Inside PalmAddicts

Alexander Turcic · 04-10-2005, 10:59 AM

PalmAddicts is beyond doubt the best Palm-centered blog on the whole planet, keeping its 25k+ daily visitors busy with bustling minute-by-minute updates.

If you are interested in knowing how PalmAddicts works behind the scenes and how Sammy is managing 300-500 e-mails per day, make sure to read his recently published Q&A sheet. It comes without saying that I am very delighted to hear that MobileRead is among Sam's favorite websites!

hacker · 04-10-2005, 12:04 PM

I have one suggestion... drop the 900 banner ads down the right side, and limit the number of articles on the main page to say... the top 20 or 30 or so...

The main page alone, is 2.9M of data, with only 40k of it being the actual content. The rest are banners, images, and other unnecessary eye-candy.

Luckily I have AdBlock, and can block most of it, but that cuts into Sammy's banner revenue. This is the paradox he has to solve. If you have too many banners, it slows down the page dramatically, so users end up blocking the ads.

If he trimmed down the number of ads and articles, the page speed would increase, and users wouldn't be so inclined to block his ads, which are a source of revenue for him, no doubt.

Also, using proper width/height tags on all of the images (even the little spacer images and web-bugs in the page) would speed up the rendering of the page considerably. Those two hints alone would improve the user experience quite a bit.

I'm not ranting, I know he provides a service to the community, but I can't even get through the first few articles before I close the browser tab because I'm about to go epileptic with the banners on the right blinking and flashing at me while I'm trying to read. Annoying and unnecessary.

TadW · 04-10-2005, 12:26 PM

I agree the banners aren't pretty, but perhaps they are necessary to maintain a site and pay for the costs (hosting etc.). Like you said, if you get a headache from those banners, use some kind of an ad blocker (Adblock is cool).

That said I am glad that PalmAddicts exists... as I am glad that MobileRead exists

Bob Russell · 04-10-2005, 01:04 PM

I'm sure there's a lot that can be done to improve just about any site. As everyone probably knows already, I'm a big Palm Addicts fan also, and I do like the way it's laid out. The load can take a little time, but it beats having to go to another archive page to get the days news. Sammy is a victim of his success... too much great news and only so much screen to put it in!

I do think all the banner images probably bring a considerable amount of revenue, so it's hard to argue with that. But more importantly, MobileRead gets to be one of the "favorite sites" images, making me a happy camper with any layout of the images!

As far as adblock, I used to use it with Firefox and loved it. But unfortunately it doesn't seem to be compatible with my 1.0.2 version. (It tells me so when the extension tries to load and fails.)

04-10-2005, 10:59 AM	#1
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,175 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Inside PalmAddicts PalmAddicts is beyond doubt the best Palm-centered blog on the whole planet, keeping its 25k+ daily visitors busy with bustling minute-by-minute updates. If you are interested in knowing how PalmAddicts works behind the scenes and how Sammy is managing 300-500 e-mails per day, make sure to read his recently published Q&A sheet. It comes without saying that I am very delighted to hear that MobileRead is among Sam's favorite websites!

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04-10-2005, 12:04 PM	#2
hacker Technology Mercenary Posts: 617 Karma: 2561 Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: East Lyme, CT Device: Direct Neural Implant	I have one suggestion... drop the 900 banner ads down the right side, and limit the number of articles on the main page to say... the top 20 or 30 or so... The main page alone, is 2.9M of data, with only 40k of it being the actual content. The rest are banners, images, and other unnecessary eye-candy. Luckily I have AdBlock, and can block most of it, but that cuts into Sammy's banner revenue. This is the paradox he has to solve. If you have too many banners, it slows down the page dramatically, so users end up blocking the ads. If he trimmed down the number of ads and articles, the page speed would increase, and users wouldn't be so inclined to block his ads, which are a source of revenue for him, no doubt. Also, using proper width/height tags on all of the images (even the little spacer images and web-bugs in the page) would speed up the rendering of the page considerably. Those two hints alone would improve the user experience quite a bit. I'm not ranting, I know he provides a service to the community, but I can't even get through the first few articles before I close the browser tab because I'm about to go epileptic with the banners on the right blinking and flashing at me while I'm trying to read. Annoying and unnecessary.

04-10-2005, 12:26 PM	#3
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	I agree the banners aren't pretty, but perhaps they are necessary to maintain a site and pay for the costs (hosting etc.). Like you said, if you get a headache from those banners, use some kind of an ad blocker (Adblock is cool). That said I am glad that PalmAddicts exists... as I am glad that MobileRead exists

04-10-2005, 01:04 PM	#4
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I'm sure there's a lot that can be done to improve just about any site. As everyone probably knows already, I'm a big Palm Addicts fan also, and I do like the way it's laid out. The load can take a little time, but it beats having to go to another archive page to get the days news. Sammy is a victim of his success... too much great news and only so much screen to put it in! I do think all the banner images probably bring a considerable amount of revenue, so it's hard to argue with that. But more importantly, MobileRead gets to be one of the "favorite sites" images, making me a happy camper with any layout of the images! As far as adblock, I used to use it with Firefox and loved it. But unfortunately it doesn't seem to be compatible with my 1.0.2 version. (It tells me so when the extension tries to load and fails.)

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