Why no advertising?

[Baelzar]

It's not like I wish for more Google adwords in my life, but considering how much I enjoy OOTS, I certainly wouldn't begrudge you guys making some money.

Why no ads? You guys got a rich uncle, or is it principle?

[Emperor Demonking]

They or rather he, already makes money off Oots.

[Amotis]

He could make a lot more though.

I'm not sure. My favorite big web comics, least i could do, penny arcade, have them. But my favorite lesser known ones, xkcd and married to the sea, don't. Not sure if there's a line or something that involves companies approaching because of traffic on the site or the artist approaching/ not approaching the company because of principle.

[onasuma]

Also loads of ads might make more casual visitors stop

[Zephra]

I thought the rule was we weren't supposed to advertize...

[Mr. Moon]

...

You're complaining about the lack of ads? I like the lack of ads!

[Erloas]

I really like not having ads too. But I did find it fairly odd too since it is so commonplace these days.
Personally I wouldn't mind seeing reasonable ads if it ment a good source of income for the Giant, you know... to the point of him being able to focus more on this and we could start seeing 5 comics a week...

Of course it depends a lot on the types of ads and how they work. If they are random, just about anything ads those usually suck. But if they are reasonable looking ads that fit the content and don't clash with the overall look of the site then it doesn't matter much to me. I know there are some that pay per click on the ads, and since almost no one ever clicks them they bring in very little revinue, to the point of it not being worth doing at all. There are others that pay per amount of time they are up, some set fee per month. Those are probably a lot more practical for the host but I don't think they generally command much money, so not really worth it.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I could care less as long as the ads don't get in the way. A banner add or two on the edges of the page really don't bother me.

[StickMan]

I think this site would realy suck with a lot of adds all over the place. Right now its professional and clean. And it is a nice place to just surf the board with out getting bombarded.

[Thiel]

This site has enough problems with bandwidth as it is, no reason to make it worse.

[Baelzar]

Also loads of ads might make more casual visitors stop
I certainly didn't mean a slew of banners, pop-ups, and whatnot to assault me every time I visit.


However, I don't expect people to entertain me for free. OOTS is my favorite web comic, and I read 'em all.


I never even paid any attention to things like adwords until I saw this:
http://www.johnchow.com/index.php/the-internets-biggest-google-whores/
which blew my mind.


I mean, damn.

[WampaX]

However, I don't expect people to entertain me for free. OOTS is my favorite web comic, and I read 'em all.

Then please be the proper consumer/rabid fan and purchase all things related to this site. The Giant subsists (for the most part) on merchandise sales, so buying product with OotS plastered all over it is the right way to go about supporting him . . . also, telling your friends about OotS so they also purchase said products and tell other friends, etc. etc. You, too, can become a part of the Giant's non-profit pyramid scheme.

Plus, plopping down non-OotS ads just diverts revenue streams from OotS products to whatever the ads may be tempting the user with.

[InaVegt]

I would buy OotS stuff, if I wouldn't have to pay just as much on shipping as on the actual product. Add import tax and we get a figure of around 35-40 euro's for origins, not a reasonable price for a comic book, no matter how much I want to read it.

[Mr. Moon]

Same goes for me in Canada. Once all the taxes are paid, a tee-shirt could cost about $60 in Canadian funds. That's an awfull expencive tee-shirt. If it wasn't for that, I would probably buy some.

[AmoDman]

I posed the same question a long time ago. The giant said something along the lines of not wanting irrelevant ads all over his webspace. I do agree though, a couple discreet, meticulously chosen ads hither and thither certainly wouldn't hurt. Big guys like PA make their living off of those two, almost unnoticeable ad spaces on their website.

[heretic]

I am all for ads.

They provide the Giant with more income, easing the financial strain and perhaps that will manifest in lengthier/funnier comics that may update on time too.

[WampaX]

. . . and perhaps that will manifest in lengthier/funnier comics that may update on time too.

Unlike now, with the single page comics that are always late and unfunny?
:smallconfused:

Also, who's to say that given a release from all financial burdens that The Giant's style will not suffer. Perhaps some unique balance would be upset and the cosmic order would become undone thus resulting in a decrease in productivity and quality . . . eh?

Well . . . no, that's probably not very likely. Rolling around on a bed of money is always a good motivator for work. :smallamused:

[Penguinizer]

I would probably buy a shirt and possibly the board game. But I lack the fuding or the way to actually pay for it. When I get a credit card and pay-pal then I probably will buy a shirt.

[RawBearNYC]

Ads probably won't change the quality of frequency of the comic. Rich is doing what he wants to do, and that includes a 3 day a week comic. Ads on the site wouldn't actually result in any more time for Rich, unless he decided to stop making the books or writing gaming materials. I'm sure he's going to continue with the books, and I don't imagine he'll give up the writing. So, the ads won't really do anything to increase his available time to create more comics.

[Amotis]

What about updating the servers? Or would the income not match/justify the price of an upgrade?

[Rawhide]

There's another consideration: managing advertising for a site like this would be practically a full-time job in itself. If you are supporting yourself via advertising, it's not enough to just wait for people to want to advertise, you need to go out and get ad accounts. You can be sure that Penny Arcade has a dedicated advertising guy who handles it for them, something I don't have the luxury of getting. If you think slapping Google Ads onto the site would make a significant dent in my budget, you have a skewed view of what advertising really pays.

Further, Penny Arcade readers are video game buyers, and the video game companies pour a lot of money into advertising there. My demographic is roleplaying games, and there are a lot fewer companies with much, MUCH lower advertising budgets. The biggest companies (WOTC, WW, SJG) don't even place ads online, and the smaller companies can't afford ad rates that would be enough to be worth the extra time involved. And don't kid yourself, Penny Arcade's audience is ten times that of OOTS, which means they can charge more for each ad view.

Ultimately, though, I find advertising ugly and unnecessary. I would rather have to work extra two months a year to get two books out than work extra every single month to keep up with a professional advertising scheme.. .

[TreesOfDeath]

I think a few banner ads would help Rich and be perfectly ok with us

[AtomicKitKat]

I agree about the importings. I don't remember how much it costs here, but they were selling Origin at the F(NS)LGS for something like $60 local. At 1.5 to the US$, that's about US$40.

[Aereshaa_the_2nd]

I didn't mind paying for Origins. It was well worth it.

[BlueWizard]

Modern web-ads can slow a connection down, with their flashy glitz!

[bluish_wolf]

Not to mention that most people simply block them anyway.

[AmoDman]

Modern web-ads can slow a connection down, with their flashy glitz!


Not to mention that most people simply block them anyway.

Neither of those types of ads are the ones we're talking about. If you're getting pop-ups, you're either at a really shoddy site or you have malware on your computer.