We are serving some new ad placements to non-donors.

[Skinner]

Earlier this year, we announced that we would be testing out new ad placements. That process is finally finished, and the new ad placements should be appearing on our site for all non-donors.

We have run two types of advertisements on this website for the last two years: BlogAds (the vertical column of ads appearing on our homepage, the Latest Threads page, and selected other pages), and Google AdSense (the more traditional banner ads, squares, and skyscrapers that appear on most of our pages). As our site has grown and our traffic and bandwidth have increased, these advertisements have provided us with much-needed additional revenue so we can continue upgrading and improving the site. In fact, just last week we spent nearly $9,000 to install a state-of-the-art database server to better handle the increased election-year traffic.

Late last year, Google AdSense changed their advertisements in a way that dramatically decreased the click-through-rate of their ads, which then decreased the revenue that publishers receive. This change was completely out of our control, and caused our monthly revenue to plummet by more than 50%. In response, we have no choice but to make the ads on our site more prominent, and more relevant to our content. We believe that these new ad placements strike a fair balance where they are easier to see without being overly obtrusive.


If you are a DU donor, you should not be seeing any Google ads.

Since the purpose of the ads is to raise money for DU to pay our expenses, we feel it is only fair that our donors should not have to see them. If you have donated to Democratic Underground any time in the last year, the Google ads should be automatically removed from your pages. If you think you have donated in the last 12 months but you are still seeing the ads, then there may be a problem with our records. You can check your donor status by clicking the "Options" icon and then clicking the "Donor status" link. (Or you can just click here.) If you believe any of the information on your donor status page is incorrect, please send an email to [e-mail] and explain the problem. Please include as much information as possible.

Important message for monthly subscribers: Please check your donor status page to verify that you are still a monthly subscriber. In the past, subscriptions would be automatically canceled if there was ever any problem charging a monthly donation (such as an expired credit card or technical glitch). This problem was fixed a while back when we set up a new subscription system, but a significant number of long-time subscriptions were canceled without notice because of it. If your donor status page does not show you as a subscriber, please look at a recent credit card statement to check if we are still charging your card.


We do not pre-approve any of the ads served by Google.

On any given day, there could be hundreds or even thousands of different ads appearing on our website. These ads are served automatically by Google, and we do not pre-approve them before they appear. For this reason, occasionally advertisements may appear that are not appropriate for our community. We do have the ability to block inappropriate ads after they appear, if we are aware of them.


What to do if you see an inappropriate advertisement.

If you see an ad that you consider inappropriate, please send an email to [e-mail] with the full text of the ad, including the web address. We will review the ad and decide whether to block it. Ads are considered on a case-by-case basis. We block ads that could be offensive or disruptive to the community (including bigoted ads, anti-choice ads, or ads that smear our candidates). We may sometimes permit non-disruptive ads placed by our political opponents. (After all, if a Republican is stupid enough to waste their money advertising on Democratic Underground, it's not my job to fix their mistake.) It usually takes approximately 24 hours for a blocked ad to stop appearing on our site.


Thank you for your understanding, and thank you for being a part of this community.

David Allen ("Skinner")
Dave Allsopp ("EarlG")
Brian Leitner ("Elad")
Democratic Underground Administrators

[mikelgb]

1. the ad on this very page right now is:

Will you fell safe with Barack Obama as President?

HORRIBLE IDEA... THE AD PLACEMENT IS HIDEOUS

big disappointment

they are not going to increase my clickthroughs, as I NEVER CLICK ON ADS

this won't encourage me to donate

[Skinner]

4. kick (nt)

[mikelgb]

2. and an ad bot?

yuck

all ads no content

[That Is Quite Enough]

3. Well, I barely even look at the ads, really, so it doesn't bother me.

[orleans]

5. kick. n/t

[tyedyeto]

6. This sucks big time

I'm sorry that you have to stoop so low as to be at the beck and call of google and ads that are so contrary to this website. You state that you have no control over content. And that google has screwed you over because Late last year, Google AdSense changed their advertisements in a way that dramatically decreased the click-through-rate of their ads, which then decreased the revenue that publishers receive. Then why do you stick with them if they have cut into your revenues so drastically?

Seek other alternative sources of income or make it fun to doanate. Why rely on the 1000 donors per fund drive? Why not make it a set $$ amount? Create a fun way to fundraise, such as you did with the hearts, and people will give, if they can. You have close to 1/4 MILLION members according to your statistics on my discussion page but you only ask that 1000 give in a fund drive.

My cost of living has gone so sky high that I am no longer able to donate, even though I have donated annually since I joined in Oct of 2004. When and if I finally get to the point when I can spare $10, I will donate.(Right now I'm saving every penny so I can go see my kids and grandkids this summer who live in No Cal 800 miles away and that may not happen this summer as long as gas prices continue to increase.) And in the meantime, I see ads in every OP I click on.

Thanks for letting me vent about today's internet and today's economy.

[The Straight Story]

7. Well, I might be able to answer part of that::

Then why do you stick with them if they have cut into your revenues so drastically?

For the same reason we stick with the dems when they have cut our progressive agenda so much. You work with what you got and work within that to make a change :)

[RogueTrooper]

8. Thanks for putting the link to the donor status page Skinner

It reminded my to renew my monthly subscription.

:yourock: :yourock: :yourock:
one for each of you.

[LiberalLovinLug]

9. NewsMax are the very worst

I can't afford to contribute right now, so I see them all. And NewsMax and their leading poll questions with unflattering shots of Dems irritate me to no end. And they litter every liberal website out there.

NewsMax is a right wing propaganda site that pretends to be an impartial news site. All those polls on so many sites..."Should Hillary Quit?" was one I remember, and no results on their web site? They are there to entice Liberals and Conservatives alike to help boost their page hit count up and steal your email address.

They are a blight on the net. I wish all their faux polling ads were not welcome here.

[Pappy]

10. Trying to make money off of this makes me sick.

I host websites and it doesn't cost hardly anything to host em, so where is all the money going?