ottawa foodies

If you aren't blocking ads you might have noticed that the usual Google ads disappeared today. It turns out they've disabled my publisher account because I/we have somehow violated their terms. Usually, this means they've detected some suspect ad-clicking behaviour and have decided that OttawaFoodies poses some kind of threat to their customers (advertisers).

I tried to appeal to get more information about what might have gone wrong but to no avail. And they make it pretty clear that there's no potential for two-way communication: www.google.com

"Do no evil" is a nice slogan and all, but squashing the little guy without needing to give a reason doesn't seem worthy of sainthood.

So, does anyone here have experience with a different ad service that can provide relatively discreet advertising?

Wow, that's incredible! And discouraging!

I noticed an abnormally number of click-throughs on my site a few days ago. Hope they don't do the same to me.

I told you before and I'll tell you again - you can make way more money advertising directly with this site.

I'm not sure if foodies qualifies, since it's not a blog per se, but Foodbuzz is not bad: www.foodbuzz.com

damn foie gras activists

Ha! Nice one, monty. I think that might qualify as techno-terrorism. ;-)

I'm going to try out the AdBrite network. One nice thing is that it's quite transparent and allows businesses to advertise directly on our site. Let me know if you have any comments about it.

I've said it before -- I don't mind advertising for local businesses as long as they aren't paying me directly.

I've said it before too FF - let me do your advertising for you and I'll give you a cut! All you need is an agreement to sign which you can publish here on the site for all to see, to get rid of any conflict of interest worries.

I've also said it before - I think this site has 'quit your job' potential for revenue generation. If you ain't gettin' that now, you've got the wrong ad guy :-)

Monty - LOL!

zym, the only way this site could ever have "quit your job" potential is if I started providing the ability for individual vendors to advertise and maintain their online presence (menus, specials, etc). Financially interesting to be sure, but it would change the whole dynamic and I don't want that to happen.

Factors that make OttawaFoodies unique are the local scope and the lack of commercial influence, both of which encourage a strong and enthusiastic membership while severely limiting any potential revenue stream. Even with Google AdSense I was seeing maybe 1% of what I get from my day job. If ad revenue can cover my monthly ISP bill I'm happy.

From a household budget perspective, the small ad revenue has also allowed me to justify the slightly higher electricity costs involved with using Bullfrog Power.

Anyway, please let me know if you see any inappropriate/porn ads appearing in the adbar. I understand AdBrite has had some "hiccups" in the past. I already noticed an ad for "Itchy Feet" remedies, which is quite hilarious really. :-)

hehe.

Glad to have been of help (inadvertently). And, if it helps invoke more interesting ads, i can swap out "feet" with other appendages.

you collect a lot of praise here already, but i'd just like to reaffirm my respect for your arms-length advertising model.

I guess you heard me FF, but I don't think you were listening. I know what AdSense pays and it is peanuts. Local restos would pay top dollar to advertise here - two orders of magnitude what you get from AdSense, if not 3. And there are free ad servers out there (that I've used in the past and know how to configure) which allow vendors to manage their own ads, see view and click-through rates, etc. You basically just have to put it into a bar somewhere like you currently do. No coding whatsoever on your part.

So you can rent your bar out to AdBrite for more peanuts, or you can rent it out to me and start making some real money. Take a look at some of the ad costs for local community newspapers and local community websites for an idea. People still pay top dollar for online ads in local community sites with high volume.

I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

On a bit of a tangent but I was surprised last fall when I started a new job and found out that Ottawa Foodies was on the list of banned sites. I always wondered if it might have something to do with the advertising used on the site. Has anyone heard of that happening anywhere else?

I believe some companies monitor the employee web usage, and basically ban anything that might be used a lot, and is not work related. I've never seen ads that were inappropriate for work on the sidebar. I'd heard of a couple companies blocking facebook/myspace etc, because of lost (or perceived lost) productivity.

ollie, you don't happen to work for a municipal government per chance, do you?

yup. as PiO said, some companies/municipal governments block some pages that others allow (my job with the federal government only had game pages blocked, whereas my current job has pretty much everything, including blogspot, and wordpress accounts)

Oh yeah, I'm absolutely aware that workplaces block sites for content. It's just that Ottawa Foodies is so innocuous compared to some of the sites that *aren't* blocked that I scratch my head trying to understand why.

My (Federal) department uses WebSense for their blocking, and Ottawa Foodies is free and clear. Hence me commenting on this now (don't tell the boss!)

