7 ms·

Ben Huh can has reddit? I respond entirely in LOLcat photos - Alexis Ohanian

64 points by pavs 16y ago

trun 16y ago
"If you made it this far still expecting LOLcats, I'm sorry. I lied." Sad.
- hga 16y ago
  True enough, but it's from a co-founder of the company so it's potentially worth reading.
- kn0thing 16y ago
  You're right. I feel bad now. Adding LOL-TL;DR.
  - pavs 16y ago
    Someone forgot to sign up for reddit gold account (spez too). /r/lounge without reddit founders just doesn't seem right.
vaksel 16y ago
of course reddit is monetizable...all it takes is flooding it with ads 768x90 adsense unit just below the submission title alone would probably make reddit instantly profitable. and that doesn't take into account the premium google adsense ads.(imagine if a random #1-#5 url title from the top was an adsense ad?)...one that had the exact font style as regular reddit ads. Those just browsing, wouldn't even notice the little gray "powered by Google" text. then add CPM based ads...maybe something that would play on mouseover...those tend to bring in the big bucks. or just sell advertising directly for some brand awareness campaigns. Honda, Walmart, McDonalds. And boom...you got a profitable "community". So there is no reason for Conde Nast to sell reddit(especially at a loss)...if they were interested in generating more revenue, they could do it at a flip of a coin. Sure it would piss off a lot of users...but it's not like people would abandon a site, just because there are a few more ads present.
- RossM 16y ago
  These suggestions, while normal on any other site, wouldn't work on reddit. The real problem reddit has is that it's community, which can be amazing at times, has grown used to a great user experience when it comes to advertising - the lack of it that is. Just ignore the box on the right and the occasional sponsored link in the top box. Should a flash-based ad appear in the right-hand box there'll be a front-paged topic on it in an hour. reddit has treated it's users well, but they baulk at the slightest change in that - and herein lies the real problem to monetising reddit. reddit has to monetise while keeping it's community happy. Since community happiness and advertising seem to be pretty much polar opposites it seems to be impossible. What I'd do is increase advertising aggressively for non-logged in users, reduce it greatly for registered users and keep the option to remove it completely for gold members. Hopefully those that really hate advertising would sign up for gold, however there is probably a correlation between those that make the most noise about advertising and those that wouldn't do that as they don't believe in paying for things on the internet - completely unfounded but a gut feeling. > Sure it would piss off a lot of users...but it's not like people would abandon a site, just because there are a few more ads present. Being a technical audience AdBlock (already is but) would be widely used rendering it useless. I know reddit was monitoring adblock usage at some point - I'd like to know the results of that.
  - ars 16y ago
    Why is it necessary to keep the users happy? So some will leave, but others will join. They are big enough that if they loose some, they'll be OK. And actually I don't think they'll leave anyway. They'll use adblock? So? What do they have to loose? You are worried that users will block ads, and the solution is not to run any?
    - ja2ke 16y ago
      It's a user driven site. At millions of people it's obviously not entirely personality driven, but still the site is driven by the actual individual people who submit and comment. They generate not just the content but the tone of the site, which is what keeps people coming back. You can't treat them like a straight up commodity that can be swapped in and out.
guelo 16y ago
Cheezburger sites are definitely tilted towards the annoying side of the ad balance. Which is probably fine for the their audience but would be tragic for reddit.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  There is a middle ground there.
  - ja2ke 16y ago
    In the case of ads, "middle groud" is often a few steps down the slipperiest of slopes.
buro9 16y ago
Reddit can be monetised today, right now, without a single intrusive advert. The key is affiliate programs. Go talk to Skimlinks, point out your traffic, laugh at their rates and then stop to think for a moment. If reddit signed up to every affiliate program there was and didn't share revenue with skimlinks or anyone... if reddit took care of explaining what they were doing and how they were doing it... the readership would be fine. Hell, you want me just to use the site as normal and inadvertently through doing so I end up clicking links that lead me to buy stuff occasionally and this gives you some pennies. Sure thing, doesn't bother me. Pennies, yeah, that's all it is. Except that's a penny or two per click. Reddit has size and traffic. Reddit could link to the odd item here or there behind affiliate paywalls and those unobtrusive and naturally organic links created by virtue of creating such a large community could monetise the whole thing. Don't believe me? Try it for one month. And then when your jaw hits the flaw remember to give me some credit for it. Affiliate schemes keep most forums alive and allow them to exist with minimal advertising. There, I've let my secret out. I run small forums, and they are making me a lovely nest-egg... if I had the cash I'd buy reddit just to put affiliate links on it... it would be an immediate cash cow, and the readership would be fine as they'd understand why, and visually no garbage would have changed the experience. The key is to do all affiliates, leave no penny on any table. Every click that could earn you money, should. Technically all you need is a set of rules to process any existing link in any post or comment, and to detect whether that URL goes to a destination that has an affiliate program. If it does, strip any existing codes and drop in yours, if it doesn't then leave it alone. Oh,and tell people explicitly not to game it. No-one need ever create fake clicks or fake atricles. The organic mass is enough.
- tamersalama 16y ago
  If it's that easy, why isn't everyone doing it?
  - buro9 16y ago
    Most people are so busy running the community, taking part, adding features and generally caring for it that they don't really see this. If you look at financially successful forums you tend to only see what is visible, the adverts. But actually most successful forums make way more revenue from affiliate schemes than they do from the adverts. Affiliate schemes are almost invisible to the end user, unless you're looking for them in the links on the site you won't even notice them. Just look at this company: http://www.internetbrands.com/ http://www.internetbrands.com/ All it owns and runs are forums. It may not be sexy or cool, but there is a lot of money in it and reddit is a great site and really shouldn't have a problem.
Heston 16y ago
So I guess no one has learned anything from the previous discussions on HN. Reddit has hit critical mass and therefore has a substantial user base - start charging a monthly fee. Even at $1 a month, I'm sure they could be pulling in 6 figures every month. Or perhaps I'm mistaken and all they need is more ads.

