Guest posts and advertising on and with Ackadia

Advertising on Ackadia

Intro

October 2026:
Not running at present, apart from an animal rescue charity link, one we support and [this] affiliate link to Rocket.net,

 
tldr;, jump to: [Guest posts] > [advertising rates]
 

Ackadia is old!
Old smiley.
We might not be Huffington Post, but we were here long before them, before Google, before almost any site you can name. We had an internet café of sorts back when that meant dialup to CIS and BBS.

Ackadia started in October 1998 – nearly 30 years ago – and I was doing web and computer stuff long before that.

90s, 00s… Gen Alpha, Gen Z, Milennials… That’s three generations of web users that have come along since we began!

{ Charity fancy dress event in support of Red Nose Day, 1995 }

Might not mean much if you are hoping for a surge of traffic, but it still carries weight, I think.


Update as of Oct 2024

This site is not cheap to run, if only for the hosting fees, so I will consider placed adverts and guest posts, with caveats (i.e rel=”sponsored” is going in there!)

Crunchy stuff first:

Domain Rating: 15 (Ahref)
Domain Authority: 26 (Moz etc.)
Unique traffic: ~10,000 a month, (since fallen to around 4,000 (Thanks, Google AI))
Site age: 28 years (unbroken since 1998)

Moving on:
Companies I like and recommend, (WPAstra, Rocket.net hosting, Larian Games, Shiro Games, animal charities…) no problem, happy to help.
Companies that fit here, sure, we can talk.

But any ‘funny stuff’, gambling promotions, the toxic ‘drowning in microtransactions’ garbage, not so much. If I don’t like you, you ain’t going on here!
You get the idea.

Cleanliness is next to godliness, or so they say

I don’t like much about Google, but I’m with them on the idea of a clean, minimalist site.

With Pagespeed tests, Ackadia’s performance is rated 90 on mobile (4G throttled) and 100 on desktop:

.

{ Ackadia’s Page speed is near perfect }

Ackadia on desktop, Nov 2022. Performance 100, LCP 0.6s
{ Ackadia on desktop, Nov 2022: Performance 100, LCP 0.6s }

Ackadia on 4G throttled mobile, Nov 2022, Performance 90, LCP 3.4s
{ Ackadia on mobile (4G throttled ), Nov 2022, Performance 90, LCP 3.4s }

So, for me, placing adverts is a big deal.

 


Generated adverts

Note:
I occasionally play around with Google Analytics and Google Adsense to see how they look, how they work etc. If you see them, in all likelihood, I’ll rip them out again as I just don’t like them or Google, but for now, if you see such ads, they are Google’s hellspawn!

That is to say, advertisements in place: there are NO placement or affiliate links or ads on this site.

I fully support the use of adblockers, and browsers (such as Opera) that include a built-in adblocker.

I used to like Google Adsense, in the early days, before they got greedy. I did recently add it back, at the minimum (auto) setting. Intrusive as heck, so I’ve ripped it out again. Adsense was generating all of about £10 a month, so hardly worth the trouble. Might have another look another time.

If you are curious, I only get around 4,000 unique visitors a month (used to be 65,000), but I’ve seen peaks of over 2,200 per day. Depends what shit Google’s up to, especially with their AI scraping every ones sites and bypassing content creators to maximise their profits.

I might have a play with Amazon ads again for the same reason. Never going to cover the cost of hosting, but it helps – a tiny bit.
(There may be a few old affiliate links (for books) lurking, but I remove these whenever I see them)

That said, extra layers of security, management, etc are not cheap and with optimal setup I ideally need close to £3,000 a year to maintain this site. Double that with the shinier options (like iStock access). So, I will consider adverts if they fit. Read on.


Advertising with Ackadia

Full disclosure first!

Ackadia used to be quite popular. It had up to 100,000 unique visitors a month (back when few people had internet), a Google page rank of 7 and an Alexa rank of around 50,000 or better. That was many years ago though and various health issues resulted in the site plummeting to obscurity as work here slowed and eventually ceased. Still, it has been here for over 20 years and I’m starting to rebuild the place again, albeit slowly.

I’m sure if you are using due diligence you’ll validate the ranking independently, but at present, especially as I have ripped out thousands of pages to work on them, the traffic and demographics are unreliable and frankly dismal. This though should improve and solidify in time.

Update 2026
Still nowhere near what it could be if I tried, but it has been rising month on month since I started writing again, then falling (with everyone elses) as Google screw around with their AI and their algorithms. Any, from 202O :/

Ackadia Jetpack stats 2019 to July 2020
{ Ackadia Jetpack stats 2019 to July 2020 }
Ackada top posts as at 2020-07-19
{ Ackada top posts as at 2020-07-19 }

As at January 2015 we had:

A Google page rank of 3
A Moz rank of 35
An Alexa score of 2,329,475
and get around 100 page view a day (Jetpack stats)

Certainly, over 2,000 uniques a month, based on my Quantcast logs

From Analog Stats server logs :Figures in parentheses refer to the 7-day period ending Jan 26 2015 at 6:15 AM.Successful requests: 7,856,599 (55,509)
Average successful requests per day: 8,100 (7,929)
Successful requests for pages: 1,119,034 (17,002)
Average successful requests for pages per day: 1,153 (2,428)

Chart logs: Ackadia analog stats: May 2012 to Jan 2015

Chart logs: Ackadia webalizer stats: Feb 2014 to Jan 2015


Caveats

Please note that I will disclose any sponsored links, posts and advertorials as such and apply Google’s rel=”nofollow” ruling to paid links.

Why is this?

A few reasons really. Firstly because I only write about things that interest me (or bug me!) and that I think may equally interest visitors here. However, paid links and adverts allow a bias to creep in, or at least the question of it, thus I want to be clear.

