Anonymous Ads - bitcoin advertising network [migration to v.2]

[arsenische]

It seems images are disallowed in signatures?

Why do you think so? I have couple images in my signature...

They were "grandfathered in" - if you modify your sig, they will disappear. New images are not allowed.

Wow. Thanks, you are right. Just found a thread about it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51077.0

Ok.. If images are not allowed here, then just give me a link to some other forum, site or blog with embedded affiliate code (updated the original post).

[Bitsky]

Can affiliates use text-only links too, or is it required to display the image? For example: <a href='http://anonymousads.com/...'>Take a look</a>

How are withdrawals triggered? Will the affiliate receive a transaction as soon as the 0.011 are reached? Or once a day/week/month?

While I'm impressed by the openness of the system, a user interface would be nice. Affiliates could e.g. edit the filtration level without having to change every published ad. They also could trigger a payout manually.

[arsenische]

Thanks for your questions and feedback!

Can affiliates use text-only links too, or is it required to display the image? For example: <a href='http://anonymousads.com/...'>Take a look</a>

If we are talking about BBCode, then image is important: it shows the ad to the visitor and saves relay id in browser's cookie, thus allowing redirection to that particular ad. Without an image, a text link would redirect to random advertiser's site (this option is not supported though, is there any sense in it?).

If you are an affiliate with withdrawal address (for example) 1BSN83AePdukZaNZo2Avpm5qdHURfECnEo, then...

1. You can achieve somewhat similar effect using this code:

Code:

[url=http://anonymousads.com/a/1BSN83AePdukZaNZo2Avpm5qdHURfECnEo]Take a look at random ad connected to affiliate 1BSN83AePdukZaNZo2Avpm5qdHURfECnEo[/url]

2. You can use text link of undocumented Anonymous Ads referral system, for example:

Code:

[url=http://anonymousads.com?partner=1BSN83AePdukZaNZo2Avpm5qdHURfECnEo]Advertise with Anonymous Ads, and 10% of your deposits will go to affiliate 1BSN83AePdukZaNZo2Avpm5qdHURfECnEo[/url]

3. You can go to http://anonymousads.com/a/<affiliate's withdrawal address>, see the ad and copy link from it, would be something like that:

Code:

[url=http://anonymousads.com/a/182/click]Btcrelay.com for affiliate 1BSN83AePdukZaNZo2Avpm5qdHURfECnEo

How are withdrawals triggered? Will the affiliate receive a transaction as soon as the 0.011 are reached? Or once a day/week/month?

They are triggered automatically as soon as 0.011 is confirmed (or maybe with delay of several minutes). Though it can be changed in future to minimize or even remove withdrawal fees. Added hints to the affiliate's page.

Affiliates could e.g. edit the filtration level without having to change every published ad. They also could trigger a payout manually.

It kinda contradicts idea of secure anonymous service with public database backups. Though maybe this idea is not as important as user experience.

Affiliates can register individual account for each site so that they can distinguish stats and set appropriate filtration levels. I think filtration level depends on site's target group, which doesn't change too often.

[Bitsky]

If we are talking about BBCode, then image is important: it shows the ad to the visitor and saves relay id in browser's cookie, thus allowing redirection to that particular ad. Without an image, a text link would redirect to random advertiser's site (this option is not supported though, is there any sense in it?).

There are cases where images are not possible: you already noticed that the forum here doesn't allow images in signatures anymore. Also if you plan to add a link into your email signature, remote images are usually blocked.

They are triggered automatically as soon as 0.011 is confirmed (or maybe with delay of several minutes). Though it can be changed in future to minimize or even remove withdrawal fees. Added hints to the affiliate's page.

So if an affiliate with a big site joins, he would more or less constantly receive 0.01btc transactions?

It kinda contradicts idea of secure anonymous service with public database backups. Though maybe this idea is not as important as user experience.

The transparency sure is an interesting part of it. But I think you'll have to deal with users who would like to make changes to their account. It can still be anonymous though: just require users to sign up with a Bitcoin address plus a password which is stored as a salted SHA512. Publishing those checksums might still be risky though.

[arsenische]

There are cases where images are not possible: you already noticed that the forum here doesn't allow images in signatures anymore. Also if you plan to add a link into your email signature, remote images are usually blocked.

