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Why, this joint is starting to look respectable!
Glad to see Amazon book ads!
Glad to see Amazon book ads!
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 10, 2008 - 4:28 PMThanks! We're testing them out on one server now, so not everyone will see them right away, and they may move around a bit before we finalize the locations. They definitely seem to be a bit more relevant that the Google ads we were getting for the last month. -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 10, 2008 - 4:57 PMI was off clicking around over there. They have glass-like faceted computer speakers for $1,000.00. They look pretty neat.
I also checked out the decade candy gift packs, I think I looked at the one from the 70's, with Pop Rocks and Candy Cigarettes. You know, it's the fault of the candy cigarette makers that I smoke today. AND that I have cavities. LOL! ;)
I looked at toys. For me. I think everyone needs a slingshot-launched flying faux frog.
It's sooooo much better than the other ads we had. The books, I saw Obama books being offered.
AND the Amazon link opened in a new tab, and did not steal me away from Tribe like the eBay ads did. I like that much better.
I'm tellin' ya, I think the better quality ads will have some people acting better. It creates an ambiance that is more respectable. We could have the same discussion anywhere. But if we were in a seedy wharf bar full of swearing sailors, we might be more prone to swear than we would in the main thoroughfare at a prestigious educational institution full of scholarly youth studying something seriously. You know what I mean?
But someone needs to tell Google that I am not a fat gay Native American, because that's what I've been getting from them. LOL! -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 10, 2008 - 6:03 PMYAY! Amazon ads!
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 10, 2008 - 7:54 PMI liked the ad placement side by side with the original posting - as it was before. At least then I have something to look at if I lose interest in the topic of discussion - which might increase the chances of me clicking through the ad (cha-ching!) to get to Amazon.
Right now, with it's placement of front and center, on top of the content of the topic - I scroll right past it to start reading the thread.
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 10, 2008 - 10:51 PMIt was hard to read earlier, when the ad showed up in the white space (not the gray space to the right) and shared it with posts.
Like that cube of Amazon would have been in the upper right or upper left corner, and the text from the post would have been in the opposite white corner. The font size was too similar and I continued to read a sentence right over into the ad. LOL!
That is easy to do, if you've ever been on message boards that have insert options for animated emoticons or small images. One learns to read left to right, leaping over spaces and images, just following the words. And the words from a post led into the ad and the ad leads back into the post, so it's a big mess. For me.
Did you check out the Kindle? I never saw anything like that before. Of course they are sold out and won't be available for a couple months. It's this thing that you can read books, magazines and newspapers on. You can buy new books for far less than hardbacks. Magazines and newspapers seem to be less costly via Kindle.
I don't know what the environmental impact of that item being made is, but it would be awesome to have a library of books, newspapers and magazines in one little package. They have memory thingies too, so your library could be massive, with the data stored on memory in a drawer. NO more book dusting! No more landfill. No more cut down trees. I kinda want one.
www.amazon.com/dp/B000FI73MA -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 10, 2008 - 10:59 PMThey ought to put college textbooks on Kindle. Would that ever make toting books for school much much easier and probably cheaper.
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Sun, December 14, 2008 - 2:12 AMWe're very happy to have our advertisers at all!
But the placement needs some major tuning. There are differences between the google and amazon ads that need to be tuned and some odd rendering variations between nearly identical viewing environments that we're looking at.
Longer term we're pretty confident users of tribe will respond optimally to different placements and ads than visitors and we're working on tuning for visitor type as well. -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Sun, December 14, 2008 - 2:52 AMI was wondering, if there could be a preference set by a user/member for the kinds of ads they want to see?
I really DO like the Amazon ads. There ARE some books I am interested in, but the last time I tried to order with them, it wouldn't work. I think it might have been last year though, before I changed ISPs and Firefox has obviously been updated since that time. Really annoyed me that I couldn't order.
For this thread, checking in to see the latest posts, I got an Ilaniowear ad. I'm almost 50. You don't want to see me in Ilaniowear. Even *I* don't want to see me in Ilaniowear. And I can't imagine the pain I'd be in with all that bare skin coming in contact with all the stinging nettle that I encounter daily. A 50-year-old woman in star underpants covered with nettle welts is never attractive. But I bet I could scare people and make children cry. ;)
So I will NEVER be buying Ilaniowear. But there's a good chance I will be buying books. I'd love to be able to see things that I really AM interested in.
