On advertisements
Added 2015-02-10 06:06:51 +0000 UTCContinuing with Blizzard Watch's policy of being as transparent about its business as possible, we want to take a minute tonight and let you know we'll begin implementing ads on our site very soon. We want this site to succeed long term. Community fundraising will be the cornerstone of Blizzard Watch, and our success will be based off your generosity. But at the same time we need to be realistic about padding ourselves against future economic trouble and lost interest in Blizzard's games. In our seven years at WoW Insider, we saw WoW's interest swing dramatically. It's on the upswing in a big way right now. When it starts to swing down again, we want to be ready for that. We want to be ready for that because we want our writers to be able to rely on us to pay them for their work. And we want you to rely on us as a constant good source of news and views. How do we meet our obligations? Well, we start by being very conservative with our financial modeling. We're doing that already. But we also need to find more revenue streams. It's been part of the plan all along, as outlined in our initial Patreon document, that we're going to run ads. Over the course of the week you're going to start to see advertisements in some form on our site. We'll stick to banners and boxes rather than in-line text ads. We will never embed or hide ads directly within the text of our articles. To get things rolling, we're starting this process with Google Ads, but we're already working on individual business deals. And hey, if you're interested in talking about buying some ad space, email us at hello@blizzardwatch.com and we'll talk! We know ads can be a touchy subject, but we wanted to be sure you know what we're thinking, and why we're doing it. So if you see an ad, know that it's there to make sure our site is still around 10 years from now. Thank you for reading, and for supporting us! Your support has meant the world to us all, and we hope to have you along for the long haul. Cheers, Adam Holisky and Alex Ziebart Co-Owners, Blizzard Watch
Comments
I'll make sure I white list the site, but please no auto play video. That's turning me off using Wowhead.
Michael
2015-02-17 00:11:07 +0000 UTCPlease no auto play videos! I would also love if the mobile ads don't take up half the screen real estate
Erin K
2015-02-12 01:45:44 +0000 UTCJust wondering if ads can open in a new window/tab instead of taking me away from BlizzardWatch.com?
Brad
2015-02-11 16:38:36 +0000 UTCThe only problem I ever have with *unobtrusive* ads, is their common use as a vector for viruses and malware. As long as there's none of that going on it's all good.
Jonathan Winsatt
2015-02-11 13:45:52 +0000 UTCI don't use even AdBlock because I understand ads are a way for funding websites. But I hate interstitials, autoplay videos, and similar. If you include games companies advertising, please don't loose your independence. Remember gamergate.
Carlos
2015-02-11 09:40:54 +0000 UTCI approve. ;)
FlameFlash
2015-02-10 22:33:03 +0000 UTC100% behind this and LOVE the Co-owners after your names. Made me smile =)
Anthony Lentine
2015-02-10 17:32:40 +0000 UTCI'm sure I don't have to say it, but be sure to mention your patreon and white listing on ad blocker behind the ads!
Valerie
2015-02-10 16:21:06 +0000 UTCI'm grumpy about ads in general. The internet used to be a fun place until ads saturated everything (OK, my age is showing). That said, ads are now a necessity for having stability. My only request is that there are none of those ads that block the site, drop down and overlay or populate the background....or video ads. You know they're going to auto-launch even if you tell them not to. Ok, that was more than an only request. I am bad at math. Now back to my punch cards...
Jacqui Tulley
2015-02-10 15:43:26 +0000 UTCI don't mind ads, and I often click on ones that are even mildly interesting to me since I know that supports sites I like to visit. Sometimes I even find things I'm glad I clicked through. That said, ad behavior is a huge issue for me. Adsense usually isn't a problem because they curate their ads pretty well. But as you sell your own ads please have agreements in place with your advertisers regarding any code they want to run on my machine. The way you load ads should insure that their slow servers don't impact how fast BW content loads. And auto-playing sound immediately gets a site deleted from my bookmarks.
Beth Macknik
2015-02-10 14:29:39 +0000 UTC
