wildshot wrote:Ultimately I'm guessing RLFans gain the costs of running this site. As for the advertisers, well advertising on websites can serve a number of purposes. The idea of click through and sales for an affiliate income is one.
Other reasons maybe brand awareness, paid product promotion. Subtle suggestion and the re-emphasis of products or companies may make us think of that company in the future. For example if you are planning a trip to Catalans which company would you use?
There is also the idea of advertisers paying to have an ad which has a link back to their site. Depending on how this link is set up (without getting too technical) could have a beneficial effect for the advertiser in appearing in search engine results.
Whilst I agree that as a user the ads may appear a bit excessive. What I do know is that the ads will help pay the costs for running RLFans which keeps it free to you and I. For that I'm grateful.
Maybe if the ads are too excessive in future RLFans will increase their advertising rates so they cover their costs and have less paid ads overall.
The ads at the top and on the right offer no benefit for SEO whatsoever. They are served through Google AdWords and Programmatic bid services. The whole purpose of them is that RLFANS benefits financially from showing them, clicks on them and ultimately conversions.
On top of that, forums very little trust value in search engines because they are so easy to spam. The algorithms they use will almost certainly be able to decipher this.
What is annoying me is that these ads seem to be throwing out redirect and malware links every so often. RLFANS would be much better writing to companies using these spaces and selling them directly for a fee. Uploading images that have been optimised in a way that doesn't affect page load speeds and adding a no-follow link on them so as to avoid being penalised by search engines. It would also mean they can only advertise brands they want, vetting them.
but if I ever want to know anything regarding computer advertising I'll be straight round to your house it's still no 17 init 