I find all my sources for interior design via ads on sites and in magazines. ADS. As in: Wow, that's a nice looking lamp. must bookmark that. Ads take me to places like this: www.lumicor.com/_arch/index.php
We don't get those kind of ads, but I would like it if we did. -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Sun, December 21, 2008 - 2:40 AMRelevancy is the holy grail of internet advertising. There are some interesting issues:
A social network should be able to know a lot about the sorts of things a user is interested in, for example simply what tribes a person belongs to says a lot about the things their interested in, let alone finer grained analysis of what tribes they're active in, what they say, the ads they have clicked on etc. But users find that a little creepy, so one has to be careful about what information does get used, where it goes, and to be very explicit. Of course many users do not read anything, they just click and then when things aren't just what they assumed, they're upset. So privacy is a constraint in relevancy.
Another constraint is that advertising networks hate each other. A place like Tribe needs advertising networks to have enough ads to choose from and to have some variety. In theory they're working as hard as they can to test different ads and show the ones to the community that convert best, but they don't have insight into the user.
Meta-networks aggregate a variety of ad feeds and some do page level A/B testing to figure out what ads monetize best on each page in a site. In theory Google and Amazon are doing the same thing, ever so slowly figuring out which ads Tribe users respond to, but I can't say I see the evidence of that myself.
The page sensitive and user sensitive mechanisms are interesting, but in the end if the ads look irrelevant to us, it may be exactly as intended. Tribe users aren't the most click-happy viewers of Tribe's pages; most of the ads are targeted toward visitors who come in from search engines. -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Sun, December 21, 2008 - 5:47 AMTribe says:
" In theory Google and Amazon are doing the same thing, ever so slowly figuring out which ads Tribe users respond to, but I can't say I see the evidence of that myself. "
I think it's working, better than it ever has. For instance, on the DIY tribe: do-it-yourself.tribe.net I'm currently getting a Ford Truck ad and a Sam's Club ad.
They seem to push certain ads all the time. Like no matter what page I have checked, I'm getting the Sam's Club ad. But it IS appropriate for many things, including recipeexchange.tribe.net/ Because the ad is in combination with Proctor and Gamble products. Detergents, paper towels, that's for after you've done it yourself and made mess in the shop or in the kitchen. And then there's the Scope, after you've prepared the garlic dish.
Hey! They have links to free samples too. And coupons to print online, but I don't have a printer. Anyway...
There WERE ads for telescopes in Astronomy: astro.tribe.net/
There WERE ads for solar panels and solar info in... tribes.tribe.net/altenergy
Over on nontraditionalhousing.tribe.net/ right now there are ads for green building, earth building, mobility products for the home, eco-plaster, and Johnson Controls which makes sensors to turn off/on lights (and a bunch of other stuff too). Stuff you'd see at schools or hospitals, in business and industry...but why aren't we using those in our residence? Occupancy sensors for homes would make as much sense as they do in business. If you're not in the room, the light doesn't need to be on. It could even be a bit of a safety feature, if anyone was to try to break in and sneak around, the rooms would light up as they progressed.
So, yeah, there are very relevant ads that regular tribe users might click on. I checked out the Sam's Club one. And I checked out Johnson Controls.
And the ad Tribe had a year or two ago, for the Honda FIT is in part the reason I bought one on Friday. It wasn't JUST the ad, of course. I read reviews and articles and ratings. I had a running car when I first saw the ad, and I didn't have money. When the old car gave it's last wheeze and money became available, after much fussing and reading, I ended up with a FIT. As seen on Tribe. LOL!
I know they would have preferred I race out and buy one as soon as I saw the ad. The ad planted a seed. The seed lay dormant until the time was right. And then it grew and bloomed.
And even though I knew I would most likely be getting a small car, I also clicked on the Ford Truck ad. Because I was in the market for a new vehicle. And I wanted to be sure that I had examined the possibilities. I hadn't considered a truck, but the Ford one has a back seat. That is plenty of room for groceries or other things I may need to transport. I wouldn't use the truck bed, but if the mileage was good and the price was right, it would be worth considering. The mileage (MPG) was not right for me. And I don't need that horsepower or size...
But guess what? If I ever needed a truck, I now have a Ford truck seed planted. I watched the videos over there (not all of them). There are different engines to choose from. The seat folds up and down. I'm more familiar with that truck than any other truck on the road, ONLY because of the ad.
