Web Ads via BuySellAds.com
Collis Ta'eedA quick announcement today, we’re switching our advertising over to a new system via the recently launched BuySellAds.com. Previously I’d been running a little ad network between four of our sites - FlashDen, PSDTUTS, FaveUp and of course FreelanceSwitch - but now thanks to this new service, it’s all fully automated.
BuySellAds is still in Beta but is a very promising service and I know Todd who’s running the site and he’s a great guy. So if you’ve ever wanted to purchase an advert here, you can now do so via our Ad Sales page on BuySell. The price of an advert is $750p/month or in other words about $1 CPM.
Also of course you can buy ads on PSDTUTS for $1500, and on FaveUp for $300.
For those of you who’ve been visiting the site for a while you’ll remember we used to run ads in this format (6-8 at a time) and switched a while back to the nice, clean Miiingle system. While I had high hopes for selling fewer, more premium adverts, it never quite took off. So we’re back full circle 
In any case, at least more people will be able to afford these ads!
Russ Perry
April 11th, 2008
Does this mean the quality and control of the ads will go down then?
HarrySimons
April 11th, 2008
Does these mean there are going to be ads that are out of control ? Or unrelated ?
Chris
April 11th, 2008
So what is going to happen to Miingle?
Patrick
April 11th, 2008
I would have to agree with Russ. If I start seeing flash crap flash across my screen I would personally not visit these sites.
MJ
April 11th, 2008
The beautiful thing about having a JavaScript blocker Firefox add-on is that it made me look at the site and go “What ads?” If you hadn’t mentioned it, I don’t think I would have ever known…
Anyone using Firefox who wants to get rid of annoying flash crap everywhere they go, I suggest NoScript. Although you will have to individually enable JavaScript on sites you visit whose flash and web forms and such you want to see and use, I feel it’s worth it.
Russ Perry
April 11th, 2008
MJ- Seriously you’re missing out. Being able to wack-the-mole go get a lower mortgage rate is the best!
Mubashar Iqbal
April 11th, 2008
Its a great system. I’ve been using it on a few of my own sites, and its been performing very well.
The publisher still has the option to approve any ads before they appear on the website, so the quality of the ads should be unaffected.
Todd
April 11th, 2008
Yeah, Mubs is right. The ads are sold at fixed prices each month, and the publisher can deny the ads if they don’t like them. BuySellAds.com is very different from typical ad networks - it’s not CPM, it’s fixed price month to month (very similar to selling ads direct like Miingle was doing), so for an advertiser to place a non-relevant ad on a site like this they’ve got to be pretty dumb
David
April 11th, 2008
I have am the one who kinda introduced Collis to buysellads and I like mubs said they pub can vet out any ads that the community isn’t going to get any value out of.
@MJ way to support a site whose bandwidth you eat up each month and whose costly content you consume on a regular basis, and way to show support by telling others how not to support…
David
April 11th, 2008
I am the one who kinda introduced Collis to buysellads and like mubs said the pub can vet out any ads that the community isn’t going to get any value out of.
@MJ way to support a site whose bandwidth you eat up each month and whose costly content you consume on a regular basis, and way to show support by telling others how not to support…
Daniel Scocco
April 11th, 2008
I am sure that you guys will keep monitoring the quality of the sponsors, so other than a bit more pixel space for the ads I don’t think it will affect the user experience.
Hope it works well.
Terra Andersen
April 11th, 2008
I can’t really imagine seeing unrelated ads on this site. In keeping with the subject, hopefully advertisers and BuySellAds will comply. Good luck!
Dan Grossman
April 12th, 2008
I’ve added a BuySellAds slot to real-time web stats service W3Counter. You can now buy an ad there for $100 per month, on the home page and in the free stats reports. The service reaches over 60,000 uniques a month with over 250,000 page views — that’s $0.40 CPM or less than half what this blog charges to reach a community of web designers and other website owners. Thanks for the tip, FreelanceSwitch!
David
April 12th, 2008
WOW, shameless huh dan, bejesus…
Dan Grossman
April 12th, 2008
To be honest, the $750 price for a spot on this site made me a little .. unhappy. I would love to advertise here but what freelancer can drop $750 for a test run that might produce no sales?
Skellie
April 13th, 2008
@ Dan Grossman: Without access to traffic statistics, I’m not sure what you’re basing your criticisms on re: pricing. That $750 could buy your ad 750,000 impressions. It’s sort of like getting angry at BMW for selling expensive cars that you can’t afford. Not that I’m comparing FSw with BMW, but sometimes things are worth what they’re worth — you know what I mean?
To everyone, I just want to remind you guys that we pay our writers really, really well by industry standards and that Collis invests thousands of dollars in this site each month to make it better. While it’s not my position to tell you not to use ad-blockers and so forth, it’s worth mentioning that advertising revenue is the only way we can keep FSw alive and growing. Just something to think about :).
collis
April 13th, 2008
Meanwhiles I think FreelanceSwitch should be compared to BMW’s more often
Fear not people, I don’t think there’s going to be an onslaught of casino ads or smiley icon ads … unless of course someone opens a huge briefcase of cash … and even then I’m sure I’d have the fortitude to say no!
@Chris: Miiingle is going the way of the dodo unfortunately. Try as I might, couldn’t figure out a way to make it work. Sometimes you gotta cut your losses I figure!
Auron
April 14th, 2008
If you want to sell those ads:
1. Fix the grammar errors in this posting.
2. Provide some statistics.
Good luck.
Oh and that claim you pay your writers better then the industry average - please provide some insight into this issue as well. Thanks.
Justin Amores
April 18th, 2008
I am confident the freelanceswitch team would keep a close eye on the new ads and will make sure the site remains as neat and professional as it has been for a year now.
Collis, since you will be retiring miingle, would it be possible to share some details on the development of your solution. As a developer it will surely be interesting to see your approach to develop such system and us developers in your audience will learn a lot from it.
Thanks