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As several people have noted publicly and privately, I have added a few more advertisements to the site on various pages.

Some of the feedback has been vicious, as if people have never before seen advertisements, and I have somehow stabbed them through the heart by showing an advertisement.

The fact is that Lottery Post has grown to become the largest lottery-related Web site on Earth, not counting a handful of the official government lottery sites in the USA.

I understand that most people visiting Lottery Post do not understand the technical and business concepts of running a large Web site, so I'll try to explain.

Just like when you get Internet access at your home, Web sites have to pay for their connections to the Internet.

For small "hobby" or other low-traffic Web sites, this is normally done through a web hosting company, to which the person running the site pays a reasonable monthly payment.  The Web site is set up on either a shared server (on which there may be hundreds of small Web sites hosted), or if the person pays a little more, they can run their Web site on a dedicated server.

For large Web sites with thousands of daily visitors that model runs out of steam, because with so many visitors coming to the site at every moment, the server bogs down and delivers Web pages at an unacceptably slow speed.

You may have noticed that exact problem when you visited your official lottery Web site right after a big Mega Millions or Powerball drawing.  Because the government lotteries typically do not invest in a robust dedicated hardware platform for their Web sites, when the big drawings come around the sites show their weaknesses.

So the answer to the problem of traffic volume for large Web sites is to invest in your own dedicated server hardware, in addition to dedicated Internet "bandwidth" that can accommodate huge volumes of traffic.

Bandwidth is a measure of the volume of data that can flow back and forth to a server.  When you have so much traffic that you need to dedicate bandwidth, that means the company providing the bandwidth keeps tabs on exactly how much data has flowed back and forth between your server and the Internet, and you have to pay for what you use.

As I'm sure you can guess, Lottery Post has grown so large that it falls into that camp.  If I attempted to run Lottery Post on the same kind of server arrangement as any of the other lottery-related sites out there, people would literally not be able to see the site.  You would click your bookmark to come to Lottery Post, and you would just see a blank white page, followed a minute later by a "Page cannot be displayed" error.

So I pay a lot to keep this site online.  I am not going to sit here and reveal all of my financial details, but I will say that you would be very surprised at the amount of money that it takes to keep this site online.

As the number of people who come to the site increases, that increases the amount of bandwidth consumed, which costs more money. 

In addition to costing more money, it takes a lot of my time to keep things working.  There are so many issues to deal with and so many technical hurdles to overcome that I no longer have as much time to spend putting food on the table.

If everyone purchased a premium membership, that certainly would help — but not everyone will do that, no matter what.  Some people feel that everything on the Internet should be 100% free, and they are vehemently opposed to paying for anything they can browse to.  Even some people who have been here for nearly a decade and have gained tremendous personal benefit and enjoyment over those years will not help financially support the site.

That is the reality of the situation.

Some people have suggested that I cut off access after a person does not upgrade after a certain amount of time.  I have always resisted that kind of thing, because I think it comes with a lot of negative consequences, but who knows.

Other possibilities include raising rates on the premium memberships, or increasing the number of advertisements.

By increasing the number of advertisements, I think I have taken the path of least resistance, but as I mentioned, there have been comments thrown around (some of which I actually had to delete) that act as if the devil himself has corrupted the site.

Strangely, some of the people making these remarks are premium members — who have the ability to turn the ads off!  That's right, if you become a paying member, you can turn off all the ads.  I am trying to figure out how I am not being reasonable, but hey, maybe I'm overlooking something.

So that's the story with the additional advertisements you may see on various pages.  I am not riding a gravy train on members' backs, I am simply looking for creative ways to keep the site online, while trying to keep everyone's experience here the best it can be.

Frankly, the number of ads shown on Lottery Post is minuscule compared to all the other lottery sites out there.   Try going to ANY of the other lottery sites, and try to find a page that is not jammed with ads.  (No, it's not an invitation to post links here, but you can send me anything you wish in a  PM.) 

Meanwhile, I have always tried to keep the ads at Lottery Post of a high-quality nature and generally on the periphery of the pages.  You would not know this because I don't speak about it, but I spend many hours designing pages so that they flow nicely, even with the ads.  It is a very daunting task, even more so for one person trying to do everything.

