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Thanks, that's a lot of very good advice!

About ads... large game sites (competitors) tend to have lots and lots of very, very annoying ads. But, they're free. I'd rather be a smaller, membership site without all the annoying ads. So, I'm reluctant to even use ads on free accounts because I think it sends the wrong message about what I want my site to be.

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What about few, non-flashy non-annoying ads? :) I mean, you're the owner, you get to decide what ads you want, and you're allowed to place restrictions on what they can do, look like, etc. The more restrictions, the less advertisers you'll find, of course, but some simple rules that you set in place can differentiate your site. For example, Digg.com only has two ads on the front page. One above the fold, one below. I don't mind it at all. Just think, where your competitors have cluttered and frantic designs, yours could be clean and clear. One other point. People may pay for ad free versions because the ad version is incredibly annoying and cluttered and hard to navigate. If your free version is nicely done (which I recommend), you can run ads site wide without annoying anyone and use memberships to get repaid for the things that really cost you money.

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