It’s been almost a year since we made FeedDemon, NetNewsWire and NewsGator Inbox free, and it has been very gratifying to gain so many new customers. But as you can imagine, we continue to look for ways to generate revenue from our software.
One of the ideas, of course, was to include advertising in our applications, but that idea never sit well with us. As I’ve written before, I’ve seen too many cases where advertising led to compromising customers’ privacy, and that wasn’t a path any of us wanted to ever go down. And besides, so much advertising on the web is irrelevant, tacky and often just plain obnoxious. No developer wants to work at building a great user interface only to see it marred by animated Viagra ads.
At some point, Brent Simmons mentioned an ad network called The Deck, and it was different than most other networks we’ve looked at. The Deck is focused on ads for creative web professionals, and they’re picky about the ads they accept. Just as important, the ads can be embedded in our applications without sharing any customer data.
I’ve been running a test version of FeedDemon which features ads from The Deck, and I have to say, I like what I see. Every single ad is tastefully done, and since they’re static images, there’s no flashy animation trying to get your attention. I even found myself clicking on several of them to find out more, which is something I very rarely do.
The screenshot below shows how it looks (click to enlarge):
As you can see, the ads are displayed at the bottom left of FeedDemon’s user interface – they’re not inserted into the feeds you’re subscribed to, nor will they jump around the page you’re reading.
Long story short, we’re going to give this a shot, and we want to know what you think about it. It’s important to us that we generate revenue from our software, but we absolutely don’t want to do it in a way that offends or distracts our customers.
If you’re interested in taking a look, stop by the FeedDemon 2.8 Beta site to download a test version which has the ads enabled.
If you do this, I will drop FeedDemon immediately. I was (and am) happy to pay for it. If you go this route I’ll find some other application.
I’ll be very sorry to see it, but this is intolerable. Is there *no* place free from advertising? Go back to charging for the app.
I’ll look for another client if ads are added. I paid for FeedDemon and I don’t want ads. I would probably pay again to avoid this.
My first reaction as a long time user of FeedDemon is to move over to another client without ads, but with a few changes I can see myself changing opinion about this whole thing. Yes, like many of the others here have said I would for an ad-free client (after all, I enjoyed the program enough to purcase it before it was set free), but if such a version doesn’t appear then I can only hope that one or more of following suggestions are considered:
– Drop the images from the ads, text-ads is less distracting and takes up less valuable space.
– No not ever auto-cycle ads. Please only change ads when the feed is changed.
– If you feel that the image ads is the only way to do things then please use a light background. As it is now, the dark background used is perhaps even more distracting than the ads themselves. Better yet, use the system window color as background so that it’ll fit no matter what themes and colors users may be using.
My main concern would have been the intrusiveness of the ads, but from the screenshot and explanation I can see there’s nothing to worry about. As yet another previously paying customer, these are totally fine to me.
All the talk about needing to monetize FeedDemon leaves me wondering, again, why you de-monetized it in the first place. Like others, I chose to pay for FeedDemon back when it was a commercial product. I was perfectly willing to pay for major updates, but instead you chose to make the software free. Now, you’re bemoning the fact that free doesn’t pay the bills, and it’s time to run ads. That just doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Echoing the sentiments of others…
Ads come in, especially in that way, it’s time to move into a lesser client without them. The minimum will be blocking them and giving up on FD if it’s too much work or doesn’t work.
I’d also rather pay for an ad-free version. Then again, if that happened, I’d be all over the forums demanding features such as content filtering and spam filtering to get rid of the rest of the ads.
Funny thing, I’ve talking with my friends about sharing my custom styles I’ve been working on for a long time, just to inspire people into getting to it again – as there hasn’t been that much action on customizing styles in years apparently. This ad thing alone made me drop that idea. You know, one important reason for finding out about the inner workings of FD and its styles was to make a crude form of spam filter (triggered by the kajillions of Obama “news” all over sites and feeds that aren’t of political nature). It works to the degree it has to for my needs. I’m painfully aware that it is the exact reason FD never offered any kind of content filtering, so in that light it’s not surprising that now we’re going to get ads elsewhere in the interface.
I guess its time to hunt for a FeedDemon Replacement.
