Bitcoin Forum

6 days ago I posted http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/202pts/im_taking_the_ads_off_my_popular_website_and/  (http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/202pts/im_taking_the_ads_off_my_popular_website_and/) about taking all the ads off my website http://www.spaceindustrynews.com (http://www.spaceindustrynews.com) and replacing them with donation links for BTC. I plan on doing this for 6 months and at that time if I'm not making enough money to keep the servers up I'll have to switch back to a traditional model.

Here's a recap of what has happened and what I've learned so far from my experience.

I've received some very positive feedback about my move away from traditional advertising to a donation based format. I've been contacted by numerous people in the industry ( NASA, etc. ) about this. They are truly intrigued and didn't really understand how I was going to keep the lights on.

The BTC community has been overwhelmingly supportive through this transition as well. I've gotten so many messages from people that have built systems for easier BTC integration and I'm truly grateful for that.

Mind you, this is all still very much an experiment and will continue until I run out of money for hosting.

I know what you're thinking, how much BTC has been donated so far?
Day 1: I received 0.0125 BTC which equals ~ $8.00 USD.
Day 2: 0.0015 BTC = ~ $0.95 USD
Day 3: 0.00 BTC = $0.00USD
Day 4: 0.00 BTC = $0.00USD
Day 5: 0.00 BTC = $0.00USD
Day 6: 0.00 BTC = $0.00USD

There are probably a few reasons for this. One is that after the initial post moved down the page less BTC influencers were coming to the site. My normal audience comes from links and Google so who knows if they user BTC at all.

This news doesn't halt me one bit. I'm in this for a while and will continue doing what is right and what is good.
Like I said before, this is still only a few days old so there will be design changes, traffic changes. I'm 100% behind BTC and believe it is the future of currency.

I'd like to get your feedback on this move away from traditional ads to BTC only donations. What do you think?

To those that have donated, thank you. I really do appreciate it.

Overwhelmingly supportive....$8.95 over 6 days....

I'd mention what the answer is, but I think you already know the answer to your question, and came here looking for donations.

"Supportive" isn't measured in BTCs or $ amounts to me. There are a lot of people that are behind the idea and think it can change the way that content is consumed.

I'm not looking for donations, I'm looking for feedback. I'm totally funded for 6 months so donations aren't the #1 priority to me at this point. Changing the way that people think about content and science is my main initiative. If visitors are inclined to donate, great. If not, not a problem.

More importantly I want people to see that websites don't have to have ads screaming at them to be a relevant source of information.

nasa really looks at that site? ???

personally i like sites where you are able to pay for an adfree version.
your site does not have an login (which i generally like), but maybe its enough to just give out "secret links" (i know such thing does not exist, but trust is not really an issue here atm).

eg: send 0.001btc and get an adfree month with url http://spaceindustrynews.com/kujghdd

I know some people at NASA. Some are friends, some are promotions people. So as a whole NASA doesn't all look at my site, just a few people that work there.

just sent a donation :)

Hope all goes well

G

Thank you :)

Thanks for the input, I thought of that too. Keep the ads for revenue but give people the option to opt-out if they feel like it. But I know that would cheapen the user experience still, ads are annoying to users and I want to shift their thought process and let them realize that there is a world (or Universe) of good content out there that has no advertisements.

The reason for not having a login is because it's strictly a use-case feature. There's really no reason to log into my content site. Logging in wouldn't add any value to the user experience that I can think of. Now...If I had a forum that may change.

you have a interesting website there, like the domain name too.

you may be too far out ahead of the adoption cycle.

for this to work you need lots of people with digital money utilizing/accepting this sort of business model.  The Chicago Sun-Times instituted a pay system using bitcoin.  it might help to see how that is doing.

I do think this will come into more generally accepted use over the next few years, as more organizations realize they can monetize content with micro-payments, although it may be early days on this right now.

Might I suggest adding a link near the donation button that would let an uninformed, yet curious reader to read up on and perhaps acquire bitcoins?

To each their own. I work hard on the site and if people find value in it then they have a choice to contribute.

Thank you!

There's a subtle difference between constructive criticism, and giving an opinion while acting like an asshole. All of your replies come off as mean and uncalled for.

