[Updated]Useful, relevant advertising trial for 60 days

Update: The Drupal association posted an advertising policy on Drupal.org and the Drupal association website. We continue to try to expand the advertising program where it is contextual, useful, and relevant. We are working with over 100 hosting companies and over 70 companies who have requested information about the advertising program. As we roll out ads in new areas of the site, we work closely with partners who contribute a large amount of time to adjust and tune their ads so we can see if the ads are effective. These are not exclusive deals but trials so that we can get data to see if some forms of advertising are effective.

The Drupal association has agreed to a 60 day advertising trial on only the main handbooks page, and only the hosting and paid-services forums of Drupal.org. Approximately 35 parties submitted advertising proposals indicating they would like to advertise or how they thought advertising could be implemented on Drupal.org.

Update: November 10th, 2007 - we are now trying Google Ad sense. Please contact the association if you have any feedback.

• All ads will have a feedback link soliciting opinions from the Drupal community about the ads.
• The ads will be tuned based on clicks, revenue earned, and feedback from the community.
• All ads will be text based ads, there will not be any image ads.
• Advertisers can budget based on time or money.

Advertisements on Drupal.org must be relevant and useful to the Drupal community. Advertisements are available in the following three sections of Drupal.org, as described below and illustrated in these diagrams.

1. http://drupal.org/hosting Ads are available to hosting companies in a text ad. The text ad will be below the user navigation block on the right side and will be displayed in rotating block per page load. Approval for hosting ads will be subject to a basic security review to ensure they provide the most recent secure release of Drupal. Ads will be displayed for the full 60 days of the trial.
2. http://drupal.org/paid-services Ads are available to Drupal consulting companies or service provider in a text ad. The text ad will be below the user navigation block in the right side and will be displayed in rotating block per page load. Ads will be displayed for the last 30 days of the trial.
3. http://drupal.org/handbooks Ads are available for book authors, book publishers, or book sellers for a Drupal related books only, in a text advertisement which is visible to anonymous Drupal.org users only. The text ad will be a rotating ad in a block below the user log in block on the right side. Ads will be displayed for the last 30 days of the trial.

During the 60 day advertising trial, the following criteria will be used to evaluate the advertising

• Feedback from the Drupal community, submitted through a feedback link on every advertisement.
• The amount of effort required by volunteers for the Drupal association to manage the advertising trial.
• Revenue earned for the non-profit all volunteer Drupal association to improve the Drupal infrastructure and support the Drupal project. The revenue earned will be compared to other revenue sources such as conference fees, donations, membership fees, and sponsorships to evaluate it's effectiveness.
• Feedback from the advertisers as to the effectiveness of advertising on Drupal.org. Feedback from new advertisers who are interested in advertising on Drupal.org.

UPDATE January 3rd, 2008: Achieve Internet now has a temporary affiliate banner ad at http://drupal.org/paid-services. We have worked out a market rate for their help in modifying the Blue Beach theme and testing in several browsers, in exchange for the header ad. This ad will be changed to promote the Drupalcon Boston 2008 job fair. We appreciate Achieve Internet's support on working on the Drupal.org infrastructure. Affliate ad sales will be available, pending community feedback, after Drupalcon Boston.