I'm pretty conscious of ads and their effects. I don't watch TV, listen to the radio, or read magazines. I'm not as ad-bombed as other people who do those things are. So I can really sit back and let the ads do their magic...and analyze it afterwards. LOL! -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 2:12 PMIf everybody on tribe was to buy their new car or house from Amazon after clicking on an Amazon ad on Tribe we'd have our finances nicely covered. Amazon should start buying up bank-owned mortgages and resell them online! -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 4:11 PMSpeaking of ads and finances and the Premium membership...can you please write in a code that allows Premium member to turn on ads?
I like ads. And I could send a check for the Premium membership. But I want the ads. I do.
The ads have been really good lately. I WANT links to related products and services, depending on what tribes I'm in. I WANT to be able to follow those links and see what they have that is of interest to me. -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 4:30 PM<can you please write in a code that allows Premium member to turn on ads>
A toggle for that would be really good. -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 5:41 PMTake is a step further (I always do)
Instead of a toggle, for priemium subscribers they get a "Ad Select" page, kinda like their list of tribes in teh homepage module. You then can go through and select which ads you want to see.
eg: I wouldn't mind amazon, but everything else I would rather skip.
Now, from tribes perspective, this is an AMAZING polling tool, as they can see which ads peopel want to see and help with teh tuning to make users and advertisers happy (and not have a repeat of the AFF incident!)
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 8:07 PMGoing even farther than Shatter...
How about an ad search engine?
No, I'm not kidding.
Something independent of the tribes, but using the same idea, KEYWORDS.
Yes, I can do a Google search for things like "solar panels". And I can get all kinds of hits and be in link heaven.
But why not give the CREDIT for the links to THIS site. See what I'm saying?
Maybe that is somehow already incorporated in the search system. Let me ask, if I use the Google search at the top of this page, for "solar panel" and get these results:
Ads by Google
Go Green Get Solar Panels
www.Ca-Green.com Residential Solar Panel Solutions Get A Free Esitmates & Rebates!
Solar Panel
www.Empire-Solar.com Free In-Home Assessment. Specialize in Residential Solar Systems.
SB Solar Panel Systems
www.recsolar.com/ Rebates make solar panel power systems cost effective - ask us how
SunPower Your Home
www.SunPowerCorp.com High Efficiency Solar Systems. Request An Evaluation Now!
BEFORE getting links to tribes and posts and stuff, like this:
Solar Panels that work AT NIGHT - Black Rock Solar Project - tribe.net
2 posts - Last post: Feb 3
The most expensive, carefully designed, and complicated solar panels in the world operate at about 40% efficiency. ...
tribes.tribe.net/brsolar/thread/98c6a368-1467-4fb0-aea3-f94df5cd15d9
Labeled blogs tribes
DOES TRIBE GET CREDIT FOR THOSE LINKS???????????
If I click on SunPowerCorp, Ca-Green, Empire-solar, recsolar, does Tribe get credit?
If so, maybe you folks at Tribe could make that a bit clearer to the members. There are Ads by Google at the top and the bottom of the results page. Five more links at the bottom.
And I'm guessing that Premium members won't see those either? Or not. Can someone check? -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 8:39 PMIf you mean can I see the ads once I click on the links you provided, yes, as a premium member I can see them.
I don't see any ads on the tribe pages, and prefer it that way. Every once in a while I'm curious what the new ads are these days, and I browse tribe without being logged on to see some of them.
An option to see ads or not sounds like a nice addition for the future. There are those that'll want to see the ads. But I'll still look at Tribe ad free. -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 9:32 PMI posted an image of what I'm talking about.
Worth noting that when I copy and paste the ads from the search results page, the GOOGLE CODE is inactivated, and the site's regular address is activated.
The link from the result page for Empire-Solar would be this doozie:
www.google.com/aclk
That big jumble of numbers and letters means something, and I'm guessing it has to do with where the ad was found.
But when I pasted all the ads into the last post I made, the ONLY part that showed up as an active link is www.empire-solar.com
Which means tribe would NOT get credit at all for a copied and pasted section of ads. Right?
oops, link to photo:
brainstorm.tribe.net/photos/...db9801eb -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 24, 2008 - 2:25 AMThat is true, if you go straight to the URL of the advertising company that is "direct" traffic and is free to them.
If you get to a company by way of the ad you may note that the URL is quite long and goes through Google to get there. This process lets Google know you started on Tribe, then redirects you on to the advertiser. Google bills the advertiser some amount ($0.05-$50.00 or so depending on the competition for the search phrase the ad was triggered by) and gives us a cut (some percentage of that they keep kind of secret).