64 points by pavs 16y ago

trun 16y ago

"If you made it this far still expecting LOLcats, I'm sorry. I lied." Sad.

hga 16y ago
True enough, but it's from a co-founder of the company so it's potentially worth reading.
kn0thing 16y ago
You're right. I feel bad now. Adding LOL-TL;DR.
- pavs 16y ago
  Someone forgot to sign up for reddit gold account (spez too). /r/lounge without reddit founders just doesn't seem right.

vaksel 16y ago

of course reddit is monetizable...all it takes is flooding it with ads 768x90 adsense unit just below the submission title alone would probably make reddit instantly profitable. and that doesn't take into account the premium google adsense ads.(imagine if a random #1-#5 url title from the top was an adsense ad?)...one that had the exact font style as regular reddit ads. Those just browsing, wouldn't even notice the little gray "powered by Google" text. then add CPM based ads...maybe something that would play on mouseover...those tend to bring in the big bucks. or just sell advertising directly for some brand awareness campaigns. Honda, Walmart, McDonalds. And boom...you got a profitable "community". So there is no reason for Conde Nast to sell reddit(especially at a loss)...if they were interested in generating more revenue, they could do it at a flip of a coin. Sure it would piss off a lot of users...but it's not like people would abandon a site, just because there are a few more ads present.