If you have feedback about the ads, please leave it here.  There has been some discussion in some of the other forum threads, so it would be good to direct the feedback all to this one thread, so everyone sees your comments.

Also, if you have negative feedback, feel free to leave that too.  If after reading my comments above you still think I have sold out to corporate interests, or I am try to become a millionaire by placing a few more ads, I would much rather hear it than have you feel that your opinion doesn't count or is being silenced.

Todd, I can only imagine what the costs are for this great web site.  The very first ad I noticed I thought was posted by mistake and then noticed more when I started browsing the different posts.  If it helps with keeping this site running so well, it does not bother me to see an ad.  Thanks for this wonderful site and all your hard work!

If it helps your site, I think you are obligated to run ads.  I see no problem with that.

You could probably put three ads (or more) running along the bottom of the page - where I currently see only one ad.

Todd

You are "THE MAN", TCB , Advertising is the way to go.  Good for you Todd

Thank you Todd for keeping this site available to all, many people have won the Pick3, Pick 4, Cash 5, and other lottery games because of this site and I for one will become a member in order to support Lottery Post.  The subscription cost is VERY AFFORDABLE and it is something I should have done a long time ago because I enjoy coming to this site.  Thank you Todd for all you do!!!!

Todd the advertising does not bother me. It is tastefully done and well placed. I view it all as a vehicle for knowledge and information.

The Lottery Post offers a wealth of information "all under one roof" with an extensive numbers history, lottery tools, forums packed with vital information, etc. & most importantly YOU. Our "Chief Bottle Washer" who always makes himself very accessible to us however busy he may be.

Thanks Todd for all of your hard work & dedication in making the Lottery Post the most informative & enjoyable place to be on the internet!

 Todd, I think you have struck a good balance for the betterment of this site. As a premium member if I don’t like the additional adds I have the ability to turn them off as you stated. What more could you ask for, the price of a premium membership to me is well worth it, and as a matter of fact I don’t block the ads, some of them I find interesting and go to the websites to check out the offerings further.

 The bottom line is there is no such thing as a FREE LUNCH; you are going to have to pay the bill one way or the other. You figured out away to balance it out so it works well for US ALL, great job.

Michael J. Smith, Mike’s Computer Picks / Quick Nickels

I have actually wondered why there are no Google Adwords or in-text advertsing here (such as Vibrant Media or Kontera). I think you should implement one or more of those types of ads systems. Missing a huge opportunity.

Any time you feel free to raise my rate feel free to.It wont stop me from coming here if it even doubles.It's like a good scratch off it keep me coming back.It's a good habit like a smoke and coffee,what a way  to start the day.Thank you for everything.

    Todd just wanna say, Thank You for the Lottery Post! The ads don't bother me one bit, infact I just order something from one of them!

The advertisments don't bother me, I upgraded to Platinum membership and keep

the ads on. I knew it helps to pay to keep the website up and running. This is an

awesome website, I stumbled upon, a few weeks ago. It shows that a lot of hard

work is put into this website, awesome job Todd, thank you!

The only gripe I have is where the ads are placed. When you go to respond to a post, you have to click the reply button on the AD! Now, the

whole point of strategically placing ads is for them to be seen but you know also they are placed in areas where you might *accidentally*

click on them. No other spot on the page could have been better for everyone to see the ad of the day, so I see the point. Still, irritating.

This site is the best for a whole load of reasons, why do you think I keep coming back? It's fun, informative, has great tools and it's just a

super place. The ads won't make me go away...10 seconds of irritation will eventually be reduced to 5, then 1, then none....I'll learn to get

by Obama, Ben and Mr. Squirrel.

Thank you for taking the time to explain things.

Yes, I know, I can click reply anywhere but am used to going to the bottom of the page after the last post.

Off to find the disable button.

I am sorry to hear that the ad at the bottom of the page is irritating.

Where would you put the ad on the forum pages?

Maybe you don't visit other forums, but if you get the chance, you might notice that most forums mix the ads directly into the thread content, as if the ad is another post.  So maybe the second or third post down would be an ad, followed by more posts. 

Would that be a better place to put the ad, or should I keep it at the bottom of the page, like it is now?