Now and then I do a little post to request that you don't block our adverts, or if you do then we offer you the option to support us without seeing any adverts and gain extra perks in the process!
To get this out the way: I don't hate you if you do.
Adverts pay for our hosting, pay for me to pick up games to video (or to buy Samsai to cast for you) and review for you when a developer won't give out a copy, and for me to generally get-by in day to day life. Time is money after-all and having a family time is short.
We also have GOL Premium, for $25 USD (£14.84 GBP/18.24EUR) a year or $15 (£8.90/10.93EUR) every 6 months.
In future I will also be implementing an ability for GOL Premium users to get a handy email when a game they want goes on Sale, it's half-done right now and I expect to finish it by the end of the month, GOL Premium users can already add it to their wishlist and track them that way, emails are to come soon!
Without adverts & GOL premium I wouldn't have been able to do this for as long as I have. I would never want to hide our content behind a forced "pay-wall" (as in you have to pay to see 2/3rds of every article or something like that) and never plan to. I don't see that as a way of getting rid of adverts and donations alone don't cut it sadly.
We are still to the best of my knowledge the most active Linux-focused gaming site around. It's not just that though, any developer has the ability to write about their own game and have it published here or to publish their thoughts on something related to Linux gaming, or even for regular gamers to write about games they are interested in to have it published here. We are an open platform and always will be which is why I think we work so well.
We never have and never will use popup adverts of any kind, we don't use noisy video adverts, we don't put an advert in the way of any content either. I spoke to another major Linux-focused website about the pop-over ads they use and that person told me the revenue from those is many multiples that of our adsense, but I still won't use it as they annoy even me. I've been approached many times for pop-under tab adverts and I show them where the door is as well to not annoy our readers.
If too many people block our adverts in future and the amount of people subscribing to GOL Premium stops/slows (currently we are doing o-k) then in future I may have to re-consider how much time I spend researching games for the site and maybe one day stop the site altogether, but currently that won't happen anytime soon don't worry!
I feel the same way as this guy: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8854-The-Adblock-Episode, if you do block our adverts, don't be a dick about it.
In our tests over May 2014 58% of people blocked our adverts, that's a bit upsettingly high, but I will have to find a way to ignore it or else I will get annoyed and not post as much news and I don't want that to happen.
I still have a lot to learn about "internet life" and I make mistakes here and there, but I am always working for you to make Linux gaming better for everyone. I do it because I do enjoy it, not because I feel I have to and don't want to ever give it up.
Now give me all of your monies.
Finally: Thank you to everyone who has supported me, GOL and a big thank you to the many contributors we have. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
To get this out the way: I don't hate you if you do.
Adverts pay for our hosting, pay for me to pick up games to video (or to buy Samsai to cast for you) and review for you when a developer won't give out a copy, and for me to generally get-by in day to day life. Time is money after-all and having a family time is short.
We also have GOL Premium, for $25 USD (£14.84 GBP/18.24EUR) a year or $15 (£8.90/10.93EUR) every 6 months.
In future I will also be implementing an ability for GOL Premium users to get a handy email when a game they want goes on Sale, it's half-done right now and I expect to finish it by the end of the month, GOL Premium users can already add it to their wishlist and track them that way, emails are to come soon!
Without adverts & GOL premium I wouldn't have been able to do this for as long as I have. I would never want to hide our content behind a forced "pay-wall" (as in you have to pay to see 2/3rds of every article or something like that) and never plan to. I don't see that as a way of getting rid of adverts and donations alone don't cut it sadly.
We are still to the best of my knowledge the most active Linux-focused gaming site around. It's not just that though, any developer has the ability to write about their own game and have it published here or to publish their thoughts on something related to Linux gaming, or even for regular gamers to write about games they are interested in to have it published here. We are an open platform and always will be which is why I think we work so well.
We never have and never will use popup adverts of any kind, we don't use noisy video adverts, we don't put an advert in the way of any content either. I spoke to another major Linux-focused website about the pop-over ads they use and that person told me the revenue from those is many multiples that of our adsense, but I still won't use it as they annoy even me. I've been approached many times for pop-under tab adverts and I show them where the door is as well to not annoy our readers.
If too many people block our adverts in future and the amount of people subscribing to GOL Premium stops/slows (currently we are doing o-k) then in future I may have to re-consider how much time I spend researching games for the site and maybe one day stop the site altogether, but currently that won't happen anytime soon don't worry!
I feel the same way as this guy: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8854-The-Adblock-Episode, if you do block our adverts, don't be a dick about it.
In our tests over May 2014 58% of people blocked our adverts, that's a bit upsettingly high, but I will have to find a way to ignore it or else I will get annoyed and not post as much news and I don't want that to happen.
I still have a lot to learn about "internet life" and I make mistakes here and there, but I am always working for you to make Linux gaming better for everyone. I do it because I do enjoy it, not because I feel I have to and don't want to ever give it up.
Now give me all of your monies.