RossM 16y ago
These suggestions, while normal on any other site, wouldn't work on reddit. The real problem reddit has is that it's community, which can be amazing at times, has grown used to a great user experience when it comes to advertising - the lack of it that is. Just ignore the box on the right and the occasional sponsored link in the top box. Should a flash-based ad appear in the right-hand box there'll be a front-paged topic on it in an hour. reddit has treated it's users well, but they baulk at the slightest change in that - and herein lies the real problem to monetising reddit. reddit has to monetise while keeping it's community happy. Since community happiness and advertising seem to be pretty much polar opposites it seems to be impossible. What I'd do is increase advertising aggressively for non-logged in users, reduce it greatly for registered users and keep the option to remove it completely for gold members. Hopefully those that really hate advertising would sign up for gold, however there is probably a correlation between those that make the most noise about advertising and those that wouldn't do that as they don't believe in paying for things on the internet - completely unfounded but a gut feeling. > Sure it would piss off a lot of users...but it's not like people would abandon a site, just because there are a few more ads present. Being a technical audience AdBlock (already is but) would be widely used rendering it useless. I know reddit was monitoring adblock usage at some point - I'd like to know the results of that.
- ars 16y ago
  Why is it necessary to keep the users happy? So some will leave, but others will join. They are big enough that if they loose some, they'll be OK. And actually I don't think they'll leave anyway. They'll use adblock? So? What do they have to loose? You are worried that users will block ads, and the solution is not to run any?
  - ja2ke 16y ago
    It's a user driven site. At millions of people it's obviously not entirely personality driven, but still the site is driven by the actual individual people who submit and comment. They generate not just the content but the tone of the site, which is what keeps people coming back. You can't treat them like a straight up commodity that can be swapped in and out.

guelo 16y ago

Cheezburger sites are definitely tilted towards the annoying side of the ad balance. Which is probably fine for the their audience but would be tragic for reddit.

jacquesm 16y ago
There is a middle ground there.
- ja2ke 16y ago
  In the case of ads, "middle groud" is often a few steps down the slipperiest of slopes.

buro9 16y ago

Reddit can be monetised today, right now, without a single intrusive advert. The key is affiliate programs. Go talk to Skimlinks, point out your traffic, laugh at their rates and then stop to think for a moment. If reddit signed up to every affiliate program there was and didn't share revenue with skimlinks or anyone... if reddit took care of explaining what they were doing and how they were doing it... the readership would be fine. Hell, you want me just to use the site as normal and inadvertently through doing so I end up clicking links that lead me to buy stuff occasionally and this gives you some pennies. Sure thing, doesn't bother me. Pennies, yeah, that's all it is. Except that's a penny or two per click. Reddit has size and traffic. Reddit could link to the odd item here or there behind affiliate paywalls and those unobtrusive and naturally organic links created by virtue of creating such a large community could monetise the whole thing. Don't believe me? Try it for one month. And then when your jaw hits the flaw remember to give me some credit for it. Affiliate schemes keep most forums alive and allow them to exist with minimal advertising. There, I've let my secret out. I run small forums, and they are making me a lovely nest-egg... if I had the cash I'd buy reddit just to put affiliate links on it... it would be an immediate cash cow, and the readership would be fine as they'd understand why, and visually no garbage would have changed the experience. The key is to do all affiliates, leave no penny on any table. Every click that could earn you money, should. Technically all you need is a set of rules to process any existing link in any post or comment, and to detect whether that URL goes to a destination that has an affiliate program. If it does, strip any existing codes and drop in yours, if it doesn't then leave it alone. Oh,and tell people explicitly not to game it. No-one need ever create fake clicks or fake atricles. The organic mass is enough.

tamersalama 16y ago
If it's that easy, why isn't everyone doing it?
- buro9 16y ago
  Most people are so busy running the community, taking part, adding features and generally caring for it that they don't really see this. If you look at financially successful forums you tend to only see what is visible, the adverts. But actually most successful forums make way more revenue from affiliate schemes than they do from the adverts. Affiliate schemes are almost invisible to the end user, unless you're looking for them in the links on the site you won't even notice them. Just look at this company: http://www.internetbrands.com/ http://www.internetbrands.com/ All it owns and runs are forums. It may not be sexy or cool, but there is a lot of money in it and reddit is a great site and really shouldn't have a problem.

Heston 16y ago

So I guess no one has learned anything from the previous discussions on HN. Reddit has hit critical mass and therefore has a substantial user base - start charging a monthly fee. Even at $1 a month, I'm sure they could be pulling in 6 figures every month. Or perhaps I'm mistaken and all they need is more ads.