ManiaPub: a simplier version, for now

[gouxim]

Dear community,

Yesterday I cleanup a bit the online services in Maniaplanet. As a result, I removed all the ManiaPub banners that you could find in the menus. I also manually disabled all the campaigns running to avoid advertisers beeing debited Planets for nothing.

Instead, you now have a single ManiaPub banner on the Manialink browser home page (click the Home button on the top left). It's easier to maintain for us, and it's a good place to advertise since people coming to this page are looking for content to explore ; and given the current number of ads, it's also sufficient for now.

As audience and number of ads grows, we'll improve ManiaPub to bring more features and more ad locations.

Thanks for your understanding and happy advertising

[Rots]

Ok for now it's fine since the interface is in development and constantly being modified... It's better to work on the interface and after adapt maniapub to the interface

[lanta91]

Seems quite useless now.
(Lanta from ShootMania.it... i was going to run another ad, but now )

[gouxim]

Seems quite useless now.

Why do you say "useless"? Is it because of the audience on that page? Or the lack of targetting for shootmania users? Or something else? I'm interested in hearing your (constructive) feedback.


It's obviously not as efficient as Google AdWords ( ), but with a few dozen planets a day you can still get a nice coverage.

[jonthekiller]

For me it's the audience and the number of possible ads. It's the same to write directly the name of the manialink in the top bar or in the new "home". I don't have an interest to go to this page.

[gouxim]

For me it's the audience and the number of possible ads. It's the same to write directly the name of the manialink in the top bar or in the new "home". I don't have an interest to go to this page.

I don't understand your point. Whole point of advertising is to create awareness for your content. How can you expect people to type the address of your manialink in the address bar if they don't know it exists?

However, it' true the audience is less than on the ManiaHome station (as I said, maniapub -and locations too- will improve over time). But for a test periode, it has the advantage of having far better Click Through Rates because people arriving on this page are more prone to engaging with your ads.

ManiaPlanet is in beta and maniapub is part of this beta, so testing the system is important too improve it.

[jonthekiller]

Now, you can see one manialink on the page. A player will not refresh this page until he found the manialink he wants to see.

It's why I made this page : http://mania-actu.com/eng/manialinks, ads can't be the unique solution, it's a complement of the engine search or book. But I haven't all features I need (check the existence of the manialink, a direct link in the game (ads aren't the solution) to search and to add a manialink...)

Can you imagine go to the web without an engine search? It's the same here, it's just a "local web" in the game.

[gouxim]

A player will not refresh this page until he found the manialink he wants to see.

Ad banner are not meant to "explore" content, we agree on that. It's meant to "discover", and it's also a starting point for exploration, later ("a simplier version, for now").

ads can't be the unique solution

Absolutely. As we say: Rome wasn't built in a day.

Can you imagine go to the web without an engine search?

Whether you make a search engine or a directory, you always have the problem of sorting the elements.

If you sort them alphabetically for example, it will eventually fail (that's what happened to ManialinkHome in TMF, or any other Manialink directory project for that matter).

Google is not just a "search engine". Their sort algorithm, PageRank, is a masterpiece of engineering that has been improved and modified for 15 years. Obviously we're not going to develop such a solution. Our approach is less ambitious, but we think it's far sufficient for maniaplanet: we want to build some kind of exploration tool based on advertising (ie. advertising is a way of creating a sort algorithm). But before we do that, we need ads and content.

But I haven't all features I need (check the existence of the manialink, a direct link in the game (ads aren't the solution) to search and to add a manialink...

You say "ads aren't the solution. I have been working on those questions ("How to discover content") since 2009, and I can tell you that alpha-ordered directory isn't either

For instance, a great way to explore content is to have editorial selection. That's why you listen to radio, watch tv, go to jeuxvideo.com, etc. I'm surprised community Websites still haven't (really) done editorial Manialink selections yet.



Let's not go into this debate in this topic (i'll be happy to have it with you in another topic, those are interesting questions). I'm still trying to understand your point to not create ads?

[jonthekiller]

Let's not go into this debate in this topic (i'll be happy to have it with you in another topic, those are interesting questions).

At the Gamers Assembly?

I'm still trying to understand your point to not create ads?

I think it's not possible to have the good number of advertising insert. Maybe for now but not possible after. If the number of player grow (and I hope so), the number of manialinks will grow too and at a moment the number will be so higher for the number of advertising insert, that the prize of the ad will grow too. And a high prize isn't good for new creative players. The first players will have more Planets than new.

Some solution on TMUF (local ad, max amount) weren't enough.

For instance, a great way to explore content is to have editorial selection. That's why you listen to radio, watch tv, go to jeuxvideo.com, etc. I'm surprised community Websites still haven't (really) done editorial Manialink selections yet.

I ask for this on ManiaActu since a long time but nobody want to make this and I can't make everything alone ^^. For the moment, the community has a leak of motivated players to support the leak of some features (for me ).

[gouxim]

At the Gamers Assembly?

Absolutely, I'll be glad to have this conversation!

Maybe for now but not possible after.

You've said it all with "for now". Yes it won't be enough on the long run, but right now it is, at least to setup solid foundations for a nicer and more complex system when there's billions of manialinks. It wasn't either enought in TMF ; FYI, ManiaPub in TMF was an experiment for a better ad system Maniaplanet. We'll get there, eventually.