35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

By Hamish Gill

When I decided to monetise this website – the point I could no longer afford to run it without monetising it – I had no idea how complex it would be. The issue seems to be that the world of advertising on the internet is a highly competitive game with lots of companies all fighting over websites like mine, both in terms of providing the service to put ads on the site, and in terms of the ads themselves. It’s not really an issue I have ever got my head around, and have relied heavily on the company that provides adds to help me with it.

This relationship has generally been ok, but to say it has recently gone through a bit of a rocky patch would be an understatement. All you really need to know is that I haven’t been happy with the service. There have been issue with the site not loading properly, falling over when it does load, and even visitors to the website not seeing images – not ideal for a photography website.

I have today had crisis talks with them. I’m at a breaking point, and have made that very clear. They have promised things are going to change. Soon. So soon in fact, that we should start seeing improvements this next week. Please do feel free to message me if you see improvements, or indeed if you feel like nothing changes.

As you may or may not also know – despite having the website rebuilt once this year – I am also in the process of a complete rebuild. This isn’t just a little bit of a spit and polish this time. For the first time in 10 years I am having a complete ground up rebuild of the website. It is a big and complex job, and frankly is costing me a fortune (I have been selling cameras, my Noritsu Scanner, etc to afford it).  I should at this point say, this is not a cry for help. A few people have offered to give me cameras for me to sell to help pay for it – this is wonderful, but on all 3 occasions people have made this offer, I have declined. This is my website, I earn a small amount of my living from it, it’s my problem to fix. That said, you would like to contribute to the site – and remove the adverts/slightly speed up the website for your self – either through content or through subscription in the normal ways, I would, of course, welcome that!

The purpose of this post is simply to reassure some of you that the mess the website is in – slow and too many damned adverts – are problems that I am working on, and that hopefully before the year is out, will be fixed.

Thank you for your continued support!

Hamish

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About The Author

By Hamish Gill
I started taking photos at the age of 9. Since then I've taken photos for a hobby, sold cameras for a living, and for a little more than decade I've been a professional photographer and, of course, weekly contributor to 35mmc.
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Paul Quellin on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Hi Hamish. I find the site beneficial. I signed up as a contributor, but I would be happy to pay a subscription anyway. Is it possible to do this without the system seeing it as a new signup or somehow impacting my contributor status?
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Hamish Gill replied:

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Hi Paul, This is very generous of you thank you. I actually didn't anticipate this when I was setting up the subscription system, so no it isn't possible with the same user. That said, this has also come up recently, and the way the person in question solved this issue was to sign up with a second different email address. If you don't want to do that, when the new website is launched I am planning to tweak it to make it work, I just don't want to get into that whilst the build is still in progress. Thank you again for the support, this level of generosity does mean a lot!

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Jeremy Rata on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Keep going mate, you are an absolute legend in this world. Film photography, actually Photography needs more like you.
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Hamish Gill replied:

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Thank you Jeremy! You know I appreciate your support - and I believe also still owe you a favour!!

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Erik Brammer replied:

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

I can only agree, and should there ever be a one-time investment you need to make into infrastructure, I am certain that a bunch of people would be happy to chip in with a few quid on top of their subscriptions or content contribution. Thanks for everything, Hamish!

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Thorsten on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Dear Hamish, thank you for all the work you put up into this gem. And like with an old Leica there are quirks when the anlog and digital worlds are clashing a bit. I for my part never experienced annoying delays loading content or adverts… be it on older and new macs or Google pixel phones. Maybe wordpress is part of the problem and biting with monetizing apparatus. Anyway, give us a shout how we can help. Cheers!
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Kevin Finger on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

I like the page as such. I pay the small subscription that you recommended. Just a small sum every month. June 1967 at the age of just 17 my father gave me a folding 120 film Kodak 66, Model III for my birthday and I have been "snapping" ever since. Over the years I went 35mm and now digital. I still have my Kodak 66 and few other 35mm cameras and I put film them every so often.
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Bob Janes on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

You do very well sir! Personal thanks for providing the service and for keeping me out of mischief. This is a very good site, with a positive following, so a little inconvenience sometimes is very tolerable.
Keep up the good work :-)
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Jukka Reimola replied:

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Hi Aniello, By all means go ahead and become a contributor! Send in some photos. Write a few lines. I'm a recent member of 35mmc myself, and have been immensely pleased with this jolly group. Just hop in! You won't regret it.

