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Adblockers (the rise of uBlock) more aggressively blocking affiliate cookies (sales aren't attributed to us when they do happen)
Does this also apply to AdBlockPlus?
If so, will selecting the "disable on LFGSS.com" option solve the problem?
Scilly.Suffolk-
Does this also apply to AdBlockPlus?
If so, will selecting the "disable on LFGSS.com" option solve the problem?
I don't actually know.
There are now many similar adblockers and hosts file solutions, and they've all been getting more aggressive.
It used to be that they only stopped display adverts, but now they focus on tracking cookies too.
Tracking cookies are an issue, this is where you view something on one shop and browse the web and are shown an advert on another unrelated site for the item you were looking at on the original shop. It's known as re-targeting, the hope of the advertisers is that they can convert "lost" customers into actual customers.
The problem for us is that affiliate schemes rely upon tracking cookies. When you click a link it needs to place a cookie to say, "This buyer, came from that site... pay that site a couple of %" (usually 2% nowadays, this is the change in terms as it used to be closer to 5%).
So when those cookies are blocked... by browsers, or extensions/add-ons like uBlock, AdBlockPlus, etc... we don't get credited for the sales.
Sometimes I try and correlate the items people declare in the affiliate thread... as I believe they're just about to buy them... with what is reported by Wiggle or CRC. And more often than not... the sales are not there, no affiliate revenue earned.
I'm attributing those uncredited sales, and general decline, to adblockers because it seems most likely. But it's hard to prove without (ironically) adding a whole load of code to minutely track every transaction we believe is going to happen.
Overall though... this is a trend. Affiliate revenue is dying a death due to a multitude of reasons, and for us it's almost dead already. Donations already cover the vast majority of our costs, somewhere around the 2/3 > 3/4 mark. It seems more sensible for me to try and ensure those don't decline further as the affiliates stuff is out of my control in comparison.
Velocio
I've added a donation button to the home page.
Since Microcosm failed, I've been focusing on other things and not worried about donations. There was a surge last year which put us a little ahead and that saw things through.
However in the last 8 months donations have reduced every month and affiliate revenue has been almost wiped out.
The drop in donations is probably due to multiple reasons:
The drop in affiliates is due to several reasons:
Together this has led to income dropping to a couple of hundred per month, sometimes a few hundred.
Which again... is OK.
Microcosm has actually been our saviour in many ways, the key one being that it has reduced costs from £1k per month down to only £350-£500 per month (range varies according to exact traffic served and currency exchange rates).
The reason I added the donate button to the home page is that the donations are on a downward decline and already take revenue below costs. Like many cycling sites I was hoping for uplift when fair weather kicked in, but that hasn't really happened. So I've again been helping LFGSS a little each month, but this time I want to call it before I get 6 months into doing this and rack up some credit card.
One-off donations above £20 are appreciated, but regular donations from a larger number of people for only £3-5 per month are preferred. Regular smaller donations help make income more predictable, and reduce the risk of us relying on a few individuals to cover the costs.
I am working on the code again, and have a ToDo list that includes Google sitemaps to try and help affiliate revenue recover (less reliance on donations), as well as donor perks and donor status being added again. But those things take time, I still have a lot of code to clean up so I can change things faster.