You are right, I am going to add simple text links.

So if an affiliate with a big site joins, he would more or less constantly receive 0.01btc transactions?

Yes, this should be expected (but it depends on how much advertisers pay and how their payments appear in blocks). Is it good or bad?

The transparency sure is an interesting part of it. But I think you'll have to deal with users who would like to make changes to their account. It can still be anonymous though: just require users to sign up with a Bitcoin address plus a password which is stored as a salted SHA512. Publishing those checksums might still be risky though.

This could be a solution. But here are some issues:
1) allowing to modify information is always a security risk
2) if users get used to control their accounts, then "password recovery" feature would be required... that means the system would have to store emails or other private data
3) some of the internal algorithms rely on the assumption that user data is constant.. so would need to rewrite it

So, it is an open question if it is worth of implementing..  Maybe should hide the database backups and allow to specify email & password, because it is convenient sometimes to change something or to have email notifications.

[Bitsky]

Yes, this should be expected (but it depends on how much advertisers pay and how their payments appear in blocks). Is it good or bad?

Both. Good because you quickly get your payment. Bad because lots of small transactions make it harder to keep track. A solution would be to let users decide to use "auto payout" or "manual payout".

This could be a solution. But here are some issues:
1) allowing to modify information is always a security risk
2) if users get used to control their accounts, then "password recovery" feature would be required... that means the system would have to store emails or other private data
3) some of the internal algorithms rely on the assumption that user data is constant.. so would need to rewrite it

So, it is an open question if it is worth of implementing..  Maybe should hide the database backups and allow to specify email & password, because it is convenient sometimes to change something or to have email notifications.

1) Only allow modifying non-critical information, like the filter level but never the payout address/password. Let users trigger a payout. That way an account cannot be hijacked even if the password has leaked.
2) Password recovery is not an important requirement. Right now the system is designed so that you just make a new account anyway if you need to change something. If a user forgot the password, he can make a new account.

[Bitsky]

Out of interest, I analyzed the data you provide. Is there any way to estimate the earnings for an affiliate?

For example, the users 52 and 9 both earned 0.00001090 BTC, but one has 9 clicks while the other one just needed one click.
The difference is even bigger between user 19 and 32: both earned almost the same, but user 19 needed 563 clicks vs only 2 for user 32. With the same BTC/click rate, user 19 would have made 0.77321294 BTC instead of just 0.00273585 BTC.

There's a giant spread (factor 6812.6) between minimum and maximum. So with the best click conversion, an affiliate could make 6812.6 times more than with the worst click conversion.

Code:

ID Impres Clicks Earned BTC BTC/Click
 1 297831   3741 0.10873000 0.00002906
 2  10027     54 0.07410517 0.00137232
 3  76787    224 0.20017407 0.00089363
 4     17      9 0.00611797 0.00067977
 5      6      6 0.00381872 0.00063645
 6     37     12 0.02471977 0.00205998
 7      3      3 0.02090105 0.00696702
 8      8      4 0.00090105 0.00022526
 9      8      9 0.00001090 0.00000121
10   1003     31 0.06168051 0.00198969
11      5      4 0.00180210 0.00045053
12      3      5 0.00090105 0.00018021
13    223     15 0.06473561 0.00431571
15    735     13 0.00562082 0.00043237
16     18      6 0.00090105 0.00015018
17    798     26 0.04599130 0.00176890
18  10016     22 0.12127520 0.00551251
19    883    563 0.00273585 0.00000486
20      5      6 0.00118898 0.00019816
21     13     12 0.00476338 0.00039695
22    407     19 0.02230186 0.00117378
23      6      4 0.00184572 0.00046143
24     35      3 0.00750279 0.00250093
25      2      1 0.00091195 0.00091195
26    155      6 0.01213538 0.00202256
28    652      8 0.01964711 0.00245589
29      1      1 0.00172349 0.00172349
30   1538     10 0.08243245 0.00824324
31      5      1 0.00361510 0.00361510
32      7      2 0.00274676 0.00137338
33      2      1 0.00091195 0.00091195
35    266      7 0.01346220 0.00192317
36     60     13 0.00772088 0.00059391
37   1227     22 0.02582616 0.00117392
41      4      4 0.00181301 0.00045325
42      1      1 0.00090105 0.00090105
44     60      1 0.00594058 0.00594058
46      3      1 0.00092286 0.00092286
47    200      6 0.00198445 0.00033074
48    115      3 0.00110122 0.00036707
49    106      1 0.00109034 0.00109034
50     61     40 0.00061059 0.00001526
51      4      4 0.00004360 0.00001090
52      1      1 0.00001090 0.00001090