Ads that are displayed as matching content (as the ones on our pages are) typically cost less than ads that are triggered by a search term. This is because if someone searches for "MP3 player price" they're probably looking to buy an MP3 player and so a click is more likely to "convert" into a sale than a click from a user on the same ad shown on a page discussing MP3s. In theory the ads on the "search" page are worth more than the ones shown on the "content" pages, but not always.
The google ads are PPC ads, meaning pay per click. The amazon ads are affiliate ads, which work differently. If you click on any amazon link, amazon sets a cookie on your system. Whether you buy anything now or any time before you either: clear the cookies, the cookie expires, or you click on somebody else's amazon ad we get some percentage of the total value of your purchase (currently 7%, increasing as we get credit for more purchases). In the case of Amazon the ads that show are somewhat irrelevant - it's just eye candy to convince users to go to Amazon. In theory that works better if the products are interesting and so in theory relevance to the page matters, but we don't know that for sure yet; it might be better to just post a flashing "shop amazon, click here" badge everywhere.
Later we will get to some pay per view or PPV ads. Some of the other, larger social networks have killed PPV pricing, which is sold as CPM or Cost Per (m)Thousand because they generate so many page views without any real interest in the ads. (m for mille, used because accountants think French numeracy is more sensible than Greek so rather than kilo dollars and mega dollars we have $m for thousands and $mm for millions (thousand thousand)). PPV ads record every time a page is shown and pay out $1-10 per thousand views (or so, rough numbers). PPC, Amazon and PPM ads can all be equivalenced by an eCPM which is effective cost per thousand views. That is, although we get paid per click on a PPC ad and most viewers don't click at all, over time we build up enough statistical information to compute an effective revenue per page view.
Normally Google is one of the best advertising networks: their strategy seems to work well being both relevant to the page and not so intrusive as to be repulsive. We are looking at meta-networks that manage the ad units directly. That is instead of allocating little patches of each page here and there to Google or to Amazon or to whoever, we give them all to this third party company that has worked out relationships with as many ad networks as possible. They A/B test different ads in different places and figure out which ones earn the most money, dynamically updating the networks as they get better or worse. Ultimately we can do this ourselves and save the commission but we have a lot to do... -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 24, 2008 - 2:35 AMTOU Gal wrote: ...you go straight to the URL..
>
Ha! I love that. I first read it as "you go straight to URL" Lol
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 24, 2008 - 8:00 PM>> it might be better to just post a flashing "shop amazon, click here" badge everywhere. <<
When I have looked at tribe not logged on and so I see the ads, I am much more interested and happy about the Amazon ads when they are actually books that relate to the subjects I'm interested in. A universal ad of "shop amazon" would turn me off as every other ad does.
Interestingly enough, when I see the Amazon ads without being logged in, the ads still seem to be more directed at me and what my interests are according to what I've ordered from them in the past and what my personal interests are than what the tribe page I'm viewing is about. I guess it's all about cookies.
Another good thing to say about Amazon, you can order almost any book used. And trust it will arrive in good condition, and soon, as promised. This helps the environment. One should not buy new things when one can buy it used. -
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 24, 2008 - 9:17 PMOn second look, the ads are related to the tribes I moderate, or perhaps am just a member of, and so have visited recently than books I've ordered from Amazon.com in the past.
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Re: Way better! Love the Amazon ads!
Wed, December 24, 2008 - 10:34 PMI have something else for you too, Shopzilla (Bizrate).
www.bizrate.com
That's a site I use sometimes to compare prices. Here's their menu of categories...
