Blues,
Sustaining this site is a bit of a headache at the best of times.
Something that cost £20 a month when it was setup back in 2007, is currently £533 ish a month due to the infrastructure needed. Football forums are a unique, resource draining setup - we're not alone;
Most months, we recover a good % through our adverts and forum subscriptions so all is well.
Adblock usage then shot through the roof, so I got my finger out and brought in a shop to try an bridge the gap.
Anyway, Ad revenue has plummeted and Everton prints aren't anyone's priority.
Here's an update from our Ad Agency if anyone's interested in that kind of thing, Q1 update and then a Covid-19 update.
It all means this;
Looking at April onwards, we're going to;
Depending on how April performs, GrandOldTeam's forum is likely to be suspended from May until the football resumes. I will replace the forum with another temporary system that is hosted on another open source platform. Anyone with a forum sub will have it extended.
No Everton and no normal GOT, your blood pressure will thank you for it!
COYB.
Update: Over £500 raised, we're laughing now until the footballs back. Legends all of you
Sustaining this site is a bit of a headache at the best of times.
Something that cost £20 a month when it was setup back in 2007, is currently £533 ish a month due to the infrastructure needed. Football forums are a unique, resource draining setup - we're not alone;
Most months, we recover a good % through our adverts and forum subscriptions so all is well.
Adblock usage then shot through the roof, so I got my finger out and brought in a shop to try an bridge the gap.
Anyway, Ad revenue has plummeted and Everton prints aren't anyone's priority.
Here's an update from our Ad Agency if anyone's interested in that kind of thing, Q1 update and then a Covid-19 update.
Q1 Revenue update
Dear Danny,
2020 has been a challenge for many web publishers, especially those with
UK-centric websites. Google confirmed in a recent call that ad revenues
appear to have been under pressure across the board in the UK.
RPMs were comparatively low industry-wide in January, and although there
appears to have been a modest recovery for some in February, there are
currently a number of factors that are conspiring to depress yield
compared to last year:
1. Google decided to move from a second-price to a unified first-priced
auction:
https://smartadserver.com/articles/google-first-price/
This move appears to have benefited advertisers at the expense of web
publishers, negatively impacting revenues.
2. In Q1 last year, Apple released another version of its anti-tracking
update, this time affecting first-party data as well as third-party data
cookies:
https://digiday.com/uk/wtf-apples-latest-anti-tracking-update/
The resulting inability for advertising platforms / advertisers to effectively
identify more valuable users has also reduced the value of inventory in
a number of cases.
3. The economic and geopolitical backdrop hasn't been kind in recent
months: No deal Brexit concerns persist, the uncertainty over the result
of the UK General Election in December depressed ad demand going into
Q1, the US-China trade dispute has impacted confidence and the possible economic consequences of the coronavirus is yet another headwind:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/23/economic-impact-of-coronavirus-outbreak-deepens
Against this background, GRV Media is doing all that it can to help
publishers through this difficult period by:
1. Hiring Chris James as our Head of Sales. Chris is working hard
meeting with Trading Desks, Brands and Agencies in an effort to boost
higher guaranteed programmatic and other bespoke buys.
2. We are currently spending £60,000 a year in order to establish a
foothold in first-party data via Permutive:
https://www.exchangewire.com/blog/2020/02/13/how-to-prepare-for-a-life-without-cookies/
3. We are looking to hire a Client Service Manager for all of our PROP
clients. He / She will relationship manage all our clients and oversee
our client referral scheme (10% of our lifetime revenue to the website
who made a successful introduction).
4. We are looking to add to our current service offering to possibly
include web hosting, CDN implementation, AMP monetisation, security
audits, SEO and content advisory.
5. All PROP clients are paid on 30 days (so clients often receive their money before we do!).
Dear Danny,
2020 has been a challenge for many web publishers, especially those with
UK-centric websites. Google confirmed in a recent call that ad revenues
appear to have been under pressure across the board in the UK.
RPMs were comparatively low industry-wide in January, and although there
appears to have been a modest recovery for some in February, there are
currently a number of factors that are conspiring to depress yield
compared to last year:
1. Google decided to move from a second-price to a unified first-priced
auction:
https://smartadserver.com/articles/google-first-price/
This move appears to have benefited advertisers at the expense of web
publishers, negatively impacting revenues.
2. In Q1 last year, Apple released another version of its anti-tracking
update, this time affecting first-party data as well as third-party data
cookies:
https://digiday.com/uk/wtf-apples-latest-anti-tracking-update/
The resulting inability for advertising platforms / advertisers to effectively
identify more valuable users has also reduced the value of inventory in
a number of cases.
