A note about ads on Astroblahhh.Com, for viewers of this website
Ads on Astroblahhh.Com are not necessarily an endorsement by me or by this site of those products, concepts, or statements, but then again, they might be. You'd have to ask me... :-)
Anyhow, except for the ads which I put up simply because I felt like promoting those things and nobody paid me to do it, the advertisers pay me to put their ad on my site for a certain length of time. I don't necessarily agree with or like what they're saying or claiming, nor do I even necessarily like their product, service, website, or ideas, etc.
I don't necessarily dislike them either, but, just use your own judgment about them, and don't feel as if I necessarily approve of those sites, ads, ideas, products, etc., simply because I'm letting them pay me to advertise.
You are, of course, encouraged to click the ads, but only if you're really interested in what's being offered. These aren't pay per click or pay per impression ads that the advertisers are paying for - they're more like standard, printed newspaper ads.
The Ad Gallery features examples of some old advertisements that have run in the past. Currently, it only features ads I put up for free because I felt like it, but it's also intended to feature ads placed by advertisers buying ad space directly from me instead of through a third party ad program, if anyone ever buys any... :-)
A note for advertisers
You have two options - you can either buy ads through Project Wonderful (which, for the time being, is cheaper than buying them directly from me), or buy ads directly from me. The rest of this page only refers to how to buy advertising directly from me.
Ads which are practically sitewide are available. Your ad will be on every page of the site which has the navigational header and/or footer (featuring the Astroblahhh.Com logo and links to various sections on the site) - or, in other words, most of the pages on this site.
My site seemingly gets a surprising amount of traffic, so, that's another reason why you might like to advertise here.
My website's statistics page confuses me a bit, but, here's some data. (No data for Oct. 2006, though, since some glitch happened which ruined my statistics for that month).
| Successful requests for pages | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| 2006 | Site didn't exist yet | 74 | 394 | 478 | 752 | 720 | No data | 3,068 | 6,629 | |||
| 2007 | 7,767 | 6,521 | 7,203 | 5,808 | 5,986 | 8,306 | 8,406 | 7,103 | 6,732 | 6,854 | 6,564 | 9,378 |
| 2008 | 14,260 | 11,450 | 11,388 | 13,549 | 17,052 | 15,188 | ||||||
So, hopefully, people will actually see your ad.
What people? Well, my guess is, probably people interested in the subject matter of this site, like people interested in astrology, people looking for software for Palm OS devices, people who dislike credit cards and are looking for a way out of debt, people who are concerned with poverty, maybe some Second Life users here and there, people who like the wonderful astronomy software Celestia or the wonderful web browser Opera, people who are studying Japanese, French, or German, etc., my friends and relatives, random passers-by, and gosh knows who else. :-)
The pricing isn't bad, either (though for now the prices for buying ads here through Project Wonderful are better).
This type of advertising also beats the crap out of the various dubious, fraud-beleaguered forms of internet advertising out there, where your ads don't even show up on the page 100% of the time, or where some random idiot(s) can click your ad a whole bunch of times for no good reason and drain your advertising budget with spurious clicks.
Instead, similar to an ad in a print newspaper, what you'll be paying for is the space for the ad, and the time the ad is up there - not for views or click-throughs. The ad will not be rotated - it will constantly load on the page for the duration of the time you've paid for.
A nice fringe benefit of purchasing ad space directly from me instead of through a third-party ad system is that your ad will almost certainly end up in the Ad Gallery, where it might (or might not) remain for a very long time. The Ad Gallery is to display various ads that have been here, just for the sake of some people's bizarre enjoyment, and to give people an idea of the kinds of things I'm likely to approve.
I do rather doubt many people will be terribly interested in looking at the Ad Gallery, unless many of you happen to be very creative at coming up with entertaining, humorous ads, or ads with a very attractive graphic design. But, in any case, it amounts to free advertising, since your ad will remain there as long as I feel like letting it remain there. (I probably won't take it down unless there's a distinct reason to, such as if the links start heading to some porn site or something).
