Ads on LiveJournal. Let's discuss...

New Ad Placement Option

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:45:49 GMT

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting here. For those who don't know me, my name is Janine and I am an engineer on LiveJournal. I've been working for LiveJournal on and off since November 2005 (I'm full-time now), though I've been using LiveJournal since 2001. I was asked to write this post since I was the one who worked on this feature.

We are testing a new ad placement option for Plus users to choose to use on their journals: "Placement Between Entries". If you choose this new option, ads will appear between your entries on your recent, friends, and day views. Additionally, the ads on the side or on the top/bottom of these particular pages will be removed. The ads between entries will also be customized to match the colors of your journal style.

Keep in mind that we will only be running this option for a limited amount of time, since we are only testing to see how well it integrates into your journal. It's possible that we may close off the feature once enough users have selected it. If you have the "Placement Between Entries" option selected when this happens, you will still be able to use it as long as you don't change to another ad placement option.

At the end of the test, we will disable the option entirely and you will revert to your prior ad placement choice. We'll then review the feedback received and decide if we're going to bring back this option permanently.

The main points about this new option:

It is only available to Plus users using the S2 style system.
Choosing this option will make 468x60-pixel ads appear between entries on your recent, friends, and day views, while your previous placement choice (horizontal or vertical) will be applied to all other views on your journal (such as entry and archive views).
For the test, there will be a minimum of one and a maximum of three ads per page of entries. The exact number of ads depends on how many entries are showing on a page.
The ads between entries are all Google AdSense ads right now (though graphical ads may be there in the future). The Google ads will be colored to match whatever theme you've chosen.
** Note: If you use custom CSS to change the colors of your layout, the ads won't match—they will only match if you customize your layout's colors through the customization wizard options ("Colors" section of the Custom Options tab). Keep in mind that the colors of Expressive, Expressive Seasonal, Mixit, Bloggish, and Style Contest cannot be customized through the wizard (only through custom CSS).
The ads between entries option is not currently available to users who are being served ads from SUP.

We want your feedback! Let us know if you like the ads between entries or not and why. We also want to know how the ads look, both in terms of placement and colors. Nothing is set in stone yet with this feature, so let us know if and how we can improve it.

Send your feedback by clicking on the "Feedback" link at the top of each ad, or feel free to comment here with questions. I or someone else on the team will answer. :)

A few ad updates...

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:21:55 GMT

Hi all. I'm going to begin helping out on the sales team so I thought I'd introduce myself. I've been working on LJ since 2002, but I've recently changed my focus to sales. I wanted to post some updates and upcoming items:

New Sponsored Community
We've just launched a new Sponsored Community based on the movie Blood and Chocolate. vivian, the fictional journal of the main character of the movie, will update the community every day until the movie's opening with another chapter of her life. Go check it out at mydarkestsecret.

Ads on logged out homepage
We always planned on doing this, but hadn't actually implemented it until recently. Later this week, we'll be adding a 300x250 box ad unit on the homepage. If you always stay logged in, you probably won't even notice.

Official communities
We've converted a few of our official communities (news,lj_spotlight,lj_maintenance, etc.) to the plus level.

Different ad sizes
We'll be swapping out the 300x250 box ad on http://www.livejournal.com/editpics.bml with a 160x600 skyscraper. Look for more of these types of changes in the future as we continue to focus on cleaner ad integration.

Changing of the guard

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:38:18 GMT

We haven't posted here in a good while because the advertising business of LJ (and Vox) has been keeping all of us plenty busy, especially in the 4th quarter of the year.

But I did want to let you know that a someone new will be joining Six Apart to head up our advertising/sponsorship efforts (introductions will be made later once the new person starts) in January. I'll be working with the LiveJournal and Vox teams as an advisor during the transition, but am leaving my position as VP of Sales. joydtaylor , rynfitz, ljkrissy , kimmi8 , burr86 , chasethestars and maybe even wiscoernie and others on staff will be available to answer your questions and update this community.

