Ad-blocker on PSU - Why it hurts us...

[StevenW]

Hi,

Some of you may have read an article on Destructoid over the weekend where they've flagged up an important issue in the gaming industry at the moment regarding Ad Blockers.

Basically, more and more people are using it to block adverts on their favourite sites. The adverse affect of that is that gaming sites are going 'bump' and beginning to struggle. We're included in that, though we're looking into other ways to monetise to keep us going.

Most of the staff at PSU work entirely for free. This wasn't always the case. We used to have an incentive program where all staff received incentives. However, less people are now reading our ads and clicking on them. We do always try and make our adverts relevant, though sometimes the occasional few may slip through. We try not to make them too intrusive, though you may notice at this moment in the US we're trialling a new type of advert. We've had to do this until we can find a more effective way of keeping us afloat.

We totally understand if you don't want to click on an ad, and I myself used ad blocker on other sites. Well, I did, until I realised how if affects the running of a site. We're not on the same scale as Eurogamer, IGN and Gamespot who have millions of visitors each month and multiple revenue streams. We do rely on these basic adverts quite heavily and we do run some bigger campaigns which I think adds colour to the site. We recently, for example, had a homepage takeover for DUST 514.

The ads we show are fuel for the site to keep going so I'd ask you very kindly if, they're not bugging you too much, not to use ad blocker on PSU. You're the core audience who keep coming back so your help will certainly contribute toward us being able to set ourselves nicely up for next-gen and keep this site moving forward. Keep our ads running and we'll be able to keep our quality staff and bring on more writers, add new features and improve the entire site.

Thanks for reading.

[PeanutButterMunky]

Sorry, I couldn't read the article, it's blocked or something.

...adds PSU to whitelist

[supergamer]

AdBlock disabled

[BoyBettaKnow]

While I appreciate that you gain your revenue from adds, i really despise them and i've had some pretty intrusive ones on here (Y'know the one that dumps a video on your screen everytime you change a page) so while i did take it off once i had to put it back on there.


Also, i never click adverts anyway so I shouldn't have caused any damage. Hope not anyway

[StevenW]

While I appreciate that you gain your revenue from adds, i really despise them and i've had some pretty intrusive ones on here (Y'know the one that dumps a video on your screen everytime you change a page) so while i did take it off once i had to put it back on there.


Also, i never click adverts anyway so I shouldn't have caused any damage. Hope not anyway

Hi, I understand that.

We have some control over the ads we show and we don't want to show ones that we wouldn't put up with ourselves. Particularly ones that auto-play. We're based across different territories at PSU so sometimes don't spot certain ones. We can request to remove ones from certain companies, so I really would love our readers to let us know if there's a particularly one that is pain in the ass and we'll seek to remove it ASAP.

[BoyBettaKnow]

It was mainly the ones that either play sound or play a video that stays infront of the page that I dislike. If PSU only had ones that stay in bars and do nothing unless clicked, then i wouldn't have a problem with removing PSU from addblocker.


I'll unblock it for now though

Edit: I've whitelisted PSU but i still don't get adds?

[Fijiandoce]

i used to run ad-blocker as a blanket program, i found the whitelist section a few months ago and added the PSU domain to the list of excluded sites...

yet strangely i don't get ads on either chrome or IE(which has no extensions whatsoever)

ads dont bother me though, and in my case (when i could actually see them) the ads made the site look better (that is a backhanded compliment i do apologise )

[Serinous]

I used to run ad-blocker here, but then I just subbed a few days ago. Do I still need to disable my ad-blocker?

[Kuro]

Check your settings man it should say.

Anyways I've put up with them since I'm so used to it in every other site that it doesn't really bother me anymore.

[Kingstoph]

while i dont use Adblockers, the massive freaking google crome adds either side of the page are starting to grate.
As an alterative however. theres LOADS of unused space at the right of this very post, just one add for the whole page? Maybe add some code that loads more the futher the page grows?

