You can help make Ghacks better. Yes, it is not complicated and does not take more than a minute for some of the things that you could do. If you really like my website, like the articles, find interesting software and tips on it then you could think about helping Ghacks grow.
I created a list of things that would help me and my site tremendously. The easiest one takes about 10 seconds and no time thereafter, the most time consuming no more than a few minutes.
Please note that this is not a “you have to” type of contribution call, everything is completely voluntary. Let us start with the list:
- Comment: Writing a comment helps my site and other users who read the article. You can post questions, additions, your own experience or anything else that is related to the topic.
- Turn off Adblockers: Turning off the adblocker for Ghacks helps me generate revenue. Each visit pays so to speak. Even if you do not click on the ads it helps me pay my bills.
- Contribute: Send me tips, links and other news that might make a good story. You can reach me on Twitter and through the contact form on top.
- Spread: Spread the news to Social Websites like Digg, Yahoo Buzz, Delicious and all the others.
- Tell a friend: Telling friends about my site is one of the best ways for receiving new regular visitors.
- Links: If you run a website you might want to consider putting up a link to Ghacks. The best way to link to my site is to link directly to interesting articles using the title as the anchor.
Did I miss something? Got more ideas? Let me know! And thanks a lot in advance.
Related posts:
- How to Support Ghacks
- some personal comments about ghacks.net
- Ghacks Birthday Competition Roundup
- $10K+ Ghacks Christmas Giveaway Announcement
- Bye Bye Digg
- Join my Tips for Cash Program
- Manipulating Digg
Interesting idea, I’ll be keen to see how things progress and whether anyone takes on your call to action…oh…wait a minute, I’m doing it already with this comment ;-)
Ok, you convinced me. I turned my adblocker off for this site. I have a very short list of sites where the content is good enough for me to endure looking at ads.
Comment check.
Ad-blocking half-check.
Spread check.
Tell check.
Blogroll link check.
Guest post check.
Do I get a cookie or something? ;)
I’m a bed time thinker which is a curse really because I don’t sleep well because of it. I created the whole article yesterday night in my head while trying to sleep.
I think that many visitors would love to help and if they see that it takes only a minute or less they would probably be inclined to do so.
Thanks Od3 for taking down the adblocker and Rarst, yes you get some cookies ;)
David yes it will be interesting to see if I can motivate anyone, hrhr.
I comment on occasion in particular if the article isn’t something I read somewhere else, or it features something that catches my attention.
I just disabled the ad block on ghacks.net, and I got to say it makes it look SO UGLY and it loads much slower, even on a 10 MB/sec line. JESUS! I hate ads. But I enjoy the information on ghacks.net so I got to support it somehow.
I always recommend people to ghacks.net, and I try to encourage them to add it to their RSS news feeds. I got my wife doing it at work, and shes spreading it there for example.
And Ill try to submit some articles, as I have a lot of “technie” sites in my RSS and what not, perhaps I can find something UNIQUE!
I cant think of anything else… and lastly thanks for the site its helped me a lot.
MrD666
I agree about disabling adblocking it wrecks the site! My preferred approach to giving you a boost is to mention in my own posts the best tips and tricks, with my own added spin of course…
MrD666, I really don’t think the advertisements make thatt much difference… I’m only on a 3mbs connection and the page loads fine…
@David Bradley:
Oh yeah the site is wrecked. I liked it much better the other way… Ill resist to return to it FOR NOW… but I dont see it staying this way.
And I subscribed to your site via RSS.
@Josh:
Im running a very tightly set up Firefox, with NoScript and some other junk to protect me. I think its more a combination of those tools, that is causing the slowdown. And just for clarification its not just ghacks.net that is slowing down with the ads enabled, on my 10 MB/sec connection.
MrD666
AdBlock disabled for your site.
Since I installed it I didn’t cared of, and maybe now I’ll start to disable for the sites I visit more frequently, in order to support them.
Great job with your site, Martin!
Thanks a lot Tony, it is really appreciated.
Just wanted to remind everyone that I’m not forcing you to turn off the ads. I can understand if you prefer to keep the site clean. You could disable some and leave some in place. For example disable the ad around the article and below it but leave the ads on the right sidebar in place.
Thanks again for putting some thought and testing into it :)
I don’t even have to tell friends. They see me browsing to ghacks on school regularly :-P
Just checking…you presumably have ads in place that pay per impression as opposed to the adsense which is pay per click, if not then no one need switch of adblocking right?
David the cpm ads are on top and in the sidebar and they should show up. It depends a bit on the country that you are in though. US visitors will see more, people from Malaysia will see less.
I never use an adblocker, for this very reason. I don’t frequent sites that bombard me with ads- I find alternatives.
I have two links to ghacks.anet from my homepage, but one of them is broken. I deliberately am not fixing it, however. It is a link to the design of the t-shirt that you sent me. If you remove hotlink blocking, then the link will work. This site does not have images that seem to be a likely target of hotlinking (other than possibly the nice form submit button).
Other than that, ghacks seems to be stuck in 2002 with Windows software, tips and tricks. I would suggest posting software, tips and tricks for Linux or Mac. As the market is saturated with standard-install Gnome material, maybe if you focus on a KDE distro like Kubuntu you could carve a unique niche. I’d certainly visit more often!
Okay, so I turned off ad-block, but there is no change whatsoever! (I’m in the US)
A ‘must-visit’ site every day. Rarely do you get bad advice from here. And polite people visit too. Recommended.
When ever I see something I like I always submit your pages to Stumbleupon.
Never used AdBlock on this site. Ads are part of our life and they’re not always bad, some are really interesting in fact.