Secondly, even for a small web site like this, advertising is covered by laws and rulings from the governments and bodies such as the FTC and the ASA.

Then there is Google…

Personally, I think Google are hypocrites*, however, they are the ones with the near-monopoly and have decreed that webmasters follow their rules or face their wrath and risk getting *blacklisted!

*(As evidenced when Interflora et al tried their luck and Google blew a gasket. No desire for them to flex my way, thank you!)

*For instance, if [Such&Such Inc] pay me for a banner without a ‘nofollow sponsored’ Google can remove all trace of me from their databases, if they so wished. However, if [Such&Such Inc] pay Google to generate the same banner in the same spot on my site, that’s fine. Double standards, hmm.


Advertising Rates

So, bearing all the above in mind, this is a guide to advertising rates for sponsored posts and links, Payment in advance:

Single text link: £5 per month (£50 per annum)
(Placed with bottom widgets)

125×125 ad: £10 per month (£100 per annum)
(Placed with bottom widgets)

300×250 ad: £40 per month (£400 per annum)
(Placed with bottom widgets, or horizontal footer widget, below pages and posts)

600×600 ad: £80 per month (£800 per annum)
(Placed in a horizontal footer widget, below pages and posts)

900×900 ad: £100 per month (£1,000 per annum)
(Placed in a horizontal footer widget, below pages and posts)

Up to full-width ad, below the fold: £125 per month (£1,200 per annum)
(Placed in a horizontal footer widget, below pages and posts)

Full width, front page parallax slider, above the fold: £250 per month (£2,500 per annum)
(CTA button optional. Prime location, with a cost to page load speeds, charged accordingly).

Vertical ads: would require adding a sidebar to the site, which I’d rather not, thanks, I like the one column look! That would be £250 a month, £2,500 per annum

Permanent infomercial post (image, such as this [Infographic] Google Ranking Factors): £25

Permanent* advertorial post (you supply *fresh copy): £50
*(N.B: Permanence conditional on it being unique to this site, and not copied verbatim or with minor changes to others!)

Permanent advertorial post (I research and write copy for): From £100

Sizes and positioning above are based on and assume a regular monitor, with a resolution around 1600×1200, sizes and position will, of course, move and scale down accordingly with mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.


Guest posts

I’ve thought about this for years but always been put off because my idea of a guest post is interesting and authoratative, while everyone else seems to think link-saturated drivel counts and that I should be grateful for them taking a dump on my site. It does not and I am not! So, if your pitch includes a line like this gem below, look elsewhere for mugs, eh!

We require our links to be do-follow and the articles should not be marked as sponsored

Putting aside the above dumpster fire, there is, of course, a profound difference between an offer of a guest article and that of a fair ‘guest post’ meant to promote something.


A few rules and suggestions for consideration:

NO gambling and no ‘funny’ business! This is a family friendly site!
If you have to ask what I consider to be ‘funny business’ you may assume your offering is too edgy and the answer is automatically no!

No spam, with vague apologies to Hormel Foods No spam!

Unique content only, please. (I will check!)
Caveats and allowances to this would be, for instance, a manufacturer’s promotional literature, intented for mass circulation.
It’s crass and lazy, but I’ll allow AI generated copy, provided it’s not lifted and shuffled garbage like some last-minute student paper stitched together from wikepedia! Smiley is nauseated

Proofread it! Twice!
I am clinically OCD over this and while I can and do make a lot of mistakes, I get twitchy when I notice errors.

Guest posts will be flagged as such!
(e.g. Guest post by Notme, links tagged with rel=”sponsored”)

No obfuscated links! (e.g. bit.ly)

I reserve the right to remove the link and even the article if the site(s) pointed to change in ownership and or nature*
This includes but is not limited to sites adding spyware and malware and or a landing page that redirects to a new destination.
(I refer to the first point on funny business!)
*(A (real!) example of this would be a link to Haven’s Bradley Bear character suddenly pointing to some Bradley bare OF page! smiley is shocked )

No funny black hat SEO business like keyword stuffing. If I notice it, Google will and you are doing neither of us any favours!

Understanding fees (below). These scale with the nature of the content and links and are exponential in nature.
Here’s a solid example:

A new indy game I’d play, even review: Lowest rates or even free.
A new indy game I wouldn’t play: standard
A new mobile game that’s stuffed with microtransactions: double rate
An affiliate link pointing to the above: quadruple rate

 
Suggested content:

~500 to 700+ words
ONE link to your target
(I will additionally allow a link-embedded youtube video, if appropriate)
Images in jpg or webp format. (Feature image is 1200×628, content suggested at 1024 width)


Guest page fees guide:

Content fits well with site: £50 (e.g. promoting a indy game, new camera or computer accessory, web stuff)

Content feels out of place, but clean or neutral: £100 (e.g. promoting a holiday apartment in Perpignon, a new hoover)

Content makes me twitchy: £250+ (e.g. mobile games stuffed with microtransactions, anything with an affiliate link!)


Payment

I recognise the need for advertisements to cover costs, but if doesn’t mean I have to like their presence. If in doubt, ask!

As a rule of thumb guide, I don’t like clutter, nor should you.

Payment is in advance by Paypal or Amazon vouchers, though I will consider a license or two in lieu from indies :)

At my discretion I will waive fees for charities I support or would support.


Useful links

Ackadia (co.uk): Common sense guide to SEO

Ackadia: Dummies guide to SEO for small business owners

Ackadia: SEO: Go BIG or go home!

Ackadia: Design statement

Ackadia: SEO: SomeLongUselessName

Digital media Ninja: How Much Should I Pay For A Guest Post?

Rhino Rank: How Much Do Guest Posts Cost? Guest Post Pricing Explained

Serpzilla: How Much Should You Pay For A Guest Post?

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