So wherever your working is likely doing it themselves and has flagged OF as a time-waster. My recommendation? Let them know that OF is how you figure out what to have for dinner. Now that you can't visit you're eating McDonald's every night, and getting fat and ugly as a result ;)

I'm the guy who would be monitoring and blocking in my company, so no worries over here about this site getting blocked :-) (or any others for that matter - no time for that crap!)

Ollie - I didn't mean blocking by content, or for content. Some companies monitor ALL web pages you go to, and the number of times you go. If they find their employees (some, one, or all) are spending a lot of time on a particular domain (such as facebook.com, or ottawafoodies.com) then they block them, not for content, but to stop employees from spending work time on them.

Maybe I am "old school" but I would not visit an interest site during work hours. My employer deserves better. I do have the benefit of flexible hours...

I understand Pete, but factoring all that in, the ban on Ottawa Foodies in my workplace still sticks out like a sore thumb. Was just curious if something outside of FF's domain, like the advertising, was triggering the ban.

The advertising has been fairly benign so I think Pete's explanation is the most likely one. There's also the tiny possibility that someone in control of web filtering at your workplace has a friend or relative whose restaurant or store has received negative comments here.

Hehehe I hate google's ad rules. My bf is a programer too. He says that they'll ban you for really stupid things: if FF accidentally clicked one of the links himself, if a Foodie did some multiple clicking, or for anyother reason they can dream up.

So when I saw their ad in the snap listing on the left there I clicked through. I hope they have to pay you for it!

Trying out another ad service called Etology. I specified "safe for work" but it insists on promoting "Girls." :S

I'm going to give it some soak time to see if the ad content becomes more appropriate and applicable. Even Google Adsense was promoting "Asian girls for marriage" at some point...

Thanks for your patience!

All 5 of the ads I see right now are "Want a Date?"

Just let me know when you are ready to hand those ads over to me :-)

Cute Girls Online!
Find your next date here...

Cute Girls Online!
Find your next date here...

Cute Girls Online!
Find your next date here...

Cute Girls Online!
Find your next date here...

Cute Girls Online!
Find your next date here...

Yeah, all I'm getting is those kinds of ads. Every single time.

Me too, me too. The pictures were quite sleazy before I went for pure text ads. This ad provider offers three levels of smut (or taste, depending how you view the issue):

* General
* Edgy
* Explicit

What we're seeing here is "General." I don't dare try out the others...

Why is Google the only usable advertising service in the game? I sense a monopoly!

Fresh Foodie - Looks like right now we all should be "Looking for Love" (can I dare say in the wrong places)... Evidently I need a soul mate for FREE.

BTW, whatever you decide regarding this ad thing is ok by me... I was one of the OF Members who didn`t take the "free lunch" option because I seriously thought it would help the website... just let us know if we can do anything to help out in your "Quest for the Best" (or is it "the rest").

Time to try the local ad solution? :-) (yeah, I'm just going to keep mentioning it ...)

Maybe FF should ditch advertising, and everyone can buy him some free beer? ;-)

So I guess this means you haven't heard back from them at all about your appeal, eh? If they haven't reached a decision, or haven't read it yet, or whatever, then maybe there's still hope.

How about Amazon.ca? I think you can choose just food-related advertising with them (cookbooks, cooking tools, gadgets, bake/cookware).

Or Pete-In-Ottawa's idea sounds good.

Edit: Doh! It's www.amazon.com/ that has the kitchen tools/small appliance choices.

Momomoto, they replied to my appeal within a few hours with a most uninformative form letter as follows:

"Thanks for providing us with additional information. However, after
thoroughly reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into
consideration, we've re-confirmed that your account poses a significant
risk to our advertisers. For this reason, we're unable to reinstate your
account. Thank you for your understanding."

So... I understand that they can do whatever they want, but I'd really like to know just what I/we/someone did wrong!

I have a feeling they just can't be bothered to deal with any trouble at all from small-fry sites like this one. The tiny amount of revenue generated isn't worth taking the time to correct any unwanted actions.

AMR, the Amazon associate program is a good one. I'm checking it out and might go that route. I like how civilized it is.

I think it would be a good fit here...assorted covers/subjects down the side panel.

I was just checking out Amazon.ca's food & wine books - they currently have 86,059 titles available (ex. baking, canning & preserving, organic, regional & international, drinks & beverages, culinary arts & techniques...heh, all things discussed here). Their prices are decent and shipping is often free.

And I like that you can sell your in-good-condition cooking/food-related books online through them too.

www.amazon.ca

LOL, would the site dictate the "topic" (ie just items of cooking iterest) or would the "current subject" dictate the topic... in which case I'm thinking we'd get some interesting titles come up (like Google Ads did). I'd really like it from a foodie point of view if it was the former and not the latter.