Scientific American Partnership

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg Bernhardt
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Physics Forums has announced a partnership with Scientific American, enhancing its credibility and potential for growth. This collaboration will allow PF to utilize Scientific American's ad network, replacing Google text ads with more professional graphical ads, while maintaining high content standards. The partnership also includes a special partner page on Sciam's website and opportunities for content sharing, which could lead to increased visibility for PF. Concerns about changes to PF's identity are addressed, emphasizing that the forum will remain independent and focused on quality. The partnership is set to take effect on April 1st, marking a significant milestone for both organizations.
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I am proud and happy to announce a partnership between Physics Forums and Scientific American. Over the past few weeks PF and Sciam have been in discussion on how they can help each other. The conclusion is that PF will enter into the very selective and prominent Scientific American Network. First and foremost it means we have the support of a giant in the industry. Secondly it means we will be participating in their ad model and possible future content sharing etc. Let me explain further by answering some likely questions.

Why would you want Scientific Americans support?
Scientific American is a leader in the science industry. Not only in magazine, but online and all mediums. It is a known brand in most houses and more importantly in every university. Scientific American can open many doors and connections for future growth.

What is this ad model
This is very significant. Scientific American (Sciam) has their own ad network which dishes out ad campaigns. Instead of using Google text ads we will be moving to Sciam's graphical ads. However, note, when no Sciam campaigns are running, you may see Google ads. This is in our best interest because Sciam has direct connections with top science and technology companies. Sciam also has high quality standards. We will no longer see crackpot theories advertised. And obviously this has the promise of higher revenue which help keep PF running and growing.

Graphical ads scare me, tell me more about them
I am confident these ads will be professional, not the silly and annoying banner ads that flash colors and try to trick you. The ads will not contain popups or intrusive flash animations.

How many and where will the ads be
There will be no increase in ad units. Just replacing 1-1. On the homepage we will actually decrease to 1 unit under the navbar and take out the small ad on the right side bar at the bottom. At the thread level we will have one under the navbar and add one to the first post of every page. The first post will be split in half. The left side with the post content and the right side with the ad. The google links unit under the first post will be eliminated. And as always those with Gold memberships will still see NO ads.

What else can you tell me
PF will be getting a special partner page off Sciam's homepage highlighting and describing PF to Sciam visitors. We will also be running an RSS feed for Sciam in replacement of the Science Daily feed we are currently running. In exchange for the feed we will be getting a number of free banner ads on Sciam to attract visitors to PF.

What is this content sharing about?
With the new partnership the future is very bright and it allows PF and Sciam to work together in many projects. One of these possible projects in for Sciam to host/linkto content on PF dynamicly off Sciam's website. There are a few other things in being talked about too and as soon as they have some substance I will let everyone know.

I am concerned PF will change or Sciam will take over
Quite honestly most will never know much of a difference. I can't speak for the future on how things can change. All I can say is that we want to remain as independent and flexible as we can while still setting up connections with industry leaders. I remain in complete control and value our indepedence greatly. Any changes will be for the better, you can be sure of that. Again, you'll likely see no changes, certainly no functional or overall appearance changes.

This Partnership is effective April 1st. And no, this is not an April Fools joke, this is a real deal. If you have any futher questions please feel free to ask.
 
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I'll take you at your word that it isn't a gag, and offer my congratulations. I've been buying Sciam for almost 40 years, so I certainly approve of their presence.
 
I was definitely most concerning about the last bold point =[ I don't look forward to the ever increasing waves of randoms who create an account, make 30 posts and never return. But I'm sure it will open new windows for PF, and I trust your judgment, so welcome Sciam =].
 
Beats the church of Scientology at any rate...
 
I actually thought that was already the case. Sounds like a plan.
 
Great news, good work Greg! A partnership with Sciam can only be a good thing; replacing the Google ads with Sciam ads, lends an air of professionalism to PF. Furthermore, the potential targeted exposure for PF on the Sciam website must be huge, equally, the Sciam ads on PF are likely to be more relevant to the PF readership.
 
