them?

I've been using the internet for 15 odd years now and not once have I ever clicked on an add on ANY site. Am I the only one in this zone, do people actually click on adds and make purchased based on these adds?
I doubt it very much.

Duggys Housemate

You can also get paid per view. PPV. It's up to the advertiser to make a compelling add to click on. That said I rarely click either. ( if you want to help turn off add blocker and click on random ads).

I agree with the €5 per year model - it would need some benefits though. Linked in do it with some simple benefits, see who visited your profile. . An idea?

Allow subscribers to see who thanked them for all time, non subs just see a week of thanks.

People love thanks. For €5 a year would we pay up just for that? I might. It would be a tad annoying but it's the cost of a pint.

The Apprentice

kippy wrote: »

I've been using the internet for 15 odd years now and not once have I ever clicked on an add on ANY site. Am I the only one in this zone, do people actually click on adds and make purchased based on these adds?
I doubt it very much.

Well you could be in the minority in comparison to most "Users" or regular joes.

Here is an infographic on googles Revenue share based on the premise of people clicking on adds shared by relevant brands/companies/industries.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2220372/How-Google-Rakes-In-Over-100-Million-in-Search-Advertising-Daily-Infographic

Majority of googles revenue comes from its adwords, the revenue and clickthrough rates from companies also speak for itself. If adds didnt work companies wouldnt pay for them.. Industry rates on sector do vary on PPC.


We have seen a mass exodus of major brands from facebooks advertising - Ge, Ford etc, it could be theorized that its the platform the adds are served on may indeed be the difference whether people click and spend.

Facebook - social interaction about someone hassling you.. buy buy buy..
Google search - Your actually looking for information, and adds served based on the relevance of your search etc

I can see your point on adds being annoying or intrusive, but according to the figures the majority of users dont seem to mind.. ?

kippy

The Apprentice wrote: »

Well you could be in the minority in comparison to most "Users" or regular joes.

Here is an infographic on googles Revenue share based on the premise of people clicking on adds shared by relevant brands/companies/industries.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2220372/How-Google-Rakes-In-Over-100-Million-in-Search-Advertising-Daily-Infographic

Majority of googles revenue comes from its adwords, the revenue and clickthrough rates from companies also speak for itself. If adds didnt work companies wouldnt pay for them.. Industry rates on sector do vary on PPC.


We have seen a mass exodus of major brands from facebooks advertising - Ge, Ford etc, it could be theorized that its the platform the adds are served on may indeed be the difference whether people click and spend.

Facebook - social interaction about someone hassling you.. buy buy buy..
Google search - Your actually looking for information, and adds served based on the relevance of your search etc

I can see your point on adds being annoying or intrusive, but according to the figures the majority of users dont seem to mind.. ?

I'd question all that logic tbh.

1. Have a conversation with a group of people anywhere. Ask them, how many of you have clicked on online adds?
2. Then ask them, after clicking on the add did you actually go and buy a product or service from the add?

In MOST groups where I have had the conversation the answers are usually the same. (1. Very few and 2. even less)

I'm not saying I mind adds, if the admakers pay the site to host them and that keeps the site itself essentially free, I have no issues with them, as I dont click on them in the first place.
The point I make is that I do think advertisers are cottoning onto the fact that online adds (points per click/hit etc etc) is not as successful as other organisations would like you to believe.
There are better, cheaper and more effective models out there.

Those google stats - do you actually take them at face value?
Think about it for a second.

The Apprentice

Well to answer your question i take nothing at face value any more, one opinion is as good as another on the internet unless its backed up by qualified and quantified analysis.

BUT - my point is if you look at it from a pay per click exercise..

For every 100 bucks you spend online and you get back 10,
the 1000 people you may have asked in your circle of friends may be one thing but the money coming in is another..

The stats may be skewed of which i can accept but the revenue you make is not.. which is my point if im not making it clearly.

Peter Faulkner did a relevant facebook campaign and did what you could call a "Test" run on Facebook adverts, which was documented both here and on the http://www.journal.ie and he more or less said it wasnt great, he got no return from it.

If he gets a quantifiable return from google adds, you have to look at that differently no ?? Again this varies on industry but still ..

