In moving SatelliteGuys to a secure server using SSL has been both good an bad.
It has been good because the speed of our site has never been faster. About 52% of our members are using a browser that supports the new http/2 standards and for those folks (especially Pub Members) they see awesome speeds from our servers!
The bad part has been the lost of ad revenue, in fact our revenue is now down about 80%. That hurts... A lot.
The reason for this that I can tell are for the following reasons.
1) One of our ad networks terminated us because we changed their ad code from http:// to https://
2) While we have more than one ad agency there are not as many secure ads to go around as their are unsecure. If then don't have a secure ad to send us you will see a blank space where the ad is supposed to be instead.
3) Previously before we were terminated by the one agency we would not only use them to display ads directly but also used them to display ads if the other ad agencies did not have a secure ad to send. This is why the loss from losing the ad agency is much higher than I expected it to be.
I am trying to work with the ad agency to get back in and currently our case is in revue. They were serving us GOOD secure ads and they had a excellent inventory of secure ads.
Over the past month other ad agencies have been in contact with me, and I have been trying them out by putting in ad code that only my account could see, and so far they have all been GARBAGE. By Garbage I mean ads that serve popups, pop unders, and Auto play video ads with sound. I do not want to serve these types of ads, my goal is to pay the bills and no scare you away. You should not come to SatelliteGuys to be served those kinds of ads.
You might have noticed me playing with the ads if your not a Pub Member, and you will see me working on them more over the next few days,
Here is my pledge to our members on ads.
If you are logged into the site you will only see what I consider safe ads, I strive not to have bad ads such as pop ups, pop-unders, or video ads that auto play with sound.
I pledge that if you are logged in to your SatelliteGuys account you will not have ads that auto refresh themselves.
I pledge that if you are logged into your SatelliteGuys I will use the best possible technology to assue the fasted connection possible, this includes only using ad agencies that offer asynchronous ad loading, as I don't want the ads slowing down your visit to SatelliteGuys.
DID YOU KNOW???
A lot of people think that SatelliteGuys is sponsored by satellite companies such as DISH Network and DIRECTV, this is NOT True we have NO direct sponsorship's with ANY company. This was done so people couldn't say we were playing favorites with one company or product over another. We want people to feel free to discuss any satellite product (as long as it has nothing to do with piracy of course) without worry about offending our sponsors.
Unfortunately 48% of our members (almost half) use an ad blocker here on SatelliteGuys. And I can fully understand why you use them. I would hope with this message that some would consider disabling them on SatelliteGuys to help us out. I work hard to offer clean ads and with my pledges above I work hard to keep things clean for you. I could block parts of the site out to those using ad blockers, but that defeats the point and we don't want you to go elsewhere. In addition in the past I have tried using special ads which are displayed if you are using an ad blocker. These ads were horrible and the kind of ads I don't want here at SatelliteGuys so I never rolled it out to the public.
The final "DID YOU KNOW" is DID YOU KNOW you can help us Keep the Light On for EVERYONE by becoming a supporting Pub Member?
As a Pub Member here are some of the benefits you get...
* Access to our Private Pub Members Forum (Thats where all the juicy rumors are posted!)
* Elimination of ALL of the ads on the site when you are logged in!
* A larger Private Conversation box, store UNLIMITED Conversations instead of only 25!
* Ability for you to post FOR SALE items in our Classifieds Section! (Non Commercial - No Dealers)
* Access to our Private Back Room Forum - An optional forum where adults can hang out and discuss adult topics.
* A special ribbon under your username in all your posts which tells everyone you are a proud supporter!
And the most important reason of all:
* The good feeling that you help one of America's Most Popular Satellite sites stay online!
You can learn more about Pub Memberships at https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/account/upgrades
Now I am a awfully proud guy and don't want to beg for money, but must say that unfortunately a few things happened in our family over the past year or so, which means I can not pay out of pocket like I did in the past to keep SatelliteGuys going... we need you help. So please if you could consider disabling your ad blockers or becoming a Supporting Pub Member it would be greatly appreciated!
Over the next few days if you are not a Pub Member you will notice me playing with ads. I will be putting some up and taking some down, as some ad agencies not only pay for show the ad but pay better based on placement of the ads. And finding the secret sauce for best placement takes a lot of trial and error.
So with that, I wanted to be honest and let you know whats going on and why these changes are being made. Luckily we are about to get out of our "Slow season" and I believe we will see some fireworks from both Satellite Companies this Fall which should help make this a much busier place.
As always if you have any suggestion on how we can make SatelliteGuys better you are always welcome to PM me with them. I run this site for YOU and this is your site!
