13 replies

henrus

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 23 Oct 2013

Total posts 766

I'm interested to see what other users think about the ads on this site. I don't mind the Ads for credit card in the articles or on the side but the recent Emirates ad which takes up half the screen at the top of the site is a bit annoying in my opinion. I also have ad block enabled but this site uses a script to block ad block which I'm fine with but it's annoying when ads appear above the menus.

GBRGB

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 21 Jan 2014

Total posts 292

Sign of the times, advertising is an essential part of revenue and the bigger the better from an advertiser perspective, at least on a free service I can put up with the ads, my pet hate is the pop ups on a subscription site or pay TV for that matter. The question in reply is would you pay a subscription to AUSBT and not put up with the ads, experience right across various media platforms is that most don't want to. 

markpk

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 29 Nov 2013

Total posts 456

The question in reply is would you pay a subscription to AUSBT and not put up with the ads, experience right across various media platforms is that most don't want to. 


Short answer is yes. 

I pay annual subscription to a number of sites so as to access content without the ads and the more annoying auto-load video's that are a brown stain on the publishing industry. Examples of sites where I pay money include:
  • autosport.com
  • theatlantic.com 
Both have high quality and exclusive content that I wish to access across multiple devices. By comparison, motorsport.com and cnn.com are both pretty much unworkable due to the stupid amount of script going on in the background and the spam content that foots every article. 

The issue is not that consumers don't want to pay for content its that they haven't been given a compelling reason to yet - fortunately the marketing/advertising industry is driving us rapidly down that road! 

For what its worth, the Emirates ad makes me not want to fly them! 

DeepAvThroat

Member since 21 Mar 2017

Total posts 22

I'm interested to see what other users think about the ads on this site. I don't mind the Ads for credit card in the articles or on the side but the recent Emirates ad which takes up half the screen at the top of the site is a bit annoying in my opinion. I also have ad block enabled but this site uses a script to block ad block which I'm fine with but it's annoying when ads appear above the menus.

So let me get this right, son, you are a regular AusBT reader because your profile shows you joined in Oct 2013 and you have made 453 comments under articles, but you are running an ad blocker so you expect all of these stories to be yours for free, and you are still whinging about seeing an advert at the top of the screen? Tell you what, Henrus, you tell me what you do for a living and I'll see if I can arrange for you to come and provide that service for me or my company and I'll expect it for free too, how's that?

henrus

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 23 Oct 2013

Total posts 766

I'm interested to see what other users think about the ads on this site. I don't mind the Ads for credit card in the articles or on the side but the recent Emirates ad which takes up half the screen at the top of the site is a bit annoying in my opinion. I also have ad block enabled but this site uses a script to block ad block which I'm fine with but it's annoying when ads appear above the menus.

So let me get this right, son, you are a regular AusBT reader because your profile shows you joined in Oct 2013 and you have made 453 comments under articles, but you are running an ad blocker so you expect all of these stories to be yours for free, and you are still whinging about seeing an advert at the top of the screen? Tell you what, Henrus, you tell me what you do for a living and I'll see if I can arrange for you to come and provide that service for me or my company and I'll expect it for free too, how's that?
No I've actually had AUSBT (youtube and several other sites) whitelisted since I had ad block but more recently the ads have become more intrusive. Due to the amount of travel, I mainly use a Macbook Air 11" and currently the emirates ad takes up more than half the screen.

I'm not saying I'd expect things for free either... In the past, I've paid for online news subscriptions and to this day I still pay for a monthly music subscription. I'd actually be happy to pay a few dollars each month to receive an ad-free version of the site.

Ryan Connolly

Member since 13 Sep 2016

Total posts 3

A bit tough there, DeepAvThroat, even though I agree with your sentiments! Henrus, I don't mind the ads on AusBT because they are not intrusive or 'over the top'. The Emirates ad might take up a bit of extra room on the screen but this is the way some advertisers are going these days, little banners just don't cut it any more, you get these bigger ads and 'home page take-overs' because they are more effective, but I can tell you that the advertisers would be paying extra for them and so if this is how the AusBT guys make their money to keep the site running for free I am okay with that.

Steve987

Member since 23 Feb 2015

Total posts 268

Free site = ads.


I'm glad the Ausbt team can make a crust while providing this service.

I have no idea how much traffic this site gets, but I am guessing the monthly fee to not have ads would need to be more than "a few dollars" (leaving aside the complexity of delivering this - Fairfax still places ads in its paid version).

Steve987

Member since 23 Feb 2015

Total posts 268

The content that is perhaps questionable, but ultimately defendable I guess, is that which appears to be ads dressed up as articles.


If (and it is an if, as I do not know) the "best credit card deal" articles are sponsored in the background by the credit providers whose products are listed and those who don't pay don't get listed then that is probably something that should be made clear to readers.

David

Member since 24 Oct 2010

Total posts 1,016

Steve: none of our credit card articles are 'sponsored' by credit card companies or banks – in assembling the monthly rundowns of the best sign-up deals, for instance, Chris Chamberlin looks across the entire card landscape (you should see his Excel sheet of all the providers, it's amazing/scary!) and chooses the best deals in the market that month.

We make it a point of professional pride not to 'dress up ads as articles', unlike some blogs and bloggers: the only time that an article is sponsored by an advertiser is when you see the outright declaration of such sponsorship in the article, and this appears at both top and bottom (https://www.ausbt.com.au/introducing-british-airways-on-business-program is a good example of this).

Last editedby David at Apr 10, 2017, 09:43 PM.

Steve987

Member since 23 Feb 2015

Total posts 268

Steve: none of our credit card articles are 'sponsored' by credit card companies or banks – when you look at the monthly rundowns of the best sign-up deals, for instance, Chris Chamberlin looks across the entire card landscape (you should see his Excel sheet of all the providers, it's amazing/scary!) and chooses the best deals in the market that month.

We make it a point of professional pride not to 'dress up ads as articles', unlike some blogs and bloggers: the only time that an article is sponsored by an advertiser is when you see the outright declaration of such sponsorship in the article, and this appears at both top and bottom (https://www.ausbt.com.au/introducing-british-airways-on-business-program is a good example of this).

Thanks for confirming this David!!

Kevin Cheung

Member since 13 Sep 2016

Total posts 8

Is the EK advert which dominates the very top of the screen annoying? Yes. Would I rather not have it there? No. But would I rather put up with it instead of not have AusBT free and part of my daily reading? Yes!!

ThePerthTrav

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 18 Dec 2016

Total posts 20

I really don't mind the Emirates ad. Even though it's an ad, it's still well made.

btaus

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 15 Dec 2016

Total posts 171

I'm outraged by existent of both Qatar and Emirates ad at same page, dear AusBT, please rethink your ad, it's crazy to let 2 competing Gulf carriers put ad together.

Notso Swift

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 06 Oct 2016

Total posts 32

Not really too much of a problem - better than getting pop ups

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