Advertise on this forum - Round 103

[theymos]

The forum sells ad space in the area beneath the first post of every topic page. About 25% of ad income goes to the forum moderators as thanks for all of their work. (There are many moderators, so each moderator gets only a small amount -- moderators should be seen as volunteers, not employees.) The rest is stored in the forum's treasury (verifiably), where it sits until the forum needs it.

Ads are allowed to contain any non-annoying HTML/CSS style. No images, JavaScript, or animation (no marquee or blinking). Ads must appear 3 or fewer lines tall in my browser. Ads will be prefixed with "Advertisement:". Ad text may not contain lies, misrepresentation, or inappropriate language. Ads may not link directly to any NSFW page. Ads may be rejected for other reasons.

There are 10 total ad slots which are randomly rotated. So one ad slot has a one in ten chance of appearing. Seven of the slots are for sale here. Ads appear only on topic pages with more than one post, and only for people using the default theme.

The ad lasts at least 7 days starting from when I put it up. (However, if you look at the ad history you'll see that ads frequently get 1-2 extra days, but this is random and definitely not guaranteed.)

Stats

Exact historical impression counts per slot:
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adstats

Info about the current ad slots:
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo

Ad blocking

Hero members, Donators, VIPs, and moderators have the ability to disable ads. I don't expect many people to use this option. These people don't increase the impression counts for your ads.

I try to bypass Adblock Plus filters as much as possible, though this is not guaranteed. It is difficult or impossible for ABP filters to block the ad space itself without blocking posts. However, filters can match against the URLs in your links, your CSS classes and style attributes, and the HTML structure of your ads.

To prevent matches against URLs: I have some JavaScript which fixes links blocked by ABP. You must tell me if you want this for your ads. When someone with ABP and JavaScript enabled views your ads, your links are changed to a special randomized bitcointalk.org URL which redirects to your site when visited. People without ABP are unaffected, even if they don't have JavaScript enabled. The downsides are:
- ABP users will see the redirection link when they hover over the link, even if they disable ABP for the forum.
- Getting referral stats might become even more difficult.
- Some users might get a warning when redirecting from https to http.

To prevent matching on CSS classes/styles: Don't use inline CSS. I can give your ad a CSS class that is randomized on each pageload, but you must request this.

To prevent matching against your HTML structure: Use only one <a> and no other tags if possible. If your ads get blocked because of matching done on something inside of your ad, you are responsible for noticing this and giving me new ad HTML.

Auction rules

Post your bids in this thread. Prices must be stated in BTC per slot. You must state the max number of slots you want. When the auction ends, the highest bidders will have their slots filled until all seven slots are filled.

So if someone bids for 7 slots @ 5 BTC and this is the highest bid, then he'll get all 7 slots. If the two highest bids are 7 slots @ 4 BTC and 1 slot @ 5 BTC, then the first person will get 6 slots and the second person will get 1 slot.

The notation "2 @ 5" means 2 slots for 5 BTC each. Not 2 slots for 5 BTC total.

- When you post a bid, the bids in your previous posts are considered to be automatically canceled. You can put multiple bids in one post, however.
- All bid prices must be evenly divisible by 0.25.
- The bidding starts at 0.50.
- I will end the auction at an arbitrary time no more than 12 days from now. (I will probably end the auction 1-3 days before the ads are scheduled to go up.)
- If two people bid at the same price, the person who bid first will have his slots filled first.
- Bids are considered invalid and will be ignored if they do not specify both a price and a max quantity, or if they could not possibly win any slots

If these rules are confusing, look at some of the past forum ad auctions to see how it's done. I also post periodic status updates which should help make things clear.

You must pay for your slots within 24 hours of receiving the payment address. Otherwise your slots may be sold to someone else.

[nbphuoc]

1 @ 0.5

[acespoker]

3@1

[CEX]

4 @ 1

[bernard75]

5@1.25

[CEX]

4 @ 1.5

[betcointm]

3 @ 1.5

[Inaba]

7 @ 1.75

[CEX]

4 @ 2

[betcointm]

3 @ 2

[Inaba]

4 @ 2.25

[betcointm]

3 @ 2.25

[theymos]

On behalf of the forum: 1 @ 6.5

Note that even though the forum is bidding, it may be possible to outbid the forum.

Current state:
Slots BTC/Slot Person
1 6.5 Bitcoin Forum
4 2.25 Inaba
2 2.25 betcointm

[SaltySpitoon]

On behalf of the forum: 1 @ 6.5

Note that even though the forum is bidding, it may be possible to outbid the forum.

Current state:
Slots BTC/Slot Person
1 6.5 Bitcoin Forum
4 2.25 Inaba
2 2.25 betcointm

I'm confused, if the "forum" is paying to the forum for advertising, why not just take one slot out of the bidding?

[theymos]

I'm confused, if the "forum" is paying to the forum for advertising, why not just take one slot out of the bidding?

Because if someone will pay more than 6.5 BTC for it, they can have it.

[wtogami]

I'm confused, if the "forum" is paying to the forum for advertising, why not just take one slot out of the bidding?

Because if someone will pay more than 6.5 BTC for it, they can have it.

If the forum bid is for this critically important Public Service Announcement, I might suggest an alternative approach that may be a better outcome for all three parties.  Instead of excluding one paid slot to enable the PSA, why not make one slot "XYZ sponsors the critical MacOS X corruption fix bounty!"  The cost of such a slot would be higher than a typical ad, but the PR value of supporting such an important cause that benefits the entire Bitcoin ecosystem may be worth that extra one-time expense.  Posting an ad reading "Brand name sponsors critical Bitcoin fix." has a greater potential to gain credibility over a typical "You want my product/service" that you normally see in an advertisement.

Thoughts?  (Perhaps this MBA school thing was useful for something after all...)

[acespoker]

1@2.5

[betcointm]

3 @ 2.5

[theymos]

If the forum bid is for this critically important Public Service Announcement, I might suggest an alternative approach that may be a better outcome for all three parties.  Instead of excluding one paid slot to enable the PSA, why not make one slot "XYZ sponsors the critical MacOS X corruption fix bounty!"  The cost of such a slot would be higher than a typical ad, but the PR value of supporting such an important cause that benefits the entire Bitcoin ecosystem may be worth that extra one-time expense.  Posting an ad reading "Brand name sponsors critical Bitcoin fix." has a greater potential to gain credibility over a typical "You want my product/service" that you normally see in an advertisement.

Thoughts?  (Perhaps this MBA school thing was useful for something after all...)

I don't know. Is anyone here interested in this?

[bitcoinmiami]

If the forum bid is for this critically important Public Service Announcement, I might suggest an alternative approach that may be a better outcome for all three parties.  Instead of excluding one paid slot to enable the PSA, why not make one slot "XYZ sponsors the critical MacOS X corruption fix bounty!"  The cost of such a slot would be higher than a typical ad, but the PR value of supporting such an important cause that benefits the entire Bitcoin ecosystem may be worth that extra one-time expense.  Posting an ad reading "Brand name sponsors critical Bitcoin fix." has a greater potential to gain credibility over a typical "You want my product/service" that you normally see in an advertisement.

Thoughts?  (Perhaps this MBA school thing was useful for something after all...)

I don't know. Is anyone here interested in this?

This alternative should be appealing to those that want the slot.