# What's Hot
* Ugg Boots
* Women's Jeans
* Men's Sweaters
* Cashmere Scarves
* Kids' Jackets
* NFL Shop
* NFL Jerseys
* Digital SLR Cameras
* LCD Televisions
* Apple iPod Touch 32 GB
# Babies & Kids
* Baby & Kids' Bedding
* Baby & Kids' Furniture
* Baby Gear
* Kids' Clothes
# Clothing & Accessories
* Men's Clothing
* Men's Shoes
* Sunglasses
* Women's Clothing
* Women's Shoes
# Computers & Software
* Ink, Toner & Inkjet Cartridges
* Laptop Computers
* Memory Cards
* PDA & Handheld Computers
* Printers
# Electronics
* Camcorders
* Digital Cameras
* GPS
* MP3 & Media Players
* TV
# Health & Beauty Supplies
* Cosmetics
* Hair Care
* Perfume and Cologne
* Skin Care Products
* Vitamins & Nutrition
# Home & Garden
* Appliances
* Bedding
* Home Lighting
* Tableware
* Window Treatments
# Furniture
* Bedroom Furniture
* Dining Room Furniture
* Kitchen Furniture
* Living Room Furniture
* Outdoor Furniture
# Jewelry & Watches
* Bracelets
* Earrings
* Necklaces & Pendants
* Rings
* Watches
# Sports & Outdoors
* Bicycles & Equipment
* Camping & Hiking Gear
* Fitness Equipment
* Golf Gifts & Equipment
* Swimming, Pools & Jacuzzis
# Toys & Games
* Kids' Arts & Crafts Supplies
* Outdoor Games & Fun
* Robotic & Radio Control Toys
# More
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That has a bunch more stuff than Amazon and eBay. Different things, like clothing. Like appliances. So you need a new washer or dryer, you end up here:
www.bizrate.com/washers_dryers/
You'll see listings of various products IN various stores. You're tapping into TWO categories. And they have all kinds of filtering, to search by price, by brand, and the very important Energy Star category. I don't want to see it if it's not Energy Star rated.
This lets us, the customers, fine tune our search. Great. Which can also be a valuable service provided on this site, with their ads. The bar/banner ad i saw on another site had three items featured, and also had a search box (the eBay ads also have the search box).
I found this on the Shopzilla site:
publisher.shopzilla.com/
I don't know if Tribe.net is considered a "website content publisher" but since I saw their ads on another site that has message boards, I'd guess tribe would be able to get their ads too.
What may make this different is what it says for the description:
Publishers have access to a growing suite of tools to create and select contextually relevant shopping content to display on their sites, and will generate earnings from activity associated with the display of Shopzilla's Sponsored Shopping Content.
YOU get to select what is relevant. I don't know if that is site-wide or per tribe or what.
If it was site-wide, you could pick out the "Tribe shopping thingie of the day". It could be seasonal/holiday related. It could be related to their main page over there that has the word clouds showing what people are searching for. Like right now people are searching for maxi dresses and gladiator sandals. Uh, a trend I must have missed.
Here's the word cloud words:
outdoor furniture
laptop computers
gazebo
pda
gladiator sandals
maxi dresses
bedding
appliances
maxi dress
dell laptops
frontline plus
canon cameras
dumbells
chaise lounge
mini fridge
dell laptop
refrigerators
garmin gps
dvr
outdoor bar
meat grinder
refrigerator
outdoor curtains
snow cone machine
gps systems
pool lights
iphone covers
polo shoes
tom tom gps
electronics
If there's a way to set it per tribe, you find some moderator volunteers to pick the ads. Responsible moderators who are around and really do care about what goes on in their tribes will probably be thrilled to pick ads that are relevant and help to support tribe by doing so.
Not everyone can do the subscription. But if people are busy cooking up something great in food/dining/recipes, they would be much more likely to check out food processors, cookware, kitchen implements.
I know just who to volunteer too. Patti. LOL! A big recipe tribe, with lots of activity. She's very responsible, of course, and also has the tech knowledge.
This is what they have as categories:
Kitchen
* Appliances
* Cooking & Baking
* Cutlery
* Kitchen Supplies & Utensils
Then you can compare and contrast the revenue that comes in from a new style of ad, where the moderator picks the categories to go with their tribe.
There are many sports/outdoors/camping/hiking/nature tribes. An experienced camping moderator could plug in ads for the things s/he has used and know work well. Pets/animals, there are tribes and there are products. Babies and kids, tribes and products.
Especially since the specific products can be hand-picked and even FEATURED in a post in the thread. Because the moderator would KNOW what ads are showing up that day...they PICKED the ads. Any of us could plug in a link to our favorite something, but there is no way of giving tribe credit for anyone mentioning their favorites. Unless ads can be picked.
And that long jumbo link could be pasted into the featured product post, so when the ads change, the link that gives tribe credit would still be available in the thread (if they allow that, and it should work). Or if a discussion comes up about something, it can have an ad the next day. Looking for a plastic yule log mold? They have it:
www.bizrate.com/kitchensup...e+mold.html
Once you get to the lion's deal store, you find they also have the steel hemisphere molds.
www.lionsdeal.com/pwc-47536-16.html
Every one of those clicks could be going to Tribe. And people would be much more likely to click on things that truly do appeal to them and have something to do with the tribe they are in.
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