Thread "The Duck ads" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 3:03PM, Mar. 14, 2015

I've been noticing things lately about the ads here. The first time you visit a comic page, the ads are automatically-playing videos with the audio turned on by default, and they cycle to new videos after each one finishes. This is REALLY irritating if you leave the browser on the same page. But if you start browsing comic pages, the place where the ad was remains empty and silent.

So, how does the ad system work? Are we meant to get a video ad once per visit?

Posted at 10:03AM, Mar. 15, 2015

Ugh, no, as far as I know that is not meant to be happening. Emailed ozone, hopefully we can do something about it.

Posted at 12:06AM, Jun. 14, 2015

So what do you guys think of the ads we have now?

Posted at 5:06AM, Jun. 14, 2015

When I go to check my comments and I see there are ads on there for other awe inspiring comics, I feel part of something - something bigger than myself - bigger than all of us! It's a special feeling, far removed from the annoyance of the old ads that only suceeded in promoting adblock. I plan to buy some myself, especially as they're helping to support the site. Not sure I can outbid that Devon Legacy guy though!

Posted at 3:06PM, Jun. 14, 2015

Much better. I even have ad block off.

Posted at 12:06PM, Jun. 15, 2015

Oh wow, has anyone seen the ad for the Shiver Bureau being advertised on the top of this page? The art and storyline look glorious, and I would not have even known about this comic if not for its project wonderful ad.

http://www.shiverbureau.com

Posted at 1:06PM, Jun. 15, 2015

Some random observations on the PW ads.

DD does not get that many hits. The Duck ranks below some single comic sites that update a page or two a week. I would suggest that means The Duck is due for an advertising campaign of it's own to generate some new readers. We currently get about 1500-2000 unique readers a day. the single comic site Grrl Power gets 12,000+, and the single comic site Housepets gets up to 5000. However, I'm guessing a good part of that is due to google searches for those terms rather than people looking for the comics themselves. This does raise the whole "Is 'The Duck' a good name for the site?" question.

Those unique clickers reader on average 14 pages of comic a day. Not sure what that says, considering just navigating to a forum page takes 3 pages. Perhaps it says we don't read enough comics? Go on, read more, damn you. Perhaps there are a lot of one-click, I'm out of here visitors?

Comic Rocket is really important to DD. A few hundred cross-clicks a day from Comic Rocket arrive at DD. We need to see if other comic aggregate sites can be used this way as well. If the top comics on DD (Charby, Modest Medusa, etc) were to list on Webcomics ranking sites that could boost page views.

Revenue does seem to be going up over time. Now that there's a good month of data to show up on the PW site the DD ads look more enticing. This means the revenue should be up a bit from now on than from the first four weeks. There will be up and down times. Some weeks may be a lot better than others. (Indeed today the bidding on the US banner ad placement has leapt from <$1.50 to $13 for some unexplainable reason.) But things should settle down a little now there's a full graph of data to show PW advertisers.

North America is where the vast majority of DD viewers reside. You might want to consider targeting some advertising to Europe and Elsewhere countries, as there must be readers out there for DD.

Posted at 12:06AM, Jun. 16, 2015

Good points Gunwallace!
I agree.
I don't have the funds spare to market DD in any useful way currently though. I will if we get more than we need to pay the bills :)

Posted at 6:07AM, Jul. 4, 2015

Any chance of a fundraiser or something? Does the Duck have a Patreon yet?

ozoneocean wrote:
Good points Gunwallace!
I agree.
I don't have the funds spare to market DD in any useful way currently though. I will if we get more than we need to pay the bills :)

Posted at 12:07AM, Jul. 5, 2015

I'm a bit nervous to start that to be honest irrevenant, bit I will do it.
IF I can get this site onto cheaper hosting (always obsticals), then we'll already be earning positive cashflow, and that will add to whatever we make from Patreon.

One of the first "rewards" will be that they have the default ad position for the PW ads. :)