limiting to specific advertisers
scottplan wrote on 03 May 2010 13:52
I haven't researched this at all, but I wonder if this approach might apply to other sites as well.
If we were to have advertising on our site, these are the conditions we'd have to meet:
- We'd need to control for specific ads. Ours is a neighborhood wiki, so only neighborhood businesses would make sense. And hopefully we could control for shape & resolution of images.
- We'd want to contribute proceeds to neighborhood charities.
- I could probably create a custom element to show ads, but I've always assumed it would run afoul of Wikidot's monetization policies, right?
I imagine many wiki-admins have similar conditions. Wikis are about community, and it's harder to nurture that sense of connection while distracted by ads that are mostly tangential to the group's focus.
Comments: 3
page revision: 0, last edited: 03 May 2010 13:52
This is up to the ad network you choose to use. Google Analytics lets you decide on the content of your ads (e.g. blocking inappropriate ads), but not any kind of localisation, I think… but there may be another ad network that suits your needs.
In the case of Google (the only one I have some experience with on this topic) they pay you when you reach $100 US Dollars (or a similar amount in your local currency). Then it's completely up to you where that money goes. I'm not sure if it's possible to automatically send that money to the charities… you'd have to look into it.
That's what the Ad module is there for.
You really should just try it out and see how it works :P That'd answer most of your questions.
It's "Advertising" under "Site Manager". Bold text, can't miss it :)
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
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Thanks Shane — I appreciate that you took the time. Understandably, you've approached my post as if it poses questions, when really I'm making statements. I don't think I'll ever locate an algorithm-driven ad network on our wiki.
Like many Wikidot sites, ours is an intentional community. Communities define themselves. Our wiki's content, its tone, and its character reflect the input and priorities of its participants. To introduce Adsense (to take an example) would be to abdicate some of that definition to an impersonal, imprecise algorithm.
Anyone who visits or contributes to our site can tell the difference between our site-based user-originated content and some offsite, automated, widgetized, commercialized noise. No amount of ad-blocking would result in an appropriate mix of ads. We don't need ad-blocking — we need ad-selection.
Any ads on our site would have to be intentional, contributed by our user base. I could build that, but was thinking it would run afoul of Wikidot policy. That's why I mention the intent to fundraise for charities — to gauge whether Wikidot would allow this type of exception. I now see that it should be OK to create this, as long as I maintain my Pro Lite account. In any case, administration of a customized service and its payment system would be an added burden. Maybe there's a network that limits slots to admin-specified advertisers, but I haven't seen it.
The irony is that Wikidot's whole model is about user-originated content. It puzzles me that our advertising tools rely entirely on this disassociated googlized model. Maybe I'm naïve to think the user base is robust enough to create appreciable ad-based revenues, but I thought I'd float the idea anyway.
Hmm… so you want users of your wiki to pay for the ads on your wiki … instead of some random business that is affiliated with Google or Amazon? That sounds very much like the "Monetization options for pro sites" thread you are replying to… (at least now I understand why you are replying to it! :P)
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)