If there are further delays it'll be the inevitable consequence of ad-blockers ...😕
Are they blocking reviews? Mean bastards... <_<
At some stage there'll be the question how things can continue. The ad block rate is reaching 50% these days. It takes a couple of ten thousand dollars to run this site just in terms of costs and I'm not even talking about a salary there. While photozone is only semi-commercial (we are not depending on it), all efforts will stop once the revenues fall below a certain threshold. Anyway, it is up to the reader to decide whether they want to have sites such as this one or not.
I'm confused. Which Adblock are you talking about? My Adblock is off and I never saw any advertisements on this forum-site.
Ahh, you mean the main page? I'm sorry, I bookmarked the Forum here.
However, "a couple of ten thousand $" appears quite high to me, while you are not saying if those are the costs of a single year or since PZ exists. Maybe you could explain how you like to be financed? Because an increase in ads will lead "inevitably" (from my side) in a disinterest at a certain point. If it looks like Sigma-rumors these days, when it's difficult to see what's content and what's advertisement, I'd loose interest.
If you want to run PZ as a business financed only by advertisements, then I have to say, its not only the adblockers but also some kind of quietness from editor's side. I don't know how you want to position the site, but if you look at other test sites, there's more than one new test per week. Maybe I'm wrong, but more fresh content would also create more traffic. Sometimes you guys are the last ones testing a new lens, other times it's for days that nobody posts in the forum.
Instead of hoping for donations or enough clicks on (often enough) irrelevant ads, you guys could think about asking for regular fees? At least, you're working a couple of hours for a review.
Joju, I agree with review frequency part, but advertising here is not excessive. As matter of fact much less than other test sites, where the ads are everywhere.
03-30-2016, 01:47 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2016, 01:48 AM by Klaus.)
Sure - it is an accelerating effect. The higher the rate of ad-block readers, the less reviews will be written which will in turn result in less readers. Can't come as a surprise really. I will not spend more time on writing reviews just to keep the revenue stream constant (which would be unrealistic anyway - the ad blocker rate is accelerating way too fast). Sorry to say but I will not work for 1-2$ an hour - and taking images of charts and the following analysis is just that - work. If people don't appreciate anymore what we are doing ... well, such is life then.
PZ is purely ad-driven. We have the donation button up there but the monthly "income" from that is something between 0-100$. As for the costs the math is easy - cameras, computers and studio gear that has to be replaced every once in a while, server costs, software subscription costs and, of course, rental costs of lenses and covering the losses due to buying/selling lenses - I also have an extra office room just for PZ (which I wouldn't need/rent without PZ, of course). That accumulates to costs of $30.000 per year or so.
Sure, a part of running PZ is fun but at some stage things are no longer sustainable.
Anyway, don't worry for 2016/2017.