If you'd prefer not to have your ad in the Ad Gallery, let me know, and I won't put it up there. Or, if you ever want it taken down, let me know, and sometime I'll get around to taking it down.
How to Advertise on Astroblahhh.Com - Ordering
You're welcome to try to negotiate with me if you want an arrangement which isn't offered below, such as an ad on a single page, etc. Just send me an email and make me an offer, and I'll think about it and get back to you. 
Details on pricing are below. These ad templates may come in handy for you, but it's not necessary to use them.
Here are some step-by-step instructions on how to advertise on Astroblahhh.Com.
- Decide whether you want the ad to be at the top of the page (a header ad, located at the very top of the page, above the Astroblahhh.Com logo and everything else) or at the bottom of the page (a footer ad, located above the Astroblahhh.Com logo and navigation), or both.
Footer ads are half the price of header ads, because I assume probably more people will see the ads at the top of the page.
Ads at the side of the screen or the middle of the page are not readily available, and neither are pop-up ads, whether they pop up in another window, or in the same window - because I can't stand them. Which isn't to say I can't be negotiated with - just that you'd have to make me a very good offer.
- Decide what size you want the ad to be. The price for ad space is based on width, not height - narrower ads are cheaper than wider ones.
The smallest amount of space you can get is 100 pixels wide, 100 pixels tall for $2 per day (header ad) or $1 per day (footer ad), and the maximum amount of space you can get is 700 pixels wide, 100 pixels tall, for $14 per day (header ad) or $7 per day (footer ad).
Here's an example of the maximum size:
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- Within those limits, the ad can be of any shape and size.
- Decide the number of days you want the ad to run. This is another major factor in the ad's price.
- Following the ad design guidelines, design your ad. These ad templates may come in handy for you, but it's not necessary to use them. Your ad can include 3 KB of HTML and/or JavaScript. You can also include one image file (either an animation or a still image) with a file size up to 20 KB.
- Send me an email at
In the message body, include the source code for your ad. And, if you want an image with your ad, upload the image to a free photo-sharing service like (for example) Photobucket, Tinypic, or something, or your own web page, and send me the link. Please don't email me any file attachments - I won't open them, and they'll be deleted.
Please tell me how many days you want the ad to be up, and whether it is a header or footer ad (or both).
Lastly, but only if you're going to pay via Second Life - please tell me the Second Life user name which will be sending me the payment.
- Await my response. Sometime, I'll get around to emailing you regarding whether your ad is approved, and what the total cost is, in both U. S. dollars ($), and the currency of Second Life, Linden dollars (L$).
The L$/USD exchange rate I'll use will be equal to whatever the Second Life Market Data page says is the "best selling rate", just before I send you my email.
- Once your ad is approved, then you may send the payment via PayPal to the email address I will give you, or send the payment via Second Life to the Second Life user name I will give you.
Feel free to change your mind at any time before payment - if I don't receive the payment, I just won't put the ad up, and you won't owe me anything.
If you're paying me via PayPal, feel free to take your time and pay me any time. If you're paying me via Second Life, you have 3 days to pay me at the L$ price I gave you. (Due to the fluctuating value of the L$, I'm imposing this time limit).
Once I've noticed that your payment has been received, I'll confirm that I've received your payment.
Then, sometime, when I feel like it, and when the space becomes available, I'll put your ad(s) up, and I'll let you know what time and date the ad(s) was (or were) put up, and what time and date your ad(s) will be taken down.
And that's all there is to it - our transaction will be complete.
Of course, at any time after that, you can always request that your ad(s) be taken down early (not recommended, since I don't give refunds), or request that your ad(s) be taken down from the Ad Gallery (not recommended either, since it's free advertising).