That's all for now, I just thought people would want to know that my "official" role as LJ's ad ~~devil~~ spokesperson is coming to a close soon.

It's been a great year, I've learned a lot, especially from the people who have participated in this community, and I will continue to be an advocate and huge fan of LiveJournal.

Happy New Year everyone!

Spreadshirt goes beyond the banner

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 23:07:11 GMT

In addition to running a very successful banner campaign with us, Spreadshirt has just started a new Sponsored Community on LiveJournal. They want their community to be a place with current Spreadshirt users can share information, designs and tips and where new people can discover what Spreadshirt is all about.

Definately read their profile information because it will give you a sense of what they're about and why we like having them here in the greater LJ Community. They're fun, they get communities (they've created a great one of their own with their customers) and they're helping support the business of LJ with their marketing dollars and participation. spreadshirt
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Some clarifications and revisions to the ad guidelines

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 00:38:41 GMT

They're going to be posted a little later today, but I wanted to let this community know that we're making some updates to the Ad Guidelines.

We've actually revised them nine times since we launched the Plus level back in April. We continue to learn more and more about the nuances and requirements of serving ads in this very complex environment and will do our best to keep the community informed of any substantive changes and of the things we learn along the way.

The biggest change in the Ad Guidelines is that, in some cases, we won't be serving ads in an iFrame. Certain rich media ads have interactive elements to them that don't work properly when you click on them if they are served in an iFrame. I'm certainly no technical expert on stuff like this, so we rely on LiveJournal's engineering gurus to extensively test and approve any of these non-standard ad instances.

Last week we rejected one rich media/interactive ad because we could not be assured that the script needed to get the ad to work in an iFrame was secure enough for LiveJournal standards. This week we decided to accept a different interactive ad for the movie "Employee of the Month". In that case, the rich media vendor was very cooperative and allowed us to test, make changes, security audit and finally approve the ad to run on LiveJournal. However, our engineers determined that most secure way to run this ad is outside of an iFrame, so we needed to change the wording on the guidelines to reflect that, in some select cases, we may not run ads in iFrames.

We also clarified some of the guidelines around rich media ads in general, adding more specific language around how ads with interactive elements like video and sound can and can note be triggered.

The new version of the "Employee of the Month" ad should be live on the logged-in Home Page for Plus users later this evening or tomorrow morning. (There's a regular flash version there right now that's been running for a few days.) Check it out and support the advertisers that are supporting LiveJournal!

As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome.

The Science of Sleep is a movie and a LJ Sponsored Community

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:44:05 GMT

Another First For LiveJournal First...

I mentioned the idea of Sponsored Communities a few posts back, but now it's official. We have our first LiveJournal "Sponsored Community". It's for the upcoming movie the Science of Sleep.

It looks like an interesting movie (I LOVED "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") and we're excited that they're using LJ to help promote it.

It would be wonderful if you would support this community by Friending or Watching it. They promise to post some good and interesting content and a will even reveal a few surprises (read awesome prizes) just for LJ Science of Sleep community members. They recently posted a question that's pretty fun to read the comments on s well asking "what's the strangest place you've ever slept".

Thanks to the team here at LJ who helped make this happen and the users who are already participating and watching this first sponsored community. This is the first of many sponsors we hope to introduce to interested LiveJournal users.

A couple of business things to note about Sponsored Communities:
The sponsored community "package" we sell to advertisers includes the following elements:

resources, consulting and training on how to maintain a Community

ads to promote the community (the 160x90 badge ads are used for this)
enhanced placement in Interest search results (for non-paid users) for key words related to the community *
promotion of the community in the LJ Community Spotlight (clearly marked as a "sponsored community and viewable to non-paid visitors of the LJ home page) *
special pricing on banner advertising

* as some people were quick to point out, there was a glitch when we first launched this first Sponsored Community yesterday where Paid users were able to see the Sponsored Community link in the Spotlight and in Interest Searches.