Finally: Thank you to everyone who has supported me, GOL and a big thank you to the many contributors we have. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
0 Likes
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Alright, let me tell you why I got adblock and why it is never coming off.
Lets start with a true story broz. About 10 years ago there was this site named combovideos. From that site users could download fightinggame videos such as matches, combos, etc. And, just like this one, that site used to be ad funded. It happened however that the ad revenue got too low to pay for the site. So the admin told all of us that we need to click the ads some more so he would get more money to keep the site up. And we did, at least once a day, we clicked an ad, even bothered to look at it and then clicked away. The admin of that site didn't get his money however, but instead a message that they believe he was committing fraud and that they are not going to pay him. So the benefit of ads? Nah...
Instead, he set up a funding system, much like the modern kickstarter where he showed how much he needs and how much has been paid. Anything extra skipped over to the next month. And the result was that the site had stayed alive for years after (it's now dead cuz eventhubs...) because people donated.
Another reason to keep using adblock has been described before. Ads have gotten more and more intrusive in the browser experience. "8 second video on youtube? Why don't you watch this 30 second ad first?" "Oh did you switch videos? Mind this 1 minute ad first?" "Oh, you refreshed? How about another ad?" "Say, are you interested in the hud found on this live gaming stream? How about you click the ad away first?" "Oh the streamer is getting into a fight in game? How about this ad?" and the mentions are endless just for videos. I haven't even begun about normal sites, where pop ups are still frequent, where they have gone to enormous lengths to avoid pop up blockers (especially those built into the browser) and they even dedicate entire pages to an ad that randomly pops up as you're navigating the site. Even forums are subject to similar behavior where they will camouflage ads as regular forum posts.
Quite frankly, it has gone too far. It's over, you should simply no longer expect to make money off of ads. The adblock has become a part of chrome and chromium because the majority of internet users are fed up with them. It was a nice and viable form of revenue when it were just banners and would've stayed as banners. Now they deploy cookies, they spam pop ups and if they were able, they would hack our system and get our email + address book. And as simple as that, it has gone too far to expect anyone with half a brain to accept ads in their browser.
Lets push this a little further even. Do you know what your own ads do? Do they deploy cookies? Do they attempt to store my IP? What do they do besides showing me something I'm probably not interested in in the first place?
Lets start with a true story broz. About 10 years ago there was this site named combovideos. From that site users could download fightinggame videos such as matches, combos, etc. And, just like this one, that site used to be ad funded. It happened however that the ad revenue got too low to pay for the site. So the admin told all of us that we need to click the ads some more so he would get more money to keep the site up. And we did, at least once a day, we clicked an ad, even bothered to look at it and then clicked away. The admin of that site didn't get his money however, but instead a message that they believe he was committing fraud and that they are not going to pay him. So the benefit of ads? Nah...
Instead, he set up a funding system, much like the modern kickstarter where he showed how much he needs and how much has been paid. Anything extra skipped over to the next month. And the result was that the site had stayed alive for years after (it's now dead cuz eventhubs...) because people donated.
Another reason to keep using adblock has been described before. Ads have gotten more and more intrusive in the browser experience. "8 second video on youtube? Why don't you watch this 30 second ad first?" "Oh did you switch videos? Mind this 1 minute ad first?" "Oh, you refreshed? How about another ad?" "Say, are you interested in the hud found on this live gaming stream? How about you click the ad away first?" "Oh the streamer is getting into a fight in game? How about this ad?" and the mentions are endless just for videos. I haven't even begun about normal sites, where pop ups are still frequent, where they have gone to enormous lengths to avoid pop up blockers (especially those built into the browser) and they even dedicate entire pages to an ad that randomly pops up as you're navigating the site. Even forums are subject to similar behavior where they will camouflage ads as regular forum posts.
Quite frankly, it has gone too far. It's over, you should simply no longer expect to make money off of ads. The adblock has become a part of chrome and chromium because the majority of internet users are fed up with them. It was a nice and viable form of revenue when it were just banners and would've stayed as banners. Now they deploy cookies, they spam pop ups and if they were able, they would hack our system and get our email + address book. And as simple as that, it has gone too far to expect anyone with half a brain to accept ads in their browser.
Lets push this a little further even. Do you know what your own ads do? Do they deploy cookies? Do they attempt to store my IP? What do they do besides showing me something I'm probably not interested in in the first place?
0 Likes
reaVer: I Get where you are coming from which is why we have GOL Premium to support us with no adverts + other features too.
Like I said before time is money and my time to work on this site isn't free.
I don't hate people blocking ads as mentioned, but it is income for me I am losing out.
Again I also refuse to put up some big "we need x/x by the end of x month". Life/my time doesn't have a figure on it.
Like I said before time is money and my time to work on this site isn't free.
I don't hate people blocking ads as mentioned, but it is income for me I am losing out.
Again I also refuse to put up some big "we need x/x by the end of x month". Life/my time doesn't have a figure on it.
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me