Forum adverts (Google AdSense) poll

[BikeGremlin]

I've enabled 5 different types of Google AdSense adverts on the forum:

• Anchor ad on the bottom.
• Desktop floating side adverts.
• Advert in the sidebar (on desktop).
• Advert on the top of each forum thread.
• Adverts in between elements (posts, bottom section).

After 15 to 30 days, I will see which advert types bring the higest revenue (and which bring the lowest revenue), and see which ones to disable.

The idea is to have as few adverts as possible, while keeping the forum free for myself.
I.e. so that I needn't pay out of my pocket to keep it running (hosting, XenForo licence, backups, domain registration renewal, etc - it does add up).

Forum functions 100% normally even with an active AdBlocker, so you have that option (same goes for using a VPN) - I respect your preferences and any privacy concerns. Having said that, if you like, you can back BikeGremlin via Patreon - such support is the best and highly appreciated).

I've added a poll that will affect my choice on which ads to keep.
Voting is anonymous.

Relja

 

[BikeGremlin]

Well, I've already disabled the "Anchor ads" (sticky on the bottom or the very top on mobile, sometimes).

They get in the way of normal usage, especially on the already small mobile phone screen.

Yes, they seem to take about 25% of the total ad revenue, but forum mustn't be difficult to use because of the ads (the ads should serve the forum, not the other way round).

 

[BikeGremlin]

Update, November 2025:

I have disabled Google AdSense adverts on the forum - so it should be ad-free now (if you see any ads, please let me know to check if some cache or similar problem persists).

Thanks to the generous Patreon donations, I can afford to run this forum without ads, while not paying out of my own pocket.

Thank you for your support (now I sound like those politicians - but I do mean it! ).

Relja

 

[BikeGremlin]

Update, late November 2025:

I have also removed Google Analytics tracking from forum as well.

Anonymous stats from the Cloudflare firewall should be more than enough to spot any suspicious traffic spikes:

 

[BikeGremlin]

Costs are increasing, and revenue is decreasing.

I have figured out a way to prevent any Google analytics tracking or ads showing to forum members. Logged-in members.

While showing the ads to any anonymous visitors.

I think that's a fair tradeoff to help keep this running, while remaining user-frienly.

Will see how this fares over the following weeks and months.

Relja

P.S.
Here is how I've implemented it.

In the backend admin menu, I went to:

Appearance -> Styles -> BikeGremlin-US-Style -> Templates ->
PAGE_CONTAINER ->

There, right before the "</head>" tag, I added:

<!-- BEGIN Relja for not-logged-in-users-only code -->

<xf:if is="!$xf.visitor.user_id">

<!-- BEGIN Relja Google Analytics code -->
    <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX"></script>
    <script>
      window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
      function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
      gtag('js', new Date());
      gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX');
    </script>
<!-- END Relja Google Analytics code -->

<!-- BEGIN Relja AdSense code -->

<script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
     crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

<!-- END Relja AdSense code -->

</xf:if>

<!-- END Relja for not-logged-in-users-only code -->