I am a regular reader of Scientific American and other popular magazines. I welcome any association with such a great publication. I welcome the step. I am new to PF and has started loving it. It is a big help to have some one talk to you on Physics. That way, I am happy about the association. I am not much bothered about the ads et al. As long as PF and Scian continue to make science logical and understandable and enjoyable, that is enough!
 
Congrats1

Happy birthdays Math Is Hard& zoobyshoe, BTW!:wink:
 
I'm particularly unbothered by the ads. In fact I don't think I've seen any in about 5 of the nearly 6 years I've been on this site. :wink: :smile:
 
  • #10
Congratulations, Greg! This is a great idea which will not only increase exposure of PF, but also confirms PF's stance as the most credible and professional physics forum on the net.
 
  • #11
:smile: Releasing the news just in time for April Fools Day might not have been the best timing after the Church of Scientology joke last year, but this one's for real.
 
  • #12
Moonbear said:
:smile: Releasing the news just in time for April Fools Day might not have been the best timing after the Church of Scientology joke last year, but this one's for real.

You over reached with Scientology, should of gone for Christian Science, more believable. :smile:

Actually where's my April Fools wheeze, I'm quite disappointed nobody thought something up, like an article about spaghetti growing on trees. Or Stephen Hawking builds time machine or CERN creates black hole in test run: fears confirmed or string theory proven correct, or something somewhat believable but incredible. :smile:
 
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  • #13
In nearly all countries but the US (e.g., Canada, Singapore, Philippines, India, Australia, UK) PF enjoys a similar or much better page rank than sciam.com. Sciam has a lot to gain from this partnership too.
 
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  • #14
Not that it's vitally important, but from an aesthetic point of view are you permitted to edit the SciAm link at the bottom of the pages such that it has a transparent background?
 
  • #15
Hootenanny said:
Not that it's vitally important, but from an aesthetic point of view are you permitted to edit the SciAm link at the bottom of the pages such that it has a transparent background?

No, but I'll certainly request it matches the background. Shouldn't be a problem.
 
  • #16
Greg Bernhardt said:
No, but I'll certainly request it matches the background. Shouldn't be a problem.
Good stuff, thanks Greg :smile:
 
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  • #17
Congrats Greg! Funny it became effective on April 1st.
 
  • #18
Evo said:
Congrats Greg! Funny it became effective on April 1st.

If it is an April fools day wheeze let me just say in advance that it's rubbish. :biggrin:
 
  • #19
No, it's legitimate, Greg told us about it recently.
 
  • #20
Evo said:
No, it's legitimate, Greg told us about it recently.

Yes the timing is merely an unfortunate coincidence
 
  • #21
Schrodinger's Dog said:
If it is an April fools day wheeze let me just say in advance that it's rubbish. :biggrin:

There's a Sciam link at the bottom of the page, even!
 
  • #22
Now don't you start making trouble! :biggrin:

No joke. The staff has known about this for about ten days.
 
  • #23
Evo said:
No, it's legitimate, Greg told us about it recently.

I know I was just joshing. :smile: By rubbish I mean it's way too believable to be a good April 1st prank. :smile:

It's an art I think, too silly and no one will believe it, too credible and everyone will. Fools day is about making the gullible look foolish. :smile:
 
  • #24
This seems like it will work out great for both sites. Congrats Greg! You run a great website here and deserve this recognition.:approve:
 
  • #25
Makes me proud to be part of PF. Good work Greg.
 
  • #26
I'll be awaiting my check in the mail thank you.
 
  • #27
BRIGHT IDEA, can we get a free subscription?
 
  • #28
Cyrus said:
BRIGHT IDEA, can we get a free subscription?

I can't comment on this yet.
 
