1,000,000th Visitor

I contractually can't tell you that, and wouldn't if I had been paid yet (authors generally get paid on royalties for sold copies).

I tried Google ads for awhile, but consider that they're based on the content of the page they appear on. Most pages don't generate ads that anyone cares about, so I made about .02 per thousand pages. Every ad I run I get paid for. I don't do cost-per-click or cost-per-action ads.

red: I agree with Dex. There are *way* too many buzzers here who seem to get some cheap thrill out of pointing out the typos in the post of others. Sure if a post is a muddled mess of hot garbage, that's one thing. But when a poster is making a counter-argument to the post of a so-called "established" poster and the established one's "groupies" bring attention to the *one* misspelled word in the post. Well that's just being a butt-hole.

This happens far too often on a site that I generally think of as having reasoned thought out discussions. And it only happens to the newer members. I misspell words all the time, yet rarely am I "called" on it. It is my personal belief that there are many on this site who want to "belong" to something (even if that something is in reality nothing) so they cite the 'letter' of the ToS when I dont feel they have any concept of the 'spirit' of the ToS. IMO, it's quite pathetic and sad. I wish those folks would just stop.

But hey, I like Son of Beast so what do I know?

lata, jeremy (both words purposely misspelled ;))

My favorite is when you are debating a point and the person you are debating points out a misspelled word. Then they act like since you've mispelled a word you are obviously mentally inferior and they automatically win the debate. I'm all for proper grammar and spelling on this site, but it does get anal after a while.

Mike - who still knows where Eritrea is

not anymore Moosh ;)

*** Edited 4/25/2005 6:59:39 PM UTC by Incidentalist***

Um, Inci? Its M-I-S-S-P-E-L-L-E-D...you forgot an 's' ;)

A lot of sites I am a member of are able to have relevent ads. Computer related sites generally have ads from online stores for all kinds of different computer/media products. I click on a lot of their ads. Same goes for interests such as cars, music, books, electronic technology, and various other hobbies.

As for roller coaster related websites, most people don't care much about roller coaster except for an occasional thrill. Just about everyone that likes them buys directly from the parks. There is very little money to be made on the internet except maybe in models. Relevent ads are out so webmasters often have to find other ways to make money. Popups, while annoying usually are the only way. With popup blocking software, even they are starting to make for hard times.

While I can't speak for Jeff, I'm sure he would like a buck or two for the effort he's put into this site. If I remember correctly he dropped the T1 line used previously for a hosting service. T1 lines are around $800 per month around $500 per MB/s. A web host would likely use a OC-3 line or greater for around $40,000 or about $250 per MB/s or less. Big advantage especially when the company is able to even out the line loading and thus be able to keep bandwidth costs very low. Then again, times are constantly changing and this type of service wasn't practical 5+ years ago.

I use Google ads on my site, hence the question I asked Jeff. My site has a lot of static content like articles, though, not the dynamic stuff like forums etc on Coaster Buzz.

The Google ads are all very relevant, too, so I respectfully disagree that there are only so many relevant topics you can advertise - my Google ads advertise coaster books, DVDs and videos, cheap park tickets, theme parks themselves, ride manufacturers, hotels near theme parks (especially useful) and of course the obligatory toys like marble roller coasters.

Of course, Jeff has chosen what works for him, but I put the Google ads on my site mainly because they were the easiest to customise, yet am genuinely pleased with the things they advertise - and most of all, the money I have made from them has FAR exceeded what I envisaged, and I strongly believe that this is because they advertise things that people actually want to click.

Yeah, the T-1 is long gone, but I'm still paying for that. Hosting has become a lot more affordable, and I've seen hosting plans out there with 20 mbits of unmetered bandwidth for $500 or less. That's insane.

The problem with a site like this is that there's a high page-visitor ratio. Because of session capping, you'll only see so many paid ads. One can make more money on a site where the 1,000 visitors each look at three pages than one where 300 visitors look at 10 pages. Cost-per-click ads are especially prone to failing in this situation.

So again, every ad I display is a paid ad, regardless of whether or not anyone clicks on it. There is a growing trend for online advertisers to start (gasp!) using Web ads as a branding tool, like every other medium, but it still has a long way to go.