Why not do both?  A donation of .01 and you could stuff a cookie in their browser and give them a secret link for an ad free experience.  I like the idea, but like the rest of the folks here said, relevant adverts are not necessarily a bad thing.  There is a reason Google is one of the richest companies in the world, because they understand this.  You should too!

That said, I'm not going to knock anyone for incorporating bitcoin into their site.  So, hats off to you, and I hope more sites, big or small, do the same thing.

Trolls like you should be banned on sight.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I try not to feed the trolls. He sent me a PM as well with this "You got slayed, lmao! ;D".

I like that idea, but I'd rather cut out all ads to begin with and give the user a better experience. I'm still fine tuning the ideas so I'll take this into consideration though.

When I download games on android, I'll gladly pay for an ad free version if I like the game. I would do the same with a website I like. That is if I didn't use adblock though.

There are also Bitcoin advertising tools too that you can use, though I suspect that's probably not what you want since you mention that you're wanting to remove ads from your site, and this would just switch them to a different kind of ad.

I weighed a lot of different ad options. Some were lucrative, some were awful. I always went back to the fact that some times a user doesn't want ads. It's funny how that works, it's refreshing NOT to see ads.

Create the following Venn diagram:

Circle A - people who visit your web site

Circle B - people who see an ad

Circle C - people who have 1 or more bitcoins

I think you will discover the problem.

I think it's a balancing act.  Some websites put up ads and make them annoying, others put them up in a non-annoying way.  Facebook was the only site that was annoying enough with ads (for me, anyway) that it prompted me to install AdBlock.  But you're right, it is refreshing not to see ads.

Glad to know that it's refreshing to look at :) FB is pretty annoying. Instead of using AdBlock I just don't go there as much anymore.

Why not put bitcoin ads on it? Earn cash and let people know about bitcoin.

What you do is great case study, congrats on making the switch and please keep doing it.

There is no donation button on your front page and not even a Bitcoin address, and you expect donations? No wonder you have such low support.

agree, i see no bitcoin address in your website,too

Do you get money from ads nowadays with all the ad-blockers ?

According to your website, you are lying. I see plenty of ads for Gyft/Verizon and nothing at all about bitcoin donations.

How exactly can I donate? I was looking for some kind of a button or donation link but so far I found nothing. People wont donate if there is no easy way to do it.

You got my donation sir  ;D

I placed a donate Bitcoin button on my stock market analysis site http://5thstreetresearch.com/ (http://5thstreetresearch.com/) about a month ago.  Granted I haven't had a chance to publish many new articles the past month or two but I have yet to receive one donation.  Its more than prominently enough placed in my opinion, maybe its the wrong crowd to expect btc's from.

There was a donation button on his site yesterday when I posted my comment, but yes, it's not there now.  Presumably, he's working on the functionality.

I think Bitcoin isn't suitable for micro-transactions. I might be willing to spend £1/month on a site I use a lot, and for a casual donation to a site I visit casually I wouldn't want to spend more than 4p. That's 0.1 mBTC, so I'd have to double it to cover transaction fees.

So getting casual/spontaneous donations in bitcoin won't work, and you need to aim for larger donations, which probably means identifying the users you provide most value for and getting donations from them, which probably means offering some kind of subscription model.

Exactly, thank you for posting this as I was away and couldn't respond. I was working on getting everything set up with some layout changes. All is back to normal again, donations are back up.

My suggestion :-

Dont kick out the ads, but change the approach...

1. Accept BTC ads. Use bitcoin ad networks. a-ads is a good option IMO.

2. Use freemium model. Look at Newsweek and u'll know what I mean. Make the site fundamentally free, but charge for interesting articles. Integrate the BTC payment option instead of FIAT.

3. Most important for long run - Have a link that'll tell your non-bitcoiner audience, what is Bitcoin. Tell them how Bitcoin can be easily implemented on Mars or even outside solar system. We can transact with aliens with Bitcoin, because they may not like to accept FIAT.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Your contribution will help pay for the servers. Not only that, but we are both helping promote BTC.

Thank you for the suggestions. Newsweek does a great job at this. It's all about education and promotion of BTC at this point.