Thanks for being SatelliteGuys (and Gals too!)
It has been good because the speed of our site has never been faster. About 52% of our members are using a browser that supports the new http/2 standards and for those folks (especially Pub Members) they see awesome speeds from our servers!
The bad part has been the lost of ad revenue, in fact our revenue is now down about 80%. That hurts... A lot.
The reason for this that I can tell are for the following reasons.
1) One of our ad networks terminated us because we changed their ad code from http:// to https://
2) While we have more than one ad agency there are not as many secure ads to go around as their are unsecure. If then don't have a secure ad to send us you will see a blank space where the ad is supposed to be instead.
3) Previously before we were terminated by the one agency we would not only use them to display ads directly but also used them to display ads if the other ad agencies did not have a secure ad to send. This is why the loss from losing the ad agency is much higher than I expected it to be.
I am trying to work with the ad agency to get back in and currently our case is in revue. They were serving us GOOD secure ads and they had a excellent inventory of secure ads.
Over the past month other ad agencies have been in contact with me, and I have been trying them out by putting in ad code that only my account could see, and so far they have all been GARBAGE. By Garbage I mean ads that serve popups, pop unders, and Auto play video ads with sound. I do not want to serve these types of ads, my goal is to pay the bills and no scare you away. You should not come to SatelliteGuys to be served those kinds of ads.
You might have noticed me playing with the ads if your not a Pub Member, and you will see me working on them more over the next few days,
Here is my pledge to our members on ads.
If you are logged into the site you will only see what I consider safe ads, I strive not to have bad ads such as pop ups, pop-unders, or video ads that auto play with sound.
I pledge that if you are logged in to your SatelliteGuys account you will not have ads that auto refresh themselves.
I pledge that if you are logged into your SatelliteGuys I will use the best possible technology to assue the fasted connection possible, this includes only using ad agencies that offer asynchronous ad loading, as I don't want the ads slowing down your visit to SatelliteGuys.
DID YOU KNOW???
A lot of people think that SatelliteGuys is sponsored by satellite companies such as DISH Network and DIRECTV, this is NOT True we have NO direct sponsorship's with ANY company. This was done so people couldn't say we were playing favorites with one company or product over another. We want people to feel free to discuss any satellite product (as long as it has nothing to do with piracy of course) without worry about offending our sponsors.
Unfortunately 48% of our members (almost half) use an ad blocker here on SatelliteGuys. And I can fully understand why you use them. I would hope with this message that some would consider disabling them on SatelliteGuys to help us out. I work hard to offer clean ads and with my pledges above I work hard to keep things clean for you. I could block parts of the site out to those using ad blockers, but that defeats the point and we don't want you to go elsewhere. In addition in the past I have tried using special ads which are displayed if you are using an ad blocker. These ads were horrible and the kind of ads I don't want here at SatelliteGuys so I never rolled it out to the public.
The final "DID YOU KNOW" is DID YOU KNOW you can help us Keep the Light On for EVERYONE by becoming a supporting Pub Member?
As a Pub Member here are some of the benefits you get...
* Access to our Private Pub Members Forum (Thats where all the juicy rumors are posted!)
* Elimination of ALL of the ads on the site when you are logged in!
* A larger Private Conversation box, store UNLIMITED Conversations instead of only 25!
* Ability for you to post FOR SALE items in our Classifieds Section! (Non Commercial - No Dealers)
* Access to our Private Back Room Forum - An optional forum where adults can hang out and discuss adult topics.
* A special ribbon under your username in all your posts which tells everyone you are a proud supporter!
And the most important reason of all:
* The good feeling that you help one of America's Most Popular Satellite sites stay online!
You can learn more about Pub Memberships at https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/account/upgrades
Now I am a awfully proud guy and don't want to beg for money, but must say that unfortunately a few things happened in our family over the past year or so, which means I can not pay out of pocket like I did in the past to keep SatelliteGuys going... we need you help. So please if you could consider disabling your ad blockers or becoming a Supporting Pub Member it would be greatly appreciated!
Over the next few days if you are not a Pub Member you will notice me playing with ads. I will be putting some up and taking some down, as some ad agencies not only pay for show the ad but pay better based on placement of the ads. And finding the secret sauce for best placement takes a lot of trial and error.
So with that, I wanted to be honest and let you know whats going on and why these changes are being made. Luckily we are about to get out of our "Slow season" and I believe we will see some fireworks from both Satellite Companies this Fall which should help make this a much busier place.
As always if you have any suggestion on how we can make SatelliteGuys better you are always welcome to PM me with them. I run this site for YOU and this is your site!
Thanks for being SatelliteGuys (and Gals too!)
wife know.