By the way, if there's a long delay in any of my email responses, or if you have any reason to think that possibly your email to me got lost, or vice versa, feel free to email me again - I won't consider you a nag. I consider email very untrustworthy, so, I think sending things again is a good way to minimize the chance of anything getting lost.
For advertising-related matters, contact me at:
Terms
OK, now for a bunch of grumpy-sounding nonsense. :-)
I have the final say on whether I will put the ad up or not. I can reject ads for any reason or no reason, with or without any explanation or excuse, even if they don't violate any of the above criteria.
But, once your ad is approved and up, it's approved and up - and it will most likely stay approved and up for as long as you've paid for it to be up. (And maybe even a little longer, at no charge, if you're lucky, and I'm lazy about changing it to the next ad).
Unless it comes to light that your ad violates some criteria, or your link(s) start heading to some porn site or something like that - so I do reserve the right to take it down at any time for any reason. I also will take down ads early upon your request, though not necessarily quickly. Sorry, no refunds, or unpaid additional display time, for any reason - it would be too much of an annoyance for me.
I can make no guarantee that this website will always be online. If my web host happens to have technical difficulties while your ad is running, sorry, but, no refunds or additional time for that either.
Unfortunately, you won't be getting any statistics on how many click-throughs or views your ad is getting, since I don't really have the technical knowhow to be able to collect such statistics, and I think it would probably be too much trouble anyhow.
But you're not paying for views or clickthroughs, anyhow. And besides, how would you know you could trust those statistics? That's a big problem I can see with such things as Google's ad program, or any other ad system which pays (and charges) based on click-throughs and views. Even if they are being completely honest, how can anyone ever know for sure, without having to just take someone's word for it? And then, of course, there's the problem of click fraud.
My responses to ad-related inquiries and sales will not necessarily be fast. I will deal with all this stuff when I feel like dealing with it. I can't promise to put ads up at a particular time or to take them down at a particular time. If you're in a hurry, you're dealing with the wrong webmaster.
OK, that all probably sounded rather curmudgeonly, but, in fact, I will quite possibly knock myself out trying to please you, the customer... :-) I just wanted to state all that upfront so as to forestall my being tempted to bend over backwards too much.
| Ad Size: | 100 x 100 | 200 x 100 | 300 x 100 | 400 x 100 | 500 x 100 | 600 x 100 | 700 x 100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per day: | Header Ad | $2 | $4 | $6 | $8 | $10 | $12 | $14 |
| Footer Ad | $1 | $2 | $3 | $4 | $5 | $6 | $7 | |
You can buy ad time in increments of one day (24 hours). You can buy as little time as one day, or as many days as you want.
The prices above are all U. S. dollars (USD). To pay me in USD, you can pay me via PayPal.
It's also possible to pay me via the online virtual world Second Life, in its currency of Linden dollars (L$). The value of the L$ fluctuates, so I'll tell you the price in L$ once you've sent me your order details. The L$/USD exchange rate I'll use will be equal to whatever the Second Life Market Data page says is the "best selling rate", just before I send you my email.
It's not possible to schedule ads to begin running from a particular date, since I dislike the pressure of deadlines. So, it'll go up when I feel like putting it up, and I'll tell you when it went up. Ads will go up on a first come, first serve basis, in the order that they're approved, and as the space becomes available.
With Google AdWords featuring goofy pricing schemes such as $0.50 cents per click, my prices are extremely cheap. If you paid $1 or $2 to Google AdWords, and paid $0.50 for click, you'd only get 4 clicks for your $2, or 2 clicks for your $1, and your ad probably wouldn't even appear all the time, and once your advertising budget ran out, your ad wouldn't display anymore (if I'm not mistaken).
But here, your ad will display for the entire length of time you paid for, and people can view and click on your ad as much as they want at no additional cost to you.
Feedback
I hope this sales pitch has succeeded in persuading you to advertise here.
If not, though, I'd love to hear why not, or any other feedback on this you might have, so, feel free to email me at 
My response may or may not be prompt.