Ads on the right >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[BusinessIdeas]

Is it just me or does anybody else Never click on them?

[Gillie]

What ads? I use firefox with adblock plus so I never see any on this place, or if I do, I just add them to the block list ... makes life so much simpler!

[BusinessIdeas]

Its not that they bother me in any way, I was just curious as to whether it is worth havng them there from a commercial point of view :)

[Christiane]

I ignore them, they annoy me more than anything else, find them distracting and they slow down the upload of the page.

[AshMcD]

Stuff like this annoys me a touch, it's a bit like business people who get angry about people cold calling them.

We're all trying to figure out the best ways to market and advertise our business, I'll generally always hear out anyone who's cold calling me. Often not but sometimes it might be something really useful to me I wasn't aware of or a better price/service on something I was.

Similarly with internet ad links. I'll look at them and if I'm interested I'll click.

Personally I'm planning an impressions based ad campaign and the idea is for people to see the name/logo more than anything else.

Any click thrus I'll consider a bonus but yeah. We're all just trying to make our way in the world!

[AshMcD]

What ads? I use firefox with adblock plus so I never see any on this place, or if I do, I just add them to the block list ... makes life so much simpler!

I was looking for someone to do my book keeping but I've blocked adverts in sigs so I'll have to look elsewhere, sorry!

[BlueprintAnimation]

I had honestly never noticed them until I saw this thread... they don't bother me though, I think i must just be used to ignoring the right-hand side of pages now : )

[Senior]

I was looking for someone to do my book keeping but I've blocked adverts in sigs so I'll have to look elsewhere, sorry!

Pants on fire

[BusinessIdeas]

Sounds like most people dont click on them then. Unless someone wants to admit to doing so? :)

[Stephen Berry]

I'm with BluePrint - I've never even noticed them - so they must be the most ineffective form of advertising.
I have noticed the ones at the foot of the page - but have never clicked on them.

[Fergus]

I cannot see them -so assume something on my PC is blocking them !

[cycloneuk]

I rarely notice the ones on the right or the top, i think i notice the bottom ones the most when scrolling down on threads. Should really be ad free for paid members, most other places are.

[Gillie]

I was looking for someone to do my book keeping but I've blocked adverts in sigs so I'll have to look elsewhere, sorry!

Oh t'aint an advert, just information and its a persons choice to click and look further, although strange that you know one of the things my business does!! So you didn't look then! :eek:

And sigs are used for other things besides making members aware of what we do ... such as seo and so forth!

[dots and spots Jeff]

Have never clicked on them before, or thought I even noticed them ... until last night when my eye was caught by the big banner for 'the Pitch' on the right hand side.

Only noticed it because I recognised one of the people sat in one of the chairs as someone I know! So, perhaps, subconciously, we are 'seeing' the adverts, but tuning them out, unless they grab our attention.

(Clicked on the link - must say looks like a complete clone of Dragons Den!)

Jeff

[swbcanning]

Clicked on the top Green Achiever one only to see url doesn't work!

[Robs]

First i will see if i can get what i want from the free listings then, if i cannot find what i need i will click on adverts on the right on Google search page.

[AshMcD]

Pants on fire

Only in so much as I have sigs blocked. I am actually looking for a book keeper :D

Oh t'aint an advert, just information and its a persons choice to click and look further, although strange that you know one of the things my business does!! So you didn't look then! :eek:

And sigs are used for other things besides making members aware of what we do ... such as seo and so forth!

I was being facetious. Just trying to make the point that if adverts annoy you as a business person it seems a touch hypocritical to complain about other adverts in my opinion but what do I know!

[Gillie]

Only in so much as I have sigs blocked. I am actually looking for a book keeper :D



I was being facetious. Just trying to make the point that if adverts annoy you as a business person it seems a touch hypocritical to complain about other adverts in my opinion but what do I know!

Well it didn't work then did it?

Actually, I didn't say the adverts annoyed me, merely that I had blocked them out on this place!

They have problems in that the advertising server and forum server are different and often you get slow page loading if you have the ads on ... I am impatient you see and don't wish to spend an extra ten minutes every day waiting for a page to load when I can make it work faster!

[DuaneJackson]

Stuff like this annoys me a touch, it's a bit like business people who get angry about people cold calling them.

Who's getting angry? I thought she was just asking if anyone clicks on them.

Personally I'm planning an impressions based ad campaign and the idea is for people to see the name/logo more than anything else.

What line of business are you in and when did you discover the oil well to fund it at the bottom of the garden?

Brand-building, with not consideration for ROI, is fine for Coca Cola. But it's suicide for a smal business/startup.

Anyway - yes, the ads do ge clicked on. Even the tiny ones at the top can pull in a few clicks if they're done properly. There have been plenty of people trying to turn the internet off with the "off" button that sometimes appears there.