Minimum/Click: 0.00000121 BTC (User 9)
Maximum/Click: 0.00824324 BTC (User 30)
Total earned:  0.96827695 BTC
Total clicks:  4925
Total impres:  403344
Avg BTC/Click: 0.00019660

[arsenische]

Out of interest, I analyzed the data you provide. Is there any way to estimate the earnings for an affiliate?
...
The difference is even bigger between user 19 and 32: both earned almost the same, but user 19 needed 563 clicks vs only 2 for user 32.

Thanks for the question. It seems that many affiliates and advertisers don't understand the main principle behind the service.

Affiliates' earnings is just what advertisers pay to them (+10% of advertiser's deposits, if that advertiser was attracted by affiliate). There is no reliable & accurate way to estimate earnings in advance. Probably it should be comparable to the revenue generated by showing ads of any other advertising network.

There is no any specific price per click or per impression. Affiliates are anonymous and we can't really rely on clicks and impressions because they could have been generated by botnets.

That is why ads' links are being appended with bitcoin address: it enables advertisers to evaluate visits and to pay to affiliates that brought successful visits to them.

Advertisers have incentive to do so because:
1. more they pay to specific affiliates - more chances their ads have to be shown for that affiliates, more impressions from that affiliates they get.
2. it is cheaper than just depositing to deposit address, because 90% of impressions are distributed according to amounts paid to affiliates, and only 10% of impressions - according to the bootstrap score.
3. in the long run it increases efficiency of advertising campaign: ads have more chances to be shown on sites that work best for them.

Though there is not that much traffic yet to observe #3, and all this needs testing. That's why I was sending small amounts to everybody to encourage more affiliates to join Anonymous Ads, and that probably answers your question

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I just woke up having my first cup of coffee, so forgive me if this question is stupid.

The Lucky Coin Casino: Blackjack, Video Poker, and more!  →  Play Now!
Ads by Anonymous Ads

If I see the ad above placed by the The Lucky Coin Casino by Anonymous Ads, which part of this anonymous don't I understand? I took the liberty to click several ads and, once I was on those sites, I was able to tell who placed the ads, unless there's a Supper PAC somewhere paying for the ads, I'm pretty sure that the sites I arrived at were linked by their owner's paid ads.

My question is in way to dis this service. Help me get my head out of my ass on issue.

Thanks,

~Bruno~

[arsenische]

I just woke up having my first cup of coffee, so forgive me if this question is stupid.

The Lucky Coin Casino: Blackjack, Video Poker, and more!  →  Play Now!
Ads by Anonymous Ads

If I see the ad above placed by the The Lucky Coin Casino by Anonymous Ads, which part of this anonymous don't I understand? I took the liberty to click several ads and, once I was on those sites, I was able to tell who placed the ads, unless there's a Supper PAC somewhere paying for the ads, I'm pretty sure that the sites I arrived at were linked by their owner's paid ads.

My question is in way to dis this service. Help me get my head out of my ass on issue.

Thanks,

~Bruno~

You are right, Bruno. It is quite reasonable to suspect, that the site owner is the advertiser. But it is not always the case. Anybody can place ad on behalf of anybody else, and anybody can send money for existing ads. Also, if you know the site, that doesn't mean you know its owner.

The service is anonymous in sense that it doesn't collect any personal data about advertisers and affiliates.

[Bitsky]

That is why ads' links are being appended with bitcoin address: it enables advertisers to evaluate visits and to pay to affiliates that brought successful visits to them.

Just to be sure: an advertiser can also decide not to pay the traffic he receives, correct? I'm aware that this seems to decrease the chances of his ads to be shown, but it would still work with new affiliates; or he could just create another advertiser account if the old one has been burned.

If I see the ad above placed by the The Lucky Coin Casino by Anonymous Ads, which part of this anonymous don't I understand? I took the liberty to click several ads and, once I was on those sites, I was able to tell who placed the ads, unless there's a Supper PAC somewhere paying for the ads, I'm pretty sure that the sites I arrived at were linked by their owner's paid ads.

