(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

[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.