NOTICE: Many deviants read a small portion of updates like this and then comment without having all the information. Please read the entire article before commenting!


Hey everyone, previously I explained how deviantART was taking a new approach to advertising and moving in different directions than normal web properties. Since that time we have been working very hard to bring together deals and sponsorships in order to do just that.

We are currently making a lot of changes which will be of great benefit. These include forging relationships with large networks and advertisers in order to make the best possible use of our ad inventory as well as terminating relationships with networks which do not meet our requirements for ad content.

The biggest thing we are doing different is concerning the amount of ads shown on the site. We are adding more! Before you freak out and start coming after me with torches and pitchforks , allow me to explain.

OMG MORE?!@

Up until this point in time, we have always viewed advertising on deviantART in two categories; subscribers and non-subscribers. This is however changing. A large amount of traffic to deviantART is created by people who are not logged into the site. These people are ‘spectators’. Spectators will be presented with quite a few more advertising zones than logged in users. Any spectator who chooses to can get a deviantART account (not necessarily a subscription) and these new zones will be removed when they are logged in.

The biggest difference of these changes is with the addition of interstitial advertisements. These ads take up the entire page and allow the spectator to click a link in order to proceed. This type of advertisement generates more revenue than anything else by far and is going to greatly assist in the ongoing development of deviantART. These interstitials will launch tomorrow morning with an advertiser who is really cool. I think you will like it.

These changes may seem like a big deal, but remember that a person can get a free account anytime they wish and these ads go away. This is the perfect manner in which to generate the revenue we need for the site without impacting all of you deviants. It will most likely also encourage all those people looking at your art but never commenting to start.

Folio Funnage!

Around the time of my last update on the workings of advertising, everyone was up in arms about ads showing up on subscriber’s pages. I understood the reason for your annoyance and therefore had them taken down again.

In the near future we will be launching a subscriber feature called ‘Portfolio’. This feature will allow far more customization of cosmetic elements and presentation of your artwork. It will also allow you to choose whether a spectator (like a business contact) sees your deviantART user page or your portfolio when linking directly to you (username.deviantart.com).

This feature will allow you deviants who are professional artists to make much more use of deviantART as an online portfolio destination. Therefore when this portfolio feature launches we will put ads back on subscriber’s pages.

The grass; it’s full of green!

These changes are helping deviantART in a multitude of ways, many of which are not apparent on the outside. Trust me when I say that they will empower us to move in a lot better directions in a smoother manner.

They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. deviantART has had to suffer with many fences in it’s life, but we all just keep jumping over them and moving forward. Do you know what we keep finding out?

The grass is greener!


CLARIFICATION: When I say that ads will be put back on subscriber pages, this does NOT mean that subscribers will begin to see ads again. It simply means that people who visit subscriber's pages will see ads. Also, ads will never appear on portfolio pages.