I'm sure the first thing you've all noticed is that the Message Center (the area that has Private Messages, Announcements, etc) has been completely altered. This update is greatly beneficial and I'll go over why in just a minute.

The message center now has an ad in it now but I didn't actually add an ad to the page, I simply just moved the ad that was above the rectangular links to this new area. To the right of the ad is the new section 'online users' section. I honestly think the online users section is more organized now and it also not only has more room to display more stuff but since it's tall enough, it can be scrolled when there's a lot of users on a page or staff members assigned to that page. The Private Messages, Announcements and Notifications are basically the same as before but they do adjust better to your browser's width because of this update

The reason for this update is to help increase site revenue. The higher up an ad is on a page, the more it pays and for the longest time I've been trying to figure out ways to get the ads higher up on the site pages without altering the look of the site too much and I'm real happy that I finally came up with a solution. The horizontal ad moved up by about 100-125 pixels which should make a big difference. Also since everything is more compact and efficiently positioned, the box ad which appears on some pages is also higher up on a page and since that ad sometimes didn't even display all the way for smaller browsers (which hurts revenue), it being more visible will really help that ad's performance also.

I know this may take a while to get use to but it's definitely for the best. The site's financial situation keeps getting worse all the time and if I can increase site revenue simply by moving around the ads and even adding another ad to some pages, it's definitely worth doing. Something else worth pointing out is that this could potentially get 1 click visitors to stick around a little longer since on their first page view, they'd see more content and possibly take more interest instead of exiting the site.

I'll make a separate thread after I've added another ad to some pages of the site. I'll also keep you all up to date on how much this helps ad revenue.

With this change, now we have a better excuse to read the announcements, because long announcement titles don't fully display anymore.

I don't know how does it display for people with several PM inboxes, but as for site staff and below it's not going to change much. True, will be hard to get used to, but besides the announcements part, we won't miss any bit of information.

Let's hope that small things like this can improve site revenue. I see a lot of sites always trying new things for revenue lately so I'm getting quite used to changes, and if they're for the best they're very welcome.

I hope that this change really goes a long way with the site. We really need all the help we can get. I think maybe getting a third window for ads could help too.

When I first saw the ad placement being different, I was a little confused, but I assumed that you were probably just messing around with the ad placement.

I hope this increases the ad revenue, and makes it easier for you to live off this site :p.

What if you have the adblock item from the item shop? Is it just going to be this empty black box? (if so, that's pointless and kinda ruins the point of the adblock item)

Are you able to completely hide/remove the black box for users with the adblock item please? It just takes up space for no reason for users with that item. Plus, it is a reward for those who contributed to the site enough to get this item. 

It's really pointless and annoying to display an empty black box for users with the adblock item. Regardless, I'm happy to hear that you found a way to increase site revenue and I hope it helps you.

EX Palen : I should also make it a habit of trying to make smaller announcement titles. You also gotta consider that anyone who isn't staff only has 3 boxes instead of 4 so there's more room for them to see more of the announcement title.

ZeeTee : I really hope so because I'm pretty close to running out of stuff to sell which means that I'll be in search of a full time job real soon if there appears to be no hope at all for the site's revenue situation which would pretty much mean very few or no updates to the site for a very long time (or until the site revenue picks up again).

Mohammedroxx3 : That's a very low priority but I'll eventually do something about that.

Do you get more money if someone clicks on an ad? Maybe you can make a page that you get taken to sometimes with an ad in it and if you click the ad you can move onto the next page. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't mind this. Maybe you can let people opt in or out of this.

I saw this on another website. The final fantasy games is the ad and if you click it the download button appears, but it could be a go on button. https://s10.postimg.org/e5hbtv1uh/Capture.png

earthwarrior : I do but encouraging that is against the rules of most ad networks and can get my account suspended.

Maybe that site's ad network is fine with it. I don't know.

I just wanted to point out that doing this resulted into the eCPM (which is effective cost per 1000 impressions) of my primary ad network to increase by around $0.70 thanks to this change.

Here's the eCPM of my ads with Tribal Fusion before and after the change.
8/01/2016 = $1.45 eCPM
8/02/2016 = $1.48 eCPM
8/03/2016 = $1.49 eCPM
8/04/2016 = $1.26 eCPM
8/05/2016 = $1.51 eCPM
8/06/2016 = $1.51 eCPM
8/07/2016 = $1.53 eCPM
8/08/2016 = $1.37 eCPM
8/09/2016 = $1.52 eCPM
8/10/2016 = $1.64 eCPM
8/11/2016 = $1.84 eCPM
8/12/2016 = $1.81 eCPM
8/13/2016 = $1.78 eCPM
8/14/2016 = $1.82 eCPM
8/15/2016 = $1.81 eCPM
8/16/2016 = $1.97 eCPM
8/17/2016 = $2.10 eCPM
8/18/2016 = $2.11 eCPM
8/19/2016 = $2.18 eCPM
8/20/2016 = $2.19 eCPM
8/21/2016 = $2.19 eCPM
8/22/2016 = $2.21 eCPM

In bold is the day that the change took place. The overall site revenue did take a jump but not a big enough jump to eliminate the financial issues (and the fill rate which is at around 22% stayed about the same). But still, enough changes like these will hopefully add up and possibly results into me getting this site back to a comfortable spot.