>Other than that, ghacks seems to be stuck in 2002 with Windows software, tips and tricks. I would suggest posting software, tips and tricks for Linux or Mac.
Last time I checked in 2008 Windows is still worldwide dominating OS.
Guess what worked “stuck in 2002″ still works pretty fine both for Microsoft and Martin. :)
What about feeder readers? I read your blog daily but through GReader. Is that bad for you?. When I come here (like today) I see only one post at the time, maybe I have to try the Home page. No adblock though. I agree with the Windows supremacy, but I’m trying Linux also (Macs are like Ferrari for the rest of the world, very nice but impossible to have). Thanks.
@Rarst: Well, more than 90% of people use Windows, 8% of them use Mac and <1% Linux.
This is last month’s data. Got it from http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8
So the conclusion is that it makes a lot of sense writing about Windows software and not Mac or Linux. And remember that these stats are about US. In Spain, among all my friends and acquaintances, let’s say a few haundred people, only 2 of them currently use Mac. And only my best friend and I tried Linux a while ago.
Not to say that almost everyone use IE instead of Firefox, and the few who use the later one are doing so because someone i.e. I, told them that Fx is better than IE and they have got no idea about browser addons.
@Martin: I’m using GReader too, hope that’s right for you.
gotta admit i come on here everyday and it’s great thanks for all the great tips and programs!
okay, you win. *smile* you got me to comment; i turned off my ad-block for this site. and i will sing the praises of this wonderful site to all i know. continued success with the site!
Only problem with that data is that is for the US market… globally Mac would be down at the 2.5% level if that.
I recently found this site and enjoy the content, I have even linked back from my site, keep up the good work.
I just thought about this, but I read 80 percent, well maybe higher of the ghacks.net content via RSS feed in FeedDemon.
I have seen a few other sites with ads, but they are ads supplied by feedburner (Google) and I do not think that they are supplied for the site to make money from but rather Google.
Perhaps for those of us that exclusively or sorta exclusively use RSS you could include 1 ad per post or something. I wouldnt feel offended with 1 ad per post in the RSS.
MrD666
ok
Never had ads blocked and I visit everyday. Regarding the type of articles or posts I think ghacks is great, my preference would be (even) more freeware/open source reviews. But as long as ghacks doesn’t turn into ‘iphone app of the day’ like some sites I won’t name ;) its all good.
Hehe yea I’ve noticed that as well! I guess the iTunes store provides a whole lot of new material to write about, but the fact is so few people actually have an iPhone… not that you’d get that impression from reading the blogosphere!
join rejaw, martin, and keep up your entries at kwippy, twitter and etc
Another tip: make the ghacks logo in the header a link to the homepage. I browse the feed in Thunderbird and only come to the site to make comments. Each and every time I go to click that header image, and each time I say Doh!
ok, disabled adblock.
man, that felt so wrong
:< I’m such a sucker for pleading, ad block down and I do regularly comment
Hi Martin… I see you blog every day but from Google Reader, so I rarely comment the articles, but i love you Blog and I promise I’ll be more present.
I think I have to thank you for quitting your old job so you could give us an even better blog.
Keep up the good work.
like Jonathan said, me too, I turned off ad-block, but there is no change.
I use to click on ads for sites that I like, btw I’ll click more on your ads
I share what I like, so I speak about your site to friends and on some forums.
With Raymond.CC, you’re my 2 top blogs :)
good continuation !
i read gHacks.net daily, its my #1 on the list. and loving it more since you feature more Opera now ^^
i’ll link a lot to you from now on, and comment on this site more.
and eh, one more thing. i’ve been reading your blog through RSS before. since i’ve set up my FeedDemon to only show headline, i found your post titles to be the least… bombastic? perhaps it is just your style of writing, to only put a short title. so i give up my FeedDemon and browse this site regularly so i won’t miss all the good contents. well, just a thought.
keep up the good work!
I agree with olad:
This site commenters/visitors are very nice and polite people (judging on the posts) ;)
Also, I like to read GHacks.net inside the browser.
I have FastDial installed and a 7×6 grid with my few favorite places to visit.
See (Read) you around!
One thing I don’t understand is why the navigation bar on the left is broken sometimes.
Ky which left navigation bar do you mean?
Oh, sorry, meant right navigation, how stupid.
There’s usually a blank space above “RSS Feeds” and “Sponsors”. Also below “Sponsors”. I guess it’s space you keep for ads, but they’re not showing up for me. I don’t know if it’s my browser.. It just gives me the annoying feeling that it’s broken.
Hi GHacks!
1) Please!, include the Year in every Post title.
Day and Month only is not enough to know how old it is.
2) I disagree turning off AdBlockers
3) More categorizations (Ex: System, Recovery, CD-DVD-BR, Programming, Network, Security, etc., etc.)
I appreciate a lot your contributions.
Keep going!
Diego
Argentina
Ha! I’ve done all of the above on a consistent basis and I don’t have my ad blocker turned on for gHacks because I find your ads useful.
Consider me gHacker #1!
One thing I really find cool about gHack and “gHackers” is that they will go a mile to make sure everyone is informed about any given subject.
Many times the comments turn out to be as useful as the posts.
Hmm… this looks familiar:
http://tech.nocr.at/tech/how-you-can-help-technocrat/
I wonder where it was originally… oh yeah: on the top of this page.
They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but that’s a disgrace, Martin, you ought to take issue with them…
@Od3
link u mentioned is not available now at tech.nocr.at, may be they have removed
@Martin
i came to know about ghacks.net few days back, now i started reading almost all the articles! Great job Martin .. Keep going .. :)