I can live with it. FD is free and great program, so if the ads are small and inobtrusive (and this is the case), it is acceptable to me
I am less bothered about the ad than about the dedicated space it takes on my screen. I am one of the increasing numbers of users who call a netbook their own, and screen space is vital to me. The current ads implementation takes quiet a bit of room, cannot be resized or replaced, which is certainly a disadvantage.
Btw, for those who don’t like to see the ads (for privacy reasons perhaps), you can add the following entry to your hosts file to disable them:
127.0.0.1 http://www.northmay.com northmay.com
Time to find new feed software. I refuse to use ad-supported software and paid for feed demon before. Perhaps you might consider the ad-free paid-for model Opera used to use.
I reckon you’ll lose loads of users over this…no ad is tasteful.
Just adding my name to the “paid for it originally, would happily pay again, will not use the ad version” group.
I do understand your predicament. Presumably FD wasn’t selling enough licences by the end of its paid-for life, so you went free to build market share, with a view to an ad-based version once you had the user volume. A reasonable business model.
The problem is that FD lives in the “advanced user” niche, people who happily pay for the best product in any sector, but will, I imagine, be more likely than average to avoid ad-backed programs. And even if they do upgrade to the ad version, many will (like me) use a product such as AdMuncher which will block ads in any program (it currently blocks the ads in my feeds).
My response:
http://forum.newsgator.com/FindPost44866.aspx
When I read, over at BetaNews, the comments about ads I was like “whaaaaa???” and started thinking of alternatives. But then I came here to read what the developers have to say and, upon looking at a screenshot I calmed down a bit. the fact that these ads are small, non-animated and nice is what made me shrug and just be thankful for the great product.
That said, I sympathize with the paid users – you should probably give them an ad-free version…
As for the majority of the people here being against it: has to be expected; you write about something you feel negative about much more easily…
Please let me pay again for FD but no forced adds.
Or an alternative :
You can make the add as an option “disableable” (like in Flashget), and we can click any time for support you, but not have this always under our poor pretty eyes eyes…
Personally I’m happy to continue to support FD development – in whatever way that works best for Newsgator / Nick and me (balance is a key point here). I would rather have the option to pay for a “no-ads” version to be honest. I have bought a couple of copies of FD in the past (extra copy when you were donating to the tsunami fund IIRC) but they were a few years ago so I don’t feel anyone owes me any more upgrades. Looking at the screenshots my only concern is likely to be how much of the folder tree is lost on smaller resolution screens. Now I’m off to try the new beta version and see how it works.
Tony
Hehe.
I actually went to The Deck’s site to check it out.(Quickly: how many of you did? ;))
Oh, man. I’m already RSS-ed to half of the sites they advertise from. OK, so no viagra, timeshare, stocks. I’m fine with that.
Screenshot of new interface is nice, but it’s 1289×1033 pixels. At 1024×768 ad space is fairly large for my taste.
How about making it minimizeable, down to the text portion of shown ad. If you like what you read, you can open the full ad, to see it in all it’s glory.
Perhaps have an option to integrate it with Watches functionality in some way.
That will help me personally to keep the FeedDemon as a default RSS reader, for the foreseeable future at least (I’m no good at long time planning)
And while I’m writing here:
Please, please, please, pretty please, make the FeedStation install an optional feature. You have no idea how this single feature drives me absolutely crazy every time I install, re-install or upgrade FD. Going to start menu, hunting for FeedStation, hitting Uninstall. Can you really risk your karma, getting sweared at by pissed off customer at you for that? Those who need it will use it. Those who don’t… is it THAT difficult to have a single checkbox at install window, saying no to “Install FeedStation (optional)”?
Thank you in advance and best regards.
—
“$6900 USD per ad per month and this rate is valid through March 31, 2009. Additionally, marketers who desire 100% of the page views on the network for a given day or days may be able to purchase a “roadblock” for $6200 USD per day”
Yeesh, web related sites are really rich in this economy, it seems. ;)
I too purchased FD some time ago. I’ve been a big fan. I’m sure I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of the product, thanks. It was FD look, feel, and speed that made running a native application well worth the negatives. Negatives being using a local application for something that begs to be web-based – oh and now the ads. I’m off to the cloud, maybe I’ll be back.
I’m a long time user of FeedDemon, and I’ve paid for it a few years ago.