  • #32
Ooh! Cool :smile:
 
  • #33
(Im just kiddding about the subscription.) I hate getting mail and magazines because it just keeps piling up and up and up before I have time to read it. Id rather just read the website online. BTW they have a really nice looking website. Can we have a PF skin that follows the Sciam style? Its very GQ.
 
  • #34
Gosh, now I'm all curious about these Sciam ads... Wait! I've got it!
*runs away and comes back without logging in*
 
  • #35
Ummmm...
While I was gone, I didn't see any graphical banner ad thingies. I am mucho dissapointedo.
But this whole partnership with scientific american is too cool! Legitimacy at last! (ducks the frozen fish slap)
 
  • #36
mbrmbrg said:
Ummmm...
While I was gone, I didn't see any graphical banner ad thingies. I am mucho dissapointedo.
But this whole partnership with scientific american is too cool! Legitimacy at last! (ducks the frozen fish slap)

Nothing is setup quite yet, hopefully by the end of the week.
 
  • #37
Congratulations! :)
 
  • #38
omg, it really isn't an April Fool's gag.

Well, congrats!
 
  • #39
This is brilliant! I love Sciam, you can find it on most magazine stands in Delhi now. What kind of content will we see?

Congratulations!
 
  • #40
Here it is:

http://www.sciam.com/partners/
 
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  • #41
Greg Bernhardt said:
This is very significant. Scientific American (Sciam) has their own ad network which dishes out ad campaigns. Instead of using Google text ads we will be moving to Sciam's graphical ads. However, note, when no Sciam campaigns are running, you may see Google ads. This is in our best interest because Sciam has direct connections with top science and technology companies. Sciam also has high quality standards. We will no longer see crackpot theories advertised. And obviously this has the promise of higher revenue which help keep PF running and growing.
No offense intended but this particular change seems to me like a big step forward... :)

Congratulations to the PF crew.
 
  • #42
speaking about "no crackpot theories" remark, are you also going to filter out these out of google ads?
 

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  • #43
Very Nice Job

I want to congratulate this event happening I am just a student but I will be a professional very soon. I strongly like the idea of merging with Sciam. To the best of the best!
 
  • #44
speaking about "no crackpot theories" remark, are you also going to filter out these out of google ads?
Look what I've found as the top ad at sciam.com/partners/:
http://vedic.by-choice.com/yagna/"
 
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  • #45
No more crackpot theories. And I thought I was kicked off long ago.
Just when I have a real good 26d string cosmology.
yanniru
 
  • #46
As a casual reader of these forums, even I am excited about this.

Good job guys!
 
  • #47
Gokul43201 said:
In nearly all countries but the US (e.g., Canada, Singapore, Philippines, India, Australia, UK) PF enjoys a similar or much better page rank than sciam.com. Sciam has a lot to gain from this partnership too.

I am interested on hearing how do you got such data? Google insider, are you :biggrin: ?

Now, you are probably right. Alexa shows that PF is a good match to sciam, in fact better than the other new partners.

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/t...r3DCq5Mz04cC0DsqeqYfWQlw=&range=6m&size=Large

(btw: do we have stast "per forum"? Just curious)

It seems that the sciam audience depends a lot of the journal periodicity; its "lower support" is of the same order than PF, its higher reach triplicates it, and it is probably even better if you go to monthly-unique visits.

Quancast gives data for the USA market only. A pity.
PF is measured "over 311K U.S. monthly uniques." http://www.quantcast.com/physicsforums.com
sciam "reaches over 1.5 million monthly uniques, of which 1.0 million (68%) are in the U.S.".
 
  • #48
arivero said:
I am interested on hearing how do you got such data?
Scroll down to the bottom of the Alexa page - it shows traffic ranks in different countries.
 
  • #49
Publication

Sooooo. Does that mean if a post shows up in the Physics Forum that it can be claimed as published material?

/lol
 
  • #50
20% discount to Sciam subscriptions, and I just renewed mine for another 3 years.
 

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