The LJ engineering and product team are working to find a way around that issue so we can remain true to our commitment not to show "ads" to Paid users. Please be patient as we work out these bugs and issues, we are NOT trying to be deceptive or hide the fact that Sponsored Communities are being paid for by advertisers and we're not trying to piss off anyone, least of all our Paid users. We all LOVE our Paid users. More paid users = less ads to sell.

We're still trying to find better and more interesting ways for advertisers to get their information out to people besides plastering banner ads everywhere. And are also trying to stay true to our lofty goals of finding new and better ways for advertisers to meaningfully participate in social communities and have conversations with bloggers. Keep telling us what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong and what new things you think we should be trying.

Choose where you want your ads! (S2 only)

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 23:17:40 GMT

A lot of the feedback we received from you regarding the ad-sponsored Plus account level was about the placement of the ads. Many of you running on lower screen resolutions said that the skyscrapers took up too much space in your browser and left little reading room for entries. A lot of you who have tried the Plus level and switched back said that you would have stayed Plus if you had a choice in where the ads were placed, and even many Plus users have asked for that option.

Well, now it's available! You can choose between two 728x90 leaderboard ads (one at the top and one at the bottom) or a 160x600 skyscraper on the side and a Google link unit at the bottom. You can choose your preferred placement on the ad-settings page. There's a link to it from the Customize Journal page.

Note: As of October 2007, the option for ad placement is now in the Customize Journal Area (in the Page Setup section, below the theme previews)

kpremium advertisements

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:08:03 GMT

(I'm posting for Patty, since she's out of the office today.)

It looks like one of our advertisers possibly managed to sneak past our ad guidelines. The kpremium ad is designed and targeted for people in Western Europe and Australia, and we've received reports from people in those regions, indicating that it's doing obnoxious things with the browsers -- shrinking the window and generating popups. (Many people mentioned "ErrorSafe" in particular.)

We're looking into the exact cause of the problem, but until then, we've paused the kpremium ad from appearing in the rotation; we figure it's much better for us to temporarily remove it from the rotation while we investigate what's going on, than to leave it in the rotation for longer than necessary. We're all very sorry that this got past us and that it took us a few days before we could do anything. Thank you to everyone who reported these -- we're in the US, so we aren't running into the problem ourselves, but it's your reports that are helping us figure out what's going on.

Ad Level For Communities

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 02:38:37 GMT

We've been kicking ideas around here about what features could go into an ad-supported level for communities, just like we have the paid, basic and sponsored levels for individual account holders.

Why?

1) We'd like to be able to offer advertisers placement within public communities that are about specific interests. For example, movie studios would like to advertise in communities with movie reviews, food and beverage companies would like to advertise in recipe sharing or dining communities, companies wanting to reach parents want to advertise in mommy-centered communities. (And yes, I know there are certain communities that ads of any kind aren't going to be appropriate for, and we need to consider those cases individually).

2) Showing ads in communities with large public readership means we can increase our ability to generate revenue by showing ads to people who aren't LJ account holders and just like to read LJ community content.

3) We think there are more things to offer communities (in terms of site features) and we want to hear community moderators have to say about what they want and what motivates them to create communities before we create a sponsored-level with a bunch of features they may or may not find valuable. (I know, I know, that's Marketing 101; give the people what they want, not what you want to give them!)

So I'm going to reach out to the largest communities to get their ideas and gauge their interest in a "sponsored plus" account level. But it's not possible to talk to every community, so I'm going to throw out some questions to get some feedback here. If you know a community maintainer whose input we should pay particular attention to, send them this post and ask them to comment too.

As always, I appreciate your input, insights and ideas!

Question for Community Maintainers:

What features of a LJ community account do you value most?

What features do you wish you had for your community?

Would you be open to having ads or sponsor placements on your community?

What, if anything, would motivate you to sign up for a Sponsored Community Account?