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Ralph Turner on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Bob Janes sums it up nicely. A personal thank you from me, too.
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Jukka Reimola on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Hamish,
First, I would like to thank you for providing this place for us old farts (and some fine younger people) to share, enjoy and comment each others photos and writing. This, I must admit, has been very important for me personally. 35mmc has been a breath of fresh air among all the turmoil going on all around our world nowadays, not to mention in my personal life. If, to say this, feels like an exaggeration... well, that's how I feel.
So, what ever you decide to do with 35mmc, I wish you all the luck and will power & strenght to overcome every obstacle you may face.
BTW, I haven't noticed any problems with the site, since the recent reload.
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Chris Rusbridge on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Thanks for this Hamish. I thought it was quite funny that all 4 adverts that decorated that post were identical (so were the next two further down the page, before we got to the collection of weird ads starting with some NSFW underwear)! I don't think they are serving you very well...
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Chantel Wakefield on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

sending a big, virtual hug to you, Hamish. thanks for all you do to keep this website (and online community) running.

Xx Chantel
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Gil Aegerter on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

I completely support your efforts and those of the folks who post for you. Your site has provided a wealth of information about the analog world for me. I'm sure you don't need any advice on your rebuild, but I'll offer it anyway: keep it simple. When a company offers to "add features," don't. I've been through some complete rebuilds, including a couple with msnbc.com, and those darn "features" bollix things up every time.
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Jan Friedrich on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 13/10/2023

Hello H, yes the ads are a pain, but this is nothing compared to VICE etc.
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Julian Tanase on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 14/10/2023

Hamish, from where I stand it would be a good thing to set up the new website to accept both subscriptions AND contributions, if one should wish to choose so. I, for one, would gladly go for both.

Apart from a couple of times when images were absent, and the slightly longer time to load a page, I haven't noticed serious issues with your website. That said, internet is what it is, and stuff like this happens.

I know you'll get to the bottom of this, and if help is needed, all you have to do is letting me/us know. For all the effort you put into this, I am certain that many will join hands to help you.

Best of,

JT
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Tony Warren on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 15/10/2023

I can only echo all the comments above. The work you put in is valued and appreciated by everyone who enjoys it.
Regards,
Tony.
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Aniello on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 15/10/2023

This post comes at the right time.
I am not a subscriber nor a contributor and I'm happy with having to endure the pain of advert, but somehow something must have changed as I was starting to feel this to be a cheap website with great content, ruined by too many and poor quality advert.

So hearing you and knowing you're tackling the problem reassures me there's a nice human being behind the site and actually I'm now leaning towards the subscription.

Keep up the good work.
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Hamish Gill replied:

Comment posted: 15/10/2023

Thanks, Aniello. Yep... I'm here with my little team, trying to keep this place ticking over. I've been at it for 10 years, so pretty much dedicated to the cause at this stage :)

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Jukja Reimola replied:

Comment posted: 15/10/2023

Hi Aniello, By all means go ahead and become a contributor! Send in some photos. Write a few lines. I'm a recent member of 35mmc myself, and have been immensely pleased with this jolly group. Just hop in! You won't regret it.

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Zheng Li on 35mmc, Adverts, Website Issues, and a Path Forward

Comment posted: 16/10/2023

Hi Hamish, Maybe it was my imagination, but I did feel the images load faster in the last two days (both if I logged in as contributor or without logging in).

Thanks for trying to improving the site. We also run some wordpress websites for work, and it can become quite hairy and mysteriously slow once there are lots of content (esp. images). Even a few Ph.D.s later we still cannot make it faster, so you are not alone. ;-)
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