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The biggest problem with buying 4chan traffic is that it's not easily targeted towards any specific type of person. The anonymous nature of the site will foreve

The biggest problem with buying 4chan traffic is that it's not easily targeted towards any specific type of person. The anonymous nature of the site will forever hold its ad revenues back in the past as other social sites (Facebook, Twitter, PoF.com, reddit, etc) further advance their targeting abilities.

pyre 13y ago
Totally. 4chan really needs to start collecting user data so that they an cozy up to the NSA. It's really hard to get on good terms with them without any data for offer. </sarcasm>
Kuiper 13y ago
The biggest problem with buying 4chan traffic is that it's not easily targeted towards any specific type of person. I see plenty of opportunities for targeted advertising on 4chan. Obviously, it's hard to have targeted advertising on the larger boards for subjects like "random" and "video games," but you can make pretty safe assumptions about the demographics for other smaller hobby-centric boards; the cosplay & EGL board is mostly populated with young women who are into dressing up and going to conventions, the "traditional gaming" board is mostly (young) adult males who are into tabletop games like D&D and Warhammer 40k or trading card games like Magic: The Gathering. I mention these two boards specifically because I think that they represent valuable demographics. The cosplay & EGL board of 4chan is where people go to talk about the dress that they just spent $300 on (and that's on the low end--for some of those girls, $300 is what they'll spend on cosmetics seasonally). By the same token, tabletop games and trading card games can be big cash sinks, and there are plenty examples of people who spend hundreds of dollars per month on these hobbies.
- mehrzad 13y ago
  This. Many boards have threads that discuss how much they spend on a hobby or what they just bought: /mu/, /fa/, and /a/ come to mind.
  - L4mppu 13y ago
    And the endless waves of mechanical keyboard, headphone and new computer part threads on /g/.
    - mehrzad 13y ago
      Almost regrettably repetitive.
chippy 13y ago
specific boards can be targeted, which is something I guess.
- Hemospectrum 13y ago
  Better yet, they could do keyword matching based on popular topics, especially those which get confined to recurring "general" threads by moderator fiat. Data on keyword-to-ad matches could be collected automatically. The server would analyze thread content immediately before serving it, find the most frequently used words or phrases, generate a cookie to be included in ad clicks, and correlate whatever feedback the ad vendor provides with all of the above. If the vendor is 4chan itself, this could all happen in real time so long as they had the CPU cycles available.
kybernetyk 13y ago
> The anonymous nature of the site will forever hold its ad revenues back Or make revenues possible in the first place? What allure would 4chan have if it weren't anonymous?
- arh68 13y ago
  I don't think he's suggesting that, just making the observation. You're right in that anonymity is key.
deleted 13y ago
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pyre 13y ago

Totally. 4chan really needs to start collecting user data so that they an cozy up to the NSA. It's really hard to get on good terms with them without any data for offer. </sarcasm>

Kuiper 13y ago

The biggest problem with buying 4chan traffic is that it's not easily targeted towards any specific type of person. I see plenty of opportunities for targeted advertising on 4chan. Obviously, it's hard to have targeted advertising on the larger boards for subjects like "random" and "video games," but you can make pretty safe assumptions about the demographics for other smaller hobby-centric boards; the cosplay & EGL board is mostly populated with young women who are into dressing up and going to conventions, the "traditional gaming" board is mostly (young) adult males who are into tabletop games like D&D and Warhammer 40k or trading card games like Magic: The Gathering. I mention these two boards specifically because I think that they represent valuable demographics. The cosplay & EGL board of 4chan is where people go to talk about the dress that they just spent $300 on (and that's on the low end--for some of those girls, $300 is what they'll spend on cosmetics seasonally). By the same token, tabletop games and trading card games can be big cash sinks, and there are plenty examples of people who spend hundreds of dollars per month on these hobbies.

mehrzad 13y ago
This. Many boards have threads that discuss how much they spend on a hobby or what they just bought: /mu/, /fa/, and /a/ come to mind.
- L4mppu 13y ago
  And the endless waves of mechanical keyboard, headphone and new computer part threads on /g/.
  - mehrzad 13y ago
    Almost regrettably repetitive.

chippy 13y ago

specific boards can be targeted, which is something I guess.

Hemospectrum 13y ago
Better yet, they could do keyword matching based on popular topics, especially those which get confined to recurring "general" threads by moderator fiat. Data on keyword-to-ad matches could be collected automatically. The server would analyze thread content immediately before serving it, find the most frequently used words or phrases, generate a cookie to be included in ad clicks, and correlate whatever feedback the ad vendor provides with all of the above. If the vendor is 4chan itself, this could all happen in real time so long as they had the CPU cycles available.

kybernetyk 13y ago

> The anonymous nature of the site will forever hold its ad revenues back Or make revenues possible in the first place? What allure would 4chan have if it weren't anonymous?

arh68 13y ago
I don't think he's suggesting that, just making the observation. You're right in that anonymity is key.

deleted 13y ago

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