A Note on Advertising

I wanted to make a quick note concerning some of the ads we run and sponsors we accept both here and on The Weirding, in general. I have wanted to post this for some time and kept putting it off, but since I have a moment right now, I figured I would go ahead.

The Weirding accepts ads and sponsors from casino/gambling sites for one specific reason: we get a lot of hits from search engines for the keyword "gaming" and related keywords (games, gambling, dice, etc.). Obviously, this is a major keyword for us because of RPGs and even though we have nothing to do with casinos or gambling, a lot of people searching for these sites come across us along their way.

For the longest time, I did not accept these ads/sponsors because they are largely viewed as "spammy." Well, all other concerns aside, I'm not big on judging, and part of the reason casinos are lumped-in with porn and pills ads has to do with the fact that many see gambling as immoral. When you get right down to it, from a gamer's perspective, a lot of CCG, RPG, and other games are games of chance. While you aren't gambling with money, per se, a lot of CCGs use cards as the prize (even though most people refuse to play with this rule in pick-up games) and with RPGs, you are often gambling with your character's "life." Cards cost money; the time you have put into your character and campaign is time you could have spent making money; on down the line. I see it as at least tangentially-related and since we draw so many hits from the keywords anyway, I have no problem with these ads.

And no, I'm not justifying the advertisers and sponsors we accept, nor am I "stretching" to make it fit. The bottom-line is one of economics, but I wanted to mention it because we still do not accept ads for pills or porn. On the other hand, we do accept "adult" ads relating to non-pornographic products and services (dating, clothing, books, etc.), because our audience is almost 100% male, between the ages of 19 and 34.

Also, some of our sponsors give us ads to run - we cannot pick and choose from them, we just run what we are given - so we do not always control every aspect of advertising. Obviously, we have exercised caution in choosing these sponsors, working only with those that exercise caution in deciding whose advertising they carry, and we have been pleased with their decisions so far.

I just wanted to clear this up because I have mentioned "PPC" (porn, pills, casino) ads in other posts and I didn't want readers to dismiss the points I've made on them just because they see some gambling/casino ads along the way.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008