There could even be an add right here
------------------------------------------------------------->

I mean, if its all relevent to games then it doesnt bother me, Dead or Alive 5, go for it. Dust 514? Go ahead! Amazon deals on PSVita games? Bring it on!

Poorly animated gif adverts that are supposed to make the character look like their breathing... they look awefull, they can go away...

[StevenW]

If you subbed you wont see them on the forum pages anyhow.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

[claud3]

I have ad blocker on my chrome, but i will disable it and set the settings for certain sites if I can...

Sorry stevenw

[Two4DaMoney]

I turned my ad blocker off for this site and seen a pizza ad. Now I'm hungry as fuck. Guess it's time I log off and go get some pizza lmao

[Darrius Cole]

While I appreciate that you gain your revenue from adds, i really despise them and i've had some pretty intrusive ones on here (Y'know the one that dumps a video on your screen everytime you change a page) so while i did take it off once i had to put it back on there.


Also, i never click adverts anyway so I shouldn't have caused any damage. Hope not anyway

This,

I don't really care about banners. I understand the bills have to be paid. I can't tolerate any site loading a video every time I change a page. That was what lead me, and probably others, to use adblock in the first place.

[AaronSOLDIER]

If you just stuck to banners and no underhanded ads like a video popup when I need to watch for 10 seconds before continuing, I wouldn't use it, but you guys basically got greedy so I've been using it ever since.

[Nitey]

Disabled it just now

Just wondering though. Is that making much difference? I never click on ads on any site and won't do it here - is revenue still generated for you even if I don't interact with them?

[*goo]

I'm an equal opportunities ad-blocker. That is, I block every site's ads; no exceptions.

If you had other ways to generate revenue, like earning money for referrals to Amazon or something like that; I'd be more than happy to help you out. As it stands, I hate ads and will continue to block them as much as possible.

It's nothing personal but I won't accept a reduced browsing experience so someone somewhere can make another penny or two.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Those pennies are what keeps this place going. As Steven said, we aren't ign, gamespot or game trailers, no one is rolling in cash here.

[*goo]

I'm not oblivious to the fact that ads equal revenue, I just don't click ads, ever. I don't like them so I block them.

As already mentioned, if you had any deals with websites that paid you money for referrals; I'd be happy to use your links and send you a few quid that way. I didn't post with the intention of getting into a debate but instead to plant an idea - go speak to e-retailers etc. and see if you can get some referrals set up.

[Tutankhamun]

I don't like ads either. Thus I became a subscriber, that removes all ads while supporting the site.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

I'm not oblivious to the fact that ads equal revenue, I just don't click ads, ever. I don't like them so I block them.

As already mentioned, if you had any deals with websites that paid you money for referrals; I'd be happy to use your links and send you a few quid that way. I didn't post with the intention of getting into a debate but instead to plant an idea - go speak to e-retailers etc. and see if you can get some referrals set up.

You don't have to click the ads, just have them on the page, and I don't wan't to get into a debate either mon ami, I just feel that this is the least we can do to make sure we have a house for our awesome community to meet in.

[admartian]

I'm going to use the same blanket logic that EA/Activision and many other companies use to "combat" piracy and enact DRM: "Blame the pirates". In this case, blame all the sites with distracting ads and annoying pop-ups - making the little guy and actual consumers, suffer. In this case, you guys.

Until that changes, I'm going to keep my trusty extensions on... Unless you guys and gaming journalists alike stop covering EA altogether... I dare ya...



EDIT:

Meant to be a cheeky post for those that don't necessarily get my "humour" (quotation marks used very loosely).

If there's a setting to these ad-blockers to add certain sites to exceptions then I'm willing to comply.

[PeanutButterMunky]

You can whitelist just this website and leave your blocker on for everything else.

[AaronSOLDIER]

Disabled it just now

Just wondering though. Is that making much difference? I never click on ads on any site and won't do it here - is revenue still generated for you even if I don't interact with them?

They work on a CPM basis (they just need to get views).

[admartian]

You can whitelist just this website and leave your blocker on for everything else.

Done.