Badge Ads In The House

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 01:31:15 GMT

After a little hiccup where they looked like off-set berets on top of the heads of the skyscrapers ads, the 160x90 badge ads were pushed live today. I mentioned that they were coming in my last post, but wanted to note their arrival today. Other changes made today include adding some fields to the page where users can indicate their ad catagory preferences. Now if users want to, they can also tell us their age, gender and location and we can use that information to further refine the ads they see. These are the same three pieces of data for your user profile. You can get to this page by clicking on the custom link under every ad. That's all for now. Unless of course you know anyone that wants to advertise on LJ! If so, email us at lj_ads@livejournal.com

I've not been very good about updating this community.

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 08:13:07 GMT

Long since past-due update to the LJ_Ads Community...

Made some changes to graphic ad placements on some application pages; moving some 160x600 skyscraper ads to 300x250 box ads if the page looked better that way and have moved some 728x90 leaderboards from the bottom to the top of the page.

Continue to test and refine how the Google text ads are served because they 1) can seem rather random (some of us getting pregnancy ads for no apparent reason and sometimes seeing ads for Jesus screensavers alongside download the ringtone ads ---huh??) and 2) should generate higher click-thrus and more revenue with better targeting.

Looking at removing the Google strip (just links) ads at the bottom of the page. They seem worthless and if they don't generate any real revenue, it's better to pull them than have them taking up the page space.

Looking at ways to have a valuable Plus level for Communities in exchange for serving ads on those pages. There will still be Basic (free) and Paid levels for communities, just like there are for individual accounts.

Adding a graphical "badge", sometimes called a "button" (160 or 120 x90), ad above the text and graphical skyscraper ads on journal and application pages. It will push the skyscraper further down the page and doesn't address the issue that the right hand ad messes up some users styles (S1 with customization). But that's being worked on too.

What else is going on in the LJ ad world? ...

Working on creating sponsorship opportunties for advertisers interested in having their own communities, being associated with existing and new features (voice posting sponsored by XYZ for example) and giving LJ users access to exclusive content, offers or promotions.

Evaluating ad serving partners who can can help us with better inventory management and more accurate reporting and ad delivery.

Blocked some more Google URLs from LJ (and Vox.com) rotation

Reading posts and questions from the good folks at the no_lj_ads community and wishing I could comment on things they're asking about and then forgetting to post their questions and concerns here.

Pumping out proposals for new LJ advertisers and sponsors...helping to pay the bills!

Ok, I gotta get some sleep now!

Tue, 30 May 2006 06:20:21 GMT

I haven't posted in awhile, apologies for that to those chopping for more from the advertising department! We've been ulta busy working out more details (bugs? features? both? neither?) on the Sponsored level of LJ and working with advertisers and potential sponsors. But I did find time last week for an instant message style interview with Dean Anderson who's hosts an LJ talk show. In it I promised more regular posting to this community and offer up some typo-ridden answers to Dean's questions.

If you're interested, here's the links to the interview, posted in two parts.. http://talk-show.livejournal.com/36131.html
and http://talk-show.livejournal.com/36472.html

Quick Update

Fri, 05 May 2006 23:52:20 GMT

We're running a very informal, very unscientific poll in the general feedback community to learn more about the computer and gadget usage of LJ users to help us determine what kind of sponsors and ad partners make the most sense for us.

After just three week of having a Sponsored account level, I am happy to say that both advertisers and users seem to be liking what they see with our beta ad launch.

You might have noticed the following (banner) advertisers on the site so far. We've turned down many who've wanted to run with us as well.

American Apparel
LimeLife Mobile Games
Skpe
Video Egg
the Humane Society
Full Sail School
Cartoon Network
Lee Jeans

If you care to take the computer/gadget survey, it's here

vote for user created ads!

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 03:06:16 GMT

In our news post announcing the Sponsored+ level, we asked you to create your own LJ ads, whether they be serious or satirical. Below are the finalists; please vote for your favorite one. (Click the thumbnails to view the ad full-size).

Don't think you've missed out on the ad fun! If you have an ad you want to submit for consideration, please post it in a comment here. Make sure it follows all the LJ Ad Guidelines.

