As anyone who knows me can tell you, I'm not a fan of ads on Hillrunner.com. I see them as a necessary evil. I dislike ads as much as anyone and I feel like they take away from the overall look and flow of the site. That said, they pay the bills, give me a justification for spending what free time I can on the site, and - if they perform well enough - allow me to do some nice extra things for the site or in a way that gives back to running.
On that note, over the years, anyone who has been around also knows that the visibility of ads on the site has varied as I've wrestled with this issue and as the financial situation at Hillrunner.com has evolved (note: this latest change does not mean that Hillrunner.com is not on stable ground - on the contrary, it is on stable ground but is in a position where it can and should perform better in order to bring you more and better features). The change is continuing. After talking with other webmasters and with others about advertising on other sites, I reflected a bit on the advertising picture at Hillrunner.com and realized that the well hidden ads that currently appear here are drastically underperforming. I made the decision that, if we're going to have ads on Hillrunner.com, they might as well be located where they can perform well and benefit Hillrunner.com and our community. That means making them more visible in more places, especially the places that people regularly visit.
You can now see the result. While I'm being very careful to not inundate you with ads, you will see some more visible ads, especially at popular locations like the forums. In fact, the only change in the initial phase of this is in the forums. I hope everyone can appreciate the need for these and accept them. If anyone has any questions or concerns about these ads, as always, you can contact me directly by using the
contact form or start a discussion that everyone (who is registered) can take part in at the
General Discussion forum.