The Apprentice

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-i-put-my-family-business-on-facebook-here%E2%80%99s-what-happened-455538-May2012/?utm_source=shortlink

mneylon

The Apprentice wrote: »

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-i-put-my-family-business-on-facebook-here%E2%80%99s-what-happened-455538-May2012/?utm_source=shortlink

And? I saw people discussing that article a few weeks back and did a bit of poking around
The sites weren't exactly engaging and the Facebook and Twitter accounts / pages were boring, so of course the success was practically non-existent

The Apprentice

Yep ..

facebook conversions from industry analysts have them at less than 1%
Google can be in the region of 4-6%

Hence the mass exodus.. This isnt the topic to be debating whether PPC marketing works
As you poster stats believing their numbers is one thing, making money from it is another..

Duggys Housemate

Yes. Once people click through googles job is done. If you can't convert those consumers to buy or sign up, or whatever your model is, that's a failure of the clicked through website. Not Google, Facebook, or boards.

Branch Meeting

McBauer wrote: »

Just wondering how Boards.ie (and sites like it) make money?

Simples. The mods work for free. Any business would make money with that model.

Duggys Housemate

Branch Meeting wrote: »

Simples. The mods work for free. Any business would make money with that model.

why would they get paid? like all forums which break even volunteers contribute the content and the moderation.

Branch Meeting

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

like all forums which break even

Boards.ie is a business, not a charity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards.ie

28064212

Branch Meeting wrote: »

Simples. The mods work for free. Any business would make money with that model.

The employees don't

Duggys Housemate

Branch Meeting wrote: »

Boards.ie is a business, not a charity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards.ie

whats that got to do with anything? I didn't say it was a charity, I said like all forums which ( generally I meant) break even.... the mods work for free. You also supply content for free. In return you get a discussion with people on the internet. These volunteer roles are not for everybody, and you don't have to be a mod, or post here, or anything else.

The Apprentice

OSI wrote: »

Apart from one that has staff, office space, hardware, bandwidth, power, and multiple other costs to pay for.

So you saying it needs to be profitable to stay open in the long term.. ?? :eek:

Graham

It either needs to be profitable or it needs to be contributing sufficient value elsewhere to warrant continued financial support.

As far as I can see, most of the value in boards is in it's large, diverse, yet fairly geographically constrained user-base.

RATM

Graham wrote: »

It either needs to be profitable or it needs to be contributing sufficient value elsewhere to warrant continued financial support.

As far as I can see, most of the value in boards is in it's large, diverse, yet fairly geographically constrained user-base.

Thats pretty much it in a nutshell. By having a large user base (400k+ registrations) that then allowed the owners to market and promote Adverts.ie to that userbase. So when Adverts was established they were already sprinting rather than beginning from a standing start like DoneDeal had to do.

Right now there are 346,000 live ads on Adverts.ie , I think it is €3 an ad so at that level there is just over €1m in revenue sitting there right now. I am not sure what the churn is but I think it would be fair to say that Adverts could potentially generate €4m-€6m a year in ad revenue. Higher ticket items like cars and boats might attract a higher than €3 advertising cost (I'm not sure) so potentially the revenues could be higher. Though in saying that Adverts.ie really doesn't seem to have got a grip on the car market in the way DoneDeal have. Nor is it popular for farm animals and farm machinery which I remember the DoneDeal founder saying is one of their most browsed categories- farmers checking out cows for sale.

I doubt the founders' initial intention was to establish Boards first to later use the userbase to establish Adverts, it just turned out that way. But by having a large userbase to begin with there was always likely to be spin-off opportunities.

galwayjohn89

RATM wrote: »

Thats pretty much it in a nutshell. By having a large user base (400k+ registrations) that then allowed the owners to market and promote Adverts.ie to that userbase. So when Adverts was established they were already sprinting rather than beginning from a standing start like DoneDeal had to do.

Right now there are 346,000 live ads on Adverts.ie , I think it is €3 an ad so at that level there is just over €1m in revenue sitting there right now. I am not sure what the churn is but I think it would be fair to say that Adverts could potentially generate €4m-€6m a year in ad revenue. Higher ticket items like cars and boats might attract a higher than €3 advertising cost (I'm not sure) so potentially the revenues could be higher. Though in saying that Adverts.ie really doesn't seem to have got a grip on the car market in the way DoneDeal have. Nor is it popular for farm animals and farm machinery which I remember the DoneDeal founder saying is one of their most browsed categories- farmers checking out cows for sale.

I doubt the founders' initial intention was to establish Boards first to later use the userbase to establish Adverts, it just turned out that way. But by having a large userbase to begin with there was always likely to be spin-off opportunities.

Most ads on adverts are free. I have had a huge number of ads on adverts ever since it was actually a boards forum and never paid a penny.