View Poll: user created LJ ads

We also liked this usericon from caviling (made by jesspark), and thought that it was very clever:

Regarding the ToS change

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 21:12:04 GMT

Many of you may have been concerned about the Terms of Service change that went into effect with the introduction of ads. Here's Brad's announcement on the issue:

Regarding the TOS change to ban ad blocking software:

Totally our bad.

We didn't catch that the ad-blocker restriction made it into the final TOS changes. From what I can make of the series of events which led to its inclusion was that we basically passed off our TOS to some lawyers and said, "Update it for advertising". They then mimiced some other sites' advertising policies (which said no ad blockers), and then all the right people who were supposed to review it didn't and it made it live onto the site.

So this is a pre-announcement that a more user-friendly TOS change is on its way.

(After all, we can't even detect that you're even using ad blockers to begin with, so there's no point in us saying you can't. Plus you might not even have control over what's installed on your computer, etc.)

So, yeah, sorry: we messed up.

He asked me to spread the word. Please do the same, for your friends who may be concerned! Thanks.

Give us feedback!

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:53:44 GMT

For people who are choosing our new Sponsored+ level and deciding they don't like it, we'd really love to hear your reasons so we can help make the level better for others in the future. Please only take this poll if you tried out Sponsored+, decided you didn't like it, and switched back to your former account level. Your feedback will help us make intelligent decisions about where to concentrate our development efforts!

View Poll: #712557

Ad Guidelines

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:02:55 GMT

I got scooped in a comment when someone posted the draft of this, but in case you aren't following all the comments in this community, here are our ad guidelines. These guidelines will be made available to the LJ community as part of a news post and a larger updated FAQ on the new sponsored (ad-supported) level. We will have more information later this week detailing how the new level will work, when you can sign up, what you'll get and a more complete FAQ set.

The guidelines are intended to communicate to both our advertisers and the LJ community.

A few things to know:

we're launching with both text ads from Google and graphical banner ads
as a general guideline, text ads will be served around user-generated content (journals), graphical ads on application pages
we will be giving users who see ads the opportunity give us their ad category preferences and there will be a feedback link under each ad

We've heard from some of you with really good ideas about how we can do things differently and we have some pretty ambitious ideas on how to create an ad-supported (and still free) level of LJ that's better than the way other sites do things. We want to build innovative ways to give ad-supported users more control over the ads they see, and more ways to see ads that provide them with information they want and will find valuable. We won't launch with these things, but we working on ideas for:

A program where LJ users can advertise at preferred deeply discounted rates
Sponsorships, promotions and ad-supported content that bring real value to LJ users
An LJ marketplace where users can buy and sell things from each other
The ability to further define and refine your ad preferences so you see more information and ads that you want to see and fewer ads for things you don't want to see.

We have lofty goals here. Reinventing what place and value advertising has in user-generated content and shaping the ways that advertiser information will be allowed into social media is not going to happen overnight and it's not going to happen without your help. So, we appreciate your patience as we set out to try some new things and we thank you for continuing to be vocal and involved in our progress!

Still listening and working really hard to do this right

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 05:48:23 GMT

This is a quick post to let those of you watching this community know that we are reading your feedback and actively talking about your ideas.

I'm really happy to see how many users have responded with thoughtful suggestions, and critical, constructive discussions about online advertising in general and ads on LJ specifically. As some of you have noted, we can't please everyone and can't possibly implement every idea, but it's been great to see how many people have been willing to contribute to the discussion. Plus, it's been really heartening to see how many people understand and support the option of getting more LJ benefits in exchange for displaying ads.

The past few weeks have seen a flurry of activity. I've hired two people to join my team. Ernie, in Ad Operations, is working on the nitty gritty work of ad serving and processes. Joy, a sales manager, is working to find the type of sponsors and advertisers who "get it" and want to work with us in new ways. A ton of hard work is being put into preparing, planning and debating how we go about offering an ad supported level of LJ that meets the needs of the business, the needs of LJ users today and in the future, and the needs of our advertisers.

