TODAY, 7:06am: Have you ever used the debugging proxy application Charles? If you have, and you’re able to reproduce MLBTR’s mobile site redirect problem, please email us at mlbtrhelp@gmail.com. We’d like to work with you on a paid project to root out the bad ads.
YESTERDAY, 3:46pm: Thousands of MLBTR readers kindly provided feedback recently on how we can improve the site. Today, I’d like to discuss our advertising.
Based on survey feedback and emails we’ve received, many of you are experiencing ads on our mobile site that automatically redirect your browser. Sometimes it goes to the app store, sometimes to other sites, but it’s always incredibly annoying. I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with it. At MLBTR, we loathe these ads. We don’t make money from them; they are the result of shady ad networks violating their terms. You can read more about the issue here; it is something even Google and Apple have been unable to stop.
I don’t say that as an excuse, but just an explanation. We’ve worked to remove these redirect ads for years, but it’s been a game of Whac-A-Mole. This month I am putting additional resources toward the problem. I am also hopeful that eventually, browsers will be able to stop redirects, as was Apple’s intention for Safari in iOS 8.
In the meantime, there are a couple of options you might consider. The first is to download our free app, Trade Rumors, and use that instead of the mobile website. The app has fewer ads than our mobile site does, and has never had any redirect issues. It’s also a well-reviewed app that offers custom notifications and a sleek reading experience on mobile devices.
Another option is to sign up for Google Contributor. This paid service covers any website that shows Google ads (including all of the Trade Rumors sites) and reduces the number of ads you’ll see. Google Contributor automatically uses your monthly fee to attempt to outbid a website’s advertisers. When your bid wins, you don’t see an ad. You’ll instead see an empty space where the ad was, or pictures of cats if you prefer. While Contributor can be used across millions of websites that you can potentially visit, I personally use it exclusively to reduce the number of ads shown on my five favorite baseball websites. It removes thousands of ads per month for me on those sites, and any portion of my fee that I don’t use each month is refunded by Google. I consider Google Contributor a win-win, as I give a few bucks per month to my favorite websites and see fewer ads.
Finally, if you have experience with the web debugging proxy application Charles, you could try catching a redirect in the wild. It’s way more fun than catching Pokémon. If anyone is able to record a Charles session of a mobile redirect happening on MLBTR, please send it to me at mlbtrhelp@gmail.com and I’ll make sure that offending ad is eliminated.
We’ll continue to do everything we can to root out the bad ad networks. Thanks for your patience and understanding in this matter.
Thanks!
I use the app and it is virtually ad free for me.
Love your teams work Tim. Have had the AP for a couple years and hadn’t had any problems, other than the log in we discussed. Appreciate what you guys do.
I really have no idea what that last full paragraph talks about, but it sure sounds wildly entertaining.
I have the app and use it every day. This post is everything that I love about MLBTR. I’d just like to Thank Tim, and everyone else (Steve, Jeff, Mark, Connor) for truly caring about the reader’s experience. Not many sites go the extra mile like this. Keep up the good work guys!
I agree with everything you said here, I just want to know why they delete all of my comments
Your first comment has to be approved for you to post. Guess we just missed it at the time. You should be good to go now.
I’ve been a reader since the beginning… like literally almost the actual beginning – sometime around December 2005, long before you quit your day gig. I’m also pretty family with blogging/internet marketing, FWIW.
I say that for 2 reasons.
First, having a team of writers working practically 24 hours per day to scoop and report information takes a lot of time and money. I appreciate that you care enough about your readers to be on top of it and let us know, but know that we also appreciate you and want you to make money to support your family and have the money to have your staff working to keep growing MLBTR.
Second, a friend of mine in the online space uses a term called “hater math.” I’m sure you’ve received several complaints about pop-up/redirect ads. Those ads are very annoying for sure, but most readers understand that’s part of the internet and will stick around despite those. And I’m sure many of the “complaints” are really just “these are annoying and I’d appreciate less of them” complaints and not “you’re a weasel and I’m never going to visit your site” complaints.
The true “haters” (the latter type of complaints), I assume are a fraction of a fraction of one percent. It’s hard not to be concerned about them as a content provider (I have plenty of haters online, too). But don’t let those .0001% of site visitors seem representative of your true supporters. The vast majority of us appreciate you and will put up with annoyances, especially because we trust you to do what’s best for your readers within the context of building a company.
Third, I write for a couple of larger websites in different niches (business and relationships). One of them offer “ad-free” membership upgrades for $20/yr. In essence, any visitor can pay $20/yr to have NO ads on that site. (I gladly paid that for the one site). If that’s something you’re interested in hearing about, I can see if I can connect you with the right people there. I’m friendly with several of the editors, etc.
So… yeah, we appreciate you and want you to make money. We know (now, if we didn’t before) that these are out of your control. Thanks for keeping us informed and a priority.
Nick
Not a fan of tiered sites.
I hear ya, although it generally only adds an additional level of “ad free” for those who want zero ads. It does not replace policing ads, etc. I’d happily pay to support independent site owners whose sites provide as much value/entertainment to me as Tim’s sites do. I’m sure others would, too. And the extra money from the few could help make the site even better for the many.
Nick, I appreciate your thoughts on this. Everyone I’ve talked to has been very understanding of the issue.
Offering the chance to pay to remove ads is an option. We do have the resources on hand to create this feature, but it would add a new element of customer service that would not be fun. The best solution to me is still to just stomp out the redirects somehow.
I do think Contributor is a nice middle ground – a person could probably remove half our ads for a reasonable cost, and the infrastructure for that is already in place.
man adsense is a pain., sure it is much better than it used to be.. I always tried to stick with their text based ads to reduce the hassle for my visitors… ate my profits some but flowed nicely.
Long time reader, first time poster here.
I often use the mobile web version (not the app) of mlbtraderumors, or should I say that I try to do so.
The spammy redirections are awful. I never click on any ads (intentionally or accidentally), but that doesn’t stop my browser from being redirected to some stupid ad or the App store. Merely opening the website or a story often results in a redirection. Some days, the redirection percentage is close to 75%.
I have had the same problem over on Fangraphs, but they seem to have fixed this. I hope that you guys are able to do so as well.
Thanks for posting about this. I had no idea why this was happening.
I use the mobile app. The content is still the same, but I get custom notifications and there are no redirects. I highly recommend it to anybody struggling with the mobile site. Great app.
I agree. The app is great.
Oh, I thought you were talking to a guy named Charles and accidentally posted an email publicly.
It does kind of read that way.
Keep redirecting me to an ad with some guy that looks like cyclops
am i the only one who, when i load this site (and nfl/nba rumors) on my mac, sometimes just the headlines show so i have to click them to read the article? happens a lot
That is likely a case of the site mistakenly thinking you are on a mobile device. There should be a desktop button at the very bottom of the home page. You may have to x out an ad to see it.
I appreciate the transparency…and the inner tech geek enjoyed some of the article’s embedded links to the nuts and bolts of the programming.
As for paid/ad free browsing, I completely understand the preference to avoid adding a layer of “customer support” to your setup, but I’d be one of the first to sign up if you ever wanted to do an “add free” version of the site. It’d be more about supporting the site and less about the ads, which are basically everywhere a person surfs on the web.
We have made significant progress over the past few days in rooting out this issue. Please be sure to contact us if you get redirected while on our mobile site.
mlbtraderumors.com/contact