Oh and for the record, what’s a way to contribute to supporting CHU? If you use ad blockers, simply turn them off and exempt CHU in such plugins. Simply browsing CHU and allowing the ads to display is in a sense supporting the site to help pay the bills.
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I did a quick view of our stats on the main site. In the past 15 hours, we’ve had around 5k unique IP’s visit the site. A quick look in the logs, one thing that loads is our Ad Blocking notification if users have ad blocker enabled. Just in the past 15 hours 1/5 of the visitors are using ad blocker or some type.
Imagine if half of those visitors 1/5 exempted CHU from ad blocking, it would boost the overall ad revenue the site makes.
The simple act of dealing with some ads (which we try to make bearable, just this morning I discovered our ad manager changed one of the mobile ads from a small rectangle on the bottom of the screen to a huge square that almost takes up 1/5 of the screen, which I reported to our ad manager to have changed back).
Yeah, ads suck, I’ll be the first to admit it but they help pay the bills for sites that provide valuable free information to their viewers.
Hey everyone. Want to mention a few things. I don’t want people to think we are out “begging for money” that’s not what this was about. Chu is not in financial ruins either. Uncle_Willie brought up the idea, and to be honest, I am seeing a bunch of sites/groups doing this pay a fee structure. I am a big proponent of keeping things free. But to offset the costs we incur we do run ads and have affiliate links. I have seen others bad mouth this idea and opt to do a subscription fee.
The ads are a necessary I have a bill on the first of each month to keep the site running. The forums too. This is paid out of any money we earn off the site. While we have great traffic, it’s not like we are taking in huge profits.
I just don’t want people to think we are looking at folding the site because of money or that we are in dire financial straights.
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Good response @Anthony
So yes, ads help pay for site costs but what some might also consider is there is more than just what we pay the host provider to support all the 1’s and 0’s you see translated on your screens.
The contributors to this site spend countless hours maintaining the site, researching, driving to comic shops to get spoilers, etc. Time and resources are another huge cost factor.
So yes, I don’t get why some would lay claim that ads and affiliate links are bad, they help cover ALL THE COSTS involved in running a site which goes far beyond just sending money to the host provider.
I hope we never gave anyone the impression CHU is broke. It was mentioned on the main site that we are experimenting with a new ad manager after it was pointed out from a reader a popup type ad on the site because, why not right? More money means better reliable content. We can improve the site infrastructure to avoid crashes, slowness and so on while maybe one day Anthony can upgrade his Kia to maybe a Toyota… 
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I keep ad blockers off because I don’t know how to turn them on.
Good to know.
I don’t know how this all works…so is more visitors to the site better, even if they don’t click on ads, as long as they don’t block ads?
I would think timely and transparent info with give aways here and there would be the magic formula for that…and keep it FREE!!!
And swag…gotta have the swag.
Yes, there’s clicks and then there’s ads that generate revenue based on impressions. Of course clicks will start generating more revenue in most cases (CHU will never ask people to click on ads, click if you’re interested in the actual ad). Usually ads that display longer on the page or session will generate more revenue as well (this is why those pop up ads that stick to the side, bottom or top while you scroll generate more revenue), since it’s likely that the person saw the ad as some will load a page and scroll to the content they want to read or view, briefly seeing the ad, etc.
I’ll share a stat to put it in perspective… in January 2020 so far, we’ve had 328k Ad Impressions. Out of the 328k impressions, we’ve had a whopping 248 clicks. Either they were genuine clicks or perhaps clicked on accident.
There’s a whole lot more in how it all works. Some of if I don’t even understand but that’s ads on a site in a nutshell.
Now we also have static ads that are hard coded and set up for however long they wanted to pay for them to display. Like the goldenapplecomics ad on the main site, they pay for that image and link. We have an advertise on CHU page. We need to update it but we did quick totals on how much gross sales we’ve pushed to eBay, TFAW, Amazon, MyComicShop, etc… we can’t track Midtown but in 2019, we pushed over 300k in gross sales… that’s just people buying comics… well, some if it could have been another items due to the referrals but still. So, anyone that owns a shop or business out there, CHU gets a lot of traffic and we push a lot of sales to businesses. Don’t confuse their gross sales with what we made though… if we were making 300k a year, we would be likely working CHU as our day jobs… 
I’m just surprised no one has mentioned how @agentpoyo demands to be emailed nudes for the right to access the site. Every month he demands a fresh batch of photos from me or, “No more CHU for you!”
Wait, that’s just me? Hrm.
I know some of you guys have some strong feelings about the Key Collector app. Just went on this morning to check out their keys to the week. You now need a subscription to access it.
‘keys of the week’…that title should alert people. “This week, please buy these books that I tell you too, because next week they will no longer be keys. So get them while they’re hot, cause next week I’ll have invented more fake sh!t to tell you to go throw your money away on” I feel sorry for anyone who feels they need to pay someone to tell them what their flavour of the week is.
I know it’s just their name of the app and what started out as an app of a database for past key books has now turned into and expanded their slogan for all hot books. Probably time to just let it be and stop worrying about the semantics of their use of “key” for hot books. Think of it like McDonalds… They throw Mc in front of every product… that’s all their doing at Key, using a part of their Application Name into everything they do.
Collectors that have been around know the difference between a current hot book and a “key” book. Anyone that’s new to the game will surely figure that out soon enough.
My issue is not with the title, as you said, it is not a definition. My issue would be with taking people’s money to sell them an arbitrary list with a misleading title. It just reeks of unoriginality, desperation and greed. I really have no issue with it. People can do as they like. I just think its deceptive, and that doesn’t sit well with me, as a general rule of my ethics. 
I just learn to ignore nowadays… I use to dislike when others would use deceptive tactics to use against the weak minded or those that don’t inform themselves… but I figured long ago I’ll live longer if I stop worrying about such things. If people can’t wise up on their own and learn not to be just sheep… that’s all on them I say. In simplle terms, let people learn the hard way… 
It doesn’t bother me, @agentpoyo, it doesn’t affect my day in the least, but, this is my comic home. I will always voice my opinion while I’m at home. But I understand your philosophy, and you are 
right.
Look at it this way… if you take what started this side topic:
The main talking points are, what was once free at KCC is now behind their subscription… no reason to dive into why they use “Key” to describe any book they talk about. Just a thought.
So with all these patreon sites starting up for spec groups or stuff what was free is now behind subscription based models, CHU will be the only one left in town when everyone realizes they’re paying for info that’s free here…
Let them all go to subscriptions… CHU can only reap the benefits I say!
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I’ve never had to pay…I think you get first access a few days early if you pay…maybe? It usually locks me out for a day or two then I’m in.
And I decide whether a book is worth picking up or not. I use KCC as just another source of potential information of value. As with any source. I know better than to re-spout their descriptions as facts, though.
@beardedpain what do you want to know…I got access to the keys of the week right now…have never paid a penny!
Hey thanks for the offer @D-Rog.
Went on the app this morning and the weekly picks were no longer under the subscription. I’m guessing it was a mistake on there end.
I just use there app to get info on potential first appearances. They have a first appearance listed in this week’s Batgirl. It’s sold out at midtown (when I checked this morning).