You see the target. It's unknown who pays for these ads; although it's pretty sure the guy running the site pays, it still could be someone else. For example, you promise webmaster W to deliver X hits for a payment of Y. You place the ad to W on anonymousads and pay Z for the traffic until X is reached. Then Y-Z is what you earn from this. The affiliate is somewhat obvious though. It's usually the guy running the website showing the ads, or the poster who has the ads in his signature.

I'd say it's not truly anonymous. More semi-anonymous, just like Bitcoin itself.

[arsenische]

Just to be sure: an advertiser can also decide not to pay the traffic he receives, correct? I'm aware that this seems to decrease the chances of his ads to be shown, but it would still work with new affiliates; or he could just create another advertiser account if the old one has been burned.

Well.. That's why advertisers have to send money to deposit address to increase their bootstrap score and to get connected to affiliates. There is no free views for advertisers unless there is a bug in software

Advertisers may decide to pay only to deposit address and not to pay to affiliates. But it will be just about 9 times more expensive for them (since they will compete for 10% of views, while the other 90% of views will be distributed among advertisers that pay to affiliates).

I'd say it's not truly anonymous. More semi-anonymous, just like Bitcoin itself.

Yes, that's true.. Just need to realize that if your personal info is linked to forum account, or to your site, or to your blog.. then if you publish anything - it is not anonymous

[matthewh3]

@Arsenische any chance of banner adds and 160x600 wide sky scraper ads?  I currently advertise for Google AdSence on my blog http://glbse.blogspot.com/ but would prefer to advertise mainly BitCoin products.

[arsenische]

@Arsenische any chance of banner adds and 160x600 wide sky scraper ads?  I currently advertise for Google AdSence on my blog http://glbse.blogspot.com/ but would prefer to advertise mainly BitCoin products.

Need to think it out. I want to give more flexibility here. Right now there is no much options to customize ads. Advertisers have an option to upload image, and affiliates have an option to use iframe or image ad version. If they use iframe, then text ad will be shown, otherwise - graphic version (graphic text or image). The only adjustable thing for affiliate is the size of the ad box. You can set style="width:160px;height:600px;". Though it wouldn't look very good... Especially for image versions.

[matthewh3]

@Arsenische any chance of banner adds and 160x600 wide sky scraper ads?  I currently advertise for Google AdSence on my blog http://glbse.blogspot.com/ but would prefer to advertise mainly BitCoin products.

Need to think it out. I want to give more flexibility here. Right now there is no much options to customize ads. Advertisers have an option to upload image, and affiliates have an option to use iframe or image ad version. If they use iframe, then text ad will be shown, otherwise - graphic version (graphic text or image). The only adjustable thing for affiliate is the size of the ad box. You can set style="width:160px;height:600px;". Though it wouldn't look very good... Especially for image versions.

Yeah I've tried altering the size myself and it didn't look suitable.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I just woke up having my first cup of coffee, so forgive me if this question is stupid.

The Lucky Coin Casino: Blackjack, Video Poker, and more!  →  Play Now!
Ads by Anonymous Ads

If I see the ad above placed by the The Lucky Coin Casino by Anonymous Ads, which part of this anonymous don't I understand? I took the liberty to click several ads and, once I was on those sites, I was able to tell who placed the ads, unless there's a Supper PAC somewhere paying for the ads, I'm pretty sure that the sites I arrived at were linked by their owner's paid ads.

My question is in way to dis this service. Help me get my head out of my ass on issue.

Thanks,

~Bruno~

You are right, Bruno. It is quite reasonable to suspect, that the site owner is the advertiser. But it is not always the case. Anybody can place ad on behalf of anybody else, and anybody can send money for existing ads. Also, if you know the site, that doesn't mean you know its owner.

The service is anonymous in sense that it doesn't collect any personal data about advertisers and affiliates.

Thank you kindly for your reply. That's makes sense to me, now.

I can't wait till the Affiliate Marketing Gurus get a hold of your business plan: http://www.squidoo.com/affiliategurus

~Bruno~

[Bitsky]

I'm keeping a bit of an eye on this since the idea behind it is interesting and it's easy to implement. But as a webmaster there is no way to even roughly estimate your earnings.

