(no subject)

[pmb]

When did LiveJournal start having ads everywhere all the time, even though I've never opted in to them? Note that these ads only show up when I am NOT logged in, so they may have been there a long time. I like the aggregation of content that livejournal provides, but 3 separate banner ads is too much for me to feel good about supporting.

Comments

[agthorr.livejournal.com]

Several months, but less than a year, I think.

They used to have three account types: one without ads, one with ads and a few more features, and paid accounts. They got rid of the first one for new accounts, but existing users grandfathered in. I think.

Very recently, they had a big round of layoffs. I guess their struggling financially.

[enth.livejournal.com]

What is a banner ad?

[unkle-social.livejournal.com]

What he said. The only ads I see are on Facebook.

[mrsmalkav.livejournal.com]

did you have a paid account that expired recently or something?

"only show up when I am NOT logged in" -- ah, indeed.

been there for a while -- a couple years ago.

Ads and CS

[canarasekal.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I have no ads. Also, I obviously don't speak a foreign language called "CS".

[clipdude.livejournal.com]

What’s sad is that they’ve abandoned their previous business model—which was profitable—in which paid accounts were the sole revenue source.

[roninspoon.livejournal.com]

I think the only reason that model was profitable was because they found a sucker to buy the whole company. From what I gather, no one has really ever found a way to successfully monetize LJ.

That seems odd...

[mlissner.livejournal.com]

They're number 46 on Alexa top global sites. Seems like they should have plenty of money coming in.

Re: That seems odd...

[pmb.livejournal.com]

Not at all. It was built without any idea of how to realize profit from it, and they have the most complicated MySQL setup on the planet. LJ serves the absolute worst demographic for most money making online schemes: cheap, Internet-savvy, college students. These people have no money, and are the most inclined to be ad-blind.

LJ has limped along for a while without losing too much money, but it was never a big profit anything.