3. The economic and geopolitical backdrop hasn't been kind in recent
months: No deal Brexit concerns persist, the uncertainty over the result
of the UK General Election in December depressed ad demand going into
Q1, the US-China trade dispute has impacted confidence and the possible economic consequences of the coronavirus is yet another headwind:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/23/economic-impact-of-coronavirus-outbreak-deepens
Against this background, GRV Media is doing all that it can to help
publishers through this difficult period by:
1. Hiring Chris James as our Head of Sales. Chris is working hard
meeting with Trading Desks, Brands and Agencies in an effort to boost
higher guaranteed programmatic and other bespoke buys.
2. We are currently spending £60,000 a year in order to establish a
foothold in first-party data via Permutive:
https://www.exchangewire.com/blog/2020/02/13/how-to-prepare-for-a-life-without-cookies/
3. We are looking to hire a Client Service Manager for all of our PROP
clients. He / She will relationship manage all our clients and oversee
our client referral scheme (10% of our lifetime revenue to the website
who made a successful introduction).
4. We are looking to add to our current service offering to possibly
include web hosting, CDN implementation, AMP monetisation, security
audits, SEO and content advisory.
5. All PROP clients are paid on 30 days (so clients often receive their money before we do!).
Dear Danny,
I hope that you and yours are well and keeping safe in these difficult times, but we thought we should also write to you to update you on how Coronavirus is impacting the ad market across the industry.
You will, of course, be conscious of the current general lack of advertising demand and the significant adverse impact on revenues. What you may not have considered is the increasing risk that there will be certain advertisers who will be unable to pay their invoices, either on time or at all. Sectors such as travel / film / restaurants have already pulled most if not all of their advertising budgets, and companies in these and other areas may not be in a position to pay for advertising space they have already bought.
Our policy at GRV Media is to pay our publishers at 30 days, which the majority of the time is before we ourselves are paid. This means that if there is a subsequent discrepancy in delivery or advertisers can't pay, GRV Media may have to “clawback” revenue which is subsequently reclaimed by our ad partners.
Last year we absorbed over $5,000 of upstream clawbacks as the result of the collapse of Sizmek and others, but you will appreciate that we may not be in a position to provide this kind of support going forward. We operate on a 100% transparent basis and as such any clawbacks will be visible, transparent and personally communicated.
We all have an interest in ensuring that we navigate this crisis and are in a position to exploit the opportunities once we're on the other side, so we can give you an undertaking that we will deal with this issue as pragmatically and sympathetically as possible. We are also working as hard as we can to ensure we secure and, where necessary, recover the revenue that you are due.
Finally, I am pleased to advise you that I will be account managing all publishers moving forward and will be reaching out to everyone to discuss the above in more detail, and to obtain a better understanding of anything we can do to help support your business.
I hope that you and yours are well and keeping safe in these difficult times, but we thought we should also write to you to update you on how Coronavirus is impacting the ad market across the industry.
You will, of course, be conscious of the current general lack of advertising demand and the significant adverse impact on revenues. What you may not have considered is the increasing risk that there will be certain advertisers who will be unable to pay their invoices, either on time or at all. Sectors such as travel / film / restaurants have already pulled most if not all of their advertising budgets, and companies in these and other areas may not be in a position to pay for advertising space they have already bought.
Our policy at GRV Media is to pay our publishers at 30 days, which the majority of the time is before we ourselves are paid. This means that if there is a subsequent discrepancy in delivery or advertisers can't pay, GRV Media may have to “clawback” revenue which is subsequently reclaimed by our ad partners.
Last year we absorbed over $5,000 of upstream clawbacks as the result of the collapse of Sizmek and others, but you will appreciate that we may not be in a position to provide this kind of support going forward. We operate on a 100% transparent basis and as such any clawbacks will be visible, transparent and personally communicated.
We all have an interest in ensuring that we navigate this crisis and are in a position to exploit the opportunities once we're on the other side, so we can give you an undertaking that we will deal with this issue as pragmatically and sympathetically as possible. We are also working as hard as we can to ensure we secure and, where necessary, recover the revenue that you are due.
Finally, I am pleased to advise you that I will be account managing all publishers moving forward and will be reaching out to everyone to discuss the above in more detail, and to obtain a better understanding of anything we can do to help support your business.
It all means this;
Looking at April onwards, we're going to;
- Remove our Adverts and replace them with banners promoting our shop. 1 order a day will outperform our existing return on ads.
- Disable our mobile App - our API is due in a few days and it's a non essential cost.
Depending on how April performs, GrandOldTeam's forum is likely to be suspended from May until the football resumes. I will replace the forum with another temporary system that is hosted on another open source platform. Anyone with a forum sub will have it extended.
No Everton and no normal GOT, your blood pressure will thank you for it!
COYB.
Update: Over £500 raised, we're laughing now until the footballs back. Legends all of you
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