I didn’t mind that FeedDemon became a free product. And right now, keeping the economic situation in mind, I have no objections against these small ads in FeedDemon. If there’d be a paid, ads-free version of FD and a free version with ads like this (but nothing more than this), I’d stick to the free version.
I strongly oppose the ads. There are already enough ads in the feeds themselves.
I too paid for FD a long time ago. It is one of the few apps I ever paid for (yes it really is that good). I was happy it became free, but I would gladly pay for upgrades if it kept the ads out.
Newsgator made a conscious decision to stop charging for FD with the expectation of making money from the enterprise services. That was a voluntary choice on their part. Apparently it didn’t work out, but to now penalize the customers with ads is not an acceptable solution.
If the ads go in, I will stay with the current ad-free version and not upgrade.
They should at least offer the choice of an ad-supported free version and an ad-free paid version.
I will not use it anymore with ads.
I started to use FD when it came out as free, because it was good and without ads. I hate ads. As this changes, I’ll just have to say goodbye as many others will do.
Anyway, good luck then. Even if you stop ads later, no one will come back. Trust is trust.
Well I downloaded the new Feed Demon and I feel that not only is it the “Best” reader but even with the ad’s running in the lower left, it is totally unobtrusive and a great way for Feed demon to benefit itself without hurting the customer. I loved the fact that these products are free and if having something like this in the reader is a way of keeping it so, let em’ roll.
Nick and all keep up the great work.
If you start pushing ads I uninstall FD – simple as that!
As a paid subscriber that renewed, I would be happy to pay again to have a version without the ads. Put the ads in if you must, but give people the opportunity to pay out of this.
I just Twittered about the new Feed Demon http://twitter.com/bobo2854 and include it in Live Space.
FeedDemon is a program I love and tell others about. I use several times each day. I appreciate Nick’s efforts to upgrade and support the software.
I understand why you are inserting ads and I am okay with it. I don’t like the ad and the space it consumes.
I paid for FeedDemon before. I would be glad to pay again, even an annual fee, to have an ad free version.
As someone who uses Feed Demon and has never paid I wouldn’t mind the ads.
I’ll happily accept this additional ad if a way to filter out in-feed ads also exists.
As many users have already paid for the program, it gives the feeling of the Wikipedia “donation” fund raisers, only reversed. With wikipedia people have paid once in the form of their attention (clicks) and contributions (edits), and are now being asked to pay a second time in hard currency. FeedDemon is doing the same, but in the reversed order.
Interesting. So FD, NG, etc. went free which drove another developer to discontinue developing his paid RSS reader product, now there is a minor revolt over the ad space in the lower left-hand corner. Maybe there is a market for a paid app after all?
I was a little thrown by the ads when I first saw them last night, manily because of the loss of screen real estate. That said, FeedDemon is *still* the best feed reader. I say, “Keep up the great work!”
This is the end of FeedDemon – at least for me.
I used it regularly even when it was in Beta, and bought a license immediately when it was released.
But now I do not even bother to download the RC.
I will uninstall 2.8 Beta, reinstall the last released version and use it, until I decide for another reader.
Goodbye FeedDemon, goodbye Nick Bradbury, you have been a Dev-Hero for me for many years (I am a dev myself).
Really sad to see you go this (IMHO wrong) way.
Why mimick all the idiots out there?
I hope that one day you will recognize this, and come back with a paid ad-free version.
Until then…
I paid for FeedDemon before it went free for 2 years, last payment i did only a month before Feedemon went free without receiving a refund and now i find a product with ads ? I think this is a shame for your previous customers, not for people that began using Feedemon after was released as freeware.
Pay attention, you have lost a previous customer and user, RSS Bandit is a good product and i’m moving. Bye
I use NetNewsWire and I would rather pay than see the ads. If you need to make revenue off your products, then you shouldn’t have made them free.
As a NetNewsWire user, who paid for NNW many moons ago, I can’t really say I’m too worried about this. The Deck ads are indeed tasteful, and I don’t mind them at all in sites I read and apps that have integrated them.
In fact, I paid for Twitteriffic and left the app unregistered, since tha ads aren’t bad, and I found it was a nice way to support the developers.
All in all the Deck model of ads is a really nice one. Given how much crap advertising there is on the internet, these people have found a nice way to do it really well. I wouldn’t want them covering my entire screen, but nestled down in the corner, it’s really not a big deal.