The spread seems to get even bigger: user 51 has 1223 click, which earned him 0.00004360btc, while user 43 received 0.00092286btc for only 3 clicks. That's an about 21 times bigger payment for only approximately 0.25% of the clicks.

While I'm in no position to tell you how to run your project, I can say that webmasters want to be able to do some rough guessing. I know it's unfair to compare it to Adsense, but there I can do some estimations. Here I see differences of up to a factor of 8545, which, if applied to Adsense, would mean earning either $0.01 or $85.45 per click.

From my position as a webmaster it would help to have at least a guaranteed minimum earning, even if it's just 0.001btc per click.

[arsenische]

I'm keeping a bit of an eye on this since the idea behind it is interesting and it's easy to implement. But as a webmaster there is no way to even roughly estimate your earnings.

The spread seems to get even bigger: user 51 has 1223 click, which earned him 0.00004360btc, while user 43 received 0.00092286btc for only 3 clicks. That's an about 21 times bigger payment for only approximately 0.25% of the clicks.

While I'm in no position to tell you how to run your project, I can say that webmasters want to be able to do some rough guessing. I know it's unfair to compare it to Adsense, but there I can do some estimations. Here I see differences of up to a factor of 8545, which, if applied to Adsense, would mean earning either $0.01 or $85.45 per click.

From my position as a webmaster it would help to have at least a guaranteed minimum earning, even if it's just 0.001btc per click.

Thanks for your feedback.

User 51 has 1560 unique impressions and 1223 unique clicks. I don't want to say anything about user 51 since I don't know who he/she is and how did he achieve this ratio. But it looks suspicious and he/she could receive ban instead of money from Adsense.

Guaranteed payments for clicks or impressions give strong incentive for fraudent clicks and impressions. If I knew the minimal cost of fraudent click or impression, maybe I could set up a guaranteed payments below that cost.

[matthewh3]

I'm keeping a bit of an eye on this since the idea behind it is interesting and it's easy to implement. But as a webmaster there is no way to even roughly estimate your earnings.

The spread seems to get even bigger: user 51 has 1223 click, which earned him 0.00004360btc, while user 43 received 0.00092286btc for only 3 clicks. That's an about 21 times bigger payment for only approximately 0.25% of the clicks.

While I'm in no position to tell you how to run your project, I can say that webmasters want to be able to do some rough guessing. I know it's unfair to compare it to Adsense, but there I can do some estimations. Here I see differences of up to a factor of 8545, which, if applied to Adsense, would mean earning either $0.01 or $85.45 per click.

From my position as a webmaster it would help to have at least a guaranteed minimum earning, even if it's just 0.001btc per click.

Thanks for your feedback.

User 51 has 1560 unique impressions and 1223 unique clicks. I don't want to say anything about user 51 since I don't know who he/she is and how did he achieve this ratio. But it looks suspicious and he/she could receive ban instead of money from Adsense.

Guaranteed payments for clicks or impressions give strong incentive for fraudent clicks and impressions. If I knew the minimal cost of fraudent click or impression, maybe I could set up a guaranteed payments below that cost.

Yeah that's what I was thinking about fraud too.  Also AdSense pays me over £0.50 a click.  I can't see this scheme paying as much per click but I think its ads are more relevant being BitCoin related.

[Bitsky]

User 51 has 1560 unique impressions and 1223 unique clicks. I don't want to say anything about user 51 since I don't know who he/she is and how did he achieve this ratio. But it looks suspicious and he/she could receive ban instead of money from Adsense.

Guaranteed payments for clicks or impressions give strong incentive for fraudent clicks and impressions. If I knew the minimal cost of fraudent click or impression, maybe I could set up a guaranteed payments below that cost.

Yeah that's what I was thinking about fraud too.  Also AdSense pays me over £0.50 a click.  I can't see this scheme paying as much per click but I think its ads are more relevant being BitCoin related.

Adsense bans quickly, but they also pay nicely for good traffic. It just needs a few clicks of your own to get their attention, so user 51 would already be gone from Adsense. It's really not worth the effort to fake because the payment for "real" clicks is quite high and if you have a decent website, those clicks happen naturally. You could always ban that user and see who complains, and what explanation he/she gives