I'm continually impressed and inspired by the people on LJ and their passion and commitment to the site. And I'm in awe of the dedication and energy of the the people who created and work for LJ. My goal is to help fuel LJ's long-term future. But please remember, we're not just out to make a quick buck and go home. (If we wanted to do that, we'd slap ads all over the site, not offer any type of free accounts without ads and make money like some other sites that shall remain nameless.) Adding to the financial health and viability of LJ means more of LJ for it's users.

I believe a better LJ for everyone is a worthy goal; and we hope you do too. LiveJournal is a unique place and a unique service and we want to keep it that way. So once we launch the new account level, we will continue to actively seek your help to improve it, to change it, and to keep us in line with our goal of giving real value to you.

Thank you all for taking the time to comment!

More from the LJ ad people later!

We want to hear from you...

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 19:26:40 GMT

I might be a little idealistic, but I think that if all of us who "hate ads" in one form or another could have more control over the ad messages we see -- like we're gaining control over our music, our TV shows, our news -- we might just start a little bit of an information revolution by choosing what advertisers we let have access to us.

That said, I want to hear from you...

What kind of ads do you hate? love? What ads do you never ever want to see on LJ? What advertisers do you think we should absolutely talk to?

How would YOU want to use ads on LJ? Should we offer some of the ad space to LJ users and other like-minded people to buy at "LJ supporter" discounted rates: leveling the playing field so the small voices can have as much access to you are the large voices?

Do you want work with us to talk to advertisers about why the LJ audience is different and explore new ways of talking to journal writers and bloggers?

Do you want to just call BS on this whole idea of letting users get more LJ in exchange for seeing ads?

Do you have an ad campaign, a sponsorship or other LJ supporting idea you want to share with the "ad people"?

Now's the time, the thread is open and the LJ "ad people" are waiting to read your comments, concerns, and criticism.

Shameless plea for sympathy: If you can, try to be kind... ad people have feelings too!

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 19:12:44 GMT

My Mom's An Ad Devil -- by Annabelle M, age 14

Hi LJ:

Wow, it feels weird to talk to millions of LiveJournal users -- especially given Brad’s introduction of me as one of the new “ad people.” (And there’s only two of us, btw.)

I want to let you know that we’re creating the LJ_Ads community to open the doors and talk to you directly. I think it’s important to become part of the LJ community. Yes, I ‘m accountable for bringing in advertising dollars to grow LJ, but I realize I’m also accountable to those who built, love and use LJ.

So about this “ads are evil” business …

Here’s what I think: Brad’s right, ads suck. Anyone who knows me knows that, while I’ve been selling, managing, or buying ads for most of my career, I’m not been shy about saying, “I hate ads, too.” But big deal… no one really likes ads, right?

That said, I’m pretty sure that one of the reasons I got this job was because, like many of you, I don’t like the way most advertisers choose to communicate to me.

I don’t really mind what they have to say (and often I think ads can give me information that I want or need,) but I don’t like how they say it, and I often don’t like when they choose to talk to me. Like all the other information coming at me, I want to control it. I don’t think most advertisers understand the power of letting people control information. But there are some who are starting to get it and those are the ones we want to work with here at LJ.

So okay, what does this ad business really mean for LJ?

We’ll start slowly. To those who opt into the new level, we’ll be showing ads that we think make sense on LJ. We’re not going to take up every pixel of white space. We’re not going to sell ads to the highest bidder. And Brad made me promise no ads with monkeys.

As we start to learn more about what makes sense for LJ and what you want, we’ll add more ways for you to choose what advertisers and what messages you see and to give feedback directly to advertisers about what you like and don’t like.

I believe that, done right, allowing ads into some parts of LJ will not only give us the revenue we need to improve LJ for more people, it might just be the start of changing how, when, and where advertisers get to talk to us.

The fun stuff for me isn’t selling ads, it’s reinventing what it means to advertise.

I welcome your comments. And I can’t wait to get started…

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 04:09:26 GMT

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read."

- Leo Burnett, quoted in 100 LEO's, Chicago, IL: Leo Burnett Company, p. 79.