I’m glad you guys are finding a way to support the development, though I imagine these whiners would pipe down if you just let them buy your app again. Then again that’s a pretty expensive option for you guys – having to create two separate versions, deal w/ payment, serial #s, etc.
This strikes me as an interesting PR problem. Ads in a free product are not generally so controversial, but you’ve got the curse and blessing of a loyal customer base.
Loyalty translates to emotion, which means this situation can’t be analyzed with pure logic. In other words, your most valued, loyal customers are precisely the ones who are going to react emotionally first, and have the hardest time accepting your explanations on a purely rational level.
What most people are expressing is a sense of the rug being pulled from under them. People who invested early, expressing their love for the product, might now feel the product doesn’t love them back. It’s all well and good to say “you can keep using the version you have,” but that’s also a thinly veiled way of asking customers … not to be your customers any longer ;)
I tend towards the opinion that re-establishing a paid version would be a good compromise here, of course there are hassles and responsibilities of selling the software directly to customers that you might be hesitant to re-engage with. And of course, maybe this vocal minority in the comments is just that. Perhaps an ads-laden free product by itself is in fact the only solution you need.
Good luck figuring this out!
Wow. I’m amazed at how many people are flipping out over advertisements. Last time I checked, all of this was taking place on the internet. You know, that place where 95% of the content is ad-supported?
I admit I haven’t been using FeedDemon from the beginning, I grabbed it after it became free, when I was looking for a better way to manage feeds across multiple computers. In fact, I’m fairly sure I found it via a banner ad.
Look at what Newsgator is doing here: First, they’re acknowledging that people have paid for FeedDemon, and they’re doing the most reasonable thing there. You paid for a perfectly good product, and you get to keep it along with the rest of the service. You don’t get new features, but it’s not like the version you have is horribly unstable or unusable.
Second, they even take it a step further, because I didn’t pay for the current version of FeedDemon, but I could still theoretically keep it and never see ads. That’s a pretty sweet deal.
Third, they’ve decided to be fairly conservative with ads, and avoid all the things that generally drive me crazy like Flash ads (both plain video and the ones with sound that jump all over your screen), Intelltxt (possibly the spawn of the devil), and even just plain-jane obnoxious flashing GIFs. That’s pretty cool.
It seems perfectly reasonable to ask for a paid version as well as an ad-supported one, but threatening to switch to a different product is just pointless. If you want to switch, switch; I want Newsgator to keep developing this product, and I don’t want to have to pay for it. I’ll definitely download the new version.
Ads in NNW would be fine by me. I’ve long wondered how NG was going to survive, given all my use of it (Mac client, iPhone client, and the website on rare occasions) has been free. The Deck is a wonderful and tasteful ad network and inclusion in NNW wouldn’t bother me in the least.
Kudos on a great product.
To all those that have said they would drop FeedDemon like a hot potato if it became adware, I have just one question:
Which search engine do you use practically every day?
If the answer is Google, then there’s no other way to put it, but you’re a hypocrit.
I don’t mind the idea of ads personally, but I’ve been promoting NewsGator products inside a corporation, and ads just aren’t viable in most corporate environments. I personally use NNW, but the company is a mix of operating systems, so what FD does impacts this decision. And because we give everyone the same software, if we can’t use FD, we can’t use NNW either.
There’s something about how corporations work that just doesn’t fit with ad-supported software. I’m not entirely sure what the reason is, but I think maybe it’s that the entire budgeting process is built around the assumption that the company buys the software and the employees use it, whereas ads make the employees directly responsible for funding the software. In any case, it’s a non-starter here, and I suspect at most corporations.
So just be aware that the lack of an ad-free version won’t just lose you individual customers; it’ll cut you out of a whole market of corporate software. Maybe that’s not a market you need, but I’d really like to be able to continue using NewsGator products in my own company, so I hope you’ll offer an ad-free version going forward.
Any reference to the current economy hardly makes sense. That insinuates the ads were put in place in lieu of licensing fees, etc, but free is free, regardless of the current state of the economy.
NewsGator made a business decision to turn the client into a free client, presumably to build brand equity. By making it free, they were hoping to reach critical mass, and enjoy the fruits of ubiquity within the market place.
Frankly, to be equitable across the board, NewsGator should offer a version to paid customers that would give them the option of turning off the ads. Many, out of a gesture of good will, might still want to see the ads because they don’t seem that intrusive. To those that don’t own a paid license, offer up the same version with ads – similar to Twitterific.