[BusinessIdeas]

I was just wondering if it might be worth my while putting an ad on there - fees anyone?

[DuaneJackson]

I was just wondering if it might be worth my while putting an ad on there - fees anyone?

Not cheap : )

Contact member Tom Dunkerly.

[new2bus]

I never see any adverts, I ban them all in my browser and hosts file.

[AshMcD]

Who's getting angry? I thought she was just asking if anyone clicks on them.



What line of business are you in and when did you discover the oil well to fund it at the bottom of the garden?

Brand-building, with not consideration for ROI, is fine for Coca Cola. But it's suicide for a smal business/startup.

Anyway - yes, the ads do ge clicked on. Even the tiny ones at the top can pull in a few clicks if they're done properly. There have been plenty of people trying to turn the internet off with the "off" button that sometimes appears there.

It was just from a similar post made on a young business forum a little while back that was about cold calling. It seems I'm much more alone in my attitude towards advertising here than there!

I'm genuinely curious on your thoughts about advertising though. But to answer your question about my oil well, I don't have one. I've just worked since I was 16 and that's allowed me to save enough money to put a year full time into trying to make a go of what I've loved since I was ten and what I've been doing part time since I was 16.

In terms of ROI I don't except any immediately from the advertising but have picked the sources I feel would provide the bext exposure for the budget I have availible in the hope that when someone who's seen it and is ready to make their next purchase (PCs, by the way) my website is somewhere in their mind and they hopefully have a look and see what we have to offer.

Why, in your opinion is brand building for a start up/small business suicide?

[DuaneJackson]

Sorry, my comment about the oil well was me trying too hard to be clever. If you're going to spend money on advertising with no expectation of a return then you're going to need something like an oil well to fund it.

How much money are you planning to spend in the next year on adverts that just "get your name out there" but don't generate any direct sales?

There seems to be a lot of hope built into your plan. You hope someone will see the advert ad you hope the next time they purchase your website is in their mind and hopefully they'll have a look.

A marketing plan needs to be sustainable - that doesn't sound sustainable to me. It sounds like in 12 months you'd have burnt up all the cash you've saved upover the past x years and you'll have close to nothing to show for it.

How do you compare to Dell or EBuyer? Why will someone buy from you over them? There are others here that know a lot more about that line if business than me, but I didn't think therewas the margin in it anymore for small businesses to be able to make a reasonable profit from it.

[AshMcD]

I think it's unfair to assume a lot of hope. But as it happens you're right. Yes, I hope, as would any sane person that my business is successful.

At presents I do 2-3 builds per month on word of mouth. I need to double this to be able to sustain myself and the business and ideally upto 8/10 machines per month.

Perhaps I overstated my aims. I'm not planning a huge campaign on ITV prime time. Simply 4 or 5 unusual streams of advertising hitting the people I want to hit.

We compare just fine to Dell and Ebuyer.

Why would people buy from me? Well, I presume for the same reasons people buy from me now. I build better machines with a better service for a fair price. Yes my margins aren't huge, but I don't need them to be.

2 Years RTB Warranty as standard.
Labour warranty for life of machine (Although granted, I do ask carriage to be split 50/50 afer two years)
0800 Support Number (which you don't have to pay to get, as per some companies)
Machines provided with all OS updates installed (providing that is your wont)
Useful App Install - We will pre install any useful applications you wish (Spotify, iTunes, VCL Media Player ETC)

And whilst we don't advertise the fact you also get a lovely little welcome pack with a USB pen drive/blank dvds/ and a few little bits.

So I'm quite comfortable with what we offer.

[AshMcD]

Just for doing its sake. Whilst the following wont be one of my production models. We could custom build the following.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159381 which is one of the most popular base systems on Ebuyer at the moment.

AMD Quad Phenom 9500 2 x 2.2GHz
4GB DDR2 800MHz (very likely to be cheap, generic memory)
640gb Hard Drive
20 x Multi DVDrw
nVidia GeForce GTS 250 512MB
1 Year Warranty

Here's what we can build for exactly the same price
AMD Phenom 9650 2 x 2.3 GHz (Better CPU)
4GB Corsair Twin X DDR2 1066 MHZ (Branded, quality, faster memory)
750GB Hard Drive
nVidia GeForce XFX GTS 250 512mb
22x LightScribe optical drive.
2 Year Warranty
Lifetime Labour Warranty.

Yes, I'm quite comfortable with the quality and price of our machines.

[DuaneJackson]

I wasn't assuming. It was based on the number of uses of the word "hope" in your previous post : )

I really think you should spend some time with a marketing specialst, or atleast get some feedback from the other members on your plans, before you go blowing your life savings on an "awareness" campaign, no matter how small.

Either way, I wish you good luck with it all.

[AshMcD]

There aren't many things I'd rather do less than spend some time with a "marketing specialist".

Thank you very much for the luck wishing:)