This isn’t about nuisance, intrusiveness or anything of the sort. This is about principle – and you are rarely going to win an argument of principle with your customers, unfortunately.
I’m perfectly happy to BUY a newsreader from you. I might even pay
an annual fee for your feed service. Either of these hurt just once
or once a year. Ads hurt EVERY TIME I use your app.
Rob
See, if you want the money, charge the users who want to pay for it. Making it free and then serving ads means that people who’d gladly support you with a fee now not only get shunted to an ad only version which they don’t want, it also makes people wander why you made the grand move of going free at all, when you want the money.
People want to provide the fee for a clean interface. You’d rather take the money by shoving “tasteful (ya right)” ads on their face. The equation just doesn’t stand.
And for freeloaders, let them use Google Reader!
Not to be dissuaded, I’m gonna throw my full support behind your choice to start implementing ads, but ONLY if they’re from The Deck. I prefer your screenshot’s layout.
I can’t believe how indignant some of the folks on this thread have been. “No ads, or I walk.” Wow. That’s a pretty amazingly selfish ultimatum, even if you say you ARE willing to pay a yearly fee.
Maybe it’s just me, but I even take issue with the folks who say “do what you gotta do to keep this stuff free.” That’s an extremely selfish first thought, too. My first thought was, “hell, you guys have to run a business, and you all gotta eat. Tough times.” I don’t know much about NewsGator as a company, except that I get several services and pieces of software from them for free, with very little indication that they’re quietly getting any compensation from me. Seems like a lopsided relationship, and this blog post is proof positive that that’s correct, and something’s gotta give. If that means tasteful ads from The Deck, no matter how much of my screen real estate they take up, then I say do what you gotta do.
I paid for NetNewsWire, back before it was Newsgator. Since then, I got (or started to use) truly fast syncing (the old FTP sync wasn’t that great), FeedDemon and Mobile NetNewsWire. I think I got far more value out of anything Newsgator than I ever put in, and I absolutely won’t mind any ads appearing (though it would be too much to say that I’d be happy about them). I’d probably not pay for the without-ads version, though, at least not if that was the only benefit for the expensive version (and possibly not even if there was more, I’m pretty happy as it is).
What a bunch of friggin whiners.
I hate advertising so much that if my favorite application added it, I would immediately switch away from my favorite product and use one that I don’t like as much. In fact, the entire concept of advertising is so abhorrent to me that I will never purchase any product that has ever been advertised in any way. When driving, I plan all of my routes to avoid roads with billboards alongside them. It takes me an extra hour to get to work every day, but it’s worth it to avoid those dang-blasted ads!
Also, I move to Canada every time my chosen candidate loses an election. If the country isn’t perfect in every way, there’s no point in staying!
Silly idea: instead of an image, why not put the ads as simple one or two line text at the status bar? Unobtrusive text ads seem to work for google.
I’m familiar with the Deck, many of the Deck’s “member” web sites/blogs, and many of the Deck’s regular advertisers. The Deck is a well-conceived program: the ads are unobtrusive and tasteful. But it’s strongest point from an advertiser’s perspective is the targeting involved.
Do FeedDemon readers as a whole fit within the Deck’s target demo?
If I’m subscribed to feeds that don’t have anything to do with “creative, web and design culture” (as Coudal puts it over on the Deck’s web site), why would a Deck advertiser want to pay for my eyeballs?
I was also was a paying customer, paid my money weeks before this app went free. Let me pay again. Not a fan of ads.
As a long-time user of FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, and Newsgator, I can understand why you decided to make your consumer products free. I can understand why you are now experimenting with ads. I can also say without hesitation that I won’t leave this platform – there are too many advantages to Newsgator’s syncing, and FD and NNW are the best aggregators I have used, hands down.
That said, please consider offering an alternative to ads. I gladly pay for quality software, but if The Deck uses a pay-per-click model, you probably would get no revenue from me – the ads are simply not relevant to me.
What a bunch of whiny crying babies. Is this the same bunch that plasters Apple stickers on their cars?
Do you avoid EVERYTHING in this world that has advertising? How do you survive day to day?
Get over it. I suggest this thing called